Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I welcome Senator Mooney back to the House. He gave great service to his county of Leitrim for many years and I know he will continue to do so. Leitrim is now very well served with two great Senators. I am delighted to see the Senator back, for himself and his family, and I believe he will be able to make a major contribution to this House.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Transport to the House to discuss emergency funding for roads, particularly the minor roads in south Carlow. Carlow was badly affected and was one of the coldest places during the 30-day period. The temperatures there were -10° Celsius and -15° Celsius. Consequently, the smaller roads in the south Carlow and Mount Leinster areas have suffered greatly. Kilometres of road have disintegrated and families are now cut off from going into the town of Borris to do their normal day-to-day shopping. Farmers are cut off in that area when they try to get to their lands and farms to feed their sheep and cattle. There should be an emergency fund, not necessarily for County Carlow, but for roads that were very badly damaged during that particular bad period. From what I can see in the south Carlow area, what happened was that the extreme frost and the flooding disintegrated at least four to five kilometres of road, which is phenomenal. I would like to see the Minister in the House for a full debate on that. I am sure there are other parts of the country that suffered equally badly. I would like to see the Minister holding an inquiry into the areas that were badly affected so that money can get directly to them first. There are areas that suffered somewhat but this is extreme and something should be done about it.

I concur with Senator O'Malley in supporting the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, and what she has done. She has done a great deal for the young people of this country by getting good value for money. There is a lesson to be learned in every Department, namely, that when one is spending money of that magnitude one must look for the best price for the product one is buying. For far too long in this country we allowed ourselves to pay more than our European partners pay. I congratulate the Minister in that regard. However, I ask her to look at the situation in accident and emergency departments, one of the areas in health that is letting us down badly. If it could be solved a great number of problems in the health services would be dealt with and brought up to the standards we deserve.