Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Many Members raised the question of the health service, including Senators Fitzgerald, Coghlan, Butler, Prendergast, Hanafin, Twomey, O'Sullivan, Burke, Bacik, Callely, Buttimer, O'Reilly, Doherty, Cummins and John Paul Phelan. A request has been made not to accept the Order of Business on the basis of discussing many of the items outlined by Senator Fitzgerald in her opening contribution. There are a number of difficulties in acceding to that request. First, the time required to arrange for a Minister to be available to attend the House is not consistent with allowing such a debate to take place today. Second, the agenda for such a debate is far too wide-ranging. Requests from Members have included a revision of HSE services, threatened industrial action, the pharmacists dispute, homelessness and the situation regarding general practitioners.

The area of health has not lacked discussion in this House and the Minister for Health and Children has been a regular contributor to such debates here. I am confident that at the earliest opportunity we will be able to return to some or all of these matters for debate. However, it ill behoves the House to become directly involved in some of them because the hope lies in ongoing activity elsewhere, especially concerning the pharmacists' dispute. It is best left to the independent people who have been appointed in that area to seek a resolution.

The wider question of issues such as homelessness does deserve a debate in the House. Many of us were taken by the contents of the Prime Time programme last night. I can inform the House that publication of the homelessness strategy, as promised in the programme for Government, is imminent. It will allow for a debate in the House on how that ongoing problem is being tackled. It is not just a problem concerning the lack of economic opportunity for those concerned because the issues of substance abuse and mental health are also involved. It requires a co-ordinated approach and the provision of health services for homeless people is a particularly important part of that. I hope Members of the House can contribute to that debate when it takes place.

Senators O'Toole, Ó Murchú, Coghlan and Doherty referred to the decision by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to recognise the plebiscite that has been held in Dingle-Daingean Uí Chúis about the naming of that town. Senator O'Toole also welcomed that the Green Paper on local government reform, which is up for consultation at the moment, encourages the idea of a greater use of plebiscites for local decision making. I hope many Members of the House will agree to that when the White Paper and subsequent legislation are published.

There were further requests for the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to address the House on wider issues, especially concerning the promotion and standard of the Irish language as well as the recent report of an Coimisinéir Teanga. There have been several requests for the Minister to attend the House and it is hoped that he will do so at the earliest opportunity. Given the events scheduled in the Dáil next week, none of us can presume who will be serving in what portfolio. That will determine who can come to the House and when.