Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in expressing my sympathies with the wife, daughters and extended family of Michael O'Regan. I always followed him as a journalist and I enjoyed him as a journalist. When I came to Leinster House in 2016, I got to know him really well. We became good friends. There was always a good bit of slagging between Patsy McGarry, also a well-known journalist, Michael and I about football and other things. As they would say in parts of the west, he was full of divilment. He was a really good journalist. The Kerry babies case has been mentioned. Every time it came up, it angered him how that case turned out and the disturbing situation that arose. He was a very important journalist in that whole situation.

If I can, with the 50 seconds left, I ask that the Minister with responsibility, Deputy Ryan, come to the House to talk about retrofitting of houses and changes that perhaps need to be made to the scheme. It is taking too long. Some people do not need the retrofitting. I often wish we went back to the simpler ways of getting doors and windows, draughts put out and insulation put in to attics and walls, particularly for older people who will never see this work done unless we change the goalposts. There are many poor houses, as my colleagues know, in rural Ireland. It is a terrible thing in today's world to walk into a house and see mould growing on the walls. It should not be happening in an Ireland that is so wealthy. Every effort should be put into making sure that within a couple of months, those houses are made draught-free change and the changes are made to them. Some are very old. Let us make the basic changes that leave those people comfortable for the years they have left in their lives. Let us not put them on schemes that may not develop for three or four years.