It is important to tease this out. From the beginning, the Tánaiste was clear about the distinction but that is what confused me because I understand that the arts and recovery task force asked for a universal basic income. I understood from the Minister that was what was being rolled out, until on the last occasion the Tánaiste distanced himself from that by stressing two separate things. There seems to be confusion on this and I am not sure why they are different. The arts task force asked for a universal basic i…

I thank the Minister. I am moving on to the next question.

I ask Deputies to listen to each other.

I am returning to a matter that was raised under a priority question earlier. I am asking about the position with boats of over 18 m. I have tried twice to get clarification from the Minister's office. I was forced into submitting this parliamentary question. A Topical Issue was ruled out of order, which I understand as the question was sub judice . There are serious implications here and I wish to return to the matter to tease out what analysis the Department has done since the ban was lifted. What tonnage of spra…

I hope I can benefit from the time the Minister has given up. I appreciate the Minister's bona fides and that he is supportive of this. This policy was announced in 2018 and it was to come into effect in 2019 or 2020 with a three-year stay for the bigger trawlers to allow them adjust. The Minister knows more about this than I do. My difficulty is that while the judgment might have been perfected in October, the Minister has known since July 2020. Given the seriousness of this matter, I have no idea how a stay was n…

The answer to my simple question is also simple. It is that the boats are free to go in and fish unsustainably, taking out as much sprat as they possibly can and as quickly as they can. That is our current position despite a policy decision way back indicating that this was unsustainable. It is despite the rising numbers of sprat being caught in an unsustainable manner in 2021. Why was this process not fast-tracked or explained to the court? I do not want to get into anything substantive that is sub judice . Why wa…

We are out of time but the Deputy might wish to make a brief closing remark.

Iarraim ar gach páirtí na srianta ama a thabhairt dá n-aire.

I am loath to interrupt the Deputy while the clock is running, but he has repeatedly mentioned the President. There is a long-standing practice that Members should not draw the President into any argument or ask the Government to comment on the President. I ask the Deputy to bear that in mind.

I was going to wait until the end but he has repeatedly done it.

We will have to take this up again. We are eating into-----

We are eating into the time of others. I call on Deputy Lahart.

No, you cannot come in on the same issue.

Let the Minister respond.

Let the Minister respond.

At this point, the Deputy has 11 minutes.

I believe the Deputy will rise to the challenge.

I will start on a positive note and thank the Minister for coming back to me about compliance. He said he would do it and he did. The level of compliance is worrying. I have six minutes so I will make a few points but I wanted to start by thanking the Minister. From the beginning I asked for a human rights approach on this topic. I thank Deputy Tóibín for asking for this to go on the Clár Oibre. I have asked repeatedly in a proactive manner that the Government would come back to us in order that we can engage on th…

I will send letters I have to the Minister and the Ministers of State. They are from 21 October and 24 September. I do not expect them do deal with them during my speech. They show what we are dealing with. In dealing with two agencies in Galway, the Health Service Executive states that the waiting list for children in respite services is 34 weeks, for enhanced services it is 14 weeks and for adult services it is 45 weeks. These are the low figures. We asked the service to break down the agency from zero to three m…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 27A and the name of the Member in each case: (1) Deputy Brian Stanley - to discuss the provision of local bus services in Portlaoise town; (2) Deputy Mairéad Farrell - to discuss the inability of the cargo boat to land on Inis Meáin due to weather conditions; (3) Deputy Michael Ring - to discuss the relocation of a school in County Mayo (details supplied) and to confirm that this is the only school pro…