Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Brady raised the specific case of Ms Geraldine Lavelle. I am not familiar with the case in its entirety. I agree, however, that the more independent living services and facilities we can provide, the better. As the Deputy knows, we have different opinions from time to time in terms of closing residential care or evolving people from a residential care environment or integrated care setting to a home care setting. This approach has often created challenges for the services, particularly in terms of chronically sick young people or young people who, for a variety of reasons, have disabilities arising from accidents and so forth. There was a need for a resourced home care-based approach or independent living-based approach, which has been developed over a long period. I do not have the specifics of the case but the principle of facilitating independent living is accepted. Resources have been allocated on an annual and incremental basis. I am not familiar with this individual case. The Deputy stated that eight years have passed and that an appropriate setting has still not been provided, which is not satisfactory for that person.

Deputy Bacik raised the issue of access to woman's reproductive services and the work of the National Women's Council of Ireland, which published a report earlier. I outlined previously in the House, in the past week or so, where we are on that in terms of the Minister's various initiatives from a research strand to a consultation strand. That is nearing completion. I will voice the opinion in the interim that there is an obligation on the HSE and all maternity hospitals to provide access under the Act. I am concerned that some hospitals have still not done that. I accept that there can be individual conscientious objections, but it is then a matter for the hospital or the HSE to provide enough resources to accommodate this in given situations in order that there is a maximum of access to legally available services in the State. I will raise the issues raised by the Deputy with the Minister for Health. However, I did outline to Deputy Bacik last week the exact timelines for the review of the legislation that is under way and that will come to finality fairly soon.

Deputy Barry raised the issue of retrofitting. I do not know if the Deputy was in the Chamber during the Order of Business. I am told that the article is not correct. I have been informed by the Department that 29,000 have actually been completed. They are on target in terms of the retrofitting of homes. The article's reference to a figure of 89 related to a specific scheme involving the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, which was only started in February. It is achieving its targets, however. In fact, applications were up 150% this year after the announcement of the new scheme. It is very much on target. We must accelerates the numbers even further in order to meet the 2026 target, which is very high indeed. I will get those figures for the Deputy as they were presented to me. The note I received indicates that the article was mistaken and incorrect. It is certainly not reflective of the progress that has been made. I also heard it being quoted this morning on radio. Apparently, it is an incorrect article based on incorrect information. I stand to be corrected if that is the case but I think we need to bring clarity to it. The Department gave me that information. This is difficult for the Deputy; he made a presentation based on the article. I am told it is not grounded in the reality of what is happening, however.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised a specific issue. I did not get the name of the building.

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