Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I am very disheartened. Every week, I and other Senators invite Ministers to the House. The Minister arrives and reads from a script. We are given a sheet of paper which states that they will revert to Senators with further information. This is unacceptable. I will mention four cases I have raised in the past six months but have received no answer. I will insist that we establish a new system in the House because what is happening is unfair. I raised the respite issue. The respite service in Carlow closed a year ago and I was told by the Minister that there was a place and I would be informed. It is now almost a year since then and I have followed it up repeatedly, but have received no answer. I raised the Holy Angels Day Care Centre with the Minister. It was given a small bit of funding because it is in prefabs.Children have been in prefabs for ten years awaiting a new school. They were guaranteed a new school last year but now the Minister has said he will get back to me on that.

I am really annoyed about the ambulance service. The Minister of State at the Department of Health was in the House last week to respond to a commencement matter on the ambulance service in Carlow. There was an audit done on the ambulance base prefab and it was found to be unfit for purpose. The ambulance drivers have no hot water and there is a massive sewage problem. I was told in the reply that the Department was looking into this but I got no timescale as to when the necessary work will be done. I have phoned both the HSE and the Department of Health. I am going back to people in the constituency and telling them that while I am raising these matters with Ministers, I am not getting any answers. I am delighted that Ministers and Ministers of State are coming into the House but they must give us answers. No answers are forthcoming. I raised the issue of local authority funding for County Carlow months ago but I am still waiting for an answer. I am ringing the Department time and time again and that is unacceptable.

I am now asking whether the entire system should be changed. How many times have Senators asked that Ministers would come to this House?