These are separate but connected issues, as I am sure the Deputy will appreciate. I do not know when it is intended to publish the Indecon report but I will check it out and get back to her by correspondence. The Government is keen to build on our ratification of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities by opting into the optional protocol as well, but we need to make sure we are ready to do so. I do not think we are quite there yet but we have never been closer.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I know something about the very sad case she raised but I do not know all the details of it. That is why I will be restrained in my comments. It was obviously an enormous tragedy for the family and I can only imagine what it is like to be told your child will be born with a severe disability, or perhaps not born alive, and to go ahead with a termination believing it is the right thing for all those involved, only to be told later there was a mistake in the test and that yo…

I have read a little in the newspapers about this development but I do not know the details of it and I do not, therefore, want to comment on it. A lot of apartment buildings would not be built at all were it not for the fact there was an investor willing to invest in them and pay upfront to provide the finance for them. Nobody would win if there were fewer apartments built. It would drive up prices and rents for everyone and we need to bear that in mind. We also need to bear in mind that there are people who need …

I will have to come back to the Deputy on that question as I do not have an up-to-date note on it. I certainly share his concerns about increases in knife crime incidents in our cities and elsewhere in Ireland. It is a complex problem and it does not always respond to simple solutions.

We are taking a number of actions in this regard. The Deputy will be familiar with the new personal injury guidelines that have just been agreed by the Judicial Council. We anticipate that this guidance will bring down awards and should, therefore, also bring down premiums. We are advancing the Criminal Justice (Perjury and Related Offences) Bill 2018 to enable us to take a harder line against people who make bogus or exaggerated claims. We are also reviewing the duty of care legislation to rebalance the responsibi…

I will certainly raise the matter with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and let her know he raised it in the House. I understand there is a review under way at some level but I am not across the details of it. I had the pleasure of walking a section of the Beara-Breifne Way around Millstreet. I would love to do the whole length of it, from north to south, some time. It is a walk with huge potential. I will let the Minister know the Deputy raised this issue in the Dáil.

I thank the Deputy. I am afraid I cannot give him a date here. I would like to be able to give him a date and a clear commitment but it is just not an area directly under my responsibility. I am very aware of the Deputy's advocacy on this issue and his commitment to it. I will certainly let the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, know it was raised again and ask them to get back to the Deputy directly.

The best way to bring this forward is probably for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to meet with the group. I will let her know he raised this matter today and ask her to do that.

I thank the Deputy very much for his question. I start by joining him in welcoming the agreement that was reached last night to appoint a new Executive and a new First Minister, Paul Givan, and facilitate the reappointment of Michelle O’Neill as deputy First Minister. Mr. Givan and Ms O'Neill are now co-equals and joint heads of the Administration in Northern Ireland. Despite the fact that one of their titles may suggest otherwise, they are joint leaders of that Administration and should be treated as such. I look …

I think the Deputy is trying to misrepresent what I said, and that is exactly what he did the last time we discussed the issue of housing in the Chamber. Unfortunately, he was partially successful in that regard. That is a poor reflection on him but also on others who accept his spin too often when it comes to the issue of housing. To answer the Deputy's question, the Government has dramatically increased investment in social housing. We will do so more, and he will see the details of that in Housing for All when i…

I do have confidence in the hospital board and the Department of Health to manage this project. To answer the Deputy's question, it is my firm view that when this project is complete, few people will think it was a bad investment. Those who have seen the facilities we now have in Blanchardstown and the first phase of that development, namely, the urgent care centre, will see what an improvement it is on the facilities at the Temple Street hospital, for example. The same applied to the Luas, the port tunnel, Termina…

Regarding the claims made by the contractor, the contractor submitted more than 800 claims for additional money for this project. The board is disputing and defending those claims. It has been extremely successful in discussions and arbitrations in ensuring most of the claims made by the contractor have been rejected and, in some cases, reduced very significantly. Indeed, there are now four cases before the High Court, which forms part of the management process. As those matters are before the High Court, I cannot …

I appreciate we need to invest more in our water network. We are currently preparing the national development plan, NDP, review, which will set out the level of public investment in all forms of infrastructure between now and 2030. It is the update, or refresh, of Project Ireland 2040. We expect to complete that in the next few months. As part of that, we are giving consideration to additional funding for Irish Water. However, there is a difficulty, though not an insurmountable one, in that Irish Water is a State a…

I am not sure if that was a question but I heard the points the Deputy made. They were very fair points and very well made. On the particular issues relating to Kerry, if the Deputy sends me more details about them, I will be happy to take them up with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and provide him with a more detailed reply.

I thank the Deputy. At the outset, I would like to state that I believe we all respect and value the role played by the Religious Sisters of Charity in providing healthcare and education down the years when the State did not. We all support the building of a new national maternity hospital at Elm Park. We need it and women need those modern facilities. Holles Street is a great hospital but it belongs to 200 years ago, not to today. There are problems in going forward with this project. The Deputy and I agree on thi…

From the point of view of the Government, it is an absolute requirement that the constitution and the memorandum and articles of association, memo and arts, for the new hospital must specify that any procedures and treatments legal in the State are available in that hospital. There can be no ambiguity about that. That includes sterilisation, IVF, assisted reproduction and terminations. I will look into the issue of gender reassignment. I was not aware that was done in maternity hospitals. I thought it was done in a…

I join the Deputy in commending Dr. Austin O’Carroll. I have worked and spend a bit of time with him through various charities and organisations in which he has been involved. I would listen to what he says in this regard. The Minister is considering the report and will respond in a reasoned way. The most recent monthly homelessness report shows that the number of single adults accessing emergency accommodation has fallen for the second consecutive month to 4,533. We have seen roughly a 40% fall in family homelessn…

I may have picked the Deputy up wrong, but I think he is asking me to agree with him that whatever is announced will not be enough. Perhaps that was a Freudian slip, because that is what he is going to say no matter what is announced. Leaving that aside, this is something that I have called for too, and it is something the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, is working on. We should be able to publish that in the coming weeks. It has not gone to the Cabinet yet. What the Deputy may have been trying to say - I agr…

Tá an tAire ag bunú grúpa oibre dírithe faoi theorainn ama idir oifigigh Roinne agus ionadaithe ó údaráis áitiúla Mhaigh Eo agus Dhún na nGall. Aithneoidh an grúpa oibre saincheisteanna atá fós gan réiteach agus rachaidh sé i ngleic leo. D’fhéadfadh an grúpa tuairisciú ar ais don Aire faoi dheireadh mhí Iúil lena gcuid gníomhartha. Cuirfidh an tAire na gníomhartha sin faoi bhráid an Rialtais. I will have to find out what the facts are and come back to the Deputy on the National Building Control and Market Surveilla…

This is a significant concern at the moment. It is an issue many of my constituents are raising with me and I imagine Deputy Kenny has had the same experience. What I can confirm is that the Government has agreed to reduce the gap between the first dose and the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine from 12 weeks to eight weeks. We cannot reduce the gap to anything shorter than that, as the licence and the manufacturer state there should be a 56 day gap or more between the first two doses. We are doing that, but it…