If it had been possible, the party would have done it in Northern Ireland over the past 20 years but it has not. The party's record on housing there is absolutely appalling.

I thank the Deputy. I want to be careful with my remarks because, as the Deputy said, it is a sensitive issue. I know many survivors have been very upset by what they read today and yesterday, coming out of this academic seminar in England. The Government decided we should carry out an investigation into what happened in mother and baby homes and, as the Oireachtas, we united to agree terms of reference for that commission, which has made its report. To my mind, what happened after that was not acceptable. Essentia…

Only the commission members can clarify how they treated the evidence and testimony given by women survivors to the confidential committee. If they discounted it entirely, it is a serious problem and it would put a question mark over the validity of the report. If, however, they took it into account, it amounts to a different question. The Deputy and any fair-minded person in this House would appreciate there is a difference between evidence and testimony on one hand and proof and the establishment of fact on the o…

-----and meet a burden of proof. This is not my report or that of the Government. The report came via a commission set up by all of us in the Oireachtas. It was given to an independent commission to do. In light of what happened in Oxford, it behoves the members of the commission to do the right thing, to speak to the Oireachtas, to speak to the survivors, to explain their report, to explain their findings, to tell us how they came to the conclusions they did and to take any reasonable questions in a non-adversaria…

I echo Deputy Lowry's remarks on our small and medium enterprises, many of which will reopen over the next weeks, hopefully getting back to full capacity. It is little remarked, but it should be said more often in this House and in other places, that small and medium enterprises account for more than half of all employment in all parts of the State. More people work in small and medium enterprises in Ireland than in the multinational sector and the public sector combined. This is why the Government has put so much …

We always knew it but the pandemic has accelerated it: the future of our economy is going to be green and is going to be digital. The world has changed in the past year or two. We have probably come on ten or 15 years in terms of the digital transformation. People who never bought things online now do. People who went to the ATM regularly have not been for months. People who never before shopped online now shop online and get deliveries as a matter of course. It has changed and it will not change back. This has con…

I thank the Deputy. In a few months' time, provided the virus does not surprise us again, we will be in a very different place as an economy and society. We will see a really rapid recovery in our economy due to Government investment, pent-up demand and deployment of the €12 billion or €14 billion in savings now in our banks above where we were in 2019. We will find ourselves in a place in a few months' time where we will still have hundreds of thousands of people in receipt of welfare payments of working age but a…

Let me burst the Deputy's bubble again. The Government is not responsible for Brexit. Brexit is something that happened when the people in the United Kingdom decided they were going to leave the European Union and it has consequences. It has consequences in terms of checks on imports into this country and on the taxes that must be levied.

The Deputy knows this was down to a decision made on environmental grounds in the courts and the Government is now responding to it.

It is a definite feature of the House that when people have to hear the truth or the facts they get animated and start shouting. Apparently, according to the Deputy, we are responsible for Brexit and the taxes that accrue as a consequence of it. Quite frankly, businesses have a responsibility to make sure they know what the rules and regulations are. We provide a grant to businesses of €8,000 at year to help them figure out customs. I would be interested to know whether the business referred to by the Deputy has av…

The Government serves the interests of Irish farmers and Irish farm families in these talks and of course this is what we will do. We want to see more food production. We want to see farm income rise. We also want to make sure we have a Common Agricultural Policy that aligns with our climate objectives, which is crucial too. Currently, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is engaged in the negotiations and I would not like to comment on them in too much detail. The Deputy knows there has been convergence in recent yea…

We have updated advice now from NIAC which is recommending that we can go back to an eight-week interval between AstraZeneca doses. That is welcome news for healthcare workers and others - people in their 50s and 60s who have received AstraZeneca and would like to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible. We want them to be fully vaccinated as soon as possible. The recommendation from NIAC is in line with the European Medicines Agency, EMA, which says 56 days is a sufficient interval between doses, but not less. Wh…

As I said earlier, and I know the Deputy would agree with this, there is a difference between evidence and testimony on the one hand, which may well be true, and proof of fact which is something different. Obviously, any commission of inquiry or investigation would have to have a burden of proof that is above the level of testimony or evidence. It would have to be challenged. It would have to be backed up. However, I am stating the obvious in that regard. We all appreciate that. I can only repeat what I said earlie…

I am told that pre-legislative scrutiny is now done and the heads are now being prepared. I am afraid I do not have a timeline for the Deputy but I will ask the Minister to write to the Deputy about it.

I am glad to hear that news, by the way. I hope the offer is accepted and that the post is filled as soon as possible. I recognise the Deputy's consistent advocacy in seeking that that post be made available for the children and people in Wexford who need it. I will have to take up the point about the dietitian with the HSE. Ultimately, those decisions are operational ones for the HSE. The fact that the Deputy raised it here in the Chamber demonstrates how important it is and how we need to provide better services …

The importance of the outcome of these talks cannot be underestimated for rural Ireland and for our farmers and our food industry. They are ongoing and I am limited in what I can say. Perhaps the best thing might be, if he is available, for the Minister to come before the House when we resume in a few days' time and give a briefing and take questions on it.

I thank the Deputy. I will certainly mention that to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. We are aware of problems, obviously related to the cyberattack, that have caused delays in processing medical cards. As the Deputy rightly states, it is possible for GPs to issue emergency medical cards. It is not something we particularly encourage, by the way, but sometimes it is necessary. This is one of those times where, I think, it is necessary. Perhaps we can send out a circular to GPs reminding them of that process a…

As the Deputy stated, rare diseases in Ireland are not rare. While they are rare individually, they are common when they are added together. During my time as Minister for Health, I had the pleasure and privilege of developing Ireland's first rare diseases strategy and establishing the National Rare Diseases Office, but progress in recent years has been slow for many reasons. I am not in a position to give the Deputy a proper update on where we stand on the matters in question, but I will let the Minister, Deputy S…

As the Deputy knows, the Taoiseach will meet the new leader of the DUP this evening. We hope that a meeting of the British-Irish Council will go ahead as planned on Friday. We all look forward to the election of a new First Minister. I look forward to engaging with the new First Minister and the deputy First Minister once they are appointed. I agree with the Deputy's remarks. The Good Friday Agreement is not something that one can opt in or out of. It was agreed not just by the political parties, but by the soverei…

As I understand it, the scheme is run by PDFORRA and is based on the cross-border directive, which has probably been disrupted by Brexit. I hope that it can continue, but I cannot give a specific commitment in that regard. The bigger issue, which was in my party's manifesto and has been included in the programme for Government, is that we should provide much better healthcare and access to healthcare for enlisted soldiers and naval and Air Corps personnel. Officers have a good set of healthcare arrangements, but th…