Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

I get an extra minute, a Cheann Comhairle, thank you. In the 2024 general election campaign, promises and commitments were made and have been reneged on. The Tánaiste promised that a maximum childcare payment of €200 per month would come into force within 100 days of the new Government. That has not been done, it is not in the budget and there has been no mention of it or of a public childcare service. The carer's means test was to be abolished and that too has been reneged on. A commitment to introduce a weekly cost-of-disability payment was also reneged on. The promise no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis surgery was also reneged on over and over again and is being reneged on as we speak. That broken promise was a profound failure of children with scoliosis that led to pain, suffering and devastation for individuals and families.

The culture of broken promises by the Government and politicians has expanded into breaking the law. Over 16,000 children with additional needs are on waiting lists for assessments of need. They wait years for assessment despite a legal entitlement to have one within six months of referral. Fine Gael has been in government since 2011 and knows this very well. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Independents are now knowingly breaking the law and that needs to stop urgently. I have no confidence in the Fine Gael Party. Its record in south Tipperary is atrocious. In government it has abolished South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel Corporation and Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel and Tipperary town councils and closed Kickham Barracks in Clonmel and St. Michael's acute psychiatric unit.

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