That is what Sinn Féin is suggesting.

I, too, read the report from Cherry Orchard, which was harrowing. The report yesterday from Women's Aid shows how much of an epidemic this is. It should be something that we all treat as an emergency. What is very welcome from the figures yesterday is that more women are coming forward and they feel they can come forward. Because of the discussions we have had in this House and the emphasis the Government has placed on this issue, women feel safe to come forward and to move away from their abusers. One of the key r…

It will only opt in-----

I appreciate the frustration. I have had many people come to me, particularly about the long delays and the implications for them personally, but also in terms of the overall market. The best way we can address this is by moving towards a digitalised system. We are not there yet. Work is under way through my Department, working with the Courts Service and with significant investment behind it, on the modernisation programme. Separately, the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, just before Christmas last year esta…

-----to Eurodac and to a returns mechanism.

I agree that we need more gardaí. I want more gardaí. The Deputy wants more gardaí. I commend the work of the gardaí we have. Many of the actions I am taking in the Department are to make sure we can attract and retain more gardaí: increasing the retirement age, increasing the age at which people can join, increasing the allowance they have in college and making sure we have the highest budget ever, with a 23% increase. Where gardaí go is a matter for the Garda Commissioner but as more graduates come through the co…

With the returns mechanism, we need to make sure that if a person already has asylum in another member state, that member state takes responsibility and we can adequately return the person, which we cannot do at the moment. Dublin III does not work. We know it does not work. We need to improve the system. If we do not opt into this, Dublin III will not exist and we will have no mechanism to return people to the country where they already have asylum. On new procedures, I am consistently hearing from people that we …

I appreciate that this has gone on longer than anybody would like. We are on track to have this done by autumn. The report will be published in time. The reason we had to move it back to officials within the Department is because of the changes that had to take place. The independent person who had been appointed was not finishing it. There was then a tender set out to look at other potential options, none of which were satisfactory, so my Department has taken it on to make sure it is completed. A huge body of the …

I am not trying to be patronising. What I am saying is we have a solution here and I have yet to hear from the floor if there are other ways in which people have presented them. I have yet to hear on the floor today or last night solutions as to how we deal with this. We have seen other countries that have decided not to go with Europe and decided to go it alone. That has not reduced the number of people nor changed the situation but made it worse.

I think we can all see this in our constituencies, particularly over the summer months. I refer to the challenges and the parents who get on to us because of a lack of space or because of their inability to get their children on the school buses. The Deputy is right that changes are being proposed to take away some of the distance requirements and other measures. I will have to come back to her on a timeline as to how that will be rolled out, but the objective of the Minister is to make sure that any child who need…

Denmark is not comparable because we have opted in in different ways. We voted for this. On this idea around our sovereignty, we voted for the Lisbon treaty. We said very clearly that we would pool our sovereignty when it comes to issues around security and migration.

I think we would all like to see our men's and women's teams do well, but there could not be any suggestion that this Government does not support sporting organisations. Hundreds of millions of euro have been invested in sporting organisations the length and breadth of the country, including soccer clubs or football clubs overall. As regards investing specifically in individual organisations, the Government supports sporting organisations of all kinds. There has to be good governance, and we have to ensure that the…

First, I commend the work of An Garda Síochána. I particularly wish to commend the work of community gardaí. They provide vital support within communities. We saw how important their work is throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular visiting people and looking after those who are more vulnerable. I refer to the day-to-day work they do in supporting organisations, committees and in dealing with issues like antisocial behaviour. They are the people to whom you can pick up the phone to call if an issue arises. W…

That is what people voted for and that is exactly what we are discussing now.

The Government, through the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and her Department, has established Coimisiún na Meán. This is something which Deputy Bruton started in the Department to look at the harmful element of social media. While we all know how great social media can be, particularly in the context of our own work in engaging with younger people, the harms are clear for us to see also. It is a good idea that we look at the impact of social media and that the ESRI carries out that work. That is something the …

On our sovereignty, and it keeps being raised that we are handing away our sovereignty and we need to have a referendum, people very clearly voted when we voted for the Lisbon treaty that, when it comes to migration and security issues, we would have the option to opt in. This is not being forced on us. We have the option to opt in. That is what was voted for. The only measure we have to take is that we would engage in both Houses and that it would be passed by a vote in the Dáil and the Seanad. That is exactly wha…

I acknowledge the heartache and distress that has been caused to so many people post Covid. As a Government, we did a lot of things right but we need to make sure that where we could have done things better that we can always learn from that. It will not change things or bring people back but we need to make sure that we engage with everyone who was impacted over the years. Where changes potentially need to take place or where we need to have plans in place - God forbid should anything happen again - we must be abl…

Guidelines are in place. It is important that any company progressing a project engages with the local authority and adheres to the guidelines. To give a more detailed answer I will ask the Minister responsible to respond to the Deputy on the project. On housing, the way that we deal with any housing crisis is by producing more houses and apartments to provide more options for people, including young people and including student accommodation. Every week, 350 homes are being built.

My understanding is that measures are being brought to Cabinet.

Measures have been brought by the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, to address the issue of students having to engage in full-year leases as opposed to shorter leases. He will be progressing that as soon as possible.