Rents, concerts and hospital trolleys
Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asks about legislation on upward-only rents and concert events, and criticises hospital trolley overcrowding. The Taoiseach cites constitutional advice against regulating existing rent reviews, promises concert-law reform, and says trolley numbers remain under review.
I want to raise three items. First, where is the legislation to deal with the problem of upward-only rents? Second, with regard to the recent debacle over the concert that was to be held in Dublin, Ministers have said that legislation is promised to deal with concerts held in the future. When will that legislation come before the House? Is work being done on it? Third, referring to the programme for Government, any person who needed to stay overnight in an acute hospital will have seen the massive numbers of people waiting on trolleys in the accident and emergency department. Where are the Government's proposals to deal with that very serious problem? The staff are working in a tremendously pressurised environment trying to deal with patients lying on trolleys overnight. That is wrong. The Government promised in the programme for Government that it would bring an end to that. What is it doing about it? What will the new Minister for Health do about it? I ask the Taoiseach to clarify that very important issue.
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It is in the programme for Government.
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In respect of the upward-only rent review, we had constitutional advice that it was impossible to legislate for that. I have said that on many occasions in the House.
Regarding the position about the concert events, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, has made known his intention to change the law to put a proper system in place to ensure that what happened-----
Comment on this
Two days ago he said he would sort it out.
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-----should not happen in the future. At the same time we do not want to do down the right to hold smaller events around the country in terms of them being too restricted. As the Minister pointed out on many occasions, the reduction in trolley waiting times is always an issue in every hospital, as Deputy Healy-Rae is aware. These situations flare up at different times. Nobody wants to see elderly people in particular lying on trolleys. The Minister can give an update at any time in respect of the figures that occur any day.