But they have been brought up before.

They have been brought up before.

I thank the Taoiseach for his comprehensive reply and for pursuing this useful initiative in the way he has done. I merely want to support that. I ask that he will ensure that all levels of community interaction that can be facilitated will be facilitated to establish trust between the communities there and, of course, between North and South in terms of what might be seen as a threat by some in some communities and might be seen as an admirable objective by others. I support his commitment to continue working at t…

I fully support the Housing for All proposals. Unfortunately, they are not achieving results fast enough. In this context, might it be possible to accelerate a programme of modular housing or system-built houses for quick delivery, given that we continue to export such houses?

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. To what extent, if any, has he sought to advance the cause of debate on the Northern Ireland protocol? Has he seen any evidence of progress in that regard in the relations between Dublin and London? Did he have an opportunity to advance the shared island initiative, which he is committed to, and what was the response like?

I seek to ascertain the degree to which reform can play a major part in cutting expenditure, eliminating delays and ensuring the best value for money is achieved in the shortest possible time as opposed to the longest possible time in respect of many projects.

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. I have in mind, for example, major savings that can be made in regard to the elimination of delays between the award of the funding in the first instance and the award of the contract. I know of situations, as I am sure the Minister does, where €20 million allocated ten years ago still has not been spent and is now only worth about €10 million in terms of achieving the target that was originally intended. The Minister has all the material at hand and he is focused o…

In fact, the delivery of elements of the national development plan are at the centre of the reason for putting down the question. In particular, I ask that the Minister would keep a close watch on what causes the delays. If a capital project is deemed to be good, healthy and necessary, why not proceed with it instead of having a situation where, in some cases, the relevant authorities seem to want to slow it down? If they achieve the result within ten or 15 years, it looks like an achievement, when it most certainl…

Hear, hear.

I have listened carefully to the previous contributions. I have listened to many contributions on the same subject over many years. The usual clichés used to be trotted out, such as "Too little, too late". Somebody resurrected that phrase again, with some encouragement, in the past few days. The phrase "Opportunities lost" is now a fable. We were told we could have done more and did not do it, and that the budget is a failure. All of those things have been trotted out at various times in the past. The budget is exc…

A pet subject of mine is access to the Single Market, to which we all aspire as members of the European Union. It relates to the costs of borrowing at this particular time with interest rates increasing. In the past we did not always avail of the same interest rates that prevailed in the rest of Europe.

I thank the Minister for his reply, which I fully understand. Unfortunately for some borrowers in this country it would appear that when the interest rates increase across Europe, we get the benefit of parity with them, but that if they are lower than our interest rates, we do not get parity. I appreciate all the reasons and understand them fully. However, under the rules of the Single Market we are entitled to the same as everyone else as it happens, whether we like it or not or whether they like it or not. As I h…

I understand and appreciate that. I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply, but we need to remain vigilant. While we are a committed member of the European Union, and we appreciate all that the European Union has done for us, we are also members of the eurozone and have been committed members of that. As I had to explain to some of our visitors the other day, we stood by and defended it when a lot of other people were attacking it. The fact remains that we must be vigilant.

We now go back to Question No. 100, which Deputy Carroll MacNeill is taking on behalf of Deputy Colm Burke.

I thank the Deputy. We will take questions from Deputies Michael Moynihan and Alan Farrell.

I am thankful for the opportunity to raise this issue again. It is an issue with which all public representatives are familiar. I was somewhat at sea on the last occasion because I did not have as much information as I would have liked to have been able to present to the House. Since then, I did some research and was astounded at some of the things I found. It was suggested to me that there might have been the development of an anti-women element in the courts. Women were not getting their rights as mothers as in t…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for coming into the House and addressing the issue comprehensively. It is something that falls into the area of a change in legislation. We referred to the in camera rules as they apply to family law cases. Like the Minister of State and other Members of the House, in the past I have had to go into court as a witness in such cases. Not everybody welcomed me with open arms but I did what I felt I had to do. As they say, fair play is good sport, wherever it applies. The…

I hesitate to again raise the issue of school transport, particularly given that the Minister has very helpfully and correctly waived charges for eligible students. A couple of problems remain, however, in respect of the logistics for students with concessionary tickets. In some cases, there is room on a bus but students cannot be carried for some reason I am unaware of. In other cases, parents are willing to pay and have no problem doing so. There is a need here to try to accommodate people as best we can, particu…

I am glad to have the opportunity to congratulate the Minister of State and wish him well. I hope we will assist him in every way possible to achieve the absolute success that he strives for. I was tied up in committee meetings all day so I was not able to pay attention in the way that I would. I want to mention a couple of issues that come to mind. First, Britain is now a third country so we need to be careful as the number of third countries out there is growing, for one reason or another. It is important that, w…

I thank the Taoiseach for that comprehensive answer. Has any consideration been given to the threat to neutral countries posed by aggressive nations, having regard to the experience of the Second World War and that more recently of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which that country seems determined to continue until it has suppressed Ukraine?