Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join in the sympathies to the family of Feargal Quinn on my behalf and on behalf of the Fianna Fáil group.

Today, I raise the issue of the crisis we see in home care throughout the country, not only by paid carers but by unpaid carers. We see huge discrepancies between various local authorities in the allocation of home adaptation grants.Some local authorities spend up to €22 million while others only spend a fraction of that. It is what we call a postcode lottery, but this should be done nationally and there should not be such discrepancies. Some 3,000 people are being left without funding because it is a postcode lottery. Outside Leinster House earlier, we met many people who are in receipt of home care and respite services and are crying out for more funding. There are long waiting lists for home help hours nationally. Local authorities and HSE offices are not funded adequately. Will the House consider the Nursing Home Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill 2016, introduced by my colleague, Deputy O'Dea, which allows for home care to be provided in the home under the fair deal scheme? Most people want to stay in their own homes as they approach the end of their lives. It is important that the Government fund home care services properly.

We still have 10,000 people on the housing waiting list, comprising more than 6,000 adults and more than 3,000 children. Nearly 70% of homeless people are in our capital city. We have seen little progress under Rebuilding Ireland. In my constituency, a small community allotment garden in a park was taken back under the control of Dublin City Council on the basis that it would immediately become the site of rapid-build housing. There has been no such housing provided there to date. St. Michael's Estate is also in my constituency of Dublin South-Central. We were promised a rent-to-buy scheme, but it has not happened. The Government scrapped affordable housing schemes in 2011 and no realistic affordable housing projects have come to fruition. It is a disgrace, as housing is the No. 1 issue affecting people. I welcome the various housing bodies' establishment of an affordable housing campaign. I wish them well and hope that all Senators will join them.

On broadband, a document was published before Leaders' Questions in the Dáil and this led to the suspension of proceedings in the Lower House. The Seanad needs to have a proper debate on the roll-out of the national broadband plan.

I have raised an issue close to my heart on numerous occasions, namely, the Department of Justice and Equality and the processing of Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, applications for citizenship, stamp 4, stamp 2 and family reunification. There are major delays, sometimes of almost two years. It is not acceptable that people who are legally entitled to be in this country are waiting so long. I call on the Minister for Justice and Equality to examine the delays in processing INIS applications.