Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I agree wholeheartedly with Senator Boyhan regarding the Minister's attendance here to discuss HIQA. The mid-west and the situation at the hospital in Limerick have been at the top of all representatives' agendas for some time now. Along with me and others, the Leas-Chathaoirleach has been to the fore in this regard. I hope we will see good attendance. I thank the Leader's office for facilitating and organising that debate. We finally have a roadmap to increased capacity in the mid-west. That is very welcome. I am very keen to hear what the Minister and my colleagues have to say.

I would like to have a debate in the House at some stage on the winter readiness programme and being weather-ready. We have seen very inclement weather recently. Over the last number of years, incidents of inclement weather have been much more significant than they previously were. We all need to improve our knowledge in terms of the readiness programme. We all need to understand more about the warnings and the methodology behind them. The localised nature of recent warnings is very welcome. If they can be localised even further, we need to do that. The technology is there. Met Éireann is at the cutting edge when it comes to embracing and adopting new technology. That is very welcome. Even the Met Éireann graphics on television have improved dramatically and create a more localised understanding. The emergency section is based in the Department of agriculture's building but it is managed by the Department of housing. I request that the Deputy Leader put in train a debate, statements or a discussion on this at her convenience so that we can all improve our understanding of the issue.