Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the proposal to amend the Order of Business made by Senator Marc MacSharry, who outlined very well the inadequate work of the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar. He is very disappointing. When he was eight years of age, he set out to be Minister. He had an ambition or dream to be Minister; perhaps it has become a nightmare since he went into Hawkins House. He is terribly ineffective. I just cannot understand why he does not do a tour of all the accident and emergency departments to see what is happening on the ground and find out how ineffective the management of those departments is throughout the country. There is total mismanagement on the ground. The Minister, if he were doing his job, would tour every accident and emergency department and use his position as Minister to try to bring about improvements. Basically, he is a complete failure in his Department and should be removed. There should be a vote of no confidence in him in the Dáil. If my colleagues there would listen to me, they would have one. It is what I would do about the Minister. It is all spin and no action; it is all PR. The Minister is on television day and night coming out with the same old stuff - claptrap.

I support the campaign by Ms Roseanne Brennan, who is on a vigil outside Leinster House until tomorrow calling for a change in the law on speed limits in housing estates in memory of her son, Jake, who died in June 2014 at the age of six. I commend her, her supporters and friends on holding a vigil in the cold outside Leinster House to try to persuade the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, to change the law to reduce the speed limit in housing estates to 20 km/h. I suggest that 30 km/h would be a very good compromise. One hundred and ninety-seven people died on our roads in 2014, including 16 children under the age of 15. These are horrific statistics. The campaign Ms Brennan has launched will bring about results. One party has brought forward a proposal in the Dáil, which is being debated at present. I hope that, in this House, we will support a change in this regard. The bylaws being proposed by the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, are really matters for each authority to consider but, to be effective, the Minister should not send out another circular or make a statement such as that issued on 15 October 2014. Ministers in this Government are losing their way. They are ineffective and not dynamic enough.