Nikki Bradley (Fine Gael)

I rise in solidarity with Cara Darmody, the 14-year-old-girl who is currently outside and has been since yesterday. She has been mentioned in the Chamber already, but I am going to run through a couple of things again. She plans to protest for 15 hours. I want us to take a moment to visualise this situation: a 14-year-old-girl is sleeping in a tent because she feels she has no choice but to take this drastic measure to get our attention. She is doing this on behalf of her two brothers and the people of Ireland who do not have a voice. I want to say publicly that I support her. After this I will be going outside to bring her some snacks, because it is warm out there, and I want to make sure she is okay. I absolutely and unbelievably admire her. I urge anybody who has not listened to her interviews to take the time today to listen. She is such an eloquent speaker. She is incredible, but we need to do more. It is simply not good enough. It is projected that the waiting list will go up to 25,000 by the end of the year. That is simply not good enough. I encourage the Minister to come to the House to debate this issue.