I am familiar with the case of Jean Tighe. I really feel for the family concerned. I know that the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs is aware of this case and has taken action on it. I know our embassy and our staff on the ground in Lisbon are doing all they can. If it is of any use, I will meet the Prime Minister of Portugal in a few weeks' time, around middle or late March. I am not sure whether it will be the new prime minister or the existing one. If the Deputy wants to give me a short letter or somethi…

I am happy to work on that. The general principle which was applied in other places, including County Donegal, was that once the Department had assessed the damage and the work that would need to be done, a special allocation would be made that was over and above the regular roads grant. What the Deputy is saying to me is that an allocation has been made but it is not enough. If the Deputy and I have the opportunity this Wednesday evening or the next one, we will attempt a pincer movement on the Minister, Deputy Do…

I thank the Deputy. The dual-use option can be done because it was done in Blanchardstown and in Dundalk. I know it can be done. It will require a change to the contract. That is the truth of it but I think it can be done and it would be the best outcome all round. Perhaps that is what should have been done in the first place. I acknowledge that, but we are where we are now. We are working on that solution.

I thank the Deputy. I have been trying to get to the bottom of this for more than a year now. I have not received a straight answer or an adequate explanation. It would appear to be a Bus Éireann or CIÉ rule rather than a Government rule because we allow people to drive lorries into their 70s. People can be Members of this House into their 70s or 80s. It is not about age; it is about someone's physical or mental capacity. I agree that a workable solution might be an annual check of some sort, as the Deputy mentione…

I thank the Deputy. We are working on the social housing passport and we want to do it. To an extent, it exists already in Dublin. A person can be on more than one list in Dublin but I appreciate that may not be the case-----

-----in this case. It makes sense to me that if people move county, or move back to their home county they are originally from, they should be able to carry the years they waited with them. However, there are safeguards we want to put in place. The Deputy will appreciate that people who have been on the housing list for a very long time - five, six, seven, eight or ten years - in Swords or Blanchardstown might not respond so well to people coming from other parts of the country and pushing them down the list. I am …

I do not honestly believe there is political resistance to this, certainly not from the Tánaiste. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh and Senator Cummins have all been on to me about this important matter. The business case has been received and it is being examined. I believe Department officials may have met with the airport last week because they had some further questions about it. The commitment made by the previous Government, of which I was the leader, was that we would match the invest…

It is the case that there are almost 1,000 asylum seekers who have sought accommodation by the State and have not received it. We are just no longer in a position to provide State accommodation to every asylum seeker that comes into the country. We need to make sure people know that. If they are leaving another safe country where they have accommodation, they should know that it is inadvisable to come to Ireland, at least until we are in a much better space around accommodation. It is not the case that they are all…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. In response to Deputy Dillon's question on RTÉ, I acknowledge his work and that of Deputy Griffin on the committee. It is fair to say that Deputy Dillon is as clinical in the committee room as he was on the pitch. Yes, I believe there should be a cap. There usually is in these schemes. It is usually a maximum of one year's salary, two years' salary or something like that. I absolutely agree that confidentiality clauses should be avoided by public bodies. There might be case…

For?

Okay. I am sorry, I thought the Deputy had raised something else. It is not the amount they are paid but the numbers waiting for their training. I will follow that up with the Minister, Deputy Harris. Obviously, we are keen to get as many apprentices through as possible because they are pretty desperately needed, particularly in construction. With regard to Deputy Harkin's question, that was not a Government decision. I only became aware of it, I think, yesterday, so I have asked my staff to look into it. Maybe the…

I move: That, pursuant to Standing Order 215A, the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach may complete its consideration of the Estimates for Public Services for the year ending 31st December, 2024, standing referred to it pursuant to Standing Order 215(2), later than the sixtieth day and not later than the one hundredth day, being the 22nd day of March, 2024, after the Estimates had been so referred.

Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 1 go 4, go huile, le chéile. Yesterday, Tuesday, 20 February, the Government confirmed a range of funding allocations which affirm our commitment to working with the new Executive and the UK Government to implement cross-Border investment co-operation that will make the island of Ireland a better place to live for all communities. This is the largest ever package of Government funding for cross-Border investments, and is in addition to the near €250 million already allocated from the sh…

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I would like to echo Deputy Smith's comments on the A5. I am really keen that in building the A5, we do not forget about the Donegal TEN-T and the M2 because it is all one project in many ways, or at least it is all the one road, albeit that its name changes when it crosses the Border. Regarding the Ulster final in Clones, I have never been to the Ulster final but I have been to Dublin matches in Clones. It is not for me to decide whether the final stays there. I hope t…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 10, inclusive, together. On 1 February, I attended a special European Council meeting in Brussels. The main item on the agenda was the mid-term review of the EU budget for the period 2021 to 2027, including agreement on a €50 billion assistance package for Ukraine. We had discussed the proposed package at our meeting in December. While it had been possible to secure agreement among 26 member states, Hungary was not ready to agree at that time. Hungary has since come on board an…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. I will respond first to Deputy Haughey. This Parliament has already passed a motion in favour of the recognition of Palestine as a state. The Government wants to fulfil that in a way that is meaningful. We could do it unilaterally tomorrow but it would be effectively a press release that would be dismissed by Israel and nobody would follow it. What makes more sense is to do it on a multilateral basis and we are in discussions with approximately half a dozen other countries …

That is the point. The Deputy is not critical of Venezuela or Cuba. There are double standards all over the place.

The Deputy should do a bit of research and count the number of times he has raised Palestine as opposed to Ukraine, and the number of times he has raised human rights abuses in Cuba and Venezuela as opposed to China.

He is pretty good at double standards. The situation in Ukraine is different from that in Palestine. The attack on Ukraine was totally unprovoked. Ukraine is a democracy, not a dictatorship or a theocracy. It is also a European country, in our neighbourhood, and a country that had applied to join the European Union. Indeed, one of the reasons Russia attacked Ukraine was that it wanted to be part of the European Union. Therefore, it is different. The conflict has been going on for two years. There have been many mor…

In advance of the Government considering the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in January 2021, certain information that related to matters therein was disclosed in a newspaper article. In that context, the then Taoiseach requested that an investigation be carried out. The investigation was conducted by a senior official in my Department and it received full co-operation from all concerned. The investigation was concluded and the outcome was reported to the then Taoiseach, M…