Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will try again but the Tánaiste never gives a direct answer. I asked him a simple question. After spending €2.2 billion, there has been complete incompetence from the Government with the national children's hospital. He cannot even tell us if he believes the hospital will be open to treat children by 2026. That was a simple question.

I will try again about the Government's other fiasco, the housing crisis, which has a crippling effect on society. Many are unable to find a home or place to live. Today, we have the ESRI report on the impact of this crisis on a particular group of people, which is children. The report found that inadequate, cold and damp housing has long-term impacts on the physical and mental health of children, while mothers living in inadequate housing tend to have higher levels of depression, worse health outcomes and damaging knock-on effects on children. Children are so often the victim of the Government's housing policies. Does the Tánaiste accept the findings of the ESRI report that the Government's housing crisis is having an effect on the mental and physical health of children? How does he stand over that? What does he say to those families and their children today?

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