This is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. In Europe, the wealthiest continent in the world, some 25% of citizens are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. A large proportion of them are the great majority of the 80 million European people with disabilities. I applaud the work of the European Anti-Poverty Network and, in particular, its Irish branch in that regard.

On people with disabilities, citizens have the right to vote in an election and referendum on Friday 26 October but not every citizen can exercise that right. Serious access issues remain for people with disabilities. We now have a hard-won template such that the visually impaired can for the first time vote privately and confidentially in a referendum, although not yet in other elections. That template was fought by the system through the courts. The right to vote in confidentiality is a powerful and necessary expression of what democracy and a republic is about.

There are outstanding issues relating to access to polling stations in 11 constituencies or one quarter of constituencies nationwide, namely, Carlow-Kilkenny, Dublin Central, Dublin Mid-West, Dublin South-Central, Dublin South-West, Dún Laoghaire, Kerry, Limerick City, Limerick County, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford. Although there are not issues in every polling station, it is a blight across the country.

Will the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House at an early date and set out his plan to sweep away those barriers as quickly as possible? At least two elections will be held next year - local and European - and it is important that all citizens be able to cast their vote.

I raise concerns that have been expressed by many Members relating to ongoing delays in the processing of illness benefit payments. I am dealing with a case involving an individual who is not from my constituency and who contacted me having waited eight weeks a claim to be processed. I raised this issue two weeks ago in another context but it does not seem that the situation has improved since then. Members have been told in reply to parliamentary questions and in the most recent statement by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which was published on its website on 21 September, that the delays result from the introduction of a computerised programme to process these payments. It is no longer good enough that people have to wait a significant number of weeks to claim a basic payment from the Department.

The illness benefit is a payment for a person who is sick and cannot work. Such persons pay into the system and expect to receive a service in return.

My understanding is the delays arise from the lack of negotiations with GPs on the transition from a paper form to an online process. From talking to GPs, my understanding is that very little in the way of negotiations has taken place. The Department and the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP, had looked at appointing a mediator to resolve the issues they had but the idea was pulled at the last minute. In the meantime, thousands of people are waiting for illness benefit payments to be made to them. The people concerned are in very difficult circumstances but the only response from the Department is to go and see the community welfare officer. Nobody wants to have to go to see the community welfare officer to enable themselves to make ends meet while they await the processing of a payment. I ask for the Minister to ensure sufficient staff are allocated to the illness benefit processing section of the Department and to allow claims made on the old forms to be processed forthwith, because there are many people who have been living on the clippings of tin over the past few weeks awaiting their payment. This is something this House can unite on so I ask it to appeal to the Minister to ensure there are sufficient staff to process these payments. People have been waiting far too long for payments to which they are entitled through the stamps they have paid.

I refer to an issue raised by Senator Conway-Walsh and by Senator Swanick on a Commencement matter earlier relating to the drug Spinraza which could transform the lives of a small number of children and adults. No decision has been taken yet and I fully realise the Minister is not directly involved. The advice of the HSE and the NCCP is taken on board because new drugs come onto the market every day and the Minister cannot be involved in all of the decisions but the issue here is the vacuum and the delays for the parents of the children involved. I know some of the families involved in Mayo and they have told me of the uncertainty and the lack of information or timelines. I ask the Leader to emphasise to the Minister that there needs to be information for these families who are in a very traumatic situation. I also ask the Leader to urge the Minister to get the HSE to give information to the families when a decision is made. It is available in 20 other countries and it would not compromise any negotiations to say that, if the drug companies are looking for a higher price in Ireland than in the other countries, it should be brought out into the open. Pressure should be put on those companies if that turns out to be the case.

I echo the points made about the drug Spinraza. I also echo the comments of Senator Conway-Walsh on coastal erosion in the Erris region. I put some harrowing footage on my social media pages last week. It was very scary and hopefully the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, will visit us on the topic.

I have raised the restoration of the FEMPI cuts and the general practice contract many times before. FEMPI has destroyed general practice, particularly in remote areas and in deprived urban areas. It is not possible to take €2 billion out of general practice without it having devastating effects on the health service. Every €1 spent in primary care saves €5 in the rest of the health service. Almost 12 months ago, in November 2017, the Minister for Health signalled his intention to commence the reversal of the FEMPI cuts to GPs and announced that he would engage with GP representative bodies next year with the aim of establishing a new contract and an approach to multi-annual fees in 2019. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister, following his announcement last year that he would engage with GP representative bodies, how many meetings or engagements he has had and what progress there has been. In a response to Deputy Harty in August, the Minister said he had had only two face-to-face meetings with the IMO representatives this year and none with the NAGP. The NAGP has been excluded thus far and I want to see genuine action on these talks. They are emergency talks because general practice has been decimated over the past number of years. I want there to be inclusion to ensure the talks succeed and that means the NAGP being at the table.