Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Fad is atáimid inár suí anseo ar maidin, tá naonúr teaghlaigh de chuid an Lucht Siúil ag dul isteach chuig Comhairle Cathrach na Gaillimhe ag rá go bhfuil siad gan dídean.

As we sit here, nine Traveller families from Galway who have been living at a dump for the past six months and face eviction tomorrow must declare themselves homeless to Galway City Council because of a failure by local authorities in the west to deal with the crisis in Traveller accommodation. They were in an inappropriate place, which we highlighted previously, with the site's owner left no option but to have them evicted. Responsibility for Traveller accommodation lies with local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Will the Deputy Leader implore her colleague, the Department's Minister, to enter into negotiations immediately with the Galway city manager to find a temporary resolution for these families? They will be declared homeless and end up on the State's books anyway unless something is done. They have found themselves in a diabolical situation.

I wish to highlight an issue that has arisen in my travels around rural Galway. The home care system has been privatised and the number of home helpers employed by the HSE has dwindled. The race to the bottom in the sector is a major issue. The rates paid to people to work in the companies running the services are too low and finding workers is proving difficult. That people must travel between houses for appointments without being paid travel expenses or for the time they spend travelling means that the work is not worth their while. The fallout has seen older people left in hospitals when they would be able to return home were home care available. People who work in the west's health services tell me that this situation is chronic. It shows the failure of the system's privatisation. There is a myriad of crises in the health sector, but this one needs to be addressed. I call for a debate with the Minister for Health on it. If that is not possible, the concerns that we are raising could at least be raised with him in order to see what might be done in the short term. Some patients in Galway's hospital system cannot return home because home care is not available following the failed privatisation initiative.