Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Health services are totally underfunded and understaffed at the coal face. We need more GPs, residential care for people with physical and intellectual disabilities and hospital beds. People on waiting lists are suffering agony, pain and anxiety. Many people would have lost their eyesight were it not for the hundreds of people we bused to Belfast. Infrastructural work for sewerage and water schemes is critical for house building. It is not there are the moment. We need to make houses more affordable. There should be a help-to-buy scheme for second-hand houses. Regarding rural cottages and people with a site of their own, this is not being approved by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Income thresholds for social housing need to be increased. Water will be one of the biggest issues in the very near future because people are not getting it and Irish Water is not funded properly to carry out all the infrastructural works that need to be done so funding for infrastructural works is needed along with making houses more affordable. The Government is saying that it is doing wonders with housing. It could tell people to build smaller houses and maybe the money will go further.

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