Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Senator for raising this important issue. As I said, 77 cases are outstanding. In some cases, we are awaiting additional information and, in others, it is our delay, if one likes, because the medical assessment has not happened yet. A new chief medical officer has been appointed to the Department in recent weeks, Dr. Max Hills, and we have recruited nine additional medical officers. While it is hard to recruit doctors at the moment, not only in the health service but also in social protection, nine have come through interview and although they have not all accepted the post yet, we hope they will. I can assure the Senator these cases will be prioritised.

I had the opportunity to visit Arigna many years ago, accompanied by Councillor John McCartin, and Councillor Charlie Hopkins may have been with us as well. It is a fascinating place and a very interesting part of our industrial history, and particularly interesting to see how mining was done in those days. They really were hardy men. It was old-fashioned mining where the miner would effectively climb into a crevice with a hammer and start to dig into the coal seam. It is also a very important place for our political history because it was one of the few places where the red flag flew in the 1920s, under the Arigna Soviet, which was established for a period at that time - a very controversial thing to do in 1920s Ireland. That is not discussed in great detail in the museum there, although perhaps that has changed since I visited. I thought it would be an interesting addition to the visitor facility. I would advise Senators who have not had a chance to visit Arigna that it is really worth a visit.