I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. On 12 January I visited Belfast where I had constructive discussions with the leaders of the main political parties. The main focus of the meetings was on restoration of the democratic institutions in Northern Ireland and on the EU-UK negotiations on the protocol. I emphasised the Government's commitment to assist efforts at Executive formation, to get the Assembly functioning and to see the North-South Ministerial Council operating again. We also discus…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. I will start by responding to Deputies Haughey and Brendan Smith on the Northern Ireland protocol. I welcome the continued positive UK-EU engagement aided at finding joint solutions to concerns about the implementation of the protocol. When I met the Northern Ireland parties and business representatives last month, I got a real sense of a widely-held desire to see a joint resolution and to refocus on other pressures facing people across Northern Ireland, including the cost …

I propose to take Questions 5 to 9, inclusive, and 35 together. The Government has established ten Cabinet committees in the following areas: Brexit and Northern Ireland; children and education; economy and investment; environment and climate change; EU and international affairs; Government co-ordination; health; housing; humanitarian response to Ukraine; and social affairs and public services. I am a member of all the committees along with the Tánaiste and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communicatio…

I thank Deputies for their questions. On the historical nursing home charges relating to private nursing homes, I emphasise again that this does not relate to anyone who is currently in a nursing home today or who has been in recent years. It relates to charges prior to the 2005-06 period. The matter was resolved prospectively when the fair deal scheme was set up in 2009, which is the legal basis by which anyone can receive a place in a nursing home and sets out the contributions that they have to make towards that…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 12, inclusive, together. I spoke by phone with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, 10 January. President Zelenskyy extended new year's wishes to the people of Ireland and expressed his appreciation for the steadfast assistance and friendship shown by Ireland and the Irish people to Ukraine over the past year, and to the more than 70,000 Ukrainians who have received refuge and protection in Ireland. I assured President Zelenskyy of Ireland's continued soli…

I would like to visit Ukraine. I have never had the opportunity to visit that country and would very much like to do so. I am connected to it now in a way I never was in the past given that someone from Ukraine has been living with me since May 2022. I have come to learn a lot about the country and its culture and would love a chance to visit at some point. I would particularly like to be able to visit a country that is at peace. If the opportunity arises, I will travel to Ukraine to show our support and re-emphasi…

Calling on someone to withdraw from occupied territories is something they should do. We want to get the embassy in Kyiv up and running, have the ambassador there and have it functioning again. There are some issues around security. I do not know the details of that but I know the Tánaiste is working on it. I absolutely agree that escalation is not a solution but what is the alternative? Is it to allow Russia a free hand to massacre the Ukrainian people, occupy their capital and take away their freedoms and democra…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 14 together. I travelled to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos on 18 January. That evening I attended an IDA Ireland event where I met with some leading job creators in Ireland from across industry, including manufacturing, chemicals, technology and finance. On 19 January, I attended a foreign policy-focused event hosted by Lally Weymouth of The Washington Post with guests including other leaders, heads of international organisations and members of the US Admi…

I just have a different perspective on it to the Deputy. I do not think our end points are different; I just have a different perspective on it. It is the Deputy's view that higher taxes always result in more revenues for the Government, which we can then spend on health, housing and everything else. My view is that it is not necessarily like that. We have very low corporation profit taxes in Ireland and yet we bring in more per capita in corporation profit taxes than almost any other country in the world or in Eur…

It is the low taxes on corporations in Ireland that produce the massive tax revenues we can spend on health, housing and education. If we doubled or trebled our corporation profit tax, I think the receipts would go down. I do not want that to ever be tested. That is one of the reasons I am glad neither of the Deputies is Minister for Finance, because I think they would test it. They would hike up profit taxes on businesses and those businesses would relocate elsewhere, taking their jobs and profits elsewhere, and t…

This is an historic issue that dates back to the 1970s. I do not know the full facts of it and I doubt that anyone else does. The Minister for Health has sought advice from the Attorney General and a detailed written briefing from his officials. The Attorney General is also preparing a report for Cabinet for next Tuesday, which we will publish thereafter. Until such a time as we receive those detailed written briefings, there is a limited amount we can say on the matter because we need to establish the facts, altho…

I cannot confirm who was or was not briefed over that period. I am sure individuals will do that as they can, based on their recollections. In relation to documents, we are assembling those documents now in the Attorney General's office and the Department of Health. I have not seen them. I have seen one or two but certainly not all of them. When we have assembled them all we will put any that we can into the public domain. That will be the right thing to do. We will not do it in a drip-drip fashion, which is what i…

As I mentioned, the Attorney General has been asked to prepare a report on the matter for Cabinet next week and that report will be published. There will also be statements in the Dáil next week. As I think the Deputy acknowledged on the radio this morning, it is reasonable that Ministers should have a bit of time to put all of the documents together because this goes back a long way. There have been no new cases in over ten years, although many have been settled more recently. As the Deputy suggested earlier, this…

That is a fair point and what the Deputy says is true. There is no universal legal entitlement to public healthcare or social care in Ireland and there was not at the time-----

There was no legal entitlement there and people who claim there was are incorrect. Things were changed in 2009, long before I was a Minister - I was in opposition, in fact - when the fair deal scheme was brought in. Certainly by the time the Government was formed in 2011 and by the time the fair deal scheme was set up in 2009, there was a scheme in place to provide nursing home care on a universal basis to people. There was also a compensation scheme that was established by the previous Government and its Minister …

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I acknowledge how essential respite is for people with disabilities and their families. It gives people the break they need and, in many cases, keeps people going. They would not be able to keep going if it were not for respite and I know how important that is to people. The need for increased respite, including in south Kerry and west Cork, is acknowledged by the Government. The need for additional respite across the country is reflected in the HSE service plans…

I think decongregation is the right approach. If anything, it has been happening too slowly. When congregated settings or institutions in my constituency have closed, I have seen how it can cause disruption and a lot of difficulty and nervousness among residents and families initially. When you meet them a year or two later, after they have moved into a house in a housing estate where they are integrated with the neighbourhood around them, it is amazing to see how people who were afraid about what might happen to t…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It is fair to say that the rising cost of living is biting hard. It is affecting many people and families who are struggling to make ends meet, notwithstanding the help that has come from the Government in recent months. Inflation is slowing down and it is good to see that prices are not rising as fast as they were a few months ago, but they are still rising. That means that people are continuing to get worse off if their incomes do not rise as fast as prices are…

We need to consider a number of options. It probably would not be useful for me to speculate on the options now because it might just raise expectations. We will discuss it next week. I agree that the measures need to be targeted. It might be the case that there will still be some universal measures but, generally speaking, they need to be targeted at those who need them the most, those who are struggling the most and those on fixed incomes. I agree with the Deputy on that point. Let us not forget that it is becaus…

The Business Committee, I think quite sensibly, has agreed that we will have statements next week on the first matter to be raised, which goes back to the 1970s. I think it is important that people should know the facts before they make statements. Nobody wants to come in here and make a statement and then find out that something they have said is incorrect. That can happen-----