Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said there was a Government decision envisaging "the provision of a financial support to persons with lifelong/long-term medical incontinence to help meet the cost of disposal of medical incontinence wear". What he has told us is that they have no intention of doing this. Minister after Minister has been talking around and telling me the same thing for nearly four years.

We either look after vulnerable people in this society or we do not. On the suggestion to families that this is a market solution and that they should go to their local provider, I can tell the Minister of State that I have a family with two children - their parents are John and Neasa - a five-year-old and a 15-year-old, both on pull-ups. Their cost is €400 per year. A working family with a mortgage trying to do their best, they know that they will have to deal with this as a long-term issue for their children. They went to their local provider but the market will not sort them out because their local provider, which is a significant collector of waste in the north Cork area and provides an excellent service, has said that this is a matter for Government. There is a Government decision on this.

I was hopeful, dare I say it, that a Green Minister with responsibility for this would come to me with an answer that would at least see some progression of the issue. I ask the Minister of State not to throw the market issue or the price monitoring group at us and to bring in all of the providers and get it done if at all possible. So many families throughout the country would be so grateful that some Government finally would have dealt significantly with this issue. For a small cost to the Exchequer, it would be so meaningful for so many families.

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