Again, I acknowledge that the cost of living in Ireland is high. It was high before the current inflation crisis, compared with our peers. The cost of living in Ireland is about 30% or 35% higher than it is in similar countries. Our wages and salaries are also about 30% or 35% higher than in similar countries, which is important to bear in mind. While the Deputy's party has given us options and ideas as to how we can further assist people with the cost of living, it has not said how we should pay for or operational…

I reiterate the Government is absolutely committed to upholding the right of children with special educational needs to have a good education, a quality education and one that is provided in their community. Our policy is one of integration. If we are going to have an integrated society, we have to start with integrated schools, and as much as possible, children with special or additional needs should be integrated in mainstream schools and classes. What we try to do is provide education in mainstream classes with …

I thank the Deputy. I think he said earlier that language is important and that is right. Perhaps the language used yesterday was not the best. No parent wants to be told his or her child is being offered a stopgap solution. I particularly do not like the use of the term "autism centre" because it sounds othering. It sounds like children are going to be bussed away to a special place set away from other children and the rest of society and put in some sort of special centre, and I do not like that either. Perhaps t…

I thank the Deputy. I spent Monday and Tuesday in Davos representing the country at the World Economic Forum. I was happy to do so. The Taoiseach is there now. It is important we are represented and it gives us an opportunity to tell our story, whether in relation to the protocol, what is happening in Northern Ireland or to our own economy. I flew commercially and stayed in four-star hotel. No doubt they charged for it but it was nonetheless a four-star hotel and a commercial flight. There were some very interestin…

Employers who give pay rises often fund them by increasing the prices they charge their customers for the goods and services they produce. If a company with a few hundred employees increases pay by say, 7% or 8%, it will seek to fund that, at least in part, by increasing what it charges ordinary customers and people for the goods and services it produces. That is why we want to try to avoid a situation like the one that existed in the 1970s where people got substantial pay increases every year but it did not do the…

I thank the Deputy. I was interested to hear him cite the US. Many economists, including ones from both left and right, would say one of the reasons the US is facing such high levels of inflation, that are much higher than what we are experiencing here, is at least in part due to the level of spending by government there through the fiscal stimulus and also the extent to which the Federal Reserve has printed dollars through quantitative easing. The exact policies the Deputy advocates are being implemented in Americ…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I heard with great regret last Monday that PayPal was going to let 307 staff go, 135 from the Dublin office in Blanchardstown in my constituency and 175 from its offices in Dundalk. I spoke to the company's representatives earlier this week and they assured me that they remain committed to their 2,000 other staff and will continue to employ approximately 2,000 people in Ireland. They said they had to make this decision as part of a general restructuring of the co…

The Deputy can be assured that I will continue to engage on this matter. PayPal has given us the commitment that it will be retaining 2,000 staff in Ireland, which is very significant, and that it will put a good redundancy package in place for the staff who are being let go. The Government will provide the staff who are being let go with whatever support it can provide in respect of education, training, other employment options, welfare and so forth. Looking at the wider picture of employment at present, there was…

Whatever about language, and language is important, the policy is clear and the Government's policy is absolutely clear. It is one of integration. If we want an integrated society, we must have integrated schools. It is the Government's policy to provide children who have special educational needs with mainstream education. That could be in a mainstream class with the help of an SNA or it could be in a special class in a mainstream school. Three hundred additional special classes opened in mainstream schools in the…

This is an important issue and the Deputy asks some valid questions. I am afraid I do not have an up-to-date answer with me but I will ask the line Minister to come back to the Deputy in writing.

I understand the concern and understand how parents must have felt last night when they heard language used that their children would be offered a stopgap solution. No parent wants to hear that. The Government's commitment and policy on this is clear. As I mentioned earlier, 300 special classes opened in mainstream schools last year. The Minister has the power to require schools to provide additional mainstream classes. The policy is one of integration and mainstreaming. Sometimes other solutions are necessary. Som…

I have not had a chance to read the report yet but I will certainly get to it, if not over the next few days then over the weekend. As the Deputy will know, at the centre of the Government's response to the housing crisis is an increase in supply. Supply on its own will not solve the problem, but we will not solve the problem without additional supply. It is a fact that 25,000 new homes have been built in the past year, more than has been the case for probably a decade. There are 35,000 under construction and 45,00…

-----but it is the biggest part of solving the problem.

I am not a big fan of road tolls, and the Deputy will be aware that that toll is in my constituency. Many of my constituents travelling south in the morning and north in the evening have to pay that toll. It would be remiss of me, however, not to acknowledge that in most cases tolls help to pay for the infrastructure in the first place, which has to be paid for.

In other cases that money is used to pay for additional road infrastructure elsewhere, so the money stays with Transport Infrastructure Ireland. To help commuters with the cost of commuting, we have introduced a reduction in excise on petrol and diesel and a very significant reduction in the cost of using public transport, which seems to have been a great success, given the increased numbers using buses and trains in the past few weeks.

This matter is not yet finalised. Taking the Deputy's point on board, I would prefer that it is finalised and fully agreed before I make any announcement on it. What I can say, however, is that the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, working with the Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Heather Humphreys, is working very hard on a proposal that would provide State subvention for a number of post offices around the country, particularly those in rural areas and those very small post offices that provide an essent…

We all acknowledge that the limits for access for social housing need to be raised. They have not been raised for quite some time and the cost of housing has increased considerably in the last couple of years. It is intended that we raise those limits, but I cannot give the Deputy the exact amount or the timeframe for that at the moment. That is a matter for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. However, it would be right to acknowledge, as I am sure Deputy Pringle will, that we are very much und…

I join Deputy O'Dowd in expressing my concern and regret that PayPal has announced these job losses. Some 135 of them will be my constituency and 172 will be in Deputy O’Dowd’s constituency. The company has given a commitment that it is here to stay in Ireland and will continue to have over 2,000 people employed in west Dublin, Louth and other parts of the country. We are ambitious about the IDA Ireland land bank in Drogheda. It is a really good opportunity to get a major jobs-rich investment into Drogheda, which i…

I was informed earlier by the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, that it remains a Government commitment to extend the cath lab service to the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. This was meant to happen in March. It has not happened yet because it is necessary to hire another clinician to do so. That has not been possible to date. It is still intended to get that done this year, in the third quarter of the year. This demonstrates a difficulty that exists in healthcare generally, not just in Ireland but around the…

I totally agree with the Deputy’s sentiments in this regard. I was appalled to read about what happened in Naas. I read that a doctor has been struck off in recent times. I will have to follow up on this because I am not exactly sure of the current position. However, it would make sense to me that if the Medical Council strikes somebody off, it should-----