Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome my friends in the Public Gallery.

I wish to convey my sympathies and those of the Fianna Fáil group on the heartbreaking news we received at the weekend of the passing of Manus "Mandy" Kelly at the Donegal International Rally. It is devastating news for his racing community and the local community. Manus drove the cancer bus in Donegal. He leaves behind five children, his wife, Bernie, his co-driver, his racing community, his family and his many friends. This is a huge loss to his local community, to Donegal and to Fianna Fáil, on behalf of which he was elected in the local elections earlier this month. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

I wish to discuss tomorrow's strike by approximately 10,000 healthcare support workers and unhelpful comment by the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to the effect that the strike is "quite extraordinary". Describing the forthcoming strike by uttering such unhelpful and condescending comments will do nothing to help resolve the dispute to which it relates. Rather, it will further agitate these hardworking healthcare workers. It is sad and devastating that patients will be affected. There will be significant delays, deferrals of elective inpatient procedures, cancellations of endoscopy procedures and a reduced number of outpatient procedures. Patients are terrified that the strike will affect many hospitals in the city, including Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. The Minister needs to change his thinking and language and engage meaningfully with SIPTU in order to ensure that this strike, which looks to be going ahead, is postponed. It is unfair on the workers and patients.

I also wish to raise the issue of a Harold's Cross school. The Harold's Cross Stadium was purchased by the Department of Education and Skills for the purpose of building a secondary school. We now know that that school has been assigned Educate Together patronage. However, pupils from Dublin 8 and Dublin 12 have been excluded from the new school's catchment area. This is despite the fact that the schools in their areas were some of the very first Educate Together schools in the city, having opened before the schools in Dublin 2, 4 and 6, which will be within the new school's catchment area. What is happening is unfair. A further three non-fee paying secondary schools opened up in Dublin 2, 4 and 6 recently, yet children in Dublin 8 and 12 will not have access to them either. The Harold's Cross school is on the very border of Dublin 8 and Dublin 12. Children in Dublin 8 who want to continue their education with Educate Together must go to Sandymount. It makes no sense for the Department to send children from Dublin 8 and 12 to Sandymount when there will be a new, beautiful school on their doorstep. A great campaign was organised by the Educate Together community in Dublin 8 and 12. The Minister has met the community, but the responses have been inadequate. It is very discriminatory that the children of Dublin 8 and 12 will not have access to this school, which is on their doorstep. The Minister needs to do something about it. There is a reason there are no Fine Gael councillors in Dublin South-Central. It is because they do absolutely nothing for the children of that area.