Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a number of issues. The first one is the issue of the gorse fires. In Donegal there have been 50 separate fires throughout the county. Not far from my own home area of Buncrana a fire has been burning in the hills for the last four days. The fire rescue team attending the fire have had very little sleep. I spoke to one of the members of that team today and he reckons the team have had about four or five hours sleep in the last four days. That is the reality of what they have had to face. They are totally exhausted and demoralised. What is missing here is any kind of strategy at national level to deal with this. Where are helicopters deployed? When are they deployed? That can be of huge assistance to teams on the ground. I ask the Leader to raise this with the Minister of Defence or the Taoiseach, who oversee the emergency co-ordination team, and to get a response for me on their strategy on gorse fires, as they emerge every year.

I endorse the call from Senator Freeman. She is correct, and she is better qualified than anyone in this House to say what the gaps are in terms of mental health. All that she is asking is that she would be present at a meeting with the Taoiseach to discuss those gaps. Pieta House is filling the gaps with the endorsement of people across the State because people and their families see the gaps in their communities. It deserves a meeting with the Taoiseach.

I am asking that No. 35, motion 18 on areas of natural constraints, be taken at the end of the Order of Business without debate because time is of the essence on that matter.