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

I welcome to Dáil Éireann almost 30 retired nurses who devoted their lives to working in hospitals and caring for the sick, and I commend them on the service they gave. I remind the Taoiseach that these are the very people who came back to help during the Covid period, in 2021 and 2022.

The Government is now taking and demanding money out of their pensions. The Government is abating the pensions of these very people, by €2,700, €5,000 and €25,000 for a man who had a high dependency job. These are the people the Government is trying to tax. That is what Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are doing to these grand people who are here.

I also want to ask the Taoiseach about the embargo in Kerry. Up to 120 posts have not been filled for many months. The Taoiseach says there is no embargo. There has been an embargo since last November. A girl came back from Australia or somewhere else last March and the Government will not give her job back. That is the gospel truth. There are beds closed and empty in all our hospitals - the district hospital and University Hospital Kerry - because they have no one to man them.

Respite care for the elderly and for those with physical and intellectual disabilities need to be greatly enhanced because it is almost non-existent. The means test for carer's allowance needs to be abolished now. Waiting times for procedures and surgeries need to be reduced. Waiting for assessments for children with autism, ADHD and mental health issues has to be dealt with urgently as early intervention is paramount for these children. Yesterday, I received a response to a parliamentary question I sent to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, stating that the current waiting time is 30 months. God almighty, is that what the Taoiseach is presiding over? Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are joined together. The Taoiseach told people in Kerry during his speedy trip around it that he had a way out of this and he would appoint another Minister instead of Deputy Donnelly when the election was over. Do not laugh. I could bring the man the Taoiseach told here. It would be no bother in the world.

Ambulance cover needs to be increased, not reduced. The Government closed down the only eye clinic we had in Kerry, in Tralee, five or six months ago. At the same time, it reduced the reimbursement I was getting for taking people to Belfast to save their eyes. This is what the Government has been at-----

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