The people in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West wait for up to 14 years in most cases on the Fingal County Council housing list. Some of them are left waiting in overcrowded accommodation, some of them in emergency accommodation, some of them paying eye-wateringly high rents. When a person has a medical condition or a disability, this is often made worse by their housing situation, as I am sure the Tánaiste can appreciate, so they can apply for assessment for medical priority. It takes an awful lot to fill out the HMD 1 form and, in fact, I am told on a very regular basis now that GPs are refusing to fill it out for medical card patients. That is something that should definitely be looked at. When they fill out that form, and it is hard to fill it out, they have to wait. The Tánaiste will be well aware of the waiting lists to see doctors and every other medical professional. When they do fill out and submit the form, it is now taking 16 months, nearly a year and a half, to get that assessment done. By any measure, that is too long. I am inundated in my offices in Balbriggan and Rush with people and all they are looking for is an update. They want to know if anyone has looked at their medical priority and if it is going to be considered at all. It is not the case that the waiting times are this long in every other local authority. I ask the Tánaiste to investigate this and find out if the source of the issue is resources or what the blockage is. It is unacceptable and I am sure the Tánaiste will agree with me that people should not have to wait between 14 and 18 months.

I do agree and I thank the Deputy for raising it. I will certainly undertake to engage with the Minister for housing, primarily, and the Minister for Health on this and revert to the Deputy directly. While I am on my feet, I also want to say the Deputy raised an issue with me before in the House in relation to victims and survivors of domestic abuse, when they are moving from one local authority list to another, and the time they were on the previous list not being recognised. It is an important issue. I acknowledge and thank the Deputy for raising it. On foot of that, the Minister for housing has said he will issue a direction to all local authorities to make sure that issue is rectified. I want to acknowledge that while it came to my mind.

I thank the Tánaiste.