Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I will leave it and will talk to the Minister again about it if I am taking up anybody else's time. I feel very emotional about it. The family is not able to stay in the one establishment because of relationships with other people around them. I visited the latest place two weeks ago and had to walk out in shock. In the previous place they lived the six children were going to school and getting on quite well, but now they have regressed. I pleaded with the local authority to get the family housed as soon as possible into proper living conditions in a humane society. There is a big hole in the roof and dust is coming through the ceiling of the bedroom of the little child. I am ashamed of my country that we are treating a family in this way. When the local authority person asked me whether I thought this person was capable of living in a house, I confirmed that she was. However, it is now necessary to wait for the social worker to give an opinion. I told the gentleman from the local authority that we could not afford to wait for the social worker to decide if this family needs to be housed in a certain place. As the Minister knows, I am an action and policy-driven person. I plead with the Minister to lift the burden from my shoulders because I am desperately worried about these six children.