Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join the Cathaoirleach in welcoming my friend, Brian McGlinchey, the Irish consul to Delaware. He is very welcome. I thank him for his work in the United States on behalf of our country.

The Taoiseach is very welcome to the Chamber. I thank him for his address. He put the issue of healthcare at the core of his speech, and rightly so. He spoke of reforming the health service and making healthcare more accessible for people.I am battling a HSE whose notion of reform is to close my hospital in Navan and whose notion of accessibility is to stuff people from Navan in taxis and buses and put them in an overcrowded hospital in Drogheda where they have to wait for eight hours to be seen. It is neither reformed nor accessible. Being experts in medicine does not make these people experts in planning societies. They need to remember that. They need to remember who is in charge of actually delivering the services for societies. Those in HSE are not gods. They need to remember that.

In terms of planning facilities and what our towns and our cities need, one huge thing is the issue of sustainable transport. Key to that is rail connectivity. The town of Navan remains the largest town on the east coast without a rail service. I know the Taoiseach appreciates that because he sees it every morning in Blanchardstown in his constituency with the tailbacks of thousands of cars. We could eradicate that. This week, we took a huge step forward when Irish Rail moved to put consultants in place on Monday to deliver the much-needed Navan rail line. It is a huge step forward for us and I urge the Taoiseach and the Government to ensure the finance package for it is delivered swiftly.

Finally, I raise another key aspect around safety in our communities. Yesterday the Minister for Justice came into this Chamber and addressed us. I raised with her the violent incidents on the streets that have been captured on YouTube and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, showing workmen being assaulted in broad daylight with hammers and shovels on the main street in Navan. The inadequate levels of policing in our towns have to be tackled. Our Garda Commissioner deflecting and not addressing this is simply unacceptable in a scenario where new Garda divisions have been created and counties such as Meath, with 200,000 people, have less than half the Garda service of counties like Westmeath with half the population.

I look forward to the budget in a couple of weeks' time and the Minister for Finance delivering the investment in key services that we need and which I have outlined. I wish the Taoiseach and the Government well.