It was there a number of years ago. There was a timeline.

There was.

The date given was 2027.

Read the document.

Three weeks ago I raised with the Taoiseach the lack of places available at the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, and the case of a young man who spent four and a half months in jail because there was no secure unit facility for him. I have raised it with the Taoiseach and with the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy Butler. It is scandalous that the State is letting him down. It is also costing a fortune. He was sent to Ennis psychiatric services three weeks ago. I said on the floor of …

Just before I start, I wish to pay tribute to Eileen Rushe, who has sadly passed away. I send my condolences to her son, Seamus, and her other family. I wish to thank her for all her work in promoting the HPV vaccine. I also ask the Taoiseach, at this juncture, to look again at the issue of the CervicalCheck tribunal, which we know is not functioning. Many of us have raised the issue in this House. Today I wish to raise an issue that many people in Ireland are concerned about. That concern has been multiplied by th…

Answer it, then. It is not dramatic at all.

The Taoiseach should not worry about the dramatics. It is not about dramatics; it is just a very simple question. Will he give the public-----

The Taoiseach did not answer the question directly; he read a script. He knew this question was going to be asked this morning. Will he just give the public an assurance, a guarantee, that we will have enough energy this winter and that the lights will stay on? It is a very simple question. I am sick and tired of short-termism. We need to think about the longer term. What new technologies are being considered? Where is the plan for microgeneration? Where is the plan for battery storage technologies? We have only Tu…

I want to ask the Taoiseach about a sensitive and emotive constituency issue relating to the review of the national development plan, NDP, which I understand is to be launched next week, on 4 October. On numerous occasions I have raised this issue with him but I raise it one last time in the hope he will be able to resolve it. It relates to the Dean Maxwell nursing home in Roscrea. A submission has been made in respect of the NDP from a group at the home. It is a comprehensive submission and I ask the Taoiseach to …

She said we would have to wait and see.

I am not. That is why I asked the question.

With your indulgence, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----

That is true. Before I commence my question to the Tánaiste, I wish to acknowledge the passing of Mr. Mervyn Taylor, who has been an incredible servant to this State. He brought in many progressive policies. The list is long. We went through it earlier and I cannot list them here, but obviously at the top was his handling of the divorce referendum in 1995. I acknowledge and remember him. Our party has suffered a huge loss this morning.

I am a little concerned about revisionism from the Government, so I will take the Tánaiste back to the spring of 2020. A virus with no cure was terrifying the world and our country went into lockdown. The Tánaiste announced it. We turned to our front-line workers to keep public services running and essential retail open. A call was put to the diaspora around the world asking those with the right skills to be on call for Ireland. I would like everybody in the House to put themselves in the shoes of a nurse at that t…

People need to know if the cost of this will be paid out of this year's revenue. Will the Tánaiste confirm that this is the case and that this House will not engage in revisionism?

I ask that we do not engage in revisionism. I am glad to hear the Tánaiste's commitment not to do so. However, I have been raising this issue for a considerable period of time, in fact, since last April. We are very slow on this. Other countries have moved on this more quickly than us. A proposal is being brought to party leaders now, and it is 19 days away from the budget. This is a comprehensive amount of money and I am concerned that it is coming only now. Many people have to be considered in this. One example i…

As the Tánaiste knows, we have a student accommodation crisis and the SUSI grant has not been increased. I want to raise a very specific issue relating to the crisis. In Dublin, developers of luxury student apartments are now trying to change their planning permission so they can be used as hotels for tourists. This was predicted by my colleague, our spokesperson on housing, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, back in 2018. We brought forward a Bill, the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2021, to deal with this issue…

I thank Deputy Bacik and our housing spokesperson, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, for their work on this Bill. This is a critical issue that came up for Deputy Bacik during the Dublin Bay South by-election, and we committed to bringing forward this Bill on foot of that. We have honoured our commitment in this regard because during the by-election campaign it certainly came across to us how important this matter is since the constituency has one of the highest numbers of people living in rented accommodation. Deputy Baci…

On that point, it is time the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, who is responsible for energy, look at this issue on a pan-European level. This issue is not just going to be in Ireland; it is going to be everywhere. The Minister might update the House on what the Government has done in that regard. This is coming down the track very quickly. We are going to have a crisis in this country in the coming weeks and months. It is quite obvious, with inflat…