Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Deputy Leader to bring in the Minister to tell us why the national children's hospital cannot be named after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. We hear again today of further nonsense around the name Phoenix and the possibility of being sued over this by an American hospital. I cannot understand why the hospital cannot be named after such a wonderful woman as Kathleen Lynn. If I thought for one second that there was some reason for this then I would understand. My own colleague, Deputy Ó Snodaigh, wrote the Minister for Health months ago outlining the reasons why the children's hospital should be named after her so I now ask that the Minister come to the House and explain to us why this cannot be done.

I also want to talk about the plight of carers and I commend RTÉ on its broadcast on carers in crisis and the difficulties faced by those providing care in this State. When I hear Fianna Fáil talk about carers' hours and home help hours, I have to wonder why that party cut 32,000 hours from home help hours in County Mayo in one year alone when it was in government. I cannot understand it. The cumulative effect of taking home help away from the HSE; privatising it; and giving maybe three quarters of an hour, half an hour or even 15 minutes, is having a real impact on all of these carers. One in 20 people in this country is caring for a family member. That measure has to now be reversed. We have to go back and admit that what was done in this respect was wrong and needs to be reversed. There was no increase in home help hours allocated under the last budget. People are still being medically assessed as needing home care packages and yet not getting them. This is happening right across the country but it is particularly prevalent in rural areas. I now see that in County Mayo, applications for housing aid for older people are being refused because the carer is living with - indeed has to live with - the elderly person in question. This is an absolutely crazy situation because the requirements are now saying that that older person has to live alone. I ask the Minister to come to the House to clarify why it is that these things are happening.

When it comes to local authority heating grants, older people are being told that heating is not covered until the local authority grant and that they have to go to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. They then go to SEAI only to be told that they are not covered for a heating grant because this or that particular box is not ticked. Elderly people, about whom we make platitudes time and time again, are being left in housing conditions unsuitable for them to live in, excluded from grants and denied the respite care and home help hours they need. If we really are genuine about trying to protect our elderly people and give them what they deserve, then this matter absolutely has to be addressed, not just after it has been highlighted by "Prime Time" but on an ongoing basis.