I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 30, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination generally meets in advance of Government meetings and is expected to meet on Monday, 19 January. I am a member of the committee, with the Tánaiste and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport with special responsibility for international and road transport, logistics, rail and ports. The Secretary General to the Government and the relevant chiefs of staff also sit in on the meetings. The committee reviews the activities of Cabinet committees and the agenda of Government meetings, and discusses political priorities and implementation of the programme for Government.

The Government has approved the spring legislation programme, which includes 30 Bills scheduled for publication and 33 for priority drafting, alongside a further pipeline of 79 Bills in preparation across Government Departments. The programme reflects the Government's determination to deliver on commitments that matter most to people - strengthening critical infrastructure, accelerating housing delivery, improving healthcare and modernising transport. It is an ambitious agenda for a short ten-week session in the Oireachtas.

The programme prioritises measures to fast-track essential projects and strengthen energy security, including legislation to underpin a State-led strategic gas reserve and establish the National Cyber Security Centre on a statutory basis. New tenancy protections and rent regulation will take effect from March, while legislation will provide statutory supports for the remediation of defects in apartments and duplexes. Public health remains central, with legislation to regulate nicotine-inhaling products. The programme will also see work continuing to address parentage and citizenship issues arising from assisted human reproduction. Measures in the transport legislative programme include road safety measures, updates to railway safety standards, tackling planning constraints at Dublin Airport and empowering the National Transport Authority to deliver public transport infrastructure in regional cities.

The spring programme also includes the international protection Bill, which will implement the EU migration and asylum pact in Irish law. This legislation is an important step in ensuring that Ireland is fully prepared to lead on migration and asylum matters during the forthcoming EU Presidency, while maintaining a fair and efficient system for those seeking protection.

Since we took office, 21 Bills have been enacted, and there are a further 18 Bills at various stages currently in the Oireachtas.

What co-ordination has there been across the Cabinet on what is going to happen regarding Grok? We all know the importance of the tech industry to Ireland, but I do not think anybody in the House could stand over what we can only call a child pornography factory. We know how it can be used and is being used. It is disgraceful. It is fair to say that the answers from Elon Musk have not been up to scratch, and I think that would be accepted. We can make a fair claim that ketamine might possibly impact your brain function over many years. What do we intend to do? Do we need legislation? What interaction has there been with the European Commission and across government?

An issue that has come across my desk a few times in the past year concerns young couples or individuals being refused planning permission along national roads and having it objected to by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. I understand TII objecting in the case of national roads. The problem is that these people are already living at home with their parents. They are proposing to build beside their parents and come out the same entrance that they are already using, so the justification for objecting or not allowing them to build a home beside their parents is lunacy. Does the Government have plans to look at the issue of planning permission on national routes? I know it forms part of the programme for Government.

As the Taoiseach knows, school secretaries and caretakers went on indefinite strike action last September. That strike lasted a week until Fórsa and Department officials agreed to go to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, where talks collapsed before Christmas. The issue is before the Labour Court this week. When are we going to get a resolution for school secretaries and caretakers on the issues of pension parity, bereavement leave and sick leave, among other issues? Caretakers have been waiting for years for the same payment system as secretaries. It is completely unacceptable and unfair that caretakers are still waiting for this. When will we see the Government resolve these issues for caretakers and secretaries?

I want to raise the issue of access to judicial review and costs. We all appreciate the need for the delivery of critical infrastructure, housing, transport and all the necessary infrastructure we need for our communities. There is a consultation going on at present on the issue of costs for judicial review. This could potentially mean that where local communities and individuals take a judicial review, they would be liable for costs in the region of tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of euro even where they win the case. Will the Taoiseach ensure this does not happen?

I want to raise the issue of the lack of ambulance services, particularly in north Mayo and the west of Ireland more widely. It is a dire situation that I have never seen as bad in all of my time, where people cannot get an ambulance on time. There are incidents where people have had to travel 50 miles on very bad roads to get to the nearest hospital. When people call an ambulance, they cannot even be told when it is going to come. My question is this. Does the Taoiseach know how many people are dying prematurely because they cannot get an ambulance on time? What is he going to do about it?

Given the growing concerns about the misuse and manipulation of images on social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, does the Taoiseach believe it is appropriate that Ministers would continue to use this platform for official public messaging?

As I said on national radio last Friday, I honestly do not understand why the police have not gone into X and started arresting the people who run it in its European headquarters. Any fair reading of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act or, for that matter, the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act will show that the peddling of these sexualised images of children is a criminal offence.

The people who are facilitating this child pornographic abusive imagery should be under arrest. Why is the Government soft pedalling on that? The law is there. If it needs to be tweaked, sure, but to be honest, any reasonable reading of the existing legislation says X is guilty of a crime and arrests should be made. The police should be in its headquarters.

Is the Taoiseach at all concerned that it appears the public paid a €10 million sweetener to the World Bank to ease the way for Paschal Donohoe to get his high paying €600,000-a-year top job there? Was the Taoiseach made aware at any stage in the discussions that the World Bank was asking for €131 million? The Department officials were advising not to give any more than that anyway yet Paschal Donohoe decided that we would give an extra €10 million to make €141 million. Was there any sense at that stage that this position would be emerging as his predecessor would be retiring as he was due to retire? Is the Taoiseach concerned? Has he asked questions of his colleague about this?

It is not clear how the Department of Social Protection decided that long Covid is not worthy of classification as an occupational injury for healthcare workers who had been in receipt of special Covid leave with pay until 31 December and how the Department of Health informed that decision. A group of these workers met the Taoiseach in Cork in June. As I have said here before, they felt he gave them a lot of time, showed genuine empathy and concern for their situation and, critically, that he validated the seriousness of their symptoms and the fact that they had contracted Covid in the workplace yet nothing has been done for them since. They are now on standard sick leave which will run out in three months and ultimately they are on a pathway to retirement on medical grounds.

It is difficult to do justice to the stress, worry and sense of betrayal that this has caused them. The health committee wrote to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, before Christmas asking that she extend special Covid leave with pay for six months to give time for proper consideration by the Department of Social Protection of long Covid as an occupational injury. I am urging the Taoiseach to intervene between those two Departments on this issue.

Since we began this debate 67,700 images of a sexual nature of children have been created by AI. I have spoken many times in this Dáil on the issue of abuse and how these social media companies are child groomers and endanger women and children by encouraging misogyny. However, we now have an app that actively allows people to participate in child abuse. What is the Taoiseach going to do about it? His Minister, Deputy Patrick O’Donovan, said it is up to the individual users - it is not the fault of Grok at all. It is an absolutely unbelievable statement. That was an excellent question from one of the Government’s backbenchers: is the Government officially going to continue supporting X? I have decided I am not going to participate any longer in this abuse. It is bad enough encouraging fascism, racism and misogyny but now let us send a message to Musk. It does not seem like the Taoiseach is going to do anything about it in the face of - and I will finish of this - his love of AI and multinational corporations. It should not make him silent about child abuse.

The latest South East Economic Monitor shows that while the south-east region has 9% of the country’s population, it has 4% of national GDP, 5% of IDA-supported jobs and just 1.8% of ongoing major public capital spending. Several times on Taoiseach’s Questions and Questions on Policy or Legislation, I have raised the lack of inward investment into Waterford and the south east, particularly in terms of transport with the Taoiseach. The economy of the south east is flatlining. There is neglect by the IDA and the Government when it comes to investment. Major capital spending in the south east is now the lowest of any region. It receives just €1,738 per person in major public capital investment, which is less than half the spend in the south west and 14 times less than Dublin. What is the Taoiseach going to do to address this imbalance to end the inequity and make sure that Waterford and the south east get the fair investment they deserve?

I wish to raise the decision by Paschal Donohoe to excessively fund the World Bank to the tune of €10 million. There is potentially a serious conflict of interest in relation to this. That a former Minister for Finance would provide an extra €10 million of funding in excess of what the World Bank sought and in excess of what his own officials in the Department advised, an increase of 33% in funding just seven months before he landed a job worth €600,000 a year, is highly problematic. When we ask for money for people with disabilities or carers, the Government says there is no magic money tree yet there seems to be a magic money tree when it comes to funding organisations such as this. Will the Taoiseach join with Aontú in seeking that Paschal Donohoe makes himself available to the finance committee to answer questions on this?

We are four minutes or more over time. With the agreement of the House the Taoiseach might want to deal with some of these questions as quickly as possible.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. Deputy Dolan raised the issue of young couples being refused planning permission as a result of objections from TII. I do not think TII should be objecting to planning applications on housing. We have discussed this at Government level. There is over-reach by TII in respect of many of these issues. I understand some of the road safety issues if it is onto a motorway or if there is an issue with protecting a motorway but in terms of generically getting involved in planning applications where the exit is the same, that should be left to the local authority and we will be communicating that to TII. I do not think it is acceptable.

Thank you.

Deputy O’Meara raised school secretaries and caretakers. The issue is now in the Labour Court. We do want it resolved. There are a lot of issues there. Ultimately, we want to sustain a resolution into the future for both secretaries and caretakers. I hope this can be resolved very quickly with a decision by the Labour Court, which we would support.

Deputy O’Rourke raised access to judicial review. Again, you need to make up your mind which side you are on. Sometimes he is objecting to delay in infrastructure and so on but some of the costs have been far too excessive. We have to look at the collective interest and what is in the public interest more generally in relation to infrastructure. Judicial review is being over-used. Planning issues should be resolved through the planning process. There is not an obligation on the Government to fund excessive costs in relation to judicial reviews which hold back vital infrastructure that is to the benefit of the entire public.

These are cases where people win.

Deputy Conway-Walsh raised ambulances. There is a national framework on the organisation and administration of ambulances. There are various criteria and metrics around outcomes and so on. I will refer her question to the National Ambulance Service.

On Deputy O’Sullivan’s question, I would not make a general rule at this stage about the utilisation of social media in general. Many of these issues will apply to a number of different social media platforms. What is more important is that we focus on any criminality that has occurred. Existing laws should be enforced by the gardaí, Coimisiún na Meán and the European Commission. I have asked the Attorney General to get back to us in respect of whether there is a need to strengthen the laws in respect of AI and AI apps then. That is the critical issue at this stage. Everything is under review.

On Deputy Boyd Barrett’s point, he cannot become the police person. He cannot become the prosecutor. He is a public representative. It is great stuff - going in and arresting people in headquarters in Dublin who may not be responsible for it at all.

If somebody said they were making bombs next door I think the police would be in, would they not?

Yes, the police but not the Deputy and not Government.

I said why are the police not-----

You have to have an independent criminal justice system. That is all I am saying. However, again, the Deputy has given us a taste of what we could expect if he came to power: he would be arresting people left, right and centre for different things.

We would tackle big tech, yes. Correct. We would want that.

So the Taoiseach is not concerned with child abuse.

That said. Nineteen Eighty-Four and all that. You know what I mean.

We want to arrest people for producing child pornography.

We will have to conclude.

They would be disciples of all of that.

Any other comments, please.

The Taoiseach's jokes are not funny.

There is an important point to make because comments have been made about the former Minister, Paschal Donohoe and the International Development Association. First, the IDA provides highly concessional finance, grants and zero or low-interest loans to the world's poorest countries and supports 75 of the poorest countries globally, including 39 in Africa. It is the largest single donor for basic social services in these countries.

The IDA 21 negotiations concluded in Korea in December 2024 and covered IDA operations for July 2025 to June 2028. The World Bank developed multiple funding scenarios, low, medium, high and very high. Indicative contribution arrangements were provided to each donor, including Ireland. Scenarios are non-binding. Countries may choose higher, lower or no contribution. Ireland could not pledge at the December 2024 meeting due to the general election on 29 November and the convention that outgoing Ministers do not make binding financial commitments for a subsequent government.

The Irish delegation noted that a new Government decision and business case would be required. The World Bank kept the pledging window open until mid-February 2025 and the final IDA21 package was approved by the World Bank board thereafter. A formal business case was prepared in line with public expenditure guidelines. That was the Department of Finance business case. The assessment was on alignment with Ireland's multilateral development policy, bank governance approach, financial implications, comparison with prior Irish contributions and commitments by peer European Union and OECD countries. The options examined - this is from the Department of Finance information - included going from no contribution to maintaining the IDA20 level, that is, €105 million. The low option was €141.4 million. The high option was €158.9 million.

It was €148 million.

The mid-point recommended by officials in the Department of Finance was €150 million. The Minister for Finance-----

That is not what the FOI states.

My understanding is the FOI was in respect of the then Department of Foreign Affairs. My understanding now from preparing this note is this. The finance officials sent this information to me when I requested it. The Minister for Finance agreed to €141.4 million, classified as "the low option". The proposal was then approved by Cabinet and the business case is to be released in full under FOI.

IDA negotiations are conducted by officials, not ministers, across all donor countries. Ireland's negotiations were handled by Department of Finance officials. A senior official acts as Ireland's IDA deputy on behalf of the Minister for Finance. Ministers do not participate directly, as per World Bank procedures. The final contribution decision is made by the Minister for Finance on official advice and is approved by Cabinet. Former Deputy Paschal Donohoe became Minister for Finance on 23 January.

We are gone well over time.

Sorry. It was just to put that on the record.

That concludes Taoiseach's Questions. We will now move to the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----

There were a couple of questions unanswered.

I am sorry but we are 11 minutes over.

I can come back separately to both of the Deputies.

The Taoiseach has said he will come back separately to each Deputy who has not received a response. Is that correct?

To Deputy Quaide in respect of the specific issue of long-term Covid.

But if there are other issues------

The others are more general policy issues.