Therefore, it is not the final answer with regard to the work we will do to help people on low pay. People will see further action taken in the budget on tax, welfare and helping with their bills. This will bring them to a point where we are fully protecting them from inflation.

I join the Deputy in extending my condolences to the family and friends of the man who died in those tragic circumstances. It is Government policy to bring in supervised injection centres. We have plans to do so at Merchant's Quay. The Deputy knows the difficulties and complications that have arisen around this but we certainly have not given up on it. The policy remains an objective. I absolutely agree that we need to continue to invest more in drug treatment centres and drug treatment beds. It is money very well …

I thank the Deputy. We will certainly give it consideration. The Government has been criticised in the past, by the way, for buying properties on the private market for social housing as opposed to building them. The Deputy may even have been one of those who has been critical of us for doing so.

Sometimes it does make sense to buy properties on the private market, in the instances the Deputy has mentioned, for example, or where a particular type of property may be needed for a large family or a family who has a member with disabilities. What the Deputy has said about corporate tax is also valid. We should not rely on our corporate tax receipts to fund day-to-day spending. Capital is not day-to-day spending. Once we buy something, we do not have to buy it twice. Once something is built, it does not need to …

I thank the Deputy. I am very alarmed to hear this situation has arisen in his constituency. I am sure we will have to find a solution to it. If I have picked up the Deputy right, it is not so much an issue of finance as the availability of a bus. I cannot give an answer on it here but I appreciate the fact he has raised it. Perhaps we will engage offline or with the Minister, Deputy Foley, to see whether we can come up with a solution.

We very much value the essential work that family carers do. Of course we will give consideration in the budget as to how we can help them out. Everyone, particularly carers and some other groups, are feeling the bite of the cost of living much harder, especially people who have to be at home a lot and generate costs relating to heating. We will absolutely bear this in mind in the budget package. I point out that anything we do in the budget will be additional to what we have done for carers in recent years, which …

We will certainly work on this issue over the coming weeks. I know the Minister, Deputy Foley, will testify before committee about it. There are an additional 21,000 tickets this year and plans were made for additional demand. Unfortunately, those 21,000 are not enough. Everyone entitled to the service, as I understand, will get it. However, we have a particular issue with - Deputy Smyth put her finger on it - people who had concessionary tickets in the past, had a reasonable expectation that they would into the fu…

It is past time already, given that the new school year is now well under way. I do not know exactly all of the rules and regulations around school transport. I know most Deputies here do. It would not be as big of an issue in my constituency, perhaps, as in the Deputy's. I do not, however, see the logic in telling somebody not to get on a bus if the bus has empty spaces on it. Whatever the rules and regulations are, there is also the rule of common sense. If there is a vacant seat on a bus, why would one not allow…

I acknowledge that many people feel public transport is unsafe, especially at night and for women. That is a real problem and it is not just a perception. People see incidents occur on the Luas, buses and on trains and it makes them very worried. It also very much goes against what we are trying to do in encouraging people to use public transport more often, which is why we brought down the fares in the past year. Ultimately, a decision on whether there is a dedicated transport police is a matter for the Garda Comm…

I was not aware that meeting was happening today but I am glad to hear that it is. It would probably not be right for me to prejudge the outcome but I hope it is a positive one. I know there was an arbitration process under John Rogers SC many years ago, which did not come to a conclusion. I hope we will get a conclusion on that issue under this Government.

There will be an income tax package in the budget. It will be the largest income tax reduction package in any budget for quite a number of years. I guarantee the Deputy it will never go as far as we want it to go, which is always the case, but it will be significant and, of course, the objective is to make sure that people get to keep more of their own hard-earned money and especially that people on middle incomes do not see any pay increase, overtime or increment that they get mostly being lost to tax, PRSI and th…

I appreciate the problems that we face in providing home help for people who need it. As the Deputy says, it is a vital service. It keeps people out of hospitals. It makes considerable sense that we fund it well and, indeed, we do, but there is a shortage of people willing to work in the area. Among issues being examined at present by the Minister is whether we need to improve pay or mileage rates to encourage people who might be willing to work a few more hours per week to provide that service.

I have not seen the numbers but if they add up it would make sense to do it. We want to move freight off the roads and on to rail but we do not want to spend considerable money building a train line which is uneconomic and then requires many more subsidies. As the Deputy points out, capital is a one-off, but subsidies are not. Thus, if we open a rail line and it can wash its face that is one thing but if we open a rail line and have to keep subsidising it every year that is a different thing. That is why the number…

That is a fair point but-----

The Luas is the example - both lines.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of defective apartments. It is a big issue in my constituency too. Many of the homes in my constituency were built around the same time as many of those in her constituency and unfortunately there are a lot of problems with fire risk, water ingress and other issues. We helped people with pyrite, we are helping people with mica and it is important we do the same for people in our cities who have been affected by defective apartments. I do not have a timeline on the considerat…

I am not familiar with the report so I am reluctant to comment on it. I will let the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and indeed the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, know the Deputy raised it in the Dáil and we will see what response is possible.

I thank the Deputy for sharing that story. I should say that the domiciliary care allowance, DCA, is not means-tested but the carer's allowance is. I would love it if it were possible for there to be no means tests but unfortunately they are necessary because financial resources, even in a very wealthy country, are limited. However, sometimes means tests are too mean and when knocking on doors over the summer I came across a number of examples where people have lost eligibility for the carer's allowance or a studen…

Deputy Carey asked about Croí Cónaithe, which as we know is a grant of between €30,000 and €50,000 to repair and bring back into use a building for residential purposes in small towns and villages. The Deputy proposes extending it to rural areas. I like that idea and think it makes a lot of sense but we need to take a little time to see what the take-up is like on the existing scheme. We do not know yet whether the €30,000 to €50,000 is going to be enough to move the dial or what the take-up is going to be. However…

I thank Deputy Doherty very much. The numbers from the CSO this morning indicate that inflation has now risen to 9.6%, which is the highest rate of inflation we have experienced in 40 years. I think it confirms what people are experiencing in their daily lives. We see it at the fuel pumps, in the supermarkets and in our utility bills. The price of everything is going up and the price of nothing is going down. We face an unprecedented situation, however. We have war on our Continent for the first time in 40 years. W…