Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and I appreciate that he is taking this on behalf of another Department. It is not his own line Department. This was announced in July 2017. We are far along the road now. The GDPR issues could have been anticipated because that was coming down the line from Europe. Raising the issue of data protection is a bit of a diversion at this stage. I do not think that is an insurmountable issue. Myriad Departments handle personal detail about individuals. One could easily administer a scheme that would give €75 to every family that has an issue relating to long-term medical incontinence. It would have a massive impact on those families with regard to reducing their waste disposal costs.

I implore the Government to come back to me at some stage with a solution and timeline for this. I am not buying the argument that data protection is an issue. It is very easy to design a scheme, given the innovative nature of this country, that would easily meet the needs of the people that we are all trying to represent here. There is not a Member of this House who does not have this issue and who does not have a family in his or her constituency who would benefit from this €75 support which was announced in 2017. I ask the Minister to consult his colleagues with a view to ensuring that we can at least follow through on something that was announced and get over these hurdles, such as the data protection hurdle. I do not believe that is an issue which cannot be dealt with a little bit of energy on the part of the Government.

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