I welcome the opportunity to speak on vapes again. I spoke about it in September and said vapes are the bane of many parents and their children. I have been contacted since then, and was contacted prior to that, about how vapes cause so many arguments in families. As parents, we thought children do not smoke anymore and young people do not smoke but now we have vapes. When I was sitting here I wondered how much a vape costs. A vape is about €10 but a packet of cigarettes is about €23, so it is significantly cheaper…

I should have kept talking.

Is mian liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le Sinn Féin as an rún a chur os comhair an Tí. I also voice my dismay at the delay by the Government in reaching this decision. This is not the first time this coalition has struggled to make decisions in a timely manner. Unfortunately, there are many issues facing this country that need to be sorted out and this is one example. I am a TD for Dublin South-Central, which I know is not the farming centre of this country. However, I too want to use my voice because many of my cons…

I wish everybody here and throughout the House a very happy Christmas and thank them for what has been my first year and how welcoming they have been. I have been very delighted to see the Taoiseach has given clearance for Santa Claus to come. I wish to raise an issue on the South Circular Road in my constituency, where a number of people are housed in a homeless hostel. Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue with overcrowding there which is spilling out onto the streets and causing antisocial behaviour. That is…

There will be a supplementary question from Deputy Neville.

Thank you, Tánaiste.

Deputy, your time is up.

We are not. Please forgive me. It is my first time doing this.

Apologies for that.

The spirit of Christmas and forgiveness.

Deputy Boland's supplementary question will be allowed. Not Deputy Neville's, that is enough. He has gotten me into trouble once already. We will move to Question No. 174 which will be grouped with Question No. 184.

I welcome the women from Graiguenamanagh Women's Shed to the Visitors Gallery. I hope they have a lovely visit. I had better crack on now before I get cancelled.

No.

I will never be asked to chair again.

Now we have two grouped questions again – my favourite. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan has two different questions.

I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing forward this Bill to ban fox hunting. It might seem unlikely that a city TD such as me from Dublin South-Central would have any interest in what is constantly being said affects rural areas and communities. If you bear with me for a minute, I will explain my position. When I was a child, I split my time between suburban Dublin, in Deputy Coppinger's constituency, and rural Cavan, where my granny and her people are from. My mother lived there for the last part of her life. I spe…

I also support the motion. I have received a number of emails from constituents in Dublin South-Central who are absolutely flabbergasted by this mean-spirted decision to charge vulnerable and elderly people for a pack that is life-saving to them. This is the antithesis of how this country should be supporting vulnerable people. The story of Scrooge will never be dead as long as things like this are decided, and so close to Christmas. The worry that elderly and vulnerable people and their families have now is how th…

I wish to ask about the report on the Department’s forward planning for special education places in 2026-27. When I wrote this question, it was mostly to do with the portal at that time. I am now even more concerned since the announcement in relation to assessment of need by the Minister for children. I am just wondering about those two things. I know I got a letter from the Minister of State earlier this week or late last week with regard to the portal. I am concerned, however, because you still cannot log on and …

My concern is that when the portal closed on 1 October, parents were no longer able to apply. Was that a way of saying that, for example, 600 parents applied for their children through the portal and we were able to provide those places? The vacant places that the Minister of State talks about, and I have raised this previously, are phantom places because if there are children at home without an appropriate school place, it does not matter how many vacant places we have. If they are not appropriate, they are a wast…

The plan is that the Department will allocate places over the next few days. If it then realises that there is further capacity, is the Department going to reopen the portal so that all of those late applications will be able to be considered as well? We are in one process currently, but an announcement has just been made that will affect the school year after next. It is important not to confuse the two issues because there is huge confusion and fear out there with regard to that. Will the Department be able to op…