I thank the Deputy. I will have to check with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, who is attending COP 27 at present, to see what solution we came up with. I know it turned out to be quite complicated given the nature of bill pay being different from pay-as-you-go. As the Deputy acknowledged, there are no disconnections at certain times such as weekends. We were trying to make it easier for people to move from pay-as-you-go to bill pay without having to pay €160. I am not sure where it ended up. I know the Department with r…

I thank the Deputy. We are actively recruiting people for our health service domestically and abroad. Approximately 130,000 or 135,000 people work in our health service, which is more than ever before. There are 81,000 nurses and midwives, which is more than ever before. We have never had more doctors or consultants working on our health service than is the case now. This, of course, comes against a backdrop of a rising population, increasing medical needs and a move towards shorter hours and more part-time work. W…

I appreciate this is an important issue for people on Dursey Island and in Castletownbere. I do not have an update to hand and do not want to give information that may turn out to be false. However, I will get my office to follow up with the Deputy on this to see if we can find more information.

I am sorry to hear about this man’s experience and that of his family. As the Deputy will understand, it is not within the power of a Minister to intervene to allocate people housing or residential care. This is not how the system works, and I am not sure it would be fair if politicians were the ones who decided who got residential care and who did not.

If the Deputy passes on the details, we will definitely follow up on it and will be happy to. Again, I do not want to create the impression that Ministers allocate housing. That is not the case.

We discussed this at the Cabinet subcommittee on health on Monday, trying to figure out and carry out a review into how we might be able to speed up capital development in the health sector. The Deputy will be painfully aware that the development of an emergency department and of maternity and paediatric services in University Hospital Galway seem to be going on forever, which is extremely frustrating. There are similar examples in other parts of the country. However, there is a balance to be struck. Anything that …

I very much agree that if a person’s mobile home is his or her principal residence, he or she should benefit from the €600 credit. I think a solution has been worked out on Traveller accommodation, although I am not sure how that works. I know both Ministers, Deputies Humphreys and Ryan, are trying to work out a solution through energy bills or the social welfare system. I agree we need to sort this out. The intention was that every household would receive €600 in energy credits. A family or a person living in a mo…

We have a successful programme of building primary care centres throughout the country. I have three in my own constituency, all of which are working very well.

I do not know about Portlaoise, to be honest-----

-----and I am not sure when the next capital programme is coming out. However, I will check it and get back to the Deputy.

I will.

In making the decision to merge the two Bills, we took on board the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, of which the Deputy is a member, and listened to the views of employer groups and unions through the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. The plan is to insert the remote working provision into the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman's, Bill on Report Stage, which is supposed to be taken in the coming weeks. We hope it will get through the Dáil before the recess and perhaps throug…

I am a big supporter of the Government's plan to build elective hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Galway to reduce waiting lists. Bearing in mind what Deputy Ó Cuív said earlier, I am realistic and I believe these new elective hospitals will be five or six years in planning, design and building. That is not good enough, so we need interim solutions as well. We already have elective hospitals, for example, Cappagh hospital, the Eye and Ear Hospital, and in Croom, which could potentially do more. There is a very successf…

Pay increases for teachers kick in this week. Teachers will receive their pay increase from the Department of Education in their payslips this week and throughout the month. It includes the back pay to February, which will obviously help financially. We have a teacher shortage of which we are very much aware and we are working on solutions. I believe the IPPN conference is happening today, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, will be there and will engage with the IPPN. It has made some good suggestions to which we need…

We have not agreed dates for any of those referendums as of yet. It is fair to say that none of them will happen within six months. It takes a bit of time to plan for a referendum. My Department has begun the process of planning for the referendum on the patent court, which will happen no later than the local and European elections of 2024. We do not have dates for the referendums. We will need to have dates because a number of them probably should happen next year but it has not been agreed by Cabinet yet.

These toll increases and their scale are very unwelcome. I am not happy about them at all. The M50 toll bridge is in my constituency and many people travel north and south through it twice per day. I am not happy with the toll increases at all. It is a statutory function of TII, not a Government decision, but we will take it up with TII when it publishes the details of the proposal, as required by legislation. I do not want to make a promise I cannot keep but I want make it very clear this came as a surprise to Gov…

I am not fully up to date on that and will have to ask the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to respond to the Deputy.

That certainly sounds strange and I doubt it was what was intended. I will certainly take it up with the Department of Transport. Even giving people reassurance that they do not have to reapply and the grant will be reissued might provide a solution, but I will certainly take it up with the Minister.

I am very sorry to hear about the experience of Jack and Aisling, but we have done trolley counts in children's hospitals for a long time now, perhaps ten or 20 years. Thankfully, it is a much less common experience than in our adult hospitals but it happens in the winter period in particular. A new children's hospital is under construction and, in a few weeks' time, I will able to tell the Deputy that it will be open next year. I look forward to being able to say that and to see it happening. Contrary to what has …

I extend my deepest sympathies and those of my party to Vicky's friends and family, particularly her husband, Jim, and her children, Amelia and Darragh. I met Vicky on a number of occasions and she was one of the most impressive people I have ever met. There was something about her that was hard to define. She is an example to us all, a woman of limitless strength, courage and compassion. Without Vicky, the CervicalCheck non-disclosure debacle would never have come to light. Thanks to her advocacy, we can start to …