Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Will the nursing home Bill come before the House before Christmas? There are many concerns on both sides of the House about the cutbacks in home care packages, and about moving ahead without proper debate on the issue of more subsidisation of nursing homes when home care packages and home help are not available to enable the elderly to remain at home. The community care services have been cut back quite severely in the past few months. We are concerned about rushing through this legislation without adequate time for discussion of the wide range of issues connected with it.

Will the Leader speak to the Minister for Defence about the Defence Forces contribution to the mission in Chad? The day after our debate on this issue last week there was a change in plan because our EU colleagues were not able to supply helicopters and other supports necessary for the mission. Was the Minister not aware of this when he addressed the Seanad during the debate on Thursday? If not, why not? If he was aware of this when he addressed the House he did the debate a disservice. I am concerned about this because the change in the decision was announced only hours after the debate in this House. If we are to have meaningful debates we must have current information on the decision making process. The Minister mentioned there was a possibility the mission might not proceed but the announcement in this regard was made only a few hours later and I feel he did a disservice to the House in not providing us with the latest information he and the Department of Foreign Affairs probably had.