Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

10:30 am

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

No wonder there is such cynicism in politics when Fianna Fáil accuses the Government of presiding over a broken health service, when it was a Fianna Fáil Government that presided over the formation of the HSE and the establishment of its bureaucratic structure which is proving extremely difficult to dismantle - a structure which has had a very negative effect on our health care system. Therefore, it is hard to accept this sort of criticism from the Senator. I am aware we had a robust exchange on the issue of the health care system yesterday. I am sure the Leader will respond to the Senator.

I call for a debate on a specific aspect of health policy, the minimum alcohol price policy. I understand a decision was made on this at Cabinet yesterday. A range of measures is required to tackle the problems associated with alcohol abuse and it appears a package of measures was agreed at Cabinet. It would be good to have a debate in the House on the issue. We have had debates on the issue previously, but if there is to be a genuine move towards minimum alcohol pricing and more restrictions on alcohol advertising, it would be good to have the opportunity to debate this here, particularly in light of the constructive report we produced in the public consultation committee on lifestyle factors that affect cancer. Alcohol was a significant factor in those hearings.

I would like to support Senator D'Arcy with regard to an issue he raised yesterday concerning a change made in the budget to the one-parent family tax credit which is to be replaced by a new single person child care credit from January 2014. In recent days, quite a number of people have expressed concern about the unforeseen consequence of this. The proposal is to restrict payment to the primary carer only. This may cause great difficulties where separated parents have an arrangement for shared custody, where there are two primary carers. It is important we take another look at this measure to ensure it does not have the consequence of adversely affecting amicable, working arrangements for child care between separated parents. It is important to tease out the implications of this measure and, if necessary, to look at amending it.

Finally, will the Leader arrange for debates on two reports of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality which are on the Order Paper for debate? These are the report on penal reform which was produced earlier this year and the report on changes to prostitution law. The committee is currently engaged in drafting a response to the Minister for Justice and Equality on the latter so perhaps that debate cannot take place until the new year. However, it would be good to have the debate on penal reform before Christmas.

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