Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I propose to follow up on a number of points I raised previously. Has the Leader received feedback as to when the review of the community employment scheme will be published? Will the report be published during the summer recess? Community employment schemes are under increasing pressure and those involved would like to know where they will stand later this year and next year. The review is one of a number of reports that have been delayed by the Government. I ask the Leader to follow up this matter again. Perhaps he is in a position to give the House an update.

I refer again to the report on pyrite in homes which was due to be published in February and, subsequently, in March, April, May and June. It is now July and I understand from a response to a parliamentary question that it will not be published before the summer recess as it will go before the Cabinet over the summer. This is a grave disappointment. To be fair to the Leader, I know he shared that disappointment last week about the delay. I need not remind Members that up to 70,000 households, predominantly on the east coast, are potentially affected by this.

I will next week publish a Bill I have prepared which will extend the Statute of Limitations for families on the basis of when they receive a positive pyrite test - in other words, the Statute of Limitations will only start then. The longer the Government, and I include the previous Government, delays on this, the more people who become statute-barred. Although we should allow time for the Government to respond, we must remember that while there is delay, more and more people are being taken out of the process and will not be able to have recourse to courts, which is a crucial point. I want to put on record my grave disappointment that this report will not be published or debated before the Seanad and Dáil rise.

When will the Taoiseach come to the Seanad in light of the fact we were given a commitment he would do so? Some 15 or 16 months have passed and he has not yet come for a formal sitting of this House, bar to interact with parliamentarians from other jurisdictions. While we were told he would be here before the summer recess, I do not see this anywhere in this week's schedule. Will the Leader inform me if the Taoiseach is coming to the House next week?

I put this point in particular because the House will deal tomorrow with the establishment of the constitutional convention and, although this House voted for the inclusion of the Seanad in that constitutional convention, the Taoiseach has flatly rejected this. I would have liked an opportunity to debate with the Taoiseach in this House and to actually try to get some logic from him on that insane decision. I would be very disappointed if the Taoiseach is not here next week, which is the last sitting week before the summer recess. We were given a commitment the Taoiseach would be here and he has not bothered up to now. I would like to see the Taoiseach in the House.

I ask that we would have a debate in the House very early in the new session on perinatal care. I thank Senator Rónán Mullen for arranging a most thought-provoking presentation from the One Day More group of parents whose children, unfortunately, survived only a very short time after they were born. Any of us who were present were very moved by the frank and honest personal accounts these men and women gave today. It gave us a very different perspective about the joy experienced by families and their friends, even in such a difficult situation when their children, who were born with major disabilities, had only a short lifespan.

They deserve, and I am sure the Leader will arrange, a proper and considered debate in September on the issue of perinatal care. I was struck, particularly in regard to the mothers who spoke today, by how well they were treated and what an experience it was for them to bring their children into this world, even if it was, as one mother recounted to us, just for the 17 minutes the child survived after birth. We need to look at how we might improve on that for parents and for the children who were born, and look at the whole area of perinatal care. I ask the Leader to arrange that debate early in the next term to see how the House can assist these very brave people, whom I commend. I again thank Senator Rónán Mullen for organising the presentation.