Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo everything that has been said about secretarial assistants and wish everybody a good summer. I am very grateful for the words expressed by Senator Ruane. Likewise, it has been an honour to serve alongside her on the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy and the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. In honour of her words, I will be absolutely blunt in my last contribution here before the House goes into recess.

This morning, I received yet another email from an absolutely distraught parent of a child with a disability. At this point, that parent is in a broken relationship, in a broken life, has a broken heart and has a broken child because the HSE is not supplying the services it is supposed to do. The HSE is absolutely not recruiting and not supplying nurses. Today, a child sits in her home while needing dressings that respond to her particular disability. She has been left without dressings for several days. This situation has arisen but not for the want of the work done by the fantastic Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Rabbitte. I am not criticising the Minister of State because I think that she is a saint, and her office is incredibly responsive. However, we have people who do not prioritise children, allow children to languish without supports and cause devastation in families.