John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to bring to the attention of the Minister for Health the fact that there are now 32,000 children on waiting lists for hearing assessments. Some 16,000 are waiting for a first assessment and a further 16,000 are waiting for treatment, having been assessed. A substantial number are waiting for more than one or two years. There is a geographical discrepancy, but the circumstances are very unsatisfactory. Ultimately, are we just storing up problems for ourselves. Every year a child spends without having his hearing corrected is a year in which he is in danger of falling further behind educationally and socially.

I thank the Leader for his strong support for the legislation I proposed with my colleagues Senators Daly and van Turnhout on banning smoking in cars with children. That the legislation has been unconscionably delayed is not the Leader's fault at all. I am very grateful to him not only for his generous support of it on every Stage thus far but also for his decision to make time available specifically for the Report Stage debate tomorrow. We were promised by certain individuals, not the Leader, that the Report Stage amendments would be ready such that the Bill could be completed in the Seanad tomorrow before being passed on to Dáil Éireann. As of 3.25 p.m. today, the day before the proposed debate, I have not heard any report that there has been Cabinet approval of the amendments. I am presuming at this point that no such amendments have as yet been submitted to, discussed or passed by the Cabinet and that, as such, there will not be Government amendments ready for Report Stage tomorrow. Therefore, if Report Stage is passed here tomorrow, the Bill will disappear into the Dáil with some vague promise that, at some stage in the future, amendments will be made. For this reason, I ask the Leader for a favour. I guess I am leaning on his oft-expressed support for the Bill in asking him to indulge us by allowing us to postpone the debate for a week to give the Cabinet a chance to discuss and approve the amendments, which, apparently, are written. Thus, we could have a definitive Report Stage debate on the Government's amendments in the Seanad.