Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I show my support for the amendment which is timely and important. Considering that this is 2019, many children are getting a raw deal. Let us take homelessness, for example. There is not a night that I go to bed that I do not think about the appalling situation of children sleeping in hotel rooms. It behoves all of us to sort out this matter as quickly as possible.

There are 6,251 children on outpatients' lists. Some of them have been on them for more than two years. A further 1,000 have been waiting since 2016. These appalling statistics affect young people and their parents. Enduring the trauma of having a sick child is bad enough; enduring the trauma of having to wait years to avail of badly needed services is another major challenge.

We should take seriously the issue of extended parental leave. The Minister might listen to me a little better than other Ministers who have not listened to me at all. I am a strong advocate and supporter of extended parental leave. The reality of the world in which we live is that many parents in my part of the country get out of their bed at 4.30 a.m. to travel to Dublin to work and get home at 9 p.m. or 9.30 p.m. They tell me that their kids are still in bed in the morning when they leave and have gone to bed by the time they get home at night. That is not acceptable.

Last November saw the launch of the First 5 strategy. Unless I am mistaken, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, the Minister for Health and one other Ministers were present and the Taoiseach stated he would support the call for extended parental leave. It appears that, although the Government will support the call, it will extend the leave entitlement over a period of two and a half years. This issue should be tackled, given the great strain and stress placed on many families.

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