I will finish with these sentences. The public deserve to know about every aspect of this sorry affair. I ask Deputy McDonald to take the opportunity to reply. She needs to come clean about what happened.

Will Deputy McDonald be afforded some extra time?

The Deputy went over herself. I posed direct questions to her regarding party figures and involvement and her own knowledge, and maybe she could take the opportunity to answer them.

Something Sinn Féin loves, as the Ceann Comhairle knows, is to have a question-and-answer session. Here is an opportunity for her to answer questions.

Deputy McDonald has walked out anyway. I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

Get them to hold it in Tipperary.

I thank the Senator for raising what I think is a very important issue. Obviously, I am replying on behalf of my colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Peter Burke and Rabbitte, who all collectively launched a new joint national housing strategy for disabled people, as the Senator will be well aware, on 14 January 2022. In that strategy, they set out the vision for the co-operation and collaboration of Departments, State agencies, including local authorities, and othe…

I hear Senator McGreehan clearly. The points she makes are important. The Senator is absolutely right to raise the issue of the availability of such basic things for people with a disability and they should continue to be highlighted. I will certainly take back the Senator's remarks to the Minister. It is important that local authorities, in particular, are the lead in recognising how services should be provided. I thank the Senator.

The fight against hunger and malnutrition is a key priority of Ireland's international development programme. The numbers affected by hunger are rising globally, and the food security situation in the Horn of Africa is particularly acute, including in Somalia where experts are warning of an imminent risk, as the Deputy clearly outlined, of widespread famine. I saw for myself the devastation in the Horn of Africa during my recent visit to the region. In response to the rapidly deteriorating situation, the Government…

Part of our programme, both at the UN and everything on which we are focused, is to address that. I very much remember the then President's visit to Somalia. What I saw in the Horn of Africa first-hand is that there is one difference and it is something we need to be so conscious of more than anything else. In previous times, there was a failure of rains over a period of years and those rains may return. What we are looking at now is the first complete failure caused by climate change. This is a situation that has …

There is, and that is why we put the supplementary amount of €30 million in place this year. That is why most of that will go into Somalia and will go into our partners who are on the ground in a position to immediately deliver on that. I thank the Deputy for acknowledging there is incredible work being done by Ms Samantha Power in USAID in terms of this. With ourselves, they are probably to the forefront in highlighting the issues involved and in putting the supports and structures in place to try to make a real d…

At COP27 I met representatives from developing countries who outlined the existential threats to their societies as a result of climate impacts. The key priorities for Ireland in international climate negotiations are finance for adaptation to climate change and financing to respond to loss and damage associated with climate impacts. On loss and damage, Ireland was engaged in advance of and throughout COP27. Our delegation took a leadership role within the European Union and in the EU’s negotiations with other coun…

I reiterate that we are only at the start. There is a mechanism there which we must ensure the success of. To repeat something important I said at COP, we have played an incredibly strong role. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, has played a strong role and the European Union has come to us in terms of what we can do. Implementation is key. When talking to the actors right across COP and outside it, there is one thing they will say to us. The challenge, particularly for developing countries, is to take the two weeks of COP…

He should.

It is the Deputy who should stop misleading people.

I want to make reference, in the context of my portfolio, to the experience I had in the past month. I visited the Horn of Africa, in particular Kenya and South Sudan, and witnessed first-hand the absolute devastation that is happening there. People are at risk of famine of a scale we have not perhaps seen since the mid-1980s. People are currently dying. There were children suffering from malnutrition, the impact of which I saw first-hand. Mothers, fathers and community leaders talked to me directly. They asked if …

I thank Senator Wall for his question. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important topic with Members of the House today on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I reassure the Senator that the Government is strongly committed to helping to combat the rising cost of living being experienced throughout the country. A cost-efficient public transport sector including affordable and accessible public transport services is vital to a functioning economy. In this context, a number of measures have been taken to e…

I thank the Senator for his remarks. I will of course bring his message back to the Minister. I have heard this issue raised by a number of colleagues. I heard the Minister, Deputy McEntee, raise it with regard to her constituency and area. There is no question but that there is an issue there, which the Senator has very clearly highlighted today. Obviously, there is the 20% reduction. The Minister is very firmly committed to extending that into 2023 and to seeing what other measures can be taken.

Or the capital of Ireland.

As the Senator mentioned, the Minister is attending the launch today. The Minister welcomed the publication of the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces in February. The establishment of the commission was set out in the programme for Government. The members of the commission were drawn from a wide range of national and international experts. The publication of the report represents the culmination of the work carried out over 13 months, and is testament to the considerable efforts of all of those who cont…