Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I heard the Taoiseach suggest to the nation that people attend BOD, bank of dad, to look for a loan to fund a deposit to buy their first home. That is all very well and good for the minority, but it clearly indicates that we have a very serious issue on our hands. If the Taoiseach, after years as a Deputy, a doctor and a councillor, has to attend BOD to fund his deposit, how are ordinary hard-working citizens on lower salaries meant to manage it without access to BOD or BOM? There is a serious teaching staff shortage. We have heard about many tenacious teachers who are in the Middle East teaching other people's children in order that they can return to this country and put a deposit on a home. Does the idea of the Taoiseach obtaining a loan and suggesting in the Dáil yesterday that others do likewise not indicate that we are in serious trouble? We need ambitious solutions to the housing crisis that will benefit all of us equally, not just those with access to large sums. I call on the Taoiseach to withdraw his advice as it is completely nonsensical.

I refer to primary care centres. In 2012 the then Fine Gael and Labour Party Government announced the solution to the hospital crisis in the form of primary care centre project announcements. It is, of course, a sensible solution. Providing health care away from hospitals in the community is the gold standard. One project announced at the time was a primary care centre on Curlew Road in Drimnagh which held my attention and interest. In an effort to find out what progress had been made in 2105 before I became a Member of this House I asked my colleague Deputy Billy Kelleher to table a parliamentary question for me. The written update received from the Department of Health was that the planning application had not been completed in the timeframe for PPP projects. This morning we are learning how disastrous that concept is. On my election to Seanad Éireann in 2016, I continued my project to find out what was happening in the provision of this primary care centre and raised the issue on many occasions on the Order of Business and by way of Commencement matters. Yesterday I was informed in a letter circulated by Ms Ann O'Shea, head of services with the HSE, that work on the primary care centre in Drimnagh would not proceed. The letter stated there were no plans for the development of a primary care centre on Curlew Road. I ask for the Minister to come to the House to explain how this happened and the reason for the change of mind. The community in Drimnagh deserves top quality services as much as any other in the country. I am sure there are other primary care centre projects elsewhere in the country that will not go ahead and the local people do not know it yet. Would the Minister be kind enough to make a statement on the matter? The decision not to build a centre in Drimnagh must be reversed. The residents have been waiting since 2012 when it seems the announcement was nothing more than spin. It seems that there is no substance or genuineness to any of the Government's announcements. How are we to trust it if its promises continually fall through?

On gender pension inequality, I welcome the announcement made by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, of the change in the method of calculation of the State pension which mainly affects women. However, I voice my outrage that the reason women and other applicants will not be able to avail of the higher rate sooner is that the Department's IT system is not adequate. This is being used as an excuse not to backdate the payment due to pensioners. It should not be used as the reason. The Minister should go further and backdate the payment to 2012 or at least January this year.