David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I find this inter-party bickering immensely depressing. In this difficult period we should be putting the interests and welfare of citizens first, not any kind of party advantage. I hope we will join together to try to help people. I accept things are difficult and tight and the Government is in a difficult position. I have attended numerous briefings in recent days and what impressed me ? I hope somebody will be appointed from Government to look at this ? was that so many of the organisations have produced either budget?neutral proposals or ones that will save the Exchequer money. There is a kind of bureaucratic hold-up in implementing such measures. We must examine them. If we can help people in a situation where it does not cost the Exchequer much money we must grab those opportunities with both hands.

Yesterday, I attended the Family Support Network in which wonderful people are involved. Some of them are neighbours of mine from the north inner city. I stood with the late Deputy Tony Gregory ? I was in this House and he was in the Dáil. He was the person who introduced the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, which generated a lot of money from the drugs industry through the operations of the Garda and social services. I wanted the money to go back into the areas affected by drugs.

The budget of the Family Support Network is ¤375,000. The organisation helps the Exchequer. It saves money and it does immensely good work. Will the Leader please ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, to meet with the head of the organisation, Ms Sadie Grace? It is important that we would have this kind of communication. I accept there is a lot of pressure but such a meeting would be useful. The kind of thing that is happening is that grandparents who intervene in a situation where there is a substance-abusing mother are cut off from access to State funds because the State then says that there is no crisis anymore. That is shocking. It is Kafkaesque. It is absolute nonsense. They should be supported as they are saving the State money. At a time in their lives when they could expect to be able to rest they have to look after their damaged child and their damaged grandchildren. Again, if the mother is allowed to visit, that is held against them, but it is socially good to maintain that contact and it can only be done with the assistance of the grandparents.

Yesterday we had another wonderful briefing about bullying. A woman from Erris in County Mayo told us about the programme in schools there. We also heard from a man from County Meath, the headmaster of a school who had instituted a programme. Again, if slight adjustments were made with the support of guidance counsellors it would make an immense difference. The measures outlined were either budget-neutral or will save money down the line.

In the context of home care, we will have protesters outside at lunch time. I am sure many of us will go out and meet them. Again, for bureaucratic reasons a situation arises whereby the providers of home-care packages will be moved.

I will give a little tip to Senator Whelan and the others who are concerned about the issue. They should talk to the Minister for Health because he controls the HSE.