There are places where there is no public land and in those places the land cost impacts on the price of affordable housing. It is not that affordable housing will only be built on public land. It will also require the acquisition of land in some cases and it may be built on private land as well. I will go back to the NAMA portfolio, which was not mentioned by the Deputy. It is the crucial point that he left out. Why would somebody leave the crucial point out of one's argument? The crucial point about the NAMA port…

They would have had to be serviced, at the cost of public services or higher taxes for ordinary people.

I have not changed my mind on this since last year. I still think it is a weakness that our Defence Forces do not have an aircraft available at all times that could get our troops out of Lebanon in a hurry if we had to, carry out a major evacuation of Irish citizens from somewhere in the world if we had to, or to have an aircraft available that could, for example, bring supplies such as personal protective equipment, PPE, into the country at short notice were it needed. We are reliant on commercial operators and ot…

I will definitely raise it with the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney. As I said earlier, my mind has not changed on this matter but I appreciate that funds are limited and there may be other higher priorities, such as, for example, maritime patrol, search and rescue and the modernisation and replacement of existing equipment. Having read the report, although it was a year ago, I do not see any reason it could not be published. I do not recall there being anything of national security sensitivity in it. Again, I…

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I have to say the Government and I, personally, were deeply alarmed by reports we read about the possibility the British Government may consider providing an amnesty or putting in place a statute of limitations on offences that occurred during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This would fly in the face of the Stormont House Agreement and of the New Decade, New Approach Agreement. Anything like this would have to have the agreement of the parties in Northern…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again. I know it is of enormous interest to many people in the House. I will check up on this. My understanding was that partners could attend for the birth of their child and we were to revise the guidelines so that they could attend other appointments as well, such as the 20-week scan and some antenatal appointments.

I have heard and understand there may be different policies being operated in different maternity hospitals, but I agree that a standard approach would be better and favourable. I will take it up with the Department of Health and with the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, in the next couple of days.

As the Deputy will be aware, this matter is an EU competence. Ireland does not have a seat at the WTO. We are represented by the EU. There are no Covid vaccines made or developed in Ireland and, to my knowledge, the intellectual property is not held here. The statement by Ms Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, and the decision of the US Administration is very significant and should cause the EU and other developed countries to reassess their position. The Covid pandemic is raging around the world. We are se…

-----is to involve the pharmaceutical companies, scientists and universities in a solution that will allow more vaccines to be made, and particularly in the global south.

The President of the Commission made a statement on this this morning and made it clear that the European Union is open to discussions on this matter. We want a practical solution that actually means that more vaccines will be produced in the global south and that needs to go beyond a TRIPS waiver. The EU position is we are committed and open to trying to reach an agreement with all members of the WTO on how to achieve the shared goal of providing timely and secure access to safe and affordable vaccines and medicin…

This would be achieved not only by waiving patent rights but also by facilitating technology transfer within the framework of multilateral rules.

I thank the Deputy. Traditional main streets and traditional shopping streets are really under pressure around Ireland. Whether it is in small towns and rural towns around the country or whether it is in places such as Henry Street here in Dublin, we now see a growing issue of vacancy on main streets and on traditional shopping streets. That is really for two reasons. One is the move online. Many more people are shopping online and that will not change. It is also because of the development of large shopping centre…

I will certainly look into it. If the Deputy wants to send me on some more information or some examples, I will take it up with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the regulator. I think I know what the response will be. The response will be that standing charges are there to pay for the infrastructure. They are there to pay for the pipes, the pylons and the wires.

Even when they are not being used, they have to be paid for. I would be happy to look into it further.

I thank the Deputy. I am familiar with the issue of mica in Donegal and in Mayo and I have been in houses in Donegal that have been affected. Unfortunately, I am not up to date on where we are in terms of the scheme and the working group. I will be talking to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, either today or tomorrow. I will let him know that the Deputy raised it here and ask him to respond directly.

I would be happy to have a debate on this issue in Government time. Deputy Griffin will talk to Deputy Creed about organising that. It is already the case that being fully vaccinated exempts people from mandatory hotel quarantine. That makes sense and the vast majority of people agree with that. It is the intention of the Government to opt in to the digital certificate being prepared by the European Union but we do not know exactly what that is yet. It has to be bottomed out and clarified. As the Deputy knows, we a…

As I mentioned earlier, the announcement from the US yesterday is very significant and has caused the EU and other developed countries to reassess their position on this matter. This pandemic is raging across the world. Records are being broken every day in terms of the number of new cases. If we are going to get the virus under control, we need to get it under control everywhere. That means vaccinating everyone in the world and doing to Covid-19 what we did to polio and small pox. If we do not do that, the virus c…

I appreciate that the Deputy raised this matter with me previously. Deputy O'Dowd also raised it with me. Drogheda is a town of more than 40,000 people and I can see that there is a very strong case for having a vaccination centre there as well as in Dundalk. I will raise it with the HSE. As the Deputy knows, I do not have the authority to instruct the HSE on matters like this but I will certainly raise it. I would point out that there are many other parts of the country where there is no vaccination centre and peo…

I understand there is nothing on the legislative programme as yet on this matter. It is the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I understand he is of the view that those lands in Dublin 8 would be best used for regeneration with a mixed development, including housing, business and other uses. The best thing for me to do is ask the Minister to contact Deputy Ó Snodaigh directly to discuss it further. I imagine he will want to meet all local of the De…

I understand that this is a burning issue. People need to get on the road, particularly younger people in rural Ireland but also in urban Ireland, to go to college and take up employment opportunities. We need to get on top of the backlog that was created by the pandemic. I am not 100% across the announcement yesterday but I understand that some services will reopen and an additional 40 staff will be taken on to help get through the backlog. Work is being done on an online driver theory test which will help with th…