I commend the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, for coming before the Joint Committee on Health today. The representatives outlined the stark reality of what work is like for their nurses. I will read a short passage for the House:

The reality of the ED Nurses daily/nightly experience is described as deep frustration and anger at the fact that they feel unable to care for their patient's fundamental needs in the way they would wish and are trained to do. The physical environment where patients are crammed together within touching distance of each other, with little or no privacy, poor hygiene facilities are inadequate to maintain patient dignity or privacy. This is a dehumanising and degrading experience for patients, their relatives and those that care for them is, and is now in its second decade.

That sums up what is happening in our hospital emergency departments and the conditions in which nurses have to work and in which patients are treated.

I refer to the previous speaker who talked about home help. The fact is Fianna Fáil went through this country and took hours from people who were vulnerable and elderly. A 99 year old man in Westport was told that he could not even have two hours' home help a week under Fianna Fáil. That was the reality of it. When it was supposed to stand up to the troika and protect our heath services, it offered them up as a sacrifice as it bankrupted the country. I will not take lectures from Fianna Fáil on what is happening within the home help service now.

With all due respect to the Leader-----

Fianna Fáil set it up so it should not expect anything else.

-----and to the Cathaoirleach-----

The Senator has had his say.

-----the right honourable Member had an opportunity to go into government and to form a government-----

Did Senator Daly say "the right honourable Member"?

The other matter-----

-----and chose not to.

I thought we----

I believe she and her party went to the cinema.

I thought we were not fit for government. Maybe I missed something.

No. With the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill we have seen quite clearly that Sinn Féin's ability to be whipped is beyond question.

If Senator Daly continues talking over my head I will suspend the sitting for ten minutes.

On the matter of the hospitals, the trolleys and the people in those conditions that have been described, it is not the judges who are lying on these trolleys. It is the ordinary citizens of our country.

Judges are citizens too. They could well be on trolleys.

It is great to see so many people fighting for the judges and their protectionism, but I wish they would fight for the ordinary people of this country instead of sacrificing them in the way they have.

Some of us have done so for years.

The Senator's time is almost up. She has ten seconds.

I have been interrupted time and again.

Senator Conway-Walsh provoked many of the interruptions.

I need to talk very briefly about what is happening in respect of Translarna. I have spoken about it several times in the House. I welcome the fact that the drug company PTC has withdrawn its legal charges. There is now an opportunity for the HSE to get back into negotiations on the price, which it did not do in the first place, and to look at the conditions around the expert evidence available at the time. I want the Minister for Health to outline the timeline and process involved in the approval of Translarna and to take responsibility for it. It is not good enough for the Minister for Health to abdicate responsibility while there are five children in this country waiting for a drug that will enable them to continue walking.

I thought there was a little shower of rain earlier. That would cool things down.