Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start with a bit of good news. I welcome the long-awaited deal struck between the Department of Health and Vertex to provide the life-saving drug, Orkambi, to cystic fibrosis patients. Campaigners have been appealing to the Minister for Health for well over 18 months for this drug, which will radically change the lives of more than 1,000 people who suffer from cystic fibrosis. There has been a lot of campaigning for this and Deputies and Senators in my own party have been dealing with cystic fibrosis patients and their supporters.

I also wish to raise the controversy surrounding the post office network. It has been indicated that 265 post offices around the country are unviable and many face closure. I am sure this will affect post offices in urban areas but it would decimate rural Ireland as post offices are a lifeline to many areas. On last night's "Prime Time", the chief executive of An Post, David McRedmond, said there would be a significant number of closures and that if the company does not make changes needed for the future the whole system will collapse. We need urgent clarity from the Government on what it intends to do to prevent such closures. Government responsibility for post offices and the future network seems to be shared by a number of Departments and Ministers. The Government received the Bobby Kerr report almost a year ago, which outlined a number of practical solutions, but it has not yet addressed it. It is unacceptable. It is important that we tackle this issue. We must put a new emphasis on defending services, particularly in rural Ireland, and stop neglecting positive ideas that could help. I see there has been a row between the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, which the Minister, Deputy Naughten, seems to have won for the moment. We should bring the Minister to the House to talk about it.

I call on the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, to come to the Seanad to discuss the delay in publishing the interim report on mother and baby homes. The Minister has had the document since last September and I have grave concerns about the length of time it has taken to publish it. I welcome its publication but there are still large gaps in the report and it is inexcusable that it has taken six months to get to this point.

I dealt with Bus Éireann yesterday and I hope the issue will conclude satisfactorily at some point today.