The vast majority of people aged over 80 have already been vaccinated. We are moving on to those in their 70s at the moment. Indeed, that is well under way in some parts of the country. This can be complicated. Some people are housebound and others are in isolated areas where it is difficult to get to. Arrangements are being put in place using general practitioners and the National Ambulance Service to get to people who are housebound or isolated. I will follow up the matter the Deputy has raised because it is an i…

I thank the Deputy. As a consequence Covid-19 and the need to pare back non-Covid-19 health services in order to keep people out of hospitals where they might pick up the virus, we have seen a very significant increase in waiting lists for colonoscopies and oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy procedures. It is important to say that when somebody has the frank symptoms of cancer they are, of course, prioritised. As is often the case with cancer, however, sometimes people’s symptoms are not frank and obvious and that can r…

I will be happy to take a look at that matter. If the Deputy can pass me on the details later in the day, I will do so. A leisure centre closed by Government order should be in receipt of the weekly CRSS payment but perhaps because the centre mentioned by the Deputy is not a commercial entity in the normal sense, it does not. That would be unfair. We are trying to mop up some of these issues through different schemes or amendments to the CRSS. If the Deputy passes me the details, I will definitely follow up on it.

I thank the Deputies. I make the point that Government Deputies make up more than half of the House and it is not unreasonable for them to be allowed to raise questions on promised legislation, just like everybody else.

To answer the questions that have been asked, last night I signed the new code of practice giving people the right to disconnect. Essentially, it has three elements: the right not to be expected or required to reply to emails and phone calls out of hours; the right not to be victimised for refusing to do so; and the duty to respect the right of others to disconnect. It is a code of practice that has been signed by me and, therefore, although it is not an offence to breach it in itself, it can be admitted as evidenc…

It is a competition Bill but it also gives additional powers to ComReg. It is being drafted at the moment and is at an advanced stage. We anticipate having it enacted before the summer recess. I compliment the Minister for Community and Rural Development, Deputy Humphreys, on bringing forward the rural Ireland plan, building on the work done by her predecessor, Deputy Ring. The plan will see considerable investment in enterprise hubs and remote working hubs in towns and villages around the country, which can make a…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which I read about this morning on the RTÉ news website. What is recounted on the website this morning is worrying and, as the Deputy notes, it relates to very sensitive and private matters affecting individuals with disabilities and their families. I do not know all the facts but I will watch the "RTÉ Investigates" programme tonight. I am sure the Department of Health will want to make a statement on the matter, if it has not done so already, and it will want to reply to…

I accept what the Deputy says; my response is inadequate, because I do not know the facts of this. Like I say, I became aware of the matter by reading about it on the RTÉ website this morning. It appears to be a serious matter and questions will be asked and answered. I am not aware of the facts at this stage and it would be inappropriate for me to offer further comment, having not heard from the Minister for Health, the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities or the Department at this stage. I agree…

I thank the Deputy. I will do my best to answer as many questions as I can and, where I do not know the answer, I will ask the Minister for Health to correspond with the Deputy directly. We are approaching 4,700 deaths in this State of people who died with Covid. We have reached the point where as many people have died from Covid-19 this year as did in all of last year. That is an extraordinary statistic, when one thinks about it. These are not just statistics but people with grieving families. That statistic demon…

The first question the Deputy asked was what we were doing to bring down Covid and that is the question I am answering. We are speeding up the vaccine roll-out. We have given more than 700,000 vaccines at this stage. We expect to receive more than 1 million vaccines by the end of this month but they will not all be in people's arms. It will probably be around 800,000, and another 1 million or so in April. We will have the report on antigen testing soon and that will be used in outbreaks in other places like work pl…

I answered the Deputy's question. I said we had increased border security to have the strictest biosecurity in the European Union, introduced walk-in PCR testing for people with no symptoms in five parts of the country and accelerated the vaccine roll-out. Antigen testing will be coming into play and we are increasing our tracing capacity. What the Deputy said about the B.1.1.7 variant is a bit disingenuous. Unfortunately, it would have inevitably come into the country. It does not just come through ports and airpo…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As he will be aware, Project Ireland 2040: National Development Plan 2018-2027 is currently under review. We expect to be in a position to publish the revised and updated national development plan in the summer, most likely in June or July. That will project out to 2030 in terms of the major infrastructure projects we intend to progress during that period. It has been a long-standing objective of successive Governments to connect all our cities by motorway or by high-quali…

We will do that. We will listen to ideas and examine the different proposals people have to better connect our cities and bypass our towns. I absolutely agree with the Deputy. Tipperary town needs to be bypassed. It is really suffering and struggling and bears the weight of a lot of freight traffic. When I was Minister with responsibility for transport, I remember working very hard with the then Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, who is in the Chamber, to save those rail lines mentioned by the Deputy in Munster and C…

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for raising this important issue. I know the price of beef and volatility of beef prices is causing enormous concern for farmers and rural communities throughout Ireland. The Government is aware that recent price volatility in the beef sector is causing huge difficulties. We are conscious that the sector is especially exposed due to factors such as Brexit and Covid-19 given its resilience and reliance on international trade and the food service and hospitality markets. As the Deputy will …

The task force commissioned Grant Thornton to conduct a series of market transparency studies. At the most recent meeting of the task force in March, there was an update from Grant Thornton on its work. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, attended the meeting where he expressed his concern with the manner in which factories informed farmers of recent price cuts, along with changes to breed bonuses and weight limits. The programme for Government commits to the establishment of a national food ombudsman. This is ongoin…

That legislation is being worked on by the Minister for Finance. As the Deputy knows, it cannot apply retrospectively but obviously it can apply to future instances. I do not have an exact date for it but I will ask the Minister for Finance to provide it once we have it.

I am very sorry to hear about Seán's passing and I extend my condolences to his family as well. I know how difficult the last year or so has been, particularly for people who have been bereaved. Whether it was a consequence of Covid, not being able to grieve in the normal way that we do has been really hard on thousands of families across the country. The message on Tuesday will be one of hope. I, along with the Government, am hopeful. We have vaccines now and they work. We know they will allow us to live with this…

I know how important the hospitality industry is to the Deputy's constituency. I had the pleasure of spending some of my home holiday last August in Bantry and west Cork and it is a wonderful place for people to visit. As things stand, the employment wage subsidy scheme and the weekly Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, payment will remain in place at least until the end of June and the 9% VAT rate will remain at least until the end of the year. The Deputy is absolutely right that the hospitality sector, along…

We will explore any avenue to secure more vaccine supply for Ireland. It is a good thing that we are part of the European framework. I remember what it was like in the first wave of the pandemic when countries fought each other for PPE, testing kits, swabs and reagents. It is better that we have collective action here and that all European countries went together and secured the contracts we did. On our own we may have done better but we also may have done much worse. The fact that we have the buying power of the E…

There is not any legislation promised on this matter but I appreciate that it is an important one. It is a matter for the Minister for Justice and the best thing would be for me to ask her to reply to the Deputy directly on it.