Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

Portiuncula Hospital provides a very important service for our area. The HSE's trite comments on the news last night amounted to scaremongering and I ask the Leader to ensure the HSE intervenes, gets the people back to work and stops this silly carry on because that is all it is. It needs to speak to the people and resolve the issue because it is not a major issue.

I was shocked and horrified by the revelations about FÁS on "Prime Time" last night. The fact that three different social community groups were using the meals on wheels service to claim thousands of euro in funding going back to 2003 causes me to wonder about the way FÁS is being managed and audited. If this is happening in one town in the west, what is FÁS doing in the rest of the country? The Minister must come into the House and be accountable because the buck stops with her. There are young plumbers and electricians who cannot complete their apprenticeships. Funding must be provided to support those young people, not the waste that is going on throughout the country through these community employment schemes that are being badly managed. I ask that the Minister come into this House and be accountable for once and for all.