Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will briefly mention value for money in the context of medication and drugs. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has fined the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer £84.2 million for the 2,600% overnight price increase in respect of the drug Epanutin, which is used to treat epilepsy. This price increase cost the National Health Service and British taxpayers millions. I do not know if we have a similar watchdog but that is certainly a gold standard in asking companies to be more responsible. The profits some companies make are absolutely obscene.For many years, constituents of mine who live in social housing have been contacting me due to damp, mould and condensation problems within their dwellings. The reason for these problems are almost always laid squarely at the doors at the tenants. The authorities carried out inspections time after time in various tenancies and always came to the same conclusion: tenants were causing these issues. Residents in my own constituency, Dublin South-Central, living in Tyrone Place, Inchicore, took it upon themselves to commission architects to examine the reasons for dampness within their residences. The findings showed that the buildings were unable to provide adequate ventilation, making them very difficult to heat and, therefore, creating damp conditions. The problems were shown to be extensive and very serious. Despite tenants using mould remover and freshly painting walls on a continual basis, it was still happening. Local councils have been laying the responsibility for carrying out condensation repairs on the tenants. The finding of this report totally exonerates the tenants. I ask the Leader to contact the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government to ensure that funding can be secured from his Department to carry out repairs and makes these tenants' environment much healthier. I will submit this as a Commencement Matter if the Leader cannot provide a sufficient response.