I thank Deputy Griffin for raising this issue. Peanut allergies are serious and in some cases are fatal. We have had a number of cases in recent years of people going into anaphylactic shock and, unfortunately, dying as a consequence of peanut allergies. I am not familiar with the new medicine or the particular business case Deputy Griffin has mentioned, but I will get my office to follow it up with CHI and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to see what we can do to push things forward.

I thank Deputy Kenny. It is important we have appropriate and modern Garda rosters. We need gardaí to be available when people need them. Often this is at night-time and weekends. We also need rosters that respect the need for work-life balance and ensure we continue to be able to recruit and retain gardaí. There is a balance to be struck in this regard. There was a long process of engagement on this involving management and staff. There was an independent chair. A proposal was published on 15 August. The Commissio…

I have not seen that response so I cannot comment on it directly. I would not be overly concerned about unnecessary trips, to be honest. I do not think many people are going around on buses and trains just for the craic, but there would be genuine problems with free public transport - cost and capacity. We could see capacity being overloaded, and that would not be an advantage to anyone, and, second, there is an issue of cost. We want to invest additional money in public transport in new services, not just making e…

I have not read it, I am sorry. The Deputy may not have represented it fairly.

I am not up to date with our plans to bring proton therapy to Ireland. I think we will at some point, and we should sooner rather than later. I have seen it operating in a hospital I visited in Singapore, and it is really impressive. It does not work for every tumour but it does work for some. It means the tumour gets pinpointed, rather than the whole skin and the area around it. People can understand why that would be beneficial. I understand we do pay for some patients to have it overseas but I would certainly be…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 13, inclusive, together. The economic policy unit is part of the economic division of the Department. The unit assists me, as Taoiseach, in advancing the Government’s economic priorities. The unit also advises me on a broad range of economic policy areas and provides me with briefing and speech material on economic and related policy matters. It assists the delivery of the Government’s economic commitments as outlined in the programme for Government, especially where these cut …

I thank the Deputies for their questions. I was asked about concerns from businesses in relation to the housing crisis. It is certainly something that has been raised with me many times, certainly during my time as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I hear the concern being expressed by businesses regarding the housing crisis impacting on their ability to recruit and retain staff and to attract staff in from abroad. Having met with representatives of businesses on many occasions to discuss this and …

One of the things I hope is that we will lessen the need for people to go into emergency accommodation by authorising local authorities to purchase the homes they are living in. If a landlord is selling up, if the tenant is a HAP or RAS tenant, the local authorities have the finance and are being encouraged to purchase those properties. The person will move from HAP to being a social housing tenant, which is something I think we all favour. They will not need to go-----

----anywhere near emergency accommodation in that period. We also confirmed that we will lease an additional 1,000 social housing units, which will allow us to bring new social housing provision this year to something like 12,000 additional units. Probably more than one third of all new homes being provided in the State this year will be social housing. This has not been something we have commonly seen down the decades and it is certainly not an approach that is neoliberal, right-wing or any of the ideological nons…

I agree absolutely that small businesses are in need of support. They are the biggest employers in Ireland. If we add them up, they employ more people than IDA and Enterprise Ireland companies and the Government combined. They employ people all over Ireland. We are doing a lot already, with the VAT reductions staying in place for another period, the improvements in the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, and other supports that are regularly offered through Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise o…

It is the case, however, that they are not employees of the State. This is a simple fact. We are the funder or part funder of these bodies, and if employers were going into the WRC, they would not bring in their funders or their clients. It is a matter between the employer and the employees and their representatives. There is, of course, a role for the State to play, but this is an interaction that occurs between the bodies themselves and the State. Again, it is with the WRC and I hope it is being resolved there.

Yes. It is a court case and I am reluctant to say anything about a matter that is before the courts. I know the Deputy has engaged with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on it-----

-----and he tells me that there are pertinent facts in relation to this case that the Deputy has not put on the record of the Dáil. I can speak to this afterwards, if the Deputy would like.

Tógfaidh mé ceisteanna Uimh. 14 go dtí 19 le chéile. The Cabinet committee on social affairs and public services oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy and public services. The committee covers a range of topics, including immigration and integration, in the area of social policy, with a particular focus on equality of public service reform. Other topics covered by the committee include sport, social protection, arts and culture and justice, such as policing re…

I thank Deputies for their questions. Last week or the previous week, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, and I had a meeting with the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the border management unit of the Department of Justice to discuss some of the issues raised by Deputy Mattie McGrath and to examine how we can improve border security and make sure that people who should not get into the State are not able to do so. We have had very close co-operation with the authorities in the United Kingdom on the commo…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 32, inclusive, together. The newly-established Cabinet committee on children and education will oversee the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of children and education, including further and higher education, with a specific focus on child poverty and well-being. The first meeting of this committee will take place shortly. Work has been taking place, with officials meeting organisations and groups ahead of the first meeting. The new committee w…

I thank Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Tóibín referred to the term "transgenderism". I am not sure what that means. It is not an ideology nor a political philosophy. Trans people are people and they exist. I know people who are trans and perhaps the Deputy does too. They have always existed, although they may not have been acknowledged. When it comes to the education of children, parents and schools have a duty to inform them of the world around them as it is. Sooner or later, a young person will run into…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It is a matter of great concern to me and the Government that approximately 6,000 people in the south east have been waiting several months for laboratory test results. I know that causes great anxiety for patients and runs the risk of delayed diagnoses and poorer outcomes, even though the samples are based on routine tests and are not urgent. While the risk is small, and we want to reassure people of that, it is not negligible. That people should have to wait se…

I will certainly speak to the hospital manager myself about the matter this week to get a better fix on the situation. There are many ways in which we can get on top of the backlog, one being the transfer of samples to other laboratories. I will inquire as to why that is not happening at an adequate pace. The other way is to transfer staff to the laboratory from other laboratories. Generally, it is easier to move samples than to move staff for obvious reasons. Sometimes it requires a little bit of both. As the Depu…

At the outset, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Deputy Cairns on her election as leader of the Social Democrats. As one leader to another, it is an enormous honour to be chosen by one's party to lead them. It is a tough job and much of the work goes unrecognised whether it is fundraising, dealing with party accounts, disputes between public representatives, internal rows or staff matters. It is all before her. It is a very tough job-----