Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I extend my welcome to the group here with the President of Tynwald, the honourable Laurence David Skelly. They are all very welcome to this Chamber.

I rise to ask the Leader a question regarding the schedule of debates in this House. On 14 December, we saw Second Stage of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill. The Bill has completed its passage through the Dáil but we have only seen Second Stage. When will we see the Remaining Stages in this House? I am receiving very disturbing messages, photographs and videos of people being harassed as they go into avail of services in hospitals and it is absolutely not acceptable. We cannot afford any delays. I am mindful that tomorrow is 1 February and it will soon be two months after Second Stage. We need that scheduled as a matter of urgency.

In my remaining time, I wish to address what happened during Commencement matters today and the fact that the House had to be suspended. The House had to be suspended because Senator Clonan tabled an absolutely excellent Commencement matter, one which he and all of us across the House have repeatedly raised. A junior Minister from housing came to address an issue on health, which is a consistent pattern in this House. Any of us who have tabled a Commencement matter for the Department of Health will get an email the morning of it stating “No Minister is available. Apologies. This is the Minister who will deal with the issue.” Apart from the fact the substantive issue Senator Clonan was raising was an absolute disgrace and it is an outrage that children’s issues are not being addressed - I will go further on that this evening in the Fine Gael motion for the House - but the fact that we are not even accorded the respect for someone from the Department of Health to come in and address health issues is a disgrace. It is a consistent pattern. It is disrespectful to this House, it is disrespectful to the Members of this House and disrespectful to the very serious issues raised by Members of this House addressing children on waiting lists, carers left without any care or support and people imprisoned in their homes in desperate situations with a HSE that is not answerable to anyone for anything.

It is time we had a Minister address us. I understand there is a challenge when the junior Minister is also the Government Chief Whip. I understand all of that. However, we are the Government. Can we not sit down and work out a solution to that other than sending in people who are unable to respond to the issues being raised? Senator Clonan was absolutely right to protest. As a House, it is time we start doing that on a repetitive basis until such time that what we say here is actually listened to.