One of the things the Government did was introduce the cost-rental equity loan scheme, recognising the high interest rate environment has changed the figures for cost rental regarding new building developments. We introduced that as a deliberate mechanism to support AHBs, in particular, to help reduce the cost. Cost rental is a fundamental and radical shift the Green Party in opposition committed to six or seven years ago and is now delivering in government. The key figure is the percentage reduction below the mark…

It is really difficult with the high interest rates. The Deputy could promise and not be able to deliver this magic money tree alternative.

I disagree with the assessment the Government kicked it off to the Oireachtas committee. The committee, in response to the citizens’ assembly report on repealing the eighth and in this instance, was the right place to assess, analyse and come to Government with recommendations of the report, which, as the Deputy said, it did in December, only last month. The Government will respond quickly and follow through as appropriate. The Oireachtas committee was the right place to place that. The Government will respond and …

I am not aware of the steps but understand from the Deputy's question that the loss of the jobs has not occurred yet. I will follow up with the Minister, Deputy Coveney. In any instance of a large lay-off, redundancy or other arrangement, for example Tara Mines or a range of recent examples back through the years, this and any government works on a partnership basis and acts locally to try to get IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and other agencies involved to provide employment. I do not have the details of the case…

I do not have a timeline and do not have a business case but we will review that when it comes in. We have seen significant increases in demand in Irish airports and have a dense network of airports providing international services compared to other countries. We have seen significant increases in Cork, Dublin, Shannon – all the airports, in effect. That makes a business case difficult in terms of where the further market is or how that would work, but I do not have a timeline and do not have a business case.

No, not to my understanding.

I say to the Deputy what I said to him the other day. I look forward to going down to Tipperary town, a town I know well and one that needs a bypass. This is a complicated and controversial issue. Many Deputies have concerns about what roads we need to advance quickest. I have said publicly and in this House on many occasions our bypasses are the critical next investment we need to make. The likes of Tipperary town have 30% vacancy on the main street. Beautiful 19th-century market towns should be the centre of town…

I have been to every single council. What they were saying, and I agree, is that we need to protect our market towns and invest in them by taking out the through traffic. I will commit to making sure that happens in Tipperary as fast as anywhere else.

I agree with the Deputy that the forestry companies have a real responsibility and a legal obligation, subject to the conditions of licensing, to protect the area alongside power lines so they are not at risk from trees falling. If there is any specific instance that the Deputy might be able to report, that would be very useful. It should not be tolerated and it needs to change. I would make a wider point. There is a real issue in south Leitrim, north Leitrim and Roscommon. The nature of the forestry system we were…

I agree with everything the Deputy says except the central contention that we should switch HVO into heating as well as transport. I say that having looked at and analysed it at length, along with other international colleagues. There is only a limited supply of HVO available in the world and we have to be careful of the land use implications if we rely on it further. That HVO is going to be needed in transport because we do not have alternatives. In areas like aviation, we are going to have to switch to biofuels a…

I agree with the Deputy. To broaden it out, given it is a very fearful world and a lot of things are changing very fast in our world, there are understandable fears among our people. However, it tends to be supported by what I might call a nihilistic populist creed that tends to have certain key characteristics, particularly online. It does not believe in climate change, it is very anti-people coming to the country and it does not believe in vaccines, which is the strangest and weirdest of all because the science i…

It is very distressing to hear of people in our community who are by nature vulnerable being in such a difficult situation and such an uncertain place. I do not have the details but if the Deputy can forward the information to me, we will definitely pass that on to the Minister for Health to see if the residents in this case can be reassured.

I can confirm that the Government's intention, and I have to be careful now, is that we would see Údarás elections on the same day as the local and European elections. The Chief Whip will have to organise the Dáil arrangements but our intention is to have that election this year. My personal view is that if we have any future elections, we should put them off for another year yet.

If the Deputy can send me the details I would be happy to pass them on to the relevant Minister. Can I ask one question? What is the reason? Is there an underlying reason? Is it the upgrade of the plant or a new plant?

But is the reason for the outages in this instance that it needs new investment or that new investment is taking place?

If the Deputy could provide those details I will certainly raise the case with the relevant Minister.

I do not have details on either the legislative or the specific circumstances of that facility. If the Deputy forwards them on, we can see if an answer can be found to the question.

A good town centre first strategy requires us to look at buildings that can be repurposed. It does seem that the courthouse in Tralee would be a very good example and there would be no difficulty from the Government side to look at how we can make best use of the building.

I am not aware of plans but if, as the Deputy says, the original proposal was from the Department of the environment, for which I have responsibility, I will go to my own Department to see if there is any mechanism or waiver system which we might be able to consider for such circumstances. They are very specific but the point the Deputy makes is a valid one.

I understand the Deputy is asking a direct question to the Minister for Education on that which she will be best placed to answer. On the broader point on investment in new school places, particularly in the move toward secondary, I recall that in the closing months of last year the Minister for public expenditure and reform, Deputy Donohoe, was at Cabinet agreeing on a significant additional capital payment to the Minister for Education for exactly the point the Deputy raised, namely, to scale up the school buildi…