Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a genuine honour to be on the Taoiseach's Fianna Fáil team in the Seanad. I have a few small issues to raise.

I commend the Taoiseach and his team on all the women's health initiatives. The shared island unit is a huge part of our tradition as members of Fianna Fáil and a huge part of our republican ethos of treating children equally, but it would be remiss of me to stand up here without mentioning HSE community health organisation 7, CHO 7. There is a serious lack of funding and a serious fallout over missing timeframes for the assessment of needs. No therapies are being provided to children in CHO 7. It extends all the way from south Dublin to Kildare. It affects such a huge part of our country. Could this be addressed? I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is doing a huge amount of work on it. Everything is in her way. She is devoting so much energy to addressing the matter but she has not got the necessary resources. If she had proper support, she could tackle this area.

I realise the Taoiseach must feel he is in a clinic here. I congratulate him on his stewardship during the Covid pandemic but I would like to do a little more on antigen testing. Antigen tests should be accessible for free on a widespread basis nationally.