Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

The fact of 700 people queuing for food yesterday in Dublin is a terrible legacy for a Government that has been in power for more than 12 years. The Leader should ask for the relevant Minister to be brought into this House immediately because 2009 is turning out to be an extremely black year for workers, with more than 1,000 people losing their jobs on every working day since the beginning of the year. We are on course to see well in excess of 100,000 people losing their jobs by the end of the summer and this warrants urgent action on behalf of the Government. The relevant Minister should be brought into this House immediately. It is far too serious to be just point scoring on this, which is becoming an urgent crisis for the people of Ireland. I ask the Leader to have the relevant Minister address this House immediately.

I also ask that the Minister for Health and Children be invited to address the Seanad because there are enormous delays as regards the same people who are losing their jobs being able to access medical cards and other services, both from the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Department of Health and Children, simply because staff are overwhelmed by the number of applications they have to process.

I would also like the Minister for Health and Children to address this House on urgent issues within the health service. I treat patients who cannot sleep at night and who require up to nine antibiotics a year because they suffer from severe tonsillitis and adenoids. I cannot get those patients seen by an ear, nose and throat surgeon within two years and this problem has worsened over the last couple of months because of HSE cutbacks. I ask the Minister for Health and Children to explain to this House whether we are going to let children down in such a bad manner over the next couple of years or if something is to be done about this. I should also like her to discuss the issue as regards home help, because that is also becoming a crisis within our communities.

Senator Jim Walsh has asked for this side of the House to discuss issues as regards fees for solicitors. I have read the e-mail he sent to us and perhaps the Government parties would table a Private Members' motion in this regard and we would be happy to discuss it. There is some merit in having this discussed.

Finally, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, announced yesterday that she is setting up a new group to look at transferring care from hospitals into the community. On this side of the House, we would be very willing to assist the Minister in any way she wants to make progress on this because it is very important for the future of the health care service. In a spirit of co-operation with the Government, we would be delighted to help her with that endeavour.