I believe Ireland has a role to play in trying to bring peace, justice and order to the Middle East and that means working with our colleagues in the European Union, persuading the US and working at UN level to try to push for a new peace initiative to push for a two-state solution. Being absolutist on one side or the other removes our influence. The only influence we have is by trying to build partnerships with the EU, the US, other countries in the Middle East with which we have relationships such as Egypt, Jorda…

I neglected to recall Anthony Burke's name earlier. I pay tribute to him in particular and the fact he went to the gardaí and gave them the crucial information that enabled them to apprehend the man who carried out the terrible murders of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee in Sligo. I pay tribute to him and recognise An Garda Síochána and its work. What we are doing and will continue to do is make balanced regional development happen in Ireland. That is something we are doing under this Government, and which we did und…

There are many ways to measure things. The Deputy’s focus has been mainly on GDP and relativities. That is a fair argument but when it comes to judging economic success and progress, I would never use GDP as the most important measure.

The most important measures are jobs, employment, incomes, businesses and investment. When it comes to the IDA, which the Deputy mentioned, of the 139 new investments made last year, over half were outside of Dublin, which was very significant. Enterprise Ireland works with Irish-owned exporting companies and over two thirds of new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland companies were outside of Dublin. Our job as Government is to listen to everybody’s case and argument. The Deputy makes a very strong case for the nort…

-----who could equally make a very strong case for positive discrimination for the south east. I could equally hear people from the Dublin city region who will say what is lost to Dublin is often lost to Ireland because only Dublin can compete with Singapore and San Francisco for certain investments and jobs. It is the Government’s job to balance that and try to get it right.

I thank Deputies for their contributions. Regarding the tweet or message sent out by somebody in the Israeli Embassy, I want to categorically reject any suggestion that we provide any funding to Hamas, directly or indirectly. The funding we provide is done through the UN, the EU and NGOs. There is no evidence to support the claim that was made and I am pleased that the comments were deleted and a clarification issued by the embassy indicating that the tweet did not represent the position of the embassy or the gover…

Unfortunately, we are still experiencing a serious problem with emergency department overcrowding in quite a number of hospitals across the State. It is important to say and to know that there are approximately 120 fewer patients waiting for beds today than would have been the case this day last year. That did not happen by accident; it is because of the additional resources, staff and beds the Government has provided. There is more to come, including in Limerick where there is a 96-bed block under construction.

Cabinet decided earlier that for anybody making a claim or an application under the humanitarian aid relief funds in circumstances where the process for accepting applications is closed and where claims have been settled already, we cannot reopen the process because that would result in us going back who knows how long. Where there are still live applications that have not been settled yet, however, the new rules will apply. It will depend on the individual circumstances. Where applications are already closed, sett…

We condemn all breaches of international humanitarian law and any attempts to target civilians by violence for political ends, whether they happen here or in Israel, Palestine or wherever the perpetrators are.

I need to read the report. I have read the recommendations, but not the report. I do not think the report has even been written yet. Once the report is written, it will be submitted to the Government and the Oireachtas. I look forward to sitting down with the assembly's chairman, Paul Reid, and talking it through with him as I have done with other reports, including the recent ones on biodiversity and a directly elected mayor for Dublin. I look forward to having the report referred to the Oireachtas committees. As …

I need to understand that better if that is what is proposed.

I look forward to reading the report when it is published.

We finally built the second cath lab. It was delivered, built and commissioned under this Government. I am very keen to have it extended to seven days, which is Government policy. We will have to engage with the HSE in the context of the service plan to work out how soon that can be done. It is good that the hours have been extended. Extending it to the weekend will also make a big difference.

I am aware of the dispute. I know there are ongoing efforts to resolve and settle it, but I am not up to date as to exactly where we are with it. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Harris, to come back to the Deputy directly.

It is a reasonable question, but I cannot imagine that anybody in this House, let alone the Government, would in any way countenance the killing of journalists. Of course we condemn that - absolutely. In response to what the Deputy said, however, I must point out that we have seen a fair bit of propaganda from a number of different sources in this conflict. It is very hard to get reliable information at the moment. We saw a classic case of that with the attack on al-Ahli hospital last week. It is becoming increasin…

Many of those people will benefit from the mortgage interest relief which was announced in the budget because they have seen big increases in their mortgage payments as a consequence of higher interest rates. They could benefit by about €1,250 a year under that scheme. I appreciate, however, that this is only a small contribution for people facing increases of €600, €700 or €800 a month. They can switch, as the Deputy knows, but it is very hard to switch if you do not have equity in your property. They should certa…

I thank Deputy Burke for the question and I remember very well my visit to Sarsfields only a few months ago now. I was devastated to hear the amount of damage that has been done to the pitch, the clubhouse and the bar. A lot of damage has been done. We will work with the club to ensure the damage is repaired and the club can operate as normal as soon as possible. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, has already indicated he is willing to engage with the club on that, depending on how much it is costed at and…

I thank the Deputy for that question. We keep the social housing income levels under review and they were increased only last year. We keep them under review and we may well increase them again, as incomes, rents and property prices rise. As the Deputy said himself, we have cost rental now as an option for people who are above the limit for social housing, and that is for real now. There are not as many as we would like to see by any means but it is becoming a reality on the ground.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I do not have an update to hand but I will certainly make enquiries and ask that the Minister for Health comes back to him directly.

I thank the Deputy. I appreciate the inconvenience being caused for people in Drogheda. I will make further enquiries. Obviously, it is between the council, TII, and the contractor to resolve this but I will make further enquiries and see if I can help.