I do not dispute for a second that it is a sad reality that over 13,000 people will spend Christmas in emergency accommodation; in fact, I said so in my opening remarks. I cannot understand why the Deputy would try to claim I was saying otherwise because I did not. I also said what I thought was the solution, which is ramping up social housing, ramping up cost-rental housing and standing up to those who in their constituencies oppose things, particularly those such as Deputy McDonald who oppose one-bed apartments i…

They are real stories that are representative of what is happening. I find more and more that when Sinn Féin spokespeople are on the radio and the TV and are talking about housing, they are not challenged at all when it comes to facts such as this. I hope that will change in 2024, namely, that when people go on radio and TV-----

-----they are properly challenged.

I will read it out again. Some 80% of tenants surveyed said they were positive or very positive about renting. For 70% their rent had either gone down or stayed the same.

On affordability, 30% was the median amount of their monthly income people paid on rents. These are not just individual stories; these are 2,000 representative stories. I do not understand why Sinn Féin representatives when appearing on the media are never challenged with these things.

The current situation in Gaza is intolerable. It is unacceptable that over 18,000 people have been killed so far, many of them children, and that the majority of the population of Gaza, about 2 million people, have been displaced. The death toll is shocking, and the relentless bombings and killing of innocent civilians must end. That is why I will continue to make the case in Brussels and elsewhere for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in order that humanitarian aid can get into Gaza, hostages can be released and …

The answer is "Yes". The legal advice is that trade is an EU competence. Suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement and imposing any form of trade sanctions can be done only on a Europe-wide basis. That requires a consensus and unanimity among all 27 member states. That is the position. It is a political fact, and it is also the legal advice. I am happy to clarify that again in this Chamber. I am not sure quite how many times I have done so now. We believe the time has come for sanctions to be taken with regard…

-----causing huge difficulty for the Palestinian population in the West Bank.

I refer again to trade sanctions. The only way it can be done is by means of EU competences, EU treaties, the law and unanimity.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. He is right to remember and recall the 700 people who were killed by the British Army in Northern Ireland and, indeed, those who were killed by loyalist terrorists. However, I want to be very clear; legacy should not be seen as a sectarian issue, because it is not one. It should not be couched in the terms of orange and green, or unionist versus nationalist. Let us not forget that nearly 3,000 people were killed by republican terrorists in Northern Ireland. I ref…

We did try the diplomatic approach of persuasion and dissuasion-----

-----as well as trying to encourage, cajole and convince the UK Government not to proceed with that legislation. I stand over that approach because if we have to take a harder line, we can at least demonstrate that we exhausted all other options before taking that line. That was the right approach for lots of different reasons. We will have to make a decision on whether or not we will take an interstate case before 15 January. The Attorney General's advice was clear on that. We will make that decision before 15 Jan…

I thank the Deputy for that question. I am afraid to say that this is a problem all over the country and all of us have had this experience in representing our constituents, in meeting parents whose children are waiting far too long for the assessments they need and then, after that, the therapies they need. It might vary from area to area, or one community healthcare organisation, CHO, to another, but it is a problem across the country and has been for quite some time now. There are a number of aspects to it. Part…

I do not think that parents having to pay for therapies or assessments is the solution but I understand why many parents have to do that because they are waiting so long. There is a mechanism now by which the HSE can refund part of the cost of doing that and we want to expand that during the year but I do not think that is the solution on its own. It might help in some cases but it is something we are willing to do, which is to refund some or all of the costs where parents are effectively forced to go privately bec…

I thank the Deputy. At the outset, I want to say I am proud that we have welcomed 100,000 Ukrainians to Ireland. That has been done at a time when their country is being attacked and invaded. All 27 countries of the European Union, including Ireland, opened their doors to people from Ukraine. Some of us opened our houses to people from Ukraine. Roughly 100,000 people have fled Ukraine and come to Ireland, of whom we think approximately 80,000 are still here. Of course, they continue to come. I want to say clearly t…

We are confident that we will be able to provide that State accommodation for the 90 initial days to give people who come here from Ukraine a chance to establish themselves and a chance to find their own accommodation and their own employment - whatever they can manage to do. Some of that accommodation already exists across the system. As I mentioned already, people from Ukraine who have moved into State accommodation do not always stay there. Some have moved on to find their own accommodation while others have mov…

As I said in the House previously, climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity at present. We have to be the generation of politicians that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss. We can do that in many ways, first, by reducing our emissions. Our greenhouse gas emissions are falling, although not fast enough. However, greenhouse gas emissions per capita have fallen considerably in Ireland in recent years. Second, we also need to scale up adaptation because, unfortunately, so much of climate…

As the House will know, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is currently in Dubai.

He is representing Ireland and is also one of the lead negotiators on behalf of the European Union-----

-----on this critical issue of climate action and climate finance. I do not know which countries are competing for COP 29, to be very frank. We would certainly prefer that it be in a country that has a good record on climate action rather than one that might be resisting climate action. I am not sure which countries are offering to host at this stage. The EU's position and the one that Ireland is advocating for at COP is that climate should be at the centre of all financial and economic decisions and that internati…