Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The first issue I will raise is that of flood defence barriers, in particular the length of time it is taking the Office of Public Works, OPW, to approve works that need to be done. It is absolutely unacceptable. Areas like Carraholly, Rosmindle and Kilmeena near Westport have been waiting since 2014. During the floods of 2014, the damage that was done there needed to be repaired immediately. It has taken four years to get to this stage and we have not even got approval yet. There are two things wrong with that. First is the length of time and the cost of drawing up plans. All that needs to be built is a simple wall - a flood barrier for the communities. It is totally wrong that four years later nothing has been done. I ask that the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, come in here to tell us exactly what he will do and what he is doing to speed up this process because four years is absolutely unacceptable. It is also unacceptable that the OPW and other consultants have failed to engage with or listen to local communities when they have the resolutions to many of these problems. We are spending millions on consultants without consulting with the local communities that are most affected by it. I would like the Minister of State to come in here to address that.

The other issue I will raise is a hidden aspect of the current crisis in our health service in the care and management of those living in constant pain. Many of these people, who have already been through the health system and are now living with pain, need access to continual care. I was alarmed to be informed about it by a constituent who applied to attend the pain management clinic in Galway in 2016 and who is still on that waiting list. She was recently told she will have to wait at least another 18 months. The end of year waiting figures published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund for pain management does not include any figures for University Hospital Galway. There is a suspicion that the figures for the pain management clinic at University Hospital Galway have been included in the figures for anaesthetics. If this is the case, it is a worrying development. Having long waiting lists is bad enough but they should at least be transparent and fair in terms of how they are operated. Leaving patients with indefinite waiting times and confusing waiting lists is totally unfair. We need clarity from the Minister for Health that if people are placed on the waiting list for vital pain management treatment, they can at least track their progress and gain some idea of when they will be seen. While we may all have different solutions and priorities for fixing the health care system, we absolutely need reliable figures for waiting times to properly access how it is performing. It is grossly inhumane that we have people in really bad pain around this country waiting years for basic pain relief management. I ask the Minister to come in to discuss that.