How was it that one week after the storm, emergency hubs were only being set up? The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, was on the radio and said that there had been far too long a delay in getting everything set up. It is clear that there were problems with doing so. The one thing people from the west and the north west who rang radio stations consistently stated was that they felt abandoned and that no one was looking out for them. They were not getting direct contact from the Government. The ESB did an amazing …

I was on RTÉ radio at the weekend and I heard about the case of a young woman who has a dialysis machine and who was left at home. She had to make her own arrangements to get somewhere in order that she could access electricity to run her machine. We need the HSE and GPs to be involved. GPs indicated that they were not contacted. It is clear that there are major gaps. While the Minister may say that the Government has a plan, either it was not followed or it was not sufficient to deal with the disaster that unfolde…

Last year, in advance of the election, Fianna Fáil made a huge play on prioritising women's health. That included free hormone replacement therapy, which was due to come in in January. This was very welcome at the time but, unfortunately, January came and went, and there is still no free HRT for women. There appears to be no plan for putting it in place. Will the Tánaiste let me know what the Government will do to make sure that commitment and promise is kept? When will women see that promise being kept?

I concur with the previous speakers. The Taoiseach has repeatedly said Storm Éowyn was a storm without precedent, and he is absolutely correct. What is also without precedent is his Government's lack of response. There was no plan. The Government left the ESB to do the heavy lifting.

We will have statements on the matter today but what we need are questions and answers with the Minister to find out where the Government was. Where were the Ministers? What were the Departments doing? How were they actually connecting? The one thing that has consistently come across from all the people who were caught up in this awful storm was they were being left absolutely on their own. We will have statements on the matter but we want a questions-and-answers session. We need to have an opportunity to ask quest…

It is 13 days since Storm Éowyn ripped through the country, including many homes, businesses and farms, causing devastation for so many, especially in the west and north west. It has been a very difficult period for people. When they saw there was no Dáil sitting last week, they really were asking where their politicians and leaders were. I agree with them. Unfortunately, the Government seemed to disappear when the storm happened. It kept the head down and only popped it up in the past few days with some solutions …

Can I make a point of order?

This is a really serious issue. We have to have-----

-----a chance to discuss it.

The Minister of State stated twice that Ireland and the Government are committed to using all the tools available to respond to this conflict. That is clearly not true because Ireland is not using all the tools at our disposal. We listed a number of actions the Government could be taking now that would send a very strong message to Israel that we do not condone what it is doing and would actually have consequences for Israel and its behaviour. The Government could suspend military trade with Israel, dual-use licenc…

Do not be so disingenuous.

Fianna Fáil does Fianna Fáil. That is what it does.

I wish to raise with the Minister of State the issue of public transport in Wicklow. It is one of the main issues people talk to me about. Constituents are being absolutely let down and failed by the Government's approach when it comes to the delivery of public transport. We could see no better or clearer example of that than the absolute chaos on the N11 every single morning. It is worse than it was before Covid-19. There are no longer any peaks on the N11. It is constantly one peak. It is always busy no matter wh…

With all due respect, what the Minister of State has read out is a wish list. The majority of what is contained in his response does not relate to projects that are actually happening and that people would be able to see and use in the near future. He spoke about the Luas to Wicklow and modelling - just modelling - the DART+ programme. There is no actual project plan or funding there. With regard to the extension of the DART to Wicklow town, the NTA has been very clear that will be five or six years down the road a…

Last week, the Minister for Health announced that Blessington football club was successful in its sports capital grant appeal and was to receive its €130,000. Another club in our constituency, Newtown football club, was also turned down for a grant in the first round but it has appealed the decision. It was very much about a minor administrative issue. It is unfortunate that the matter was not resolved at the time, because we all know that Newtown has been through a very difficult period. I hope the club’s appeal i…

At the start of this term the public was promised a Government that would be green and would be environmentally ambitious. Despite all the talk we are not seeing it when it comes to implementing change. Setting targets was important but it was the easy bit. Meeting the targets is the more difficult bit. We heard both today and yesterday repeated warnings from the Climate Change Advisory Council and the EPA that this Government and Ireland are not on target to meet our 2030 targets. That will result in an €8 billion…

You can answer that as well if you want.

I want to correct something that was stated earlier because facts do matter. Agriculture is actually the most significant pressure on water quality in this country. That is from the EPA, and Teagasc has said it as well.

It was in relation to-----

I just wanted to state that. I want to talk about the INTO survey results. These are really worrying. There are now more than 950 teacher posts vacant in primary and special schools across Ireland. Every one of those vacancies represents a classroom full of children. As a TD for Wicklow, I am particularly worried because the survey results mention that there has been a significant increase in the number of vacant posts in our county and there are currently 38 projected substitute vacancies for Wicklow. What that me…