Seanad report: The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) had resorted to "soundbites" over the non-attendance of Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney at the organisation's annual conference this week, John Minihan (PD), acting leader of the House, said.
Earlier Michael McCarthy (Lab) had accused Ms Harney of snubbing the INO by failing to attend their conference. Even though the Minister had gone to the US for another event, it should have been possible for her to be present at some stage during the three days of the INO gathering, he said. Emphasising that Ms Harney had not refused to attend the conference, Mr Minihan said she had agreed last October to attend a conference in Pennsylvania.
On January 18th, she had received a request from the INO to attend its conference. She had replied on February 24th that due to a diary commitment she would not be able to do so and had nominated Minister of State Brian Lenihan to attend on her behalf. "There was absolutely no communication from the INO since the letter that the Tánaiste sent on February 24th until they sought their soundbites this week," said Mr Minihan.
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Ulick Burke (FG) urged the Minister for Education to demand a full audit of CIÉ's school bus fleet. Noting newspaper reports that further summonses were to be issued against the national carrier in respect of last year's school bus tragedy in Co Meath, he said it was alleged that a bus was a danger because of a known defect that could have been easily checked out.
Parents of children being bused to school on a daily basis must be concerned about their safety. The Minister had stated that the accident rate was low, but he believed that this was due entirely to luck.
"If we have vehicles that are going out on the road with known defects, I think that is a scandal and it has to be dealt with very quickly" added Mr Burke.
