I am sure a new member of the board will be appointed in due course.

I am not the prophet of doom but the Deputy is the harbinger of doom. It will not take her party being in office for more than several months before this country ends up in an economic crisis. I guarantee her that. Petrol and diesel prices have fallen considerably from peak. Electricity and gas prices will fall too. There is not a direct link between wholesale prices and retail prices. It is an indirect link. At one point, wholesale gas prices were six to ten times higher than their base but retail prices never wen…

The Tánaiste and I had a very good meeting yesterday with the Women of Honour. It was very useful to hear from them their views on this matter. There are other groups we need to talk to as well, but it was particularly useful to hear their views. I can certainly understand the points they made. Having gone through private or closed-door processes that did not work, they felt the need and took the decision to go public. In my view this was a very brave decision. For that reason, they want an inquiry to be held in pu…

I thank the Deputy. As I said earlier, we value the contribution retained firefighters make. They provide an excellent service. We believe this dispute can be resolved, as all disputes are resolved. To answer the Deputy's question, we have a system by which we bargain public pay centrally with the Government. It is a good system and it has existed for a very long time. We have an agreement between the unions on the one hand and the Government on the other hand to give several pay increases across the course of this…

I thank the Deputy. As I said earlier, we very much value the work of retained firefighters. They provide an exceptional service around the country. We are confident this dispute can be resolved by negotiation. We are a Government that recognises trade unions. We engage in collective bargaining with trade unions. We come to an agreement with trade unions, and we expect those agreements to be honoured because we honour them too. We have an agreement with the trade unions; it is called Building Momentum. There was a …

I thank the Deputy. University Hospital Waterford is one of the best performing hospitals in the country. It has seen overcrowding go down and waiting lists shortened and has very much risen to the challenge given what happened in Wexford with the fire there. I am glad to see the emergency department will reopen in Wexford next week. I believe hospitals which perform well should be rewarded. This is a matter I have asked my team to examine at the moment. The Deputy has raised it with me one to one, as have Senator …

I thank Deputy O'Dea for raising this important issue. I am familiar with it from my constituency which has the M50 running through it. Down the years, we have engaged in various battles with TII, previously the National Roads Authority, NRA, and the local authorities to secure noise management measures, which can make a big difference in people's lives. I have seen noise measures be put in place and noise reduced, although only so much can be done, unfortunately. It has been a long time since I engaged on this iss…

It is inevitable that sea levels will rise, but thankfully they are rising slowly. I saw some work on this that was done under the previous Government under the auspices of the Office of Public Works, OPW, but I have not seen anything in quite some time. I will have to look into it and come back to the Deputy directly.

I will have to make some inquiries into the matter. As the Deputy will be aware, we have a new National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. It was built under the previous Government. I had the privilege to turn the sod on it as Minister for Health and see it open only a few years ago. It is a top class facility with all single rooms. It is a huge improvement on the one that was there before. Staffing is a challenge across the country in the public and private sectors, in well-paid jobs and modestly paid jobs…

I thank Deputy Cannon for raising this question and I acknowledge his strong advocacy for improving rail services from Athenry into Galway and in Galway in general. I am advised that a draft report has been finalised by Arup, the consultants. It has been agreed at official level and it is expected that the draft will be published for the purposes of a strategic environmental assessment, SEA, in July. Following the consultation process, the finalised report will be submitted for appropriate political approval on bot…

Of course we respect their work and we also respect and honour the agreements we have made. We have an agreement with the public sector unions for pay increases across this year. We are honouring that agreement and we expect the union side to honour it too. This dispute can be resolved but that can only be done within that agreement. An intervention from the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, which is the Government office charged to resolve disputes like this when necessary, is possible.

The well-being framework was a major initiative of this new Government and assesses our performance as a country across 35 different indicators, including economic, social and environmental and I believe there is a cultural element too. We are doing well on 25 of those indicators and we are not doing as well as we would like on eight. It confirms the view of the UN and others that Ireland is one of the best places in the world in which to live. However, there is always room for improvement. The Minister for Tourism…

First, the Deputy’s advice is always welcome. Second, he is right that this dispute will be resolved, as is the case with all disputes. However, we have to resolve disputes within the confines of the agreements that we have made. The Government and the trade unions made an agreement. We signed off on it at Cabinet; the unions balloted their members and they voted for it. As a result, any solution has to be within the terms of that agreement. That can be done once both sides accept the basic principle that when you …

I am very aware of the issue. I am not sure of the status of the review, but I will ask the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, to come back to the Deputy directly.

I propose to take Questions Nos 1 to 8, inclusive, together. I attended the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 16 and 17 May. The Council of Europe was established in 1949 in the wake of the Second World War to uphold human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe. The summit was only the fourth time it has met at leaders' level since its foundation. During our Presidency of the Council of Europe last year, we pressed for the meeting to take place following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and i…

Deputy Haughey asked how we can achieve accountability. We do, of course, support the work of the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court. We are open to the possibility of a special tribunal. The difficulty we have, of course, is that Russia, or at least the current Russian Government, does not recognise any of those bodies-----

-----and that is why it is important that Ukraine is supported in its attempts to defend its territory. In the meantime, we are collecting the evidence and will keep it in place for future prosecutions. We are helping to fund that. We have also agreed to establish a register of damages in Reykjavik and Ireland as part of that. We are helping in any way we can. Deputy Boyd Barrett asked if the issue of Israel and Palestine was on the agenda in Reykjavik. It was not. That does not mean it is not important. It is not …

On the issue of the national minimum wage, we have the sixth highest national minimum wage in Europe when adjusted for the cost of living and purchasing power parity. The increase this year is 7.8%, which is ahead of the rate of inflation projected for this year. On sub-minimum youth rates, in my capacity as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment last year, I wrote to the Low Pay Commission and asked it to consider the matter. That consideration would include research and at the right time, the …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 19, inclusive, together. Ireland submitted its national reform programme, NRP, for 2023 to the European Commission on 4 May. The NRP was also laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. The NRP is an element of the European semester, the annual cycle of economic and social policy co-ordination among EU member states. As part of the semester, Ireland, along with all other member states, is required to prepare and submit an NRP to the European Commission each year. The NRP provide…

Deputy Conway-Walsh raised the issue of the western rail corridor. I am not sure it is classified as a shovel-ready project. A new railway requires a railway order. Perhaps that is not the case because it is an old railway, but I am not sure it is as simple as saying it is shovel ready. I would say a lot would have to be done before it went to tender, let alone put a shovel in the ground. It is a project that has merit, whether to get people from Tuam to Galway and other places by train or for rail freight, and it …