David Cullinane
Waterford · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I met many of those patients and people with the illness yesterday. Many of them were here in Leinster House. They told me, as they have in the past, they cannot walk and they cannot swallow and, as the Taoiseach acknowledged, it is also very difficult for their families who have to watch as their condition worsens and the disease progres…”
“In fact, in the programme for Government the Government committed to reviewing that process because it was accepted it does not always work. The technical review group obviously now needs to be convened and needs to meet urgently. Emily cannot afford more delays.”
“Yesterday, as the Taoiseach knows, the HSE drugs group met to consider reimbursement of Skyclarys, the first approved treatment that can slow the progression of Friedreich's ataxia. Patients hoped for a positive decision. This process has been ongoing for years.”
“They were left desperately making phone calls, checking for updates, asking journalists and asking politicians if they had heard anything. They were treated appallingly. Then, when the news did eventually filter though, they were left devastated.”
“Richard Walsh, consultant neurologist and co-director of the National Ataxia Clinic, has described this drug as a ground-breaking development. He has said that he would prescribe it if it were available in Ireland and that it may reduce the rate of disease progression.”
“"We are not going to regain any of the abilities we've lost, but Skyclarys will give us time. Time when you're dealing with our progressive relentless disease is everything. We all deserve time with our loved ones." Those are the words of Emily Felix, a 28-year-old trainee solicitor from Kilkenny who is living with Friedreich's ataxia.”
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“Another generation of young people will be locked into a housing crisis and locked out of any chance of having their own home. That is the shameful record of this Government. We cannot take 15 more years. I have asked the Minister a simple question. It is not supermarkets, groceries or insurance companies that have hiked up the property tax; the Government increased it and it can stop the increase. I am asking the Minister to stop it.”
“Neither I nor my party will take lectures from Fianna Fáil on economics. It crashed the economy and made people's lives a misery. They lost their homes and jobs. The Minister is in no position to come in here and lecture anyone on economics. When he talks about platitudes, I am talking about people who are making tough choices, such as what bills they pay. It is a reality facing those families. The Minister can come in and talk about Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin, but he should talk to the people listening who are affected by this. It is one hike after the other and it is the same with the property tax. The Minister talked about the housing report as if it was some great report for the Government. That report said there will be 15 more years of housing crisis under the Government's watch.”
“No parent, pensioner or worker should have to pay more on their family home. I am asking the Minister to do the right thing: stop these hikes and stop hammering working families.”
“The Minister for public expenditure can spin it whatever way he likes, and so can the Minister for Finance, but when these bills land through the door, people will see clearly that, again, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are taking more from those who have least. The Government is taxing the family home when families are deciding which bill to skip. It is wrong, it is unjust, and it has to stop. People have had enough of a Government that says one thing and does the opposite, and talks about helping families but quietly signs off on measures that hike up charges. It had a choice between standing with workers and households and squeezing them further. It chose to squeeze them further. The Minister and I know it does not have to be this way. He does not have to increase the local property tax.”
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as always, found room for the vested interests but not for the people who keep this country running. The Government had choices, of course, but it made all the wrong ones. It scrapped the energy credits that helped families to heat their homes; it raised student fees, making it harder for young people to stay in education; it hiked petrol and diesel, driving up the cost of getting to work or bringing kids to school; and it increased tolls, punishing commuters. Now, on top of all that, it hikes up the local property tax. That is not leadership; that is putting the wealthy and the golden circles first.”
“It is clear that the Minister's figure is not just wrong; it is wildly wrong. The number of households hit will be far higher than the Minister for Finance says, and his attempt to say otherwise is to take people for fools. They are not having it, because right now those same families are sitting at kitchen tables asking which bill to skip this month, be it the electricity bill, the rent or the groceries bill. The Minister came along and hiked up the local property tax. No sooner was the ink dry on a budget that left workers high and dry than the Government was back again heaping more pressure on struggling families. It handed out massive tax cuts and breaks to developers, banks and landlords and it gave nothing to ordinary workers to help them to make ends meet.”
“This is a tax on the family home. It is not a tax on wealth or greed; it is a tax on ordinary people, including workers, pensioners and families, who are doing their best to get by. This one is on the Government, including the Minister for Finance, because it changed the law. The Minister widened the bands by just 20%, even though he knows house prices have shot up by 30% to 40% across most of the State. That is what is driving families into higher bands and costing them hundreds of euro. The reality on the ground makes an absolute mockery of the claim of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, that only 5% of households would be affected by the band changes. Families in Waterford, Cork, Dublin, Louth and elsewhere all over the State are getting revaluation notices that claim otherwise. They feel angry, let down and tired of being bled dry.”
“I welcome an Teachta Boyd Barrett back to the House. His return is great news. Workers and families in this State are under savage pressure. They are being hit from every direction: soaring rents, sky-high energy bills, rip-off groceries, childcare that costs more than a mortgage, and insurance premiums that are through the roof. Yesterday’s Future Forty report from the Department of Finance clearly sets out how housing costs have skyrocketed in line with a cost of living that has spun out of control. Everywhere people turn, there is another bill, another squeeze, another hit. Now, as we head into Christmas, what does the Government do? It hikes up the local property tax. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, when people are counting every euro and every cent, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael decide to take more.”
“There was a study commissioned by the Department a number of years ago. It was a very good study; it was a feasibility study on what needed to ensure that we can maximise the potential of Dunmore East Harbour. It outlined four options ranging from €17 million to €45 million. Nothing was done, not a thing. It dropped off the face of the earth. It dropped off a cliff. I have not seen anything from the Government or the Department since. Despite the fact I was submitting parliamentary questions well before the most recent general election, trying to get a sense of what happened there and where it went, we did not get any response. I ask the Minister to look into that feasibility study.”
“We go around in circles and the work does not get done. There needs to be a reform of how funding is provided in the first instance, particularly to those local authority harbours. Helvick is one of them, but there are others across the State as well. I raise the issue of Dunmore East Harbour. It is an issue that I have been raising for a long number of years in relation to the development of that harbour. It is a shining example of what can be done regarding marine tourism and water sports activity. There is lots going on there during the summer. There is an adventure playground where young children can go out and swim in the harbour. There are fishing boats. Sometimes, we have cruise ships that come in. It is all fantastic. The problem is that they cannot all coexist in the current harbour because it is just not sufficient.”
“A lot of issues have been raised by my colleagues, particularly by Teachtaí Mac Lochlainn and McGuinness, in relation to quotas, an existential threat facing fishermen and European and State policy. I support all of that and all the points that they made. I wish to concentrate on infrastructure because it is important. The Minister visited Waterford recently. One of the points of the discussion was Helvick Harbour. The need to the develop those harbours is quite clear to anybody who is looking at this. We in Sinn Féin have been raising this issue for years. Helvick pier falls under the local authority harbours programme. The problem is that it does not get enough funding and is not able to do the engineering or environmental studies. That creates problems for projects to be done. Everybody gets sent around the houses.”
“I do not believe that is right or the best way to fund a health service. I have no idea. I cannot tell my constituents or any advocate groups that come to me where any additional money is for cardiovascular or cancer services, mental health treatments or any of the matters we are talking about. That is wrong.”
“However, we also have to make sure the resources and the referral pathways are there. That is not always the case. We have heard some horrendous stats today in relation to cancer for both men and women from the representatives of the Irish Cancer Society. We have a responsibility as legislators. The Government has a great responsibility to ensure that resources are put in place in order that when people reach out, they get the care they need. Across all of these areas, while I welcome the chance to have a debate with the Minister, I have to reinforce the point that it is very frustrating that this year - and I have spoken to senior officials in the Department about this - there was a very clear departure from the normal budgetary process. It has not been not made clear where any of the additional money in health will be spent.”
“Nobody knows exactly what are the new measures or the new money, or where the latter is going. It seems to be the best kept secret in the Department of Health and the HSE. In fact, we had people from the Irish Cancer Society and the national cancer control programme before us today. None of them was able to tell us if there was any additional funding for cancer services or the national cancer strategy in budget 2026. We suspect that the vast majority of whatever additional funding was put into health this year was for existing levels of service and not for new measures. That is the important point we have to make. What is really important in healthcare is referral pathways. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler rightly called on men to step forward, to go to their GPs or whomever and to talk to somebody if they have a mental health issue.”
“This is a major societal problem that demands a comprehensive Government response. The HSE's action plan acknowledges this emergency. It notes that men are more likely to die from the four main cancers, from circulatory diseases, from respiratory diseases and from external causes of injury. It highlights significant challenges in the area of men's mental health, particularly among younger men from lower income or Traveller backgrounds. Critically, the report highlights the disparity in how the Government resources healthcare. Important funding has been given in recent years for vital women's health services and we still have a long way to go in that area but the HSE is also calling for a commensurate response for men's health. Where was that in the budget? The budget for health seems to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.”
“The facts are very stark in relation to men's health, as laid out in the recent The Real Face of Men's Health report commissioned by Movember - which was mentioned by the Minister and Minister of State - and by the Men's Health Forum in Ireland and research carried out at the South East Technological University in Waterford and Carlow. The HSE's men's health action plan says much the same. Men are dying younger than they should. Two in five men in Ireland will die before the age of 75. Men are 34% more likely to die from cancer and much more likely to die from lifestyle-related illnesses. Men account for four in every five deaths by suicide. This burden, unfortunately, is not spread equally. Men from lower income backgrounds live, on average, five years less than men from well-off backgrounds.”
“They will go to the GP, the GP will refer them on for a scan and, unfortunately, they wait far too long. We all have experience of people contacting our constituency offices, mine in Waterford is no different, and saying that they have been with their GP and are concerned about the possibility of cancer or whatever. These people are waiting for scans and do not know when they will be called. They could be waiting months in some instances. While it is right to say that men should reach out, we also have to make sure that when they reach out - if they go to a GP and if there is a fear of an illness, whether it is cancer or cardiac disease - there is rapid access to a diagnostic scan. That is not always the case.”
“I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State. Men's health is not a topic which gets proper attention. There is a silent crisis in men's health which is devastating families and communities across the State. Both the Minister and the Minister of State are correct to appeal to men to look after their health, to seek support, to get checks and to make sure that if there is a difficulty they go to a GP and so on. It is also the case, however, that far too many people generally, but particularly men, in relation to cancer and cardiac care, very often are left waiting even for a simple diagnostic scan or a scope and so on. The length of time public patients are waiting for scopes and scans is far too long. I know the stress that can place on people who, for example, might fear that they have a cancer or an illness.”
“How could anybody come into this House with a straight face and say they have confidence in someone who was the Minister for Health and gave a solemn commitment to children with scoliosis and spina bifida that was broken, who set up Children's Health Ireland only for that same entity to now be wound down in disgrace in the context of many of those failures and who signed the contract for a hospital that is in controversy and still not built?”
“We raised the issues in the Dáil time and again. Over six or seven years, we raised all of those scandals, the failures and lack of governance in Children's Health Ireland. We raised those issues with the Tánaiste time and again, as did those families. They were stonewalled and ignored. That is why they are now calling for a full, public, statutory and independent inquiry. Despite the fact that he refuses to accept it, the Tánaiste did sign off on the contract for the children's hospital. We learned today that the 16th completion date will come and go. Construction started on the hospital the Tánaiste signed off on ten years ago and yet not one single child has been treated.”
“Today, 41 children have been waiting for longer than six months, never mind four months, for their life-changing surgery. Countless more children have been entirely removed from waiting lists because they have been left for so long that their condition has become inoperable. Precious children have lost not only their mobility but, tragically, their lives. Of course, my heart and thoughts are today with Harvey Morrison Sherratt and his parents, Gillian and Stephen. In 2018, the Tánaiste established Children's Health Ireland, CHI, in law. That body is now set to be wound down. It is in crisis because of devastating failures under his watch and that of the Government. CHI has been the subject of several reviews and scandals, much of which it tried to hide from families and the Oireachtas. Families came to the Tánaiste. They came to us.”
“Simon Harris's record as a Minister and a leader is not one of competence, vision or progress. When I think of Simon Harris, I think of broken promises to children with scoliosis and spina bifida, compounded by false hope and children left in pain. Under Simon Harris's watch, children with chronic conditions and disabilities have been failed and let down time and again. Under Simon Harris' leadership, in place of a solution for these children was a long road of delayed care and poor health outcomes. In 2017, when he was the Minister for Health, Simon Harris made that infamous, solemn promise that no child would be left waiting longer than four months for scoliosis surgery by the end of that year. It was a clear commitment that offered hope to worried families. Eight years later, however, that promise is a bitter memory.”
“The people I give credit to for delivering enhanced cardiac services for Waterford are the people of Waterford, who several times took to the streets in their thousands and had to force this Government, kicking and screaming, to deliver those services.”
“I raise with the Taoiseach again investment for Waterford Airport. It is something I have raised with him dozens of times. The airport's management has always made well-researched, very detailed propositions to Government on the need for the runway extension. Is the Taoiseach aware of a new consortium or investor that is prepared to put €30 million, it seems, on the table? Has he been briefed on that? In the past there was an ask for Government funding, which it seems will not be needed if this proposal is genuine. It has to be approved by the local authority but I understand it also has to be approved by Government and by the line Minister. Is it something the Taoiseach has been briefed on? Is he aware of this? Is the Government supportive and will it sign off on this if it comes across its desk?”
“All the big promises relating to Sláintecare and moving to a universal healthcare system have come to a grinding halt because the Minister has not been able to secure additional funding. She talks about efficiency, but I see nothing in this budget about what targets are in place to reduce agency spending and achieve savings and efficiencies. It is all the same bluff and bluster. There are no targets. It is heavy on rhetoric and provides no detail. What was presented yesterday was a joke in the context of health. Twenty-four hours later, there is still no detail. Shame on the Minister-----”
“I watched on as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs, Senators and councillors were all out welcoming these beds in their constituencies and in the places they live and represent. What was announced in the budget yesterday were 220 so-called new beds. Some of those are already in train. At this rate, it will take 14 years to for the Minister to deliver on Stephen Donnelly's bed plan for our hospitals. Yet, we know that in many hospitals there is overcrowding and that sick patients cannot be admitted quickly enough. On the capital side, we know that the Minister has massively underinvested because she does not have the money to deliver the beds or the maternity hospital or to substantially progress the elective hospitals. There is nothing in this budget to reduce the cost of healthcare.”
“There is no sense of how much money will be spent on almost all of the services right across the board. We are 24 hours on, and I cannot answer those questions. There are advocate and patient groups that simply do not know either. This is the worst presentation of a health budget I have seen. What makes it worse is that the majority of the so-called additional funding is simply for the health service to stand still in the context of existing levels of service. The Minister simply has not been able to win the additional support, funding and resources for the health service that we need. Instead of admitting that, she dresses up what was in the budget as new measures, when in fact it is simply for the health service to stand still. Stephen Donnelly announced the provision of 3,000 hospital beds prior to last year's local elections.”
“What is going on in the area of health? We are 24 hours on from the budget and it is impossible to know where any of the money announced in it will be spent. What is clear is that the vast majority of the additional funding announced yesterday for health is for existing levels of service. I spoke with senior officials in the Department of Health. They informed me that this is down to the Department of public expenditure and reform and how it presented expenditure booklet relating to the budget. People are asking where all the money is going to go. There is no sense of how much additional funding will go to the national cancer strategy. There is no sense of how much will go to the cardiac strategy or the maternity strategy. There is no sense of how much there will be to spend on new drugs.”
“The best approach is to engage with pharmacists and have collaboration and partnership and then have a framework in place that actually works. That is the model I certainly support and the model under which more should be done. This is welcome. I support it and I called for almost everything that is in this but there is more to be done. We can build on it and hopefully, that is what will be done in the time ahead.”
“To park that to one side, there is a lot more community pharmacists can do to help, particularly with health checks and monitoring cholesterol levels for those at risk. They can be tell tale signs there is a problem. I ask the Minister not to do what her predecessor did, which was take a piecemeal approach to this and make announcements that pharmacists would do wonderful things but not have any of the i's dotted and t's crossed. We saw that with the free HRT and other areas where messes had to be cleaned up as well. Very simply, they had to be cleaned up because the Minister went out and made an announcement without having any engagement with the pharmacists or having any agreement in place. That was the wrong approach.”
“It is actually through prevention, such as the flu vaccine, which is already available, but it should also be through other vaccines where people are at risk and older people at risk. I ask the Minister to look at that issue in the context shingles. It may be complicated by the fact it is not off-patent and there is only one provider. That may be the issue but that should not be a block. The Department and the Minister should look at that. More can be done by pharmacists on health checks. It was something I put in the plan I published a number of years ago for cardiovascular checks. Unfortunately, it is one of the illnesses that is one of the big killers, along with cancer. We have a lot to do with cardiovascular care. There is a need for a more comprehensive cardiovascular strategy.”
“It is really good and a step forward, but much more can and should be done over the time ahead. We can build on this and on the agreement that is in place. I will raise one issue on vaccinations. I strongly believe we should be looking at RSV and shingles vaccination. An application is going through the system at the moment to provide shingles vaccination to those over 65 years of age. There is an issue with the funding and costs of that, but it is very important and should be supported. I always agree that there has to be value for money. I know there is a process but, at the same time, we have to look at what the best way is to protect older people, particularly in an ageing population, where that population needs greater supports during the winter months.”
“Everything we can do to take pressure away from our acute hospitals and GPs, is of value to the health service. Looking at the volume of community pharmacists we have, it should be accepted that we are simply not making best use of them. They are available, they want to do it, and they can and will do more, but they will say they have to be resourced. As part of discussions I had with them previously, the issue of fees was something they wanted to discuss. I always made the point, in a very honest conversation with them, that whatever discussion needed to be had on fees, there had to be a quid pro quo , a return for the health service and for citizens and better use of community pharmacies. There is still more that can be done. I ask the Minister to see this as a start. This is the beginning and a foundation.”
“I welcome the agreement. The Minister's predecessor admitted a number of years ago that the engagement with the Irish Pharmacy Union was not what it should have been and the State was not making the best use of community pharmacies. A number of years ago, I published a very comprehensive plan that set out a lot of what is in this agreement, and more, in relation to what we could do. It included many of the important schemes, such as the common conditions scheme, which is very important, provides a lot of potential and can be built on. My plan also included more prescribing, on which there was pushback from the Department at the time. It had some concerns about it but I am glad those issues have been resolved. All of that is important, as is pharmacies playing a larger role in vaccination.”
“In my own constituency of Waterford, we need to deliver 24-7 cardiology care, which the Minister committed to. We need to invest in the adult mental health unit. There is a need for PET scanner. There are loads of projects right across each individual hospital that will also have to be funded. They have to be taken into account when you look at all the bigger projects as well. I believe - and it is my analysis based on the discussions I have had with the Department and the HSE - that there is a funding shortfall in regard to capital. I fear that some of those big reforms, especially the elective hospitals, simply will not happen as quickly as they should because the money will not be there.”
“Despite all of the best efforts of people who will work in this space, even if they get them to shovel-ready, I have already outlined and done the maths. I have met with the Department. I know the money simply is not there to do all of these projects. It is a case of who is right or who is wrong when it comes to the funding. I would accept that the Minister wants as much as possible to be done, as I do, but it does come down to money. It is a case of "show me the money". If the money is there, we can do these projects. If the money is not there, whether they are shovel-ready or not, they simply will not proceed. We have seen health projects stalled. We can all give examples in our own constituencies. I have dealt with the bigger State-wide projects.”
“That is €3 billion alone for those beds. Half of those beds, in my mind, will not be delivered and we will see who is right and who is wrong as all of this plays out. The new National Maternity Hospital is at a minimum of €900 million, at best, and then we are into the elective hospitals. We know from the preliminary business cases they are about €1 billion at a minimum for those four. When you add all of that up, it is well over €13 billion. It does not add up. Then the question is: what projects are not going to be delivered?”
“I do not believe that is the biggest challenge at all. It is a challenge, of course, to get projects ready and obviously they have to go through planning processes and there are other processes as well. I met with senior officials in the Department before the last general election. What they set out to us was an ask of about €13.5 billion up to 2030. What was achieved was €9.5 billion. Even looking at some of the costs, we know there is at least €1 billion, at a minimum, needed for digital transformation. We have to finish out the children's hospital which, it is estimated, will require about €300 million in addition to the current €9.5 billion allocated. The surgical hubs have to be paid for. Primary and community care facilities were estimated to be €270 million. On the 3,000 hospital beds, they average out at about €1 million each.”
“I do not believe the capital funding is there to deliver on all of those projects so the question is: which projects are not going to be delivered because of the capital funding that is allocated up to 2030?”
“Capital funding in health is really important. This capital allocation is one of the most important because it is linked to many of the big projects that are about reform of the health service. It is about more hospital beds and the 3,000 beds that were promised by the Minister's predecessor before the local elections last year. Elective hospitals have to be built, which is really important in following on from those surgical hubs and separating scheduled from unscheduled care. We have the new National Maternity Hospital. We need to develop Galway. I know there are plans for other acute hospitals in my own constituency in Waterford. I will get to those projects as well.”
“This is why I appeal to the Minister to make sure that whatever inquiry is put in place is the most robust it can be to get answers to the questions that need to be answered and, as important, to actually put the services in so that no other child has to wait as long as Harvey, and far too many other children, did.”
“There is a reference to what are called "orphan" children, who are children that fell through the cracks and were not getting the appropriate care. They were not under the appropriate consultant, be it a urologist or orthopaedic surgeon, and they simply fell through the cracks. These are children with spina bifida and scoliosis who at the time were waiting for procedures. I believe that trust is at an all time low. Trust is on the floor for many of these parents and there is an awful lot of work to do to repair and restore that trust.”
“Part of the problem here is that we have had almost a decade of failure and broken promises, some of which it must be said were political promises, and in more recent times a lack of transparency from Children's Health Ireland. Those very same families the Minister has met, and those parents and advocates she would meet, have been screaming from the rooftops about governance failures at CHI for many years. Many of their children are part of what is called the Dickson report, and I know that CHI has given a reason as to why it feels that report cannot be published. I have said there is absolutely no reason the contents of that report cannot be shared with the families whose children were part of that.”
“However, there are also issues regarding urology services, pre-care, aftercare and all of that. That has to form part of any review. It is really important for all of those children in the first instance that that inquiry happens, but it is equally important that we also invest in services and ensure in the here and now that children are getting timely access to care.”
“There are different models but it is important that this is an inquiry. That is what families are looking for. Obviously, there are different types of inquiries. We have seen in the past where inquiries were promised and they end up being reviews and investigations, very similar to the Nayagam review which is ongoing and still has not been published. This inquiry has to be comprehensive. It has establish all of the facts. It has to look at the full range of services and it has to achieve accountability, wherever that lands us; whether that is political, within CHI or governance. We know that this is not just about surgeries. They are vital. Children were failed in relation to not getting surgeries on time. We know that. Far too many children were waiting.”
“My first question relates to the need for a public inquiry into spinal surgeries for children with scoliosis and spina bifida at CHI. I note the Minister met Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family with the Tánaiste recently and it seems a commitment was given to an inquiry. Will the Minister inform the House as to what form that inquiry will take and what her view of the timeframe will be in the terms of reference?”
“He has disabilities and she is caring for him. She did a couple of extra hours unknown to herself - there were some irregular hours - and because of that she received a letter from social services to say she owed €1,600 back, which she just could not afford. She was absolutely livid. For everything she does, for all the work she does and a couple of extra hours here and there, which she did not really notice, she now has this bill on top of all the other bills, by the way, that a family has to pay. Abolishing the means test is the fairest thing to do. The Government committed to it. A lot of promises were made during the election campaign, which seem to have come and gone. I hope this is not one of them. I support the motion here today. It is one the Government needs to urgently deliver on.”
“Carers do invaluable work and each and every one of us, in our constituency offices, deals with family carers almost on a daily basis, certainly on a weekly basis. I visited one family in Waterford last week. It was a woman who was looking after her father. She was actually sick herself. When I got to the house, she was physically lifting her father, who is much heavier than her, out of a bed and trying to manage that in very difficult circumstances. Her father was very sick. We know the work that carers do. I had another woman in my constituency office last week in tears because she works part time for an education and training board. As she put it, she did everything right. She tried to work for as long as she could to get as many hours as she could. She has to provide for her family. Her son is in his 30s.”
“We have the second cath lab but, at this point in time, we do not know when the staff will be hired and what the timeline is. Will the Taoiseach outline when full 24-7 cardiac services will be in place in Waterford and the south east?”
“There is no family that is not impacted by mental health difficulties and challenges at some point. We know early intervention is key to preventing serious illness, particularly for young people if a mental illness is caught at a young age and the intervention services are available. Jigsaw is an important service as part of the overall supports for young people. In Waterford, unfortunately, we do not have a Jigsaw service. Waterford is the largest city without that service. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness and I, as well as the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, have raised this issue. I am looking for an update on where that is at. The second issue I raise is the need to deliver 24-7 cardiac services for the people of Waterford. The Minister committed to doing this, in principle at least.”