That did not happen because of the Social Democrats. It happened because of policies pursued for generations in Ireland. That is not the reality for a lot of younger people in Ireland. Most of our housing policies are now orientated towards trying to increase home ownership in Ireland and make it possible for more people to buy homes. Shared equity is part of that. I have seen it work in my constituency, where people who are renting and unable to afford a home can do so through shared equity. We will see a lot of d…

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge the simple fact that our public health service is too small for a population of 5 million people, which is also an ageing population. That is not the only reason but one of the reasons too many people have to wait too long for the health care they need. I fully acknowledge that. The Deputy asked me if I have the stomach to reverse the cuts to our health service. I have more than the stomach for it. That is exactly what I have been doing during my time in government. From the moment…

I believe in universal healthcare in Ireland. As I outlined to the Deputy, it is something I have tried to make a reality in the past couple of years. We continue to work on that. There is a misunderstanding sometimes about how different health service models work around the world. About 10% of people in the United Kingdom have private health insurance. In lots of European countries, almost everyone has health insurance. That is the case in Germany, the Netherlands and France. Different models work in different cou…

-----with private health insurance. That is the case.

It is not the case that nobody has private health insurance in the United Kingdom. People do. In fact, a lot of European countries have an insurance-based model and people are either required to have health insurance or there is a system of social health insurance which is run through the health system. The NHS is not the typical model across the European Union. Countries across the EU tend to use insurance-based models. In Australia, which has a very good health service, there is a mixed system like ours. The Depu…

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of child protection. I realise that we will debate this in the House later and that we will continue to discuss it in the weeks and months ahead. I agree that we must do more to help every child to get the start in life to which the child is entitled. For many children that is very difficult because of the circumstances of their birth or the lack of family support. They just do not get the start in life that they deserve. We have a responsibility to try to make sur…

The Deputy is right in one of the fundamental points he made, that if we can reduce poverty and inequality in our society the number of these difficult issues that arise will be less. He will acknowledge that Ireland is a country in which poverty has been falling in the last five or six years, if not the last ten years. It is a country in which inequality has been narrowing. Some people try to deny that, but it is a fact and the Central Statistics Office's survey on income and living conditions, SILC, confirms that…

The objective here is to make home ownership a reality for more people, particularly young people. Over the next couple of years the Deputy will see many people who have been renting for far too long being able to get their feet on the housing ladder and to buy their first home through the shared equity scheme. For them, in many cases they will pay less on their mortgage than they are currently paying in rent. In the real world where large numbers of people are paying very high rents, they will be able to own a hom…

I have not seen the report. As the Deputy said, it has only come out in the past few minutes.

It is because it means that many people will be able to become homeowners for the first time-----

-----and they will pay less for their mortgage than they are paying for rent.

Does the Deputy want to keep them renting for life?

I am afraid I cannot answer the Deputy's question on an individual basis, but I hope that gentleman gets his third dose of the vaccine as soon as possible. As of today, about 700,000 people have received their third dose of the Covid vaccine. We are now able to provide the third dose to between 160,000 and 200,000 people a week. Even at the peak of the vaccine programme, it was not possible to vaccinate everyone in one or two weeks. We can run at a capacity of approximately 250,000 a week. Over 1 million people sho…

I have not yet seen the Central Bank report. I believe it was only published in the last hour or so and therefore I am loath to comment on it. We support the shared equity scheme, as one element of our housing policy, because it will help people who are currently renting to become homeowners for the first time. In most cases the mortgages they will pay will be less than the rent they are currently paying. Anything that enables people who are trapped paying very high rents to become homeowners for the first time, of…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I am not briefed on the matter but I will certainly make sure it is checked out because obviously we would not want people to lose that service.

I will need to ask the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to come back with a more comprehensive reply than I can give. The Government is very keen to proceed with the expansion of wind energy both onshore and offshore. It is what we need to help save our planet and to end our dependence on fossil fuels. It is also what we need to improve energy security and energy prices. If we use more electricity generated from wind energy, we will not be as dependent as we are on oil an…

It does.

I would not like us stop wind turbines that are louder than a bird. It would be hard to have any onshore wind-----

The Government appreciates and understands the enormous impact that rising energy prices are having on people, whether it is households and families struggling with the bills or businesses. I engage with business all the time and the same business people whose main concern would have been finding staff or insurance costs a few weeks ago are now talking to me about the impact of high energy costs on them and, of course, on the haulage sector. The Government understands and appreciates the fear, difficulty and anxiet…

It is important to say these prices are driven by international factors. The Government only has so much control over these things.