Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the funding that has been made available this week to refurbish vacant local authority housing. I am disappointed, however, that my local area, County Louth, has been allocated a mere €76,000. This sum will not go far given the length of the housing list in the county. Another issue that needs to be addressed is the position of people with a disability who suffer a loss when a local authority cannot renovate or modernise their homes because they do not own them.

On my journey to the House this morning, I was shocked to hear on a radio programme that another ambulance broke down while transporting a patient from the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda to St. James's Hospital in Dublin. I understand the patient was on a life support machine and the journey was delayed by 15 minutes as the crew waited for another ambulance to arrive to complete the journey. This is the second time a serious incident involving an ambulance has occurred. Only a few weeks ago, an ambulance caught fire while transporting a child to a hospital. We also had a case of an ambulance breaking down. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the service plan for the National Ambulance Service. The ambulance service was also the subject of recent television programmes. It is important to have a debate on this issue.

I commend a judge in a case down the country who imposed a five-month driving ban on an individual who parked his car in a disabled parking zone. I commend the judge on taking such a hard stand on this matter. Stronger legislation is needed to penalise people who park in disabled parking bays, causing serious inconvenience to people who require disabled parking. I understand that the individual in the case to which I refer parked his car across two disabled parking spaces and claimed to be unaware that disabled parking regulations were still in force after 5 p.m. Disabilities do not vanish after 5 p.m. or before 9.30 a.m. I call for stronger legislation and a debate on this issue.