I will give a small example. During election campaigns, we have all seen taxi drivers bringing people to polling stations. As a taxi is a commercial vehicle, was that declared? There are many things that need to be figured out in this instance. That needs to be taken into regard. If somebody from another jurisdiction helped out for a day or two, and was given a few bob by a third or fourth party to help to cover his or her petrol or diesel expenses, that is something that should have been accounted for as well. We …

Yes, it is.

We need to bear-----

-----all of that in mind.

On the lobbying Act and the legislation that was brought in, I acknowledge the Labour Party's contribution to making reforms in this area. During all of that period, it was in government with my party. We brought in the lobbying Act, an effective ban on corporate donations, a freedom of information Act, and whistleblowers' legislation which is now being strengthened by this Government. This new Government will also strengthen the ethics Act as well.

Of course, what the former Minister of State, Deputy English, did in respect of his planning application 14 years ago is not acceptable - not to my party, not to this Government or not to anyone. That is why he resigned.

He resigned and no longer holds office in this Government. Party matters are separate. We have a party disciplinary process. That is not a matter for this Chamber.

With regard to SIPO and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe's, explanation of affairs, he has agreed to answer questions in the Dáil this afternoon. If SIPO carries out an inquiry and asks him to produce any evidence, he will have to do that. He accepts that the delay in putting his affairs in order was a mistake. He acknowledges and apologises for that. He should have made changes to his declaration when he became aware of this a few months ago. He deeply regrets that he did not because we would not be in this position t…

I am sorry to disappoint the Deputy, but I will not be spending a few days in Davos. I will be there maybe for a day and a half. I have my responsibilities here and they take precedence. I will, therefore, only be there for about a day and a half. There is a busy programme of meetings and media engagements. The advantage of Davos, quite frankly, is that there are so many politicians, world leaders and business leaders in the one place for two or three days that it would be remiss not to be there. I will be able to …

When it comes to that €50 million figure, I wonder is that a gross wealth figure or is it a net wealth figure and how did Oxfam know how much people owe, what their debts are and what their assets are.

I would wonder about the accuracy of that and whether or not it is gross wealth or net wealth. One thing the Deputy is right about is we have seen a major increase in corporate profits around the world and Ireland in recent years and as a consequence of that, we in Ireland have benefited from massive receipts in corporation profit tax from those companies.

On a per-head basis, we get more in in corporation profit tax than almost any other country in Europe. Only Luxembourg is maybe up there, with one or two others. Our low-tax regime on corporations means that we taken in billions of euro more than other countries do. That is money we use to help people, such as the people the Deputy mentioned, with the €600 energy credit that the person the Deputy mentioned will benefit from being taken off their bills, the increases in welfare payments of €12 a week kicking in this…

-----the reductions in income tax kicking in this month and the 25% reduction in childcare costs kicking in this month.

I could go on. Provided we continue to encourage enterprise and tax it, we will have the funds to do more.

I thank the Deputy. I want to say at the outset how very sorry I am to hear about Mary's experience of our health service. For most people, their experience of our health service is very good - that is what they tell us in patient experience surveys - but I know for some people it is very bad. Mary, sadly, is just one example of many others that all of us could recount to this House. It is not acceptable that she experienced that. We know that overcrowding in emergency departments and delays in getting to a ward re…

I thank the Deputy. As he knows, the Minister for Health is with us this afternoon and will certainly speak on it later. We will work together to do anything we can to speed up increasing capacity in Portiuncula University Hospital, which is all the more necessary since the reconfiguring of Roscommon University Hospital and given the fact that Galway University Hospital is so congested. As I mentioned, the outpatient department is being relocated. This will provide a new 12-bed ward. Work is ongoing with the design…

I wish to announce, for the information of the Dáil, that having informed the President that Dáil Éireann had approved my nomination of Deputies to be members of the Government, the President, on 17 December 2022, appointed them accordingly; that, on the same date, I nominated Deputy Micheál Martin to be the Tánaiste and assigned the Department of Foreign Affairs and Defence to him; that, on the same date, I assigned the other Departments of State to the other members of Government as follows: the Department of the…

I think he is back. However, whether he is or not, we will have to do the transfer order which is not yet done. That may take a couple of days.

Questions will be as scheduled. The transfer of responsibilities has not happened yet but it will.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, remains responsible until the transfer order is done.