I commend my colleague Deputy Mark Wall on bringing this forward. For anyone watching us discussing a motion on congestion and the requirement for flexible work, it is absolutely ironic that a man who left his house before 6.30 a.m. is walking through the door of Dáil Éireann at 10.05 a.m. Why? It is because there were accidents on the motorway and everybody across the commuting areas of Kildare, Tipperary, Laois and other areas was held up because of it. This was not planned but it is some statement to prove why w…

It is quite obvious to me that as a country we need to go ahead and deal with the issues relating to AI, Grok and X. The Taoiseach had a high-level meeting last night with various Ministers. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, on her work to date. I will ask the Taoiseach two questions that are outside of political rivalry in here or anything like that. Will he help me as Chair of the media committee by asking X representatives to turn up at our meeting next Wednesday? Google, Meta and TikTok representat…

Not for sharing images.

Is the Taoiseach absolutely certain?

Perfect.

Before the Minister leaves, I commend Deputy Ward on this Bill. This should have been brought in years ago. The issues with nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas to the common man and woman, have been causing damage for years. However, what has happened in recent years is that it has become a component of criminal activity. I am sorry, but the large-scale canisters have little use in this country in the professions the Minister spoke about. While I understand, in fairness to him, that on other occasions he…

I was sad to see the senior Minister leave but the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, knows full well what I will say. It is over for him and the senior Minister when it comes to providing housing and developing the level of housing required in this country. I refer to what I predicted on 27 April 2012 in this very House. I encourage the Minister of State to go back and look at the speech. It still stands. All the investment the Minister of State likes will not catch up. Going from €300 million to €1.4 billion or e…

Sympathies from this side of the House also to those affected by the terrorist attack in Sydney. There was an outstanding piece of journalism, which I keep referring to, in the Limerick Leader two weeks ago. I have in my hand the front page of the newspaper, which shows the faces of four young women who lost their lives because of the health issues in acute care in the mid-west and University Hospital Limerick. They were Aoife Johnston, 16; Niamh McNally, 16; Eve Cleary, 21; and Leona Cusack, 33. It was an outstand…

I thank the Taoiseach for that, but he has to answer the question. Will the capital allocation for the Department of Health - HSE capital spending - be increased dramatically to deliver the project? It cannot be delivered at the moment. This decision cannot be executed. It is impossible. There is not enough money there, particularly if we look at the existing commitments relating to elective hospitals and everything else. In reality, option B should become option C. That is the quickest and best solution for the pe…

This is new.

Christmas is here.

Policing and Community Safety Authority Ireland reported on performance levels in An Garda Síochána today and has said that unfortunately, it is failing in 11 of the 18 areas the authority made recommendations in. Recruitment and retention, which we have spoken about often here, is a major issue. However, the authority complimented and pointed out how high visibility policing is working in the capital but it is not working in Roscrea and many other towns in Ireland. How is that we have a situation where we have a M…

I hope there will not be a second college.

Okay good. I am delighted.

We only got one in the last allocation for the whole county.

Go to Roscrea and look at it. You cannot find a garda.

There are no gardaí there.

I thank the Minister of State from being here. She is from the relevant Department, and I appreciate it. That should be the norm in this House. It used to be. An exceptional piece of journalism was published last week by the Limerick Leader . The front page article spoke about the catastrophic failures in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, which we have discussed in the House. No other topic have I discussed more in my political career. The picture on the front page shows four young women. I compliment the journali…

I thank the Minister of State for her response and I acknowledge the improvements that have happened in UHL in the past couple of years. However, we have serious issues when it comes to staffing and high-level consultants as regards attracting them, given the situation the hospital is in. Politics has failed the people of the mid-west on this issue. I am not going to start blaming certain parties but politics has failed across this House. Consultants helped drive the agenda to close the units in Ennis, St. John's a…

As the Minister is aware, I asked a number of parliamentary questions regarding the remuneration of the former Garda Commissioner but the information provided to me was not accurate. It was misleading. There was a deal with the former Commissioner in relation to his accommodation and that rent was not indexed, so there was a loss to the taxpayer. Essentially, his rent was subsidised and paid for. Is the Minister going to provide the full details? Will he apologise and correct the record? In future, will he ensure h…