Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I join with colleagues who have called for a debate on funding for the John Paul Centre in Galway. I fully endorse what Senator Ó Brolcháin has said. There should be all-party support for people with special needs. These people are voiceless, and that was the analogy made by Senator Healy Eames. We can bail out the developers, the bankers and Fianna Fáil, but we cannot provide money for speech and language. Dr. Maurice Manning launched the report and said that living conditions in the John Paul Centre were having a detrimental effect on the dignity and the well being of the people living there. That is an indictment on us as politicians.

I support Senator O'Toole's comments on farming women, who I met yesterday. We have ploughed billions of euro into the zombie Anglo Irish Bank, yet €570,000 would pay these 268 women. It would be a small amount to pay them what they are owed. They entered into a contract, but the Government reneged on it.

I support the call made by Senators Mullen and Hanafin for an urgent debate on the number of people who die as a result of suffering a stroke. Some 2,000 people die every year needlessly. There should be no discrimination based on the age of stroke victims who should be treated equally. Clinics should be established to treat TIAs, minor strokes that act as a warning sign of a potentially fatal stroke later. I am calling for an urgent debate on the issue.