Ba mhaith liom mo chomhbhrón a dhéanamh leis na daoine a fuair bás sa tine i gCluain Dolcáin. For a beautiful mother, Annmarie, her unborn child, her daughter, Paris, and their relatives, Holly and Jordan, a place of refuge turned out to be their place of death. We extend our sincere sympathy to their families and wish the other people involved in the fire a speedy recovery.

Today, I wish to refer to the Leader's response to my remarks yesterday. He will know that I wholeheartedly welcomed the Domestic Violence Bill publicly in this House. Yesterday I pointed out what still needed to be done to provide services that reflect the spirit of the legislation. According to a recommendation made by the Council of Europe Ireland only has 31% of the recommended number of places for women in refuges. Reality must reflect what is in the legislation. It is no use declaring a woman's right to live free from all types of harassment, abuse and violence if the reality is that there are no services in place for her to do so. In 2014, 4,831 requests for safe accommodation were not met due to a lack of capacity. I will outline the uncomfortable facts for the Leader. As I speak, there are 5,400 unallocated cases for social workers with 801 of them considered to be high priority. They are not considered to be high priority without reason. They are children who are at risk and need urgent care. Since the recession began the funding for Women's Aid has been slashed by 31% at a time when demand has increased greatly. The funding must be fully restored in order to give full effect to the legislation that we all welcome.

I wish these details were alternative facts as he has reiterated time and again. These really are the uncomfortable truths of our time.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

It would be remiss of us not to do our job in this House and bring these facts to the forefront day in and day out until the problems are solved because they affect people's lives. As we have seen in Clondalkin and throughout this country, this issue is what matters to people. People are at risk because of Government policy and we, as legislators, must ensure that such a policy is stopped. We must ensure that the Government makes the right choices so that the most vulnerable in our society are protected.

I join with others in expressing my sadness and condolences to the families of Annmarie O'Brien and that of the young children who lost their lives in Clondalkin. I also wish to acknowledge the death yesterday of a young activist who was heavily involved with the unions. No matter what picket line one visited he was sure to be there supporting fellow workers. His name was Joe McGouran. I send my condolences to his family and friends. He was a well known street seller in Dublin 1 and I am sure that community will miss him greatly.

I applaud the organisers of yesterday's marches called Strike 4 Repeal and March for Repeal. It has been estimated that 15,000 people took to the streets yesterday to campaign for the repeal of the eight amendment. The sight of so many people, especially young women, marching for a woman's right to bodily autonomy should show the Members of these Houses that the issue has not gone away, that the people of Ireland want a referendum and repeal of the eight amendment but definitely not for the amendment to be replaced in the Constitution.

I wish to acknowledge the announcement yesterday whereby 44 women were nominated for the Irish Film & Television Academy, IFTA, awards. I wish to acknowledge the short film written by Emmet Kirwan that is very much about women's rights. The short film stars my daughter and was nominated by IFTA for the category of best short film. The message in the film was that we all should stand in awe of all mná. The sight yesterday on the streets of Dublin shows that people are ready and willing to stand up for the rights of women.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I want to pay my respects to the families of the late Annmarie O'Brien and the children who lost their lives in the horrific circumstances of a fire in Clondalkin yesterday. Our collective hearts go out to all of the people who loved and knew them. We wish those people who were caught up in the fire a speedy recovery.

I join with my colleague, Senator Ruane, in paying tribute to Joe McGouran who I learned this morning had passed away. He was a well known supporter of the rights of working people in this city. He was a truly great character who had a particular affinity for the Mandate trade union. Recently he was on the picket line to support the Tesco workers. Therefore, it is appropriate that we honour him here today in the national Parliament. I thank the Senator for her kind remarks.

I support Senator Boyhan's view on the redress scheme and his call to discuss the contents of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. A shoddy deal was done by the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the former education Minister, Dr. Michael Woods, with the religious institutions in this country. The institutions have an absolute sin to answer for in terms of how they behaved and the abuse that many orders visited upon young people in this country over centuries. The institutions have been given a free pass. They have played a game of cat and mouse with this State in terms of their obligations in the redress scheme. The shoddy deal was done a couple of decades ago and it gave the church a free pass.

For days on end in January and February we discussed the crisis in the health service and the waiting lists in response to the "Prime Time" programme entitled "Living on the List". Over the past few weeks, and while we debated the waiting lists, the outpatient hospital waiting list grew by 11,000. This morning I was struck by an article that I read in the Irish Independent. The article featured an interview with a constituent of mine called Ms Caroline Sherwin who is a mother of two children. Even though she had a lymph node lump it appears that she was passed down the waiting list. She took the opportunity to stage a sit-in protest at my local hospital which is Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. She waited to be seen and treated. She felt that she had to take the situation into her own hands and did not accept being pushed further down the waiting list for emergency treatment. A surgery was performed and it probably saved her life. What does that tell us about the state of the health service?

We all agree in this House that we need a better way to tackle public waiting lists. We have repeatedly discussed the matter in this House and the Lower House. One solution was the fast-tracking of treatment through the National Treatment Purchase Fund, surgery, etc. I understand that such work has yet to happen. I ask the Leader to inform us about the current status of the additional cash injection into the National Treatment Purchase Fund for surgery that can, in many ways, be a lifesaver.