They are pulling the wool over your eyes, Taoiseach.

What efforts is the Minister undertaking to expand access to rail services in south County Wicklow? As he will be aware, there has been a considerable population increase in County Wicklow but it has not been matched by our public transport infrastructure, particularly rail infrastructure. Many people have to commute long journeys on heavily congested roads when they would much prefer to have rail services available to them. I ask the Minister to make a statement on that matter.

What I am hearing is that there are a lot more plans for south County Wicklow. People have been hearing about plans for south County Wicklow for years and what we need is a commitment to extend the DART to Wicklow town and to look at extending it to Arklow. The infrastructure is there. The rail line is there and we need to build on it. It takes years to put in these plans and people are suffering now. People have long commutes and are being forced further and further away from their workplaces and families. They ne…

I organised a meeting between the NTA and the five Deputies from Wicklow a few months ago, at which it mentioned battery-operated trains to Wicklow town. I ask that a focus be put on providing that service, including further south to Arklow. It is critical that we give people public transport and rail options. People who are living in south Wicklow have to travel an hour or two hours to work and get stuck on the N11. I am aware that work is happening on the N11 but as the Minister said, we have to have a multimodal…

My amendment, No. 3, is the second one and it is very similar to No. 1. I wonder if I could come in after the first three Sinn Féin Deputies?

As the Minister knows, I have worked in the environmental sector for 20 years. Some 15 years ago, I worked in New South Wales in the Greenhouse Office and had these sorts of discussions. To be honest, in my first year as a Teachta Dála in Ireland, when I realised that dealing with, debating and trying to make the climate Bill stronger would be one of my first actions, I was relieved. This is a discussion we should have had many years ago in Ireland and we need to take these actions urgently. We need to ensure that …

It is not what she said.

Will the Taoiseach consider asking the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to attend the House to discuss the mother and baby homes commission? The State is defending in the High Court the commission's report. At the same time, the Minister is saying that he believes survivors and that an independent review should be done. We need to know which is the position. The Government is talking out of both sides of its mouth on this matter. Time must be set aside for the Minister to answer qu…

Is the Taoiseach referring to the Dáil?

I will use my time to discuss the scope of this Bill and its potential limitations with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As was previously highlighted in the Seanad, there is some concern about Schedule 1 of the Bill, which interprets our role in governing our seas in a very restrictive manner. Regarding the sovereign rights of Ireland's maritime jurisdiction, there are a number of criteria to which the State must have regard under this legislation. The inclusion of exploitation and c…

I am absolutely disgusted that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has left the debate this morning. He has come up with a speech that has all the right words in it, and yet he will not be in the Chamber to listen to women's voices and women's opinions on this matter. I am really annoyed that the Minister has left the debate and not given us the respect of listening to what we have to say on the issue. I stand here today as the Social Democrats spokesperson for children. I stand here as Wicklow's only female Deputy, and…

Today, the Government published the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. It is also Global Day for Parents. That is ironic because, despite the €915 million being allocated in the economic plan, there does not appear to be a single additional cent set aside for investment in early years and childcare. That is despite childcare being a fundamental foundation for the economy and for gender equality and despite our embarrassingly low investment in childcare. Will the Taoiseach explain why he did not use this opportu…

There is no additional money in the budget for childcare.

I raise with the Minister the issue of Tusla, in particular what efforts the Department is making to limit the impact of the recent cyberattack on the organisation's services. I thank the Minister for arranging a briefing last week. Can he give me an update on exactly what is happening with Tusla and what the impact is? Last week, we were told by the CEO it was too early to be definitive on whether data had been stolen. Does the Minister have an update on this also?

I thank the Minister for the update but I am concerned that we do not really seem to have moved on. From the information we received last week, I had hoped we might have a timeline as to when Tusla expects to be back up and running. Last week, I said I was afraid Tusla was being forgotten in the debate because we were hearing a lot about the HSE and there was no real mention of Tusla. On 17 May, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Ministers for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Justice, and Health, and the …

One of the specific questions I asked was whether there had been a drop in the number of referrals and whether an assessment had been done in that regard. I think such an assessment would provide an indication regarding the workarounds. I understand Tusla is significantly impeded by this attack, but there needs to be monitoring of the impact it could potentially be having on referrals and children at risk. Specifically, have any court cases been impacted by this or deferred over recent weeks? Deputy Connolly earlie…

Tusla and its systems have also been shut down as a result of this cyber attack. I welcome the discussions the Minister is having about the HSE but it feels to me that Tusla and child protection issues are being forgotten in this debate. Concerns have been raised by social workers in the media today that the shutdown means child protection risk issues and the risk of very sensitive child abuse documentation being breached and leaked to the Internet. I tried to get the Business Committee to bring in the Minister, De…

The Minister is not here.

I am happy if the Acting Chairman wants to take the Topical Issue matter raised with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, before mine so we are not holding people up. We can swap.

I want to raise the issue of the drinking water supply for the people of Barndarrig in County Wicklow. On 9 February this year, a "Do not consume" notice was issued as a result of high nitrate levels in the water supply. It has since been reissued, just this week. A "Do not consume" notice is particularly difficult to deal with during a pandemic, but the residents of Barndarrig have been patient. They have been waiting for Irish Water and Wicklow County Council to deal with this issue, but there is still not clarit…