I do not have a specific request for the Leader, but I wish to refer to a very important news item. Ireland has been named as the country with the most secure food in the world. This was announced yesterday at the launch of the sixth annual global food security index and is a remarkable achievement. The news was published in the newspapers yesterday and again today. The index measures improvements in food affordability, availability, quality and safety. Ireland finished with a score of 79 out of 100, just ahead of Austria which had a score of 77. The United States of America which had previously topped the list finished fourth. France and Germany came third and fifth, respectively. This remarkable story must be acknowledged. The detailed reports contain a very interesting analysis and emphasise that Government support for agricultural research weighed heavily in Ireland's favour. In that context, I refer to Bord Bia's food strategy, Making a World of Difference. Bord Bia does great work and its strategy is outlined in a booklet which was published in 2016. I am delighted to say it is also included in the programme for Government. A lot of emphasis is placed in Origin Green on food security and organic production in the meat sector, as well as the vegetable and horticulture sectors. We must acknowledge and celebrate this great achievement, particularly in the context of Brexit, as well as the great opportunities it presents on the island of Ireland, North and South. We must harness the opportunities for major expansion in organic production in the Republic of Ireland and across the island. I ask the Leader to pass on the good wishes of the House to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and those involved in rolling out the strategy, particularly in Bord Bia. They are on the right track. It constitutes international validation of what they are doing and should be acknowledged. I say, "Well done," to all involved.

I have just come from the launch of part of Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission on tackling the health crisis which lays particular emphasis on the need to invest in home help and home care packages. The inhumane cuts to the numbers of home help hours and home care packages initiated by Fianna Fáil and continued by Fine Gael have left the service in crisis which is not just manifest in rural Ireland but also in urban Ireland. The nonsensical Fianna Fáil policy of allocating just 30 or 45 minutes to households and elderly vulnerable persons and the drive towards privatisation mean that there are swathes of rural Ireland without a service. In some cases, home help packages are being allocated, but the necessary personnel are not available to provide the service because it has been privatised. This is an essential service, as acknowledged in many Government policy documents. Home care packages need to be delivered in the home and the community. In the forthcoming budget Sinn Féin proposes an increase in the number of home help hours by 20%, which would result in an additional 2.1 million home help hours being made available. We are keenly aware that families have a variety of needs and that the provision of home care packages is essential. In that context, we propose an increase in the number of home care packages by 15%, or 2,485.

These measures would constitute an investment of €72.65 million in older people and would go some way toward delivering for them and their families and ensuring they can live with the dignity and respect they have earned and deserve. Not only are the measures the fair and decent thing to do, they also make sense financially as well as having the knock-on effect of alleviating pressure on acute hospital services through beds being freed up and thus the reduction of the trolley and waiting list crises. Older people deserve such measures and Sinn Féin is on their side and is making it a priority for budget 2018. I would like the Minister to come to the House to deal with some of the issues in relation to home care, home care packages, these not being a Government priority and there not being the personnel in many parishes in rural Ireland to deliver services to ensure elderly and vulnerable persons have the choice of living in their own homes. It makes social and economic sense to deal with these issues.