I have to concur with Deputy Brendan Smith's remarks about the quality of the conference in Queen's University. I extend my thanks and congratulations to those who organised it. I was only sorry I could not be here for the Wednesday, because of my responsibilities here, but I managed to get the read-out of Senator Mitchell's speech. The point Senator Mitchell made, as Deputy Smith said, was solid. The peace process, over the course of the past 25 years and more, has seen many great challenges around policing and de…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 9, inclusive, together. As provided for in the programme for Government, we are progressing the shared island initiative, to benefit the whole island by working with all communities and traditions for a shared future, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. This involves unprecedented all-island investment through our €1 billion shared island fund; engaging with all communities through a comprehensive dialogue series on how we could better share the island; and commissioning …

The Government believes, in respect of the budget announcement by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, that the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to a functioning Assembly and Executive and to be fully represented by the politicians they elected in May of last year. In recent weeks we have seen cuts to services which will affect the people of Northern Ireland adversely. The budget places difficult decisions in the hands of civil servants and we believe that it is vital that an Executive is in place as…

Last year, but that was because of inflation. Incomes will rise in real terms this year and they have risen in real terms almost every year for the past five or six years.

They will rise this year, yes, in real terms, but we will not know that until next year because of the way statistics work. On where the Government stands on this, we want to help the people of Northern Ireland and the Executive if and when it is established. We have the shared island fund, which we can use to help in different ways. We have the PEACE PLUS programme from the European Union; €1 billion will be in that fund. We have made commitments, for example, on projects like the A5. We can make other commitments…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together. As I announced on 8 March, the Government intends to hold a referendum in November this year on gender equality as recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and the special Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality. The decision to hold one or more referendums on this issue is in line with commitments in the programme for Government to respond to the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. An interdepartmental group, led b…

We, as a Government, are committed to a referendum on housing. The Housing Commission is considering the matter. It has not yet advised us on a wording. Once we see it, we will consider it. Without any wording proposed from the commission, having a referendum concurrent with the other one in November is very unlikely at this stage. We will see the wording when it comes. Any amendment on housing worth having has to be one that makes it easier to build homes. There is no point in putting language in the Constitution …

It is on the world wide web if anybody wants to see it.

I thank the Deputy for her question. I start by acknowledging the presence of a large number of third year students from CBS Portlaoise who are in the Visitors Gallery. They are most welcome. The Deputy mentioned evidence relating to the housing crisis in her introductory remarks. There is real evidence today of the kind of progress we are now making when it comes to housing, released by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in the past couple of hours. We know the number of new homes built in the first quarter of th…

She can also acknowledge that there has been a 40% increase in the number of apartments built in the first quarter of this year compared with last year. She may wish to acknowledge as well that the number of new apartments built is double what it was three years ago and five times what it was five years ago. At regional level, it is the south-west region, covering counties Cork and Kerry, that has seen the biggest increase. With regard to mortgages, I understand that many people are seeing big increases in their mo…

My answer is twofold. In the last budget, which only kicked in in January, there was a tax package that I fought hard for. That tax package resulted in income tax being reduced for 2 million people, including the vast majority of mortgage holders in the State and Deputy McDonald's party voted against that. It is a simple fact that workers in Ireland would pay more income tax under Sinn Féin, and that people would take home less pay under Pearse than they do under Paschal.

Sinn Féin voted against that. People today would pay more income tax under Sinn Féin than they do under the current coalition. When it comes to the next budget, there will be a tax package.

It will be as generous as we can afford, but we will have to take into account all of the other suggestions that are put forward for tax concessions. It does not make sense, and it would not be prudent or responsible, for us to come into this House every month or every other month and make income tax changes. That is not the way to run a country. I hope if Deputy McDonald ever has the privilege to be Taoiseach that she does not run the country like that.

First, I acknowledge the fact that prices are rising and rising rapidly in Ireland. For the first time in a long time we are seeing prices rise faster than incomes, but we think that will not be the case this year. Inflation will show down this year and we do expect to see not just nominal wage growth but real wage growth this year. To give one small example, the minimum wage increased by just over 7% in January. We expect inflation will be around 5% this year, so that is an increase in real terms. It would not hav…

We have a retail forum through which the Government engages with retailers. It is very much on the agenda of the forum to ensure that prices will not increase too much or by more than is justified, given the input costs. The Deputy is not entirely correct in what he said about the national minimum wage. Since the national minimum wage was established, it has gone up by more than the cost of living. It has not gone up in line with wages; it has gone up not only in line with the rate of inflation but by well above it…

I thank Deputy Fitzpatrick for raising this important issue. I acknowledge, on behalf of the Government, that we have a very genuine teacher recruitment and retention challenge. I also acknowledge that this is not unique. We are in a period of full employment. There is no sector of the economy in which we do not have labour shortages. Whether it is well-paid jobs or poorly paid jobs, the public and private sectors are affected. When there is full employment, it is hard to recruit and retain staff. As the Deputy men…

I hear what the Deputy is saying about housing. It bothers me deeply that so many young and even not so young people find it so difficult to buy their first home. What gives me great encouragement is that we are now seeing about 400 first-time buyers per week, a really encouraging figure that is the highest since the Celtic tiger period. Because couples are counted as one person and because it does not include those building their own home, that figure is an underestimate. The number of first-time buyers every week…

I again thank Deputy Harkin for raising this important issue. I do not dispute the numbers quoted by the Deputy and I agree with her that strong regions benefit the entire country. However, as I often say and as is often said to me, GDP is not everything. GDP must come with a very big health warning. The presence of Apple alone throws the numbers for GDP in the south-west region while the presence of Microsoft alone throws the numbers dramatically for the eastern region. When I talk to people as I am sure is the ca…

If the assembly requests a meeting in the normal way, I will certainly give it favourable consideration but it is not my practice to agree to meetings in the Chamber. It is not fair on other people or bodies that do not have a TD to make the request for them in the Chamber. The point I was making as is often made to me is that GDP is not everything, whether it is comparisons within Ireland or the EU. I challenge the Deputy to look at average incomes and how the north west of Ireland region compares with average inc…

There are now university towns all over Ireland and that will make a big difference into the future. There is also the Department of Rural and Community Development, which I established in 2017, which was initially under Deputy Ring and is now under the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. Everyone acknowledges the amount of investment we are seeing in our towns, villages and rural counties, whether it is enterprise hubs, remote working hubs, surf schools or food hubs. There is huge investment in every county in the country…