It was very sad yesterday listening to Michael and Kathleen Devereaux's son on Joe Duffy's "Liveline" radio show. Their son gave us a detailed narrative of how his parents, who are 63 years married, were separated by the HSE. His father was permitted a bed in a nursing home while his mother was not. This couple have been together for 63 years and, on the back of the State, were being separated. I learned today the HSE became involved and the couple will be reunited. Is it not sad that the only way to get some justice and fairness in this country is to resort to Joe Duffy justice? It is absolutely appalling and unacceptable in this day and age.

The second item I raise is the Minister, Deputy Ross's Judicial Appointments Commission Bill which is before the Dáil this week. We in Fianna Fáil believe in reform of the judicial appointments system. It is of paramount importance. However, the Bill published this week by the Government is deeply flawed and that has been pointed out by senior members of the Judiciary. Fianna Fáil has prepared legislation proposing the establishment of a judicial appointments commission, fully independent of Government, that would make recommendations to Government based on the merits of applicants to judicial office. This office would not be a quango and there would not be a back office of administrative staff costing the State more. At the very least, we in Fianna Fáil believe the Bill should provide for a committee chaired by the Chief Justice. Anything less is an insult to the office of the Chief Justice. It beggars belief that the Chief Justice, as the senior custodian of the rule of law, or any of her colleagues, were not consulted on the merits of the Bill in any way, shape or form. With any other legislation that passes through the Houses, we have a complete and robust consultation process with stakeholders, whether it is a Bill on Seanad reform or on physical therapists or physiotherapists.

I believe this is one of the most practical and transparent parts of our legislative process and it should not be eroded.

On the subject just raised by the leader of the Fianna Fáil group, that is, the question of the judicial appointments commission legislation which is pending, there are a couple of points I would lie to make. First, as Senator Ardagh said, it is a Bill which has several significant flaws. One of them is that the Act which it seeks to amend and repeal, the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995, provided that the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board would make recommendations but would also inform the Government of the people who had expressed an interest in being appointed. The new Bill, curiously, will just say that three names will be forwarded to the Government and that no information will be given to the Minister as to who was rejected, so that the Cabinet, in looking at the three names, will effectively be like the captain of a submarine without a periscope, wondering what other people expressed an interest who were not included in the list. As I see it, it would actually be an offence under the new legislation to communicate the other people's names to the Government in this context. That is just one of the issues and I raise it to emphasise how infirm this proposed piece of legislation is.

The point I want to raise with the Leader is that it would appear a commitment has been made that this legislation will be passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas before the summer recess. However, the establishment of the commission would take months thereafter. Therefore, it is not hugely important it is done by the end of this Oireachtas term. It is not as if there are appointments pending which are going to be dealt with as soon as the commission is established. I ask the Leader to give us an assurance that this House will be given adequate time, and more than that if necessary, to consider each and every provision of this legislation. The more I look at it, in particular the more I look at individual portions of the Bill, the more problems emerge. We will not be rushed in this House by any political agenda that the Minister, Deputy Ross, may have in regard to this matter. We will carry out our constitutional function, which is to examine this legislation line by line to ensure we improve it as best we can, rather than having it rushed through in order to satisfy a fairly grubby political agenda.

First, I want to refer to Mr. and Mrs. Devereaux. Hearing Mr. Devereaux's pleas yesterday to be reunited with his wife touched the hearts of many people around the country. When we close down hundreds of beds in nursing homes, community hospitals and such facilities, what do we expect to happen and where do we expect the beds to come from? That is what has happened. We heard the other day there were more beds in the 1980s than now, and this has happened under a number of Governments. In my own area, at Belmullet hospital, half the beds were closed down under Fianna Fáil and thousands of home help hours were cut. When that happens, there are going to be situations like this.

I am not sure what we would do if it is was not for "RTE Investigates". RTE seems to be acting as a government in a sense in trying to force the Government to take up its responsibilities. We should not feign shock and surprise when these things happen, given we have actively contributed to the legislation, the actions and the Government decisions that have been made over the years on this issue.

I raise the issue of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the horror of which we have seen unfolding. I asked last week that the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government would come to the House and this becomes more urgent by the day when we see whole apartment blocks having to be evacuated in London and other areas.

It greatly concerns me. Is a similar investigation into the use of cladding being carried out here? There should be a review of local authority houses that have submitted applications for works to be done for health and safety reasons. If the Minister were to come before the House and if we were to have a debate about the matter, perhaps we could allay the concerns of some people who are directly affected by this.

Turning to the issue of rural school transport, I again ask for the Minister responsible to come before the House to examine what is happening with the decisions that have been made on this, particularly in respect of the "nearest school" rules and the increase in the minimum required numbers from seven to ten. It is having a devastating effect on rural Ireland, even in counties such as Mayo. We now have a rural affairs Minister in Deputy Ring. He has his feet under the table, and I very much expect him to examine such decisions being made by Government. We have parishes and families being divided because of these decisions as children are being forced to go to their nearest schools. There must be a degree of flexibility to examine the impact it is having on rural Ireland. I ask the Leader of the House to bring the Minister before the House to have a debate on this as well.