Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I first want to commend Senator Ardagh on tabling the Health (Postponement of Certain Leave) Bill 2024. I want to second that item. I have to commend her on lobbying all her party colleagues and I am sure people throughout this House will support this. It is really well done, and I hope it will be successful in this House.

Like others, I want to wish the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, well. We had many conversations and I know he will still be a Minister. I did not always agree with him, but I did agree with him on some things. One thing actually hurt me, and this is going back a few years, although I said nothing about it. I recall the incident when the Minister, Deputy Ryan, was joked at and laughed at because on one occasion he seemed to be very fatigued in the Dáil. I knew of his circumstances and of the dedication he and his wife have to their special needs child. I thought it was terrible that some politicians in Leinster House mocked and jeered at him. Maybe some of them did not know what it means to have a special needs child in one's family. I have two within our family circle - they are two lovely young people from different wings of our family. This is 24-7, 365 days per year. The sheer nonsense that some people go on with when they mock people in such circumstances shows a lack of understanding. They can claim they did not know about it, but they should know their stuff before they make such comments. I said that if I ever got the opportunity to say it, I would. You may agree or disagree with Deputy Ryan, but I commend him and his wife, as I do many other parents, on what they do for their special needs children. I will always be 100% behind him on that and I would never mock such people.

Finally, on a very positive note, there is just transition funding for our region, and for the county of the Acting Leader. It is massive for Country Roscommon and involves a number of projects. I want to commend Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Government on that. We will be getting more funding as well. It is so necessary following the demise of the ESB and Bord na Móna. The Government is delivering and will deliver more in that region because of the knock-on effects of the loss of Bord na Móna and the ESB.