We are all concerned about the situation that has evolved. It has been there for some time but was particularly acute in the first weeks of January this year.

That concern over a period of time is why there has been an additional 1,161 staff in University Hospital Limerick in the past three or four years. One thing I am glad of is that, in that two-week period since that first crisis, the numbers, as I understand, have come right down. That should not-----

That should not make us complacent. We need the additional beds and resources. We need to support the management of emergency departments so that we do not have that bottleneck-----

The policy decision by Government is clear. We are going to introduce the ability for private lines so that industry will be able to generate its own power and have battery storage and other systems that will allow it to be part of not just meeting our immediate energy security needs, which are very real, but also the need for decarbonisation. I will have to come back to the Deputy on the exact date on which the rules will be changed. However, we are committed to moving in that direction. One thing that might give …

I had a meeting with the board of TII earlier this week. I said to it, as I will say to the Deputy, that we have a huge volume of projects. There are projects worth more than €70 billion, and that was before the inflationary period, with a €34 billion national development plan, NDP, pool and a pool where we have committed 10% funding to active travel and 20% funding to public transport. In those circumstances, to my mind the priority has to be the building of a whole range of new bypasses such as Castlemartyr in a …

The instruction we gave to CRU last April was to reverse that approach, and that has been done. In 2010, if I recall rightly, our economy was at real risk. The price of electricity for industrial providers was historically much higher than other European competing countries. There was a real risk of major job losses at a time when our economy was in real difficulty and in danger. It is this Government, in different circumstances, which has changed that and reversed that decision.

I believe it was appropriate at the time when our economy was at risk to make that change. I believe it is appropriate now for us to have directed CRU to reverse it.

I go back to what I said to Deputy Doherty, namely, it is about quality and not just quantity, and we need to get balanced and good quality planning and development. I believe the national planning framework is correct in that we need more balanced regional development, more compact development and low carbon development. That means we need to see Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick in particular thrive as counterbalances to the rapid growth of the greater Dublin area. Half of the new housing is going into the gre…

Again, I am afraid I am not as knowledgeable as the Deputy on the particular issue. I am uncertain as to whether it is the Minister for Justice or the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth who should take this.

I might ask the officials to contact both the Minister for Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to address the points the Deputy raises.

I know the heartbreak would not diminish despite the time that has lapsed. If, as the Deputy suggests, there is new evidence that might lead to resolving the family's anguish in this regard, I am certain that the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and his Department would make representations. As I said, they will have to make the most appropriate assessment of that.

As the Deputy suggests, I will have to ask the officials to ask the Department to come back on the specific issue of where the funding for that centre is.

I was talking to the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, about this as he has responsibility in the area. We both agreed that the current situation is totally unsatisfactory and that the agencies, such as the Road Safety Authority, and all of the operations of the State need to make sure it is resolved. The operator has committed that, by the end of May, there will be a return to the 12-day service level agreement target. A whole range of new staff are being brought in and there are very complex arrangements to mak…

We launched our recharging station strategy with Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, ZEVI, last week. A critical element of that is new mobility car sharing centres. The reason Deputy McAuliffe is interested is because we have already introduced one in Finglas village, and it provides a model that we need to roll out across our cities in particular and across the country. It is the council providing the land and it is working with the ESB on the grid connection. It is both a charging and a car sharing station for a var…

Again, I will have to refer to the Department of Health and the Minister and ask them to respond on what the timeline is.

In response to an earlier question, I mentioned the Castlemartyr bypass as a specific example of the type of project we want to accelerate. The consequences for villages and towns across the country where there is that volume of through traffic are very disruptive, and that stops what we are doing on the other side, with Croí Cónaithe and other projects, where we want to get families back in the centre of villages and towns. Taking the through traffic out liberates these towns. Castlemartyr is on the list of projec…

Thank you very much, Acting Chair. I very much appreciate this chance to share some of the latest thinking and developments in the development of the offshore wind industry, which is going to be of significant economic, environmental and social consequences for the people of our country. We were one of the first countries out of the traps on this. The offshore wind power project off Arklow and Brittas Bay beach, which people will know, was one of the first in Europe, if not the world, so we have seen how it can be …

I am very conscious that I focused on offshore energy in my commentary. I was not sure whether it was a wider debate. I got an indication that it was primarily that. However, there were a number of questions about the onshore energy from Senator Kyne and others. Others asked about the wind guidelines and Derrybrien. We will have to do a lot of work on onshore as well. We are not finished there. There is huge potential benefit in developing that for local use of that energy as well as for meeting our climate targets…

I thank the Deputy for his question and the opportunity to discuss the serious issue of safety on our public transport network. Antisocial behaviour is a wider societal issue to which public transport is not immune, and I fully recognise that those who regularly use and work within our public transport network are most directly impacted by any associated incidents. Safety and security on public transport are matters that, first and foremost, must be managed by every public transport company, in conjunction with An …

I absolutely share the concern for drivers who are being threatened and terrorised in that way in that instance the Deputy mentioned. It is totally unacceptable and all of us collectively have to make sure they are protected and safe in what they are doing. There was significant development with the Tallaght stakeholder forum meeting this week. That is very important. This best way for us to counter this is for local representatives, trade union representatives, Dublin Bus and An Garda Síochána to work together. Th…