With regard to the question on climate, one thing President Biden asks from time to time is for people to compare him to the alternative, not the Almighty. That is my answer on climate, given what the alternative might be under a different administration. We do not have a choice when it comes to whom people select as their president or their government. That is the sovereign right of any independent country.

I think it is fair to say there is more commitment to climate action from this Administration than others. On Deputy Haughey's question, the UK Government is working closely with Ireland. We certainly worked closely together over the past couple of months when it came to the Windsor Framework and getting that agreed but I do not think the UK and Irish Governments have operated as closely as they did in the past. Since Brexit, the relationship has not been as close as it was. Looking back at those documentaries from…

Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 12 go 20, go huile, le chéile. Cabinet committees meet as appropriate according to their work schedules. The Cabinet committee on health has met twice so far this year. The Cabinet committee on housing has met three times, most recently yesterday. The first meeting on the Cabinet committee on children and education will take place shortly. The committee on environment and climate change has met once and is scheduled to meet again on Thursday. The committee on EU and international affair…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. Starting with Deputy Durkan's question on school transport, I agree with him regarding how important this issue is, especially in rural areas, for children accessing school. We have done a lot in the last couple of years to improve the situation. Fees have been reduced significantly for school transport, which has been a big benefit for families struggling with the cost of living. We have also expanded the programme to tens of thousands more children. We are now also thinki…

I thank the Deputies. On Deputy Bacik's question, I join with her in commending the work of An Garda Síochána, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the courts. As the Deputy said, it is five years since there has been a murder in Ireland linked to a feud involving serious organised crime gangs. Please God, this will continue. I am aware the gardaí have done phenomenal work in that regard as have the prosecutors and the court. Two convictions have been secured this week. There was one acquittal, which was not th…

I attended a meeting of the European Council on 23 and 24 March in Brussels. The agenda covered Ukraine; competitiveness; the Single Market and the economy; energy; and external relations. In his contribution to today’s debate, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, will provide further detail on some of the external relations issues discussed, including Serbia-Kosovo relations, the ongoing impact of the terrible earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria in February, and the external aspects of migration. I will cover a…

I move: That Dáil Éireann reaffirms its confidence in the Government. This is a good Government of three parties working together. We led Ireland through the pandemic, saving lives and livelihoods. We have secured a new agreement on Northern Ireland and Brexit, preventing a hard border. We have helped families and businesses to weather the cost-of-living crisis through unprecedented financial support. This was only possible due to our prudent management of the public finances down the years. For only the second tim…

It is about competition for attention on the Opposition benches and on the left wing of politics and-----

-----about four parties trying to outdo each other-----

-----to come up with new and more dramatic language to describe the housing situation-----

-----as though somehow it would actually help anyone. When it comes to solutions, we largely get utopian populist ones. The latest of these is a promise from the Labour Party to provide a million homes in ten years. When asked how that number was arrived at or how it was realised, the leader of the Labour Party had no answers. When pressed, she took a page straight out of the book of Sinn Féin. "Sure aren’t the Irish great at building things?", she quipped. We have heard that before. We all know where the figure of…

I know the Labour Party does not have confidence in this Government, but it seems to me that it has long lost confidence in itself. It does not know whether to stand over its decisions in government, and say it would do it all again for the good of the country if given the chance, or whether like a character from The Crucible , it should deny its own truth, recant, confess, and purge itself of its past in the hope of being embraced back into the fold by the wider left, to spare itself more fire. It is caught in a t…

It is a truth never acknowledged, but I am going to say it. Every party in this House seems to believe the housing crisis was terribly mismanaged, except for the periods when they were in government. It is remarkably convenient, but not coherent. No wonder Sinn Féin is so happy. It gets to be consistent and direct its ire at everyone, including the Labour Party. Of course, if one mentions the housing crisis in the North, one is shouted down. It does not want voters to know what 20 years of on-and-off Sinn Féin gove…

I thank the Deputy. We do not believe that extending the winter eviction moratorium to December, or January, or April, or whatever the Deputy’s policy is this week, is a solution. We think it will just make homelessness worse, but at a later point. The solution is a different one: it is more social housing, it is the tenant in situ scheme, it is more supply, it is tax changes to encourage small landlords to stay in the market and new ones to come in, and it is also funding homelessness prevention services, and that…

I did not say that.

I thank the Deputy. I think I have answered that question four or five times now, both this week and last. The only thing the Deputy’s ears are deaf to is the answer because she just does not want to hear it. She has renewed her call to me - fair enough. Let me renew my call to her. There are three ways in which the Sinn Féin Party can help us to alleviate this terrible housing crisis. Sinn Féin members can stop opposing new housing in their constituencies. They can take the pressure off first-time buyers by ending…

I again ask all Sinn Féin Deputies, Senators and councillors to please do so.

I thank Deputy Bacik for raising this important issue, which is being discussed across the country today. The report of the independent review group is shocking. It will shock anyone who reads it. Issues with bullying and harassment in the Defence Forces, some of a sexual nature, have been reported on before but never so starkly. It is clear that attempts made to change things - and attempts have been made - have failed. Unlike many other issues we have dealt with in this House, this is not historic. It is ongoing …

There are a number of recommendations in the report, 13 in total, and we have accepted them all. There are some we can implement very quickly. For example, we can enact legislation to amend the Defence Act 1954 to provide a legislative basis to enable allegations of any type of sexual assault in the Defence Forces to be referred to An Garda Síochána rather than the internal military police. That is among the things I believe everyone agrees on and we can do that very quickly. It is the same for the commissioning of…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important and sensitive issue. In Ireland in the round, we have really good palliative care provided by some really top-class professionals. End-of-life care has improved considerably down the years, including our hospices, hospice home care and paediatric palliative care, particularly with the State funding of the LauraLynn hospice, which I was involved in trying to make happen when I was Minister for Health. It is really important that people should be allowed to die with digni…