Mary Henry (Independent)

I do not think the workings of the review group are complex at all. This is a disgrace and I am absolutely horrified. Professor Niamh Brennan complained because she has been waiting since April for the Department of Health and Children to do something about a report she produced. Can the Minister of State imagine how I am going to go back to people who have been waiting for over five years? It is not complex, it is just mean spirited. Only a tiny percentage of people are getting any relief in this area and it is the most mean spirited thing I have seen for a long time. I know of one particularly serious case where the person has been to see the Minister for Finance to try to apprise him of his terrible difficulties. What kind of review is going on for decade after decade while people are in such a dreadful position? This reply makes me even more angry than I was before I came into the House tonight. One feels so ashamed being contacted by people who have such very serious problems and having to tell them – I know the Minister of State did not write this himself – that "the Senator will appreciate that the report of the review group is complex".