That comment really is beneath the Minister of State. He knows well we have always been strongly supportive of the European Union. There is no question on that. It is really just a distraction tactic. The heart of this is in the Minister of State's speech, where he keeps talking about reform of the triple lock. This Government is not reforming the triple lock. That is what it said it would do in its manifesto. It is abolishing the triple lock, going from a situation where there are safeguards in place to one where …

Yesterday, I asked the Taoiseach to name a single parliament in the world where there is a time slot on the schedule where 100% of the time is given to the Government members of that parliament and he did not answer. Today, the Taoiseach came in with a list of parliaments where government MPs can ask oral questions. That has always been the case in Ireland where Government TDs can ask oral questions. They can ask questions under Questions on Policy or Legislation and under Taoiseach’s Questions as well, and the Gov…

I thank the Taoiseach. I would ask him to get this into his head. I have asked him the question: “What is your deal with Michael Lowry?” Is the Taoiseach saying he made no deal with Michael Lowry to support the Government? Is that what he is saying? Is he saying there was no deal?

Was there no deal at all? Is that what the Taoiseach is saying? Is he saying he made no deal with Michael Lowry about these speaking rights at any stage, that there were no agreements, that he has done this off his own bat and that this is entirely his own initiative even though from day one Michael Lowry was saying that he was going to get these special speaking rights that Opposition leaders get? From day one he was saying that. How was he able to say that with such confidence if there was no deal with the Taoise…

Will I not get three minutes, a Cheann Comhairle? No. Okay.

The Taoiseach's efforts to defend the indefensible are not working. Dáil rules are being reverse-engineered to guarantee one outcome, that is, that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will deliver on the deal they have made with Michael Lowry. That is what it all boils down to. The Taoiseach's backbenchers are well aware he would not be going to these extremes for them. The truth is the Government has caused chaos in this Dáil and delayed setting up committees to facilitate Michael Lowry and keep him happy. The public have a…

Given this track record of duplicity, why should anyone in the Opposition or the public trust what he says?

The Taoiseach is right. This is quite extraordinary-----

Yes, but in more than 100 years of this Dáil, never ever in the weekly schedule has there a time slot created where 100% of the time is allocated to the Government. Does the Taoiseach not see something fundamentally wrong-----

-----with a time slot being created where Government TDs ask the Taoiseach questions without any input from the Opposition? Can the Taoiseach tell me of any parliament in the world where there is a time slot where 100% of it-----

-----is for government backbenchers to ask government leaders questions with no time allocated to the opposition? That does not exist. Therefore, this is quite extraordinary and it should not be done. Will he tell me one place in the world where this happens?

No, it does not.

Tens of thousands of children with additional needs are being failed by this Government. Some 14,221 children are overdue an assessment of need. New figures released to me show the scale of the crisis for children trying to access essential therapies. At the end of December, there were more than 41,000 children waiting for an initial assessment for speech, language and occupational therapy. The figures for occupational therapy are particularly stark. Of the more than 22,000 children waiting for their first assessme…

What are parents and families to do now? They are at their wits' end. They are increasingly being told that the only way to get the assessments of need that are needed for their children is to take legal action. The State is not contesting these cases, so the State is effectively putting its hands up and saying it is failing to meet the legal needs of children with additional needs. What is the Tánaiste's advice to parents? Is he telling them that the only thing they can do is to take legal action? Is he advising t…

So parents should take legal cases to access that. Is that what the Tánaiste is saying?

The Taoiseach was asked a simple question, which he did not answer. Did the Minister for Finance share with him the analysis from the Department of Finance that the 40,000 homes claim was not going to materialise last year? Did he share that analysis with the Taoiseach before the election date? The Taoiseach might answer this question because he has been asked twice and he has not answered it. The Taoiseach promised that 40,000 homes would be delivered last year, and we know that just 30,300 homes were delivered. L…

There is now a mountain of evidence that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael deliberately misrepresented housing delivery figures during the election. The Taoiseach cannot continue to deny it. This is a Comical Ali routine he is playing in pretending it was somehow an honest mistake. Not content with massaging last year's figures, the targets for this year are now being clearly reverse engineered. When the Taoiseach was asked by RTÉ in February about housing targets for this year, he dodged the question. He would not give an…

The Taoiseach set the target a few months ago.

The Taoiseach told the electorate a few months ago that the housing target for this year was 41,000 homes. Is he now saying that target is gone? Is he now saying that he has no housing target for 2025? What is the Government's housing target for 2025? The Taoiseach was explicitly clear a few months ago with the electorate that it was 41,000 homes. Is that still his target or has he ditched it? Why is he refusing to answer questions about what the Government's housing target is for 2025? Second, there is that questi…

Answer the question.