The Oireachtas social protection committee published its report last week in response to the Commission on Pensions. It recommends no further increases to the qualifying age for State pensions, which is welcome. Workers should be entitled to retire with a pension at 65 if they so choose. The committee also supports the recommendation to allow workers to retire at 65 once they achieve the required contributions. The commission and the committee have finished their work. What happens next from a Government point of v…

Good pay is the best way out of low pay. Low-paid workers are employed. It would be desperate if the record was so skewed.

First, I welcome the establishment of the Citizens' Assemblies on the directly elected mayor for Dublin and biodiversity. However, I have raised previously with the Taoiseach the fact that key agencies such as the National Biodiversity Data Centre are underfunded and understaffed. They are not even underpinned by legislation. That needs to be sorted out as a matter of urgency. Equally urgent is the need for a citizens' assembly on the future of education. That was manifestly the case during the whole leaving certif…

Ava Cahill is 11. She is from Tallaght in Dublin and she has spina bifida. She has been waiting for more than a year and a half for corrective surgery. As a result of this wait, Ava lives in considerable and daily pain because her feet have turned in on themselves and her condition is worsening. Her mother says that it is increasingly difficult for Ava to hold her splint in place. She needs this to keep her feet straight. Ava says it is increasingly difficult for her to do everyday things. Her feet keep getting cau…

The Taoiseach should not play the Covid card. As far back as 2014, Temple Street hospital issued a damning report, setting out the failures in service for children with spina bifida. To this day, these children are still failed. I am afraid that it is an issue of funding. A request for €5 million of funding has been with the Minister-----

-----for two years for Cappagh hospital.

Current funding of €5 million is needed. The Government has known about this for many years. It is a matter of funding. We can deal with this quite simply. I want a commitment from the Taoiseach that the moneys required to give these children the procedures they need will be released as a matter of urgency. Deputy Cullinane and I have met with CHI. By all means, the Taoiseach should meet with whoever he wishes, but he does not need a long round of meetings to understand what has happened here. Would it surprise the…

Well then, release it.

Pardon me?

Why has it not what?

The Taoiseach needs to tell them again-----

They have not done it.

Tell them that.

Does he want me to go and tell them?

Does he want me to do his job?

I am happy to. I will do your job any day.

Well then, do not ask me questions.

I answer questions, you see.

I also extend my sympathies with the family of the late Noel Treacy. A decade ago, Fine Gael and the Labour Party removed the right to retire on a State pension at 65 years. Over the last two years, the Government has plotted and planned to ratchet the pension age up to 66, 67 and 68 years. We in Sinn Féin remain absolutely committed to people's right to retire if they so wish at the age of 65 on a pension. The report of the Oireachtas joint committee on social protection rejected the Government's plans to ratchet …

Does the Taoiseach want me to answer that?