Over the weekend, it was revealed that Deputy Leo Varadkar, when Taoiseach, leaked a confidential document to a friend. The document was a confidential draft copy of the 2019 GP services contract, a contract with a value of €210 million. The contract was negotiated between the State and the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO. Deputy Varadkar's friend was president of a rival organisation, the National Association of General Practitioners. The facts of what happened are not in dispute. Deputy Varadkar has confirmed tha…

I would prefer if the Taoiseach answered my questions.

I welcome that all of the documentation will be made public from the Taoiseach's Department and the Department of Health. However, the questions I asked were not for the Tánaiste but for the Taoiseach. When was he informed that this document had been leaked, when did the Tánaiste tell him about it, when did the Tánaiste get the GP document, had he informed other members of Cabinet about it, and so on? I am assuming that the Taoiseach has explored all of these matters with the Tánaiste and others because he has esse…

You are Taoiseach now.

I asked the Taoiseach whether the Attorney General-----

I am asserting-----

I asked whether the Attorney General had given the Taoiseach advice.

I have asked whether the Attorney General has given the Taoiseach advice.

Has the Attorney General given the Taoiseach advice? That is the question.

They have been put but they have not been answered.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, you have allowed-----

But you have taken two-----

We are being flexible.

Except the Government.

Earlier the Taoiseach issued a heartfelt apology to Patricia Carrick and her family. I want to raise the issue of the tribunal on CervicalCheck. I understand that today the 221+ group has written to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, a detailed letter setting out again the asks of this group, which I think are entirely reasonable, for a tribunal process that is non-adversarial, for the State to settle rather than contest claims where matters are clear-cut and for the labs to be pursued separately by the Stat…

There are three matters. I also raise the matter of student nurses. It is not so long ago we were praising all and sundry on the front line and calling them heroes without capes, which is quite correct. This is a terrible abuse of young professionals, and as Deputy Boyd Barrett has said, the sheer unfairness of their treatment is felt very keenly. Will the Taoiseach intervene and what will he do about it? There has been evidence of zero-hour contracts being issued. CPL is the recruitment agency named, but if it or …

It is not true to say that it is entirely and exclusively in the gift of the Taoiseach to deliver an all-Ireland approach. The Taoiseach and the Government in Dublin can certainly have a major bearing on delivering it, however. I have raised these issues with the Taoiseach before and I have told him that the systems, North and South, have been anaemic, quite frankly, in delivering the necessary all-island approach. We all know that for the purposes of epidemiology we are a single unit, and the only way to keep any …

We can also get rhetorical answers.

I will add to colleagues' remarks. I will state it so that it is clearly understood. The Taoiseach raised the issue of schools North and South. The Taoiseach is right. On one side of the Border schools are closing and on the other they are remaining open. That is not so much due to the vagaries of Sinn Féin policy but to the reality that we have two different sets of public health advice which are in this instance contradictory. Not alone is that a very awkward situation, it is actually dangerous. We need to work h…

At midnight we will enter our second lockdown of this pandemic. Workers, families and communities are being asked to make enormous sacrifices once again. People will lose their jobs and businesses are being told to close. Families are being told to stay apart and lives are being disrupted and put on hold. Understandably, there is a great deal of anxiety. There is also anger and frustration, but I have no doubt people will play their part. In asking people to make these sacrifices the Government must also play its p…