I thank the Minister for his reply. It is fair. There was no intention from anyone in any place to say that this was just overlooked. We in Independent Ireland will be tabling a couple of amendments when the legislation hits the floor. I am quite happy to meet with the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, about this and bring to him a small delegation who have a number of concerns about the fair deal scheme. There are an awful lot of houses in Ireland that are sitting idle at the moment under the fair deal scheme tha…

My office has been inundated with telephone calls from worried carers in receipt of carer's benefit and carer's allowance. A number of them received letters from the Revenue this week and last week telling them they are liable for tax. Does the Minister accept many of these carers were unaware there was a tax payment due or a burden upon them? Will his Department consider exemptions and thresholds for transition and protection of carers affected to ensure they are not penalised? Carers are among the most vulnerable…

I thank the Minister of State for joining us in the House. I know she had a personal situation this morning but in fairness she and her office reached out to nearly every Member of this House to tell us why she would not be in the House and I appreciate that. I may be misquoting the Minister of State but when she took this Ministry role, I think I read somewhere that she said she did not have a huge amount of experience when it came to artificial intelligence. In fairness to her, what she has produced so far, and c…

I welcome the Bill, have read through it on a number of occasions and thank those who brought the Bill together and assembled it. The Bill tells us quickly, however, and I am sure the Minister will admit it himself that the system is broken. Unfortunately, the Bill does not fix it. It is a good attempt but it needs a little bit of fine tuning. It creates more reporting without guaranteed actions. It risks become a box-ticking exercise. There are no penalties for councils that fail or repeatedly fail. There are no p…

It is being allocated €11,000 or €12,000 per year to bring properties back into property stock. The cost of an average composite door now for a front door of a house is €2,500. That is what a person will pay. Most people have to go to the credit union for a loan to get it if they are in private houses. There are then all the criteria and laws that are there. If a house is made vacant by a local authority or has been handed back to the local authority, the fire marshal goes in and says, "You have to get rid of this,…

I thank the Chair. I will be taking the time of Deputy Gogarty as he is detained. I thank the Minister for his speech. He mentioned a minute and a half into it that Uisce Éireann has a dedicated service not only for elected representatives but also for the most vulnerable. I have attended many of the meetings with Uisce Éireann. As Members may be aware, I have raised in this House the appalling water conditions on the northside of Cork city and the southside, in the Taoiseach's own constituency. Questions were put …

I want to disassociate myself from the remarks by some from Sinn Féin and other parties here on Venezuela. The Maduro and Chavez regimes were absolutely appalling. I know many people from Venezuela, many of whom who live here and many who are personal friends of mine living in Spain, who have gone through horrible times in their lives. Their families are still there and I have never heard the like of the things that have happened, the crimes against humanity and the living in fear day in, day out that occurred in V…

There was-----

Is it my turn or is it Foxes Before Babies?

Is it my turn or is it Foxes Before Babies?

I hope I will be given the time back.

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I hear these comments about this being unusual and this being strange but we can look at record of this House from when Panama was invaded in 1989 and Noriega was removed. It was a very different story in this House, so we see precedent. I congratulate President Trump for what he is doing and send him my support because there are a lot of people who, because they do not like the individual, will jest and pick out and attack everything but we have to question who is paying other p…

You are well able to represent yourself.

Who is paying you?

Who is paying you?

Who else is paying you?

There are cheques-----

There are cheques marked-----

I noticed yesterday an announcement by the Irish Government of additional funds being made available to the people of Palestine. There was an announcement before Christmas of €125 million made available to Ukraine. That is a total spend of €269 million. Can I get a clear run of that? How is it policed? When that money goes out of the State, how do we track where and how it goes and what groups are allocated those funds? How do we track to make sure it does not fall into the wrong hands? As the Minister of State wil…

It is about safety as well, Minister.