Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to refer to Mr. and Mrs. Devereaux. Hearing Mr. Devereaux's pleas yesterday to be reunited with his wife touched the hearts of many people around the country. When we close down hundreds of beds in nursing homes, community hospitals and such facilities, what do we expect to happen and where do we expect the beds to come from? That is what has happened. We heard the other day there were more beds in the 1980s than now, and this has happened under a number of Governments. In my own area, at Belmullet hospital, half the beds were closed down under Fianna Fáil and thousands of home help hours were cut. When that happens, there are going to be situations like this.

I am not sure what we would do if it is was not for "RTE Investigates". RTE seems to be acting as a government in a sense in trying to force the Government to take up its responsibilities. We should not feign shock and surprise when these things happen, given we have actively contributed to the legislation, the actions and the Government decisions that have been made over the years on this issue.

I raise the issue of the Grenfell tragedy, the horror of which we have seen unfolding. I asked last week that the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government would come to the House and this becomes more urgent by the day when we see whole apartment blocks having to be evacuated in London and other areas.It greatly concerns me. Is a similar investigation into the use of cladding being carried out here? There should be a review of local authority houses that have submitted applications for works to be done for health and safety reasons. If the Minister were to come before the House and if we were to have a debate about the matter, perhaps we could allay the concerns of some people who are directly affected by this.

Turning to the issue of rural school transport, I again ask for the Minister responsible to come before the House to examine what is happening with the decisions that have been made on this, particularly in respect of the "nearest school" rules and the increase in the minimum required numbers from seven to ten. It is having a devastating effect on rural Ireland, even in counties such as Mayo. We now have a rural affairs Minister in Deputy Ring. He has his feet under the table, and I very much expect him to examine such decisions being made by Government. We have parishes and families being divided because of them as children are being forced to go to their nearest schools. There must be a degree of flexibility to examine the impact it is having on rural Ireland. I ask the Leader of the House to bring the Minister before the House to have a debate on this as well.