The Minister, Deputy Coveney, is in charge of ratification. We want to join the European patent court. We do not have a definite date yet but we are working towards holding that referendum concurrently with the local and European elections next year. That is not formally or officially decided, but it is the working plan at the moment. It is up and running now and we are keen to be part of it.

I am afraid I cannot give the Deputy certainty today but it is something that we are considering. Many people who invested in forestry were encouraged to do so by Government and given Government grants. For many of them, this would potentially have been their pension. Now, through no fault of their own, they see their crop has been destroyed. For similar crops in similar circumstances, we would provide a compensation package. We are examining it seriously and sympathetically. We just need to see what is being done …

I am in 100% agreement with Deputy Smith's remarks on this matter. I hope to have the opportunity to speak to the Prime Minister next week at the European Political Community meeting in Granada. We will once again have an opportunity to impress on him the deeply felt opposition of the Government, of the five major parties in Northern Ireland, and particularly of victims' groups and survivors. This is not the right approach. We believe it will be struck down, if not in the UK Supreme Court then in the European Court…

I attended the third summit of the EU and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, in Brussels on 17 and 18 July. It is co-chaired by European Council President, Charles Michel, and the President of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves. It was also the first meeting at leaders’ level between the regions in eight years. At the summit, leaders discussed ways to enhance relations between us, including enhanced co-operation in multilateral forums, global peace and security, trade and invest…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. Regarding Deputy Haughey's questions first, it is the case that Irish delegation rooms were used for talks involving the key players trying to secure agreement on the language, particularly relating to Ukraine, although that was done entirely for logistical reasons. It just so happened we had a room free and we were near the other delegation rooms. As the House will know, the United Kingdom is not in the European Union anymore, so it had no input into the EU-CELAC declarati…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advises me on policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. The NESC report found the agriculture and land use sector can increasingly be part of the solution on climate change and biodiversity loss. It emphasised an approach that is opportunity led to enable farmers to benefit from the significant benefits of transition for rural livelihoods and recognised that trans…

I thank the Deputies for the important issues they raised. Deputy Cowen raised the issue of peatland restoration and rewetting, the drawdown of funds and good agricultural and environmental condition, GAEC. I do not have the information to hand but I think he is correct in that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will want to clarify the matter in the coming weeks. I will ask for that to be done. On the general issue, I am firmly of the view, which I said when I met the IFA a few weeks ago in Limeric…

Climate change is the single greatest threat facing humanity today. We must be the generation that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss. The Government’s climate action plan 2023 requires public sector bodies to put in place a climate action roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 and to increase the improvement in energy efficiency to 50% by 2030. The Department of the Taoiseach published our first climate action roadmap on gov.ie earlier this year. It was developed with the sup…

There can be more than one. Good ideas are followed.

I agree with Deputy O'Sullivan. Good school transport systems certainly have a role in reducing emissions if they reduce the length and number of journeys by car. Ideally, we will have electric buses and hydrogen buses. We are very much moving to that model at the moment. I had the pleasure of visiting Wrightbus in Ballymena, which is making electric and hydrogen buses as we speak and is phasing out the production of internal combustion engine buses. It is great to see that happening on the island of Ireland. Anoth…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. As she knows, there is a childcare and early years education strike happening today. Of the 4,000 childcare providers in the State, we understand that 5%, or probably fewer, are participating in the action today. That is important to point out. The action is being supported by only one organisation, the Federation of Early Childhood Providers. We acknowledge absolutely that there are real challenges and pressures in the childcare and early education sector. The …

I thank the Deputy. It remains the Government's objective to reduce the cost of childcare by 50%. We set that out some time ago. We are halfway there already. We also need to invest in capacity because we also need to ensure there are more places available. We also need to invest in quality, and that includes better pay for staff, which of course has to be funded, at least in part, by the public purse. Exactly how much we can dedicate to each of these three objectives has to be negotiated between now and budget day…

-----by having the groups that are not backing the action doing so? I know the Deputy will ask many questions between now and budget day about how much money we will spend on various priorities. She might let us know at some point whether Sinn Féin is signing up to the Government's decision, made for good, logical and important long-term economic reasons, not to increase spending by more than 6.2% next year.

I thank the Deputy. The threatened strike by section 39 and section 56 organisations is a matter of real concern, especially to the people who need those services daily, to their families and to their carers. The Government is very aware of the potential inconvenience that could be caused should the strike go ahead. I hope it will not. Much of the work done by these bodies is in the disability sector. The work they do is valuable and I assure the Deputy the Government values it. It is important to state we are not …

As I mentioned earlier, a good offer was made and this offer was accepted by people in the community sector when a ballot was held.

I appreciate there may be differences but it is important to point out that this offer was accepted in a similar sector. It is a 5% pay increase applying from November, that is, a 5% pay increase being paid within a matter of weeks and before Christmas; an additional 3% backdated to April, which would result in a lump sum payment in this calendar year; and a commitment to engage, as we did in the past, if and when we have a new public sector pay deal. I believe that was a good offer and I am sorry it was not accept…

At the outset, once again I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge that this is a cause of great anxiety for a lot of parents, families and vulnerable children attending these services. A comprehensive patient safety review and assurance process has been commissioned into the paediatric orthopaedic surgery service, and there is a Medical Council complaint that is currently being considered. An expert from the UK, Mr. Selvadurai Nayagam, has been commissioned to lead an external review following identification …

The Deputy did not pass on any detail or information or at least did not pass it to me. Perhaps he did pass it to other people. If he had that kind of information weeks and months ago, and perhaps he did not, he should have passed it on.

My understanding is that parliamentary questions were submitted in the Deputy's name in July. The Department of Health was not aware of this at the time and passed on the queries to the HSE. That was how the issue came to light. The allegations were passed on by the Deputy by means of the parliamentary questions. That information was passed on to the HSE. It made inquiries and that was how the information came to light. I do not want to give exact dates because I do not know them for certain and do not want to misl…

I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this very important issue and I know all of us from our own constituency work will have met many parents of very many children who have special educational needs. Investing in special education is the right thing to do to give those children the best possible start in life and that is the objective which all of us in this Chamber share. It is an area which has seen a great deal of Government investment in recent years and for every four euro we now spend on education, one euro is sp…