It is a good question and I am afraid I do not know the answer. I will have to check that out for the Deputy. As has been reported, efforts were made last week to resolve this dispute. The Workplace Relations Commission, which is an office of my Department, hosted talks involving the trade union, Mandate, and the liquidator, KPMG. Unfortunately, those talks did not come to a successful conclusion but we will continue to try to broker an outcome or compromise, if we can. We all know the fundamental problem is that D…

I am very sorry to hear that the Deputy's constituent is waiting on that operation. A considerable amount of effort has gone in to reducing waiting times for scoliosis operations in the past couple of years. Extra staff have been hired and a new theatre in Crumlin has been provided. Lots of things are happening. I do not have the details of the individual case to which the Deputy referred, but if he wants to pass them on to me, I will make sure it gets looked into.

I am familiar with these devices and they really are extraordinary. They are changing and will change the way we manage diabetes. The idea is that somebody can wear a sensor that can monitor his or her blood sugar without strips, pin pricks and all the things we have been used to for decades. I am glad that it is available for people under the age of 21. I do not know why it is not available to people over 21. Perhaps there is a reason for that. The Deputy is suggesting it is not a financial reason because the cost…

I am afraid that I do not have any information to hand on that matter. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, to contact the Deputy.

The budget provides for an increase in funding for Irish Water next year. It is to be hoped that will allow some projects to be progressed. I cannot speak about that individual project because I do not know enough about it. I will certainly check it out.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. That is happening. We have signed the national broadband contract and work is under way. Unfortunately, it is going to take a couple of years but we will connect every home, farm and business in Ireland to high-speed broadband, and in the vast majority of cases we will be bringing fibre to the premises, which is a huge achievement and a big investment. It was one that was not supported by Sinn Féin. I appreciate that was before Deputy Ryan became a Deputy. Nonetheless, it…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. This is a matter on which I do not have a note in front of me but I am aware that it is a matter that the Minister for Health is aware of and I will ask him revert to the Deputy on it.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and, as he may know, I am head of the ministerial committee on insurance that is trying to deal with some of these issues. The report from the Central Bank that came out this week is very welcome and is helping to give us more transparency about the pricing of insurance. It is a matter of concern that the cost of claims has not gone up as much as premiums. Claims have gone up but premiums have gone up by more. There is also the issue that the Deputy has identified where mo…

I welcome this opportunity to give an account to the Dáil of my actions in April 2019 in relation to the contract negotiated between the Government and general practitioners, GPs, represented by the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO. I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight, to refute some of the allegations against me and to apologise for my errors of judgment. I want to share with the House my motivations throughout this. I am a doctor by training and a qualified general practitioner. So is my father. I…

I got the document from the Department of Health. It was a hard copy. I did copy it. I kept a copy for myself, which I no longer have, and I posted one to him. He did request it.

I received copies of this twice. I would have got briefings from time to time about the negotiations. I was not at the talks at any point but I was briefed on them. I got one copy from the Minister for Health, which my records tell me I read and put in the recycling bin. I requested a second copy through my adviser. I have an adviser, Clare Mungovan, who covered health issues for me when I was Taoiseach, and she got the second copy from the Department of Health.

I do not have the exact date, but it was all in that time period, obviously.

Again, I do not have the exact time period on that, but the document I had was from after 4 April, because that is when it was agreed. He would have requested it sometime between 4 April and the date which I gave Deputy Doherty as to when I sent it to him, which was between 11 April and 15 April or 16 April. I think it was 15 April or 16 April but I do not know exactly on which date.

I did, yes.

I do not have a text message on that.

The document that I was given by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, was some time around 4 or 5 April. This was the document that I read and put in the recycling bin. Then when I got the second copy I-----

No, because I wanted to read it again.

Yes. I did. I requested my adviser to get it for me. I think that was on 10 April.

I know he was looking for it.

I do not know the exact date but it was all obviously in that week, which was the week after it had been launched, announced and approved by the Cabinet.