I want to know when.

What date?

I just want a date.

Acting Chairman-----

My ask is straightforward. On the weekend of 3 and 4 July, the Taoiseach discussed all aspects of the Cowen case with the former Minister, Deputy Cowen. On what date did the Taoiseach give full information or have a full discussion with the Tánaiste and with the leader of the Green Party? On what date did the Taoiseach make them fully conversant with all of the facts? That is all I want.

For the record, I wish to reflect on the fact that the Taoiseach has not answered the very straightforward question I put to him. From the record of the Dáil, we now know the Taoiseach knew that Deputy Cowen had made an incomplete statement to the Dáil. We will therefore have to ask the Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, whether they also knew that the statement made was incomplete. I will pursue that matter with them since the Taoiseach will not answer. I raise the issue o…

One of the driving rationales for the Cabinet sub-committees that we have discussed is to achieve what the Taoiseach called a coherence in government and cross-departmental working. That is important and it is very challenging for public administration to reach that point. In the case of health, a number of immediacies need to be recognised. The first is the reality that because of the public health crisis, the Covid emergency, many services were compromised and therefore, people's needs, necessarily in many cases,…

The previous Government allowed the HSE to implement a cut of 1% to the 2020 budget for disability services. I raised this matter on behalf of the Disability Action Coalition during the lockdown and the HSE insisted that these so-called efficiencies, which amount to €20 million, had to be found. Far from trying to cushion the blow or give additional support they insisted on this very miserly cut. More recently, the Minister for Health conceded that the cut to disability services was now considered problematic given…

I am sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Brady. This weekend the European Council will meet to discuss the multi-annual financial framework for the EU, as the Taoiseach said. The MFF will shape and direct the financial policies and priorities of the EU for the best part of the next decade. It will have a significant impact on the lives of ordinary workers and families in Ireland. The discussions on the MFF come at a time when member states are still reeling from months of battling with the Covid-19 epidemic and …

I have been reluctant to raise the matter of the Minister, Deputy Cowen, on Leaders' Questions before today. I absolutely accept that everybody makes mistakes, that people learn from those mistakes and that they move on. We wanted to give the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine every opportunity to address all of the matters concerned, to draw a line under them and to move on at a time of huge health and economic challenges, not least for the farming community. Last week, the Minister had the opportunity …

It is becoming clear that the Minister, Deputy Cowen, will have to come before the House and take questions on all of these issues. However, for the purposes of today's discussion, I am more concerned with what the Taoiseach, as Head of Government, knew. He has confirmed that he did, in fact, know about the Garda PULSE record and that there was an allegation that the Minister had sought to evade a Garda checkpoint. He has confirmed that he knew that information as or before the Minister was making his statement. I …

Then publish it.

Then the Taoiseach should have the Minister publish it.

It is not agreed. The Taoiseach knew that the statement the Minister, Deputy Cowen, made to the Dáil was incomplete. Astonishingly, he has attempted to justify the Minister's lack of candour before the House. It is now very clear that the Minister, Deputy Cowen, needs to come before the Dáil to make a statement and to take questions. A senior Cabinet Minister challenging the accuracy or truthfulness of the PULSE records of the Garda is a very serious matter. A senior Cabinet Minister attempting to evade a Garda che…

That is the worst type of evasion. As Head of Government, I appeal to the Taoiseach to do the right thing for the sake of the integrity of the Dáil. There is no conceivable reason that the Minister could not present himself to make a full and complete statement and to take questions from Deputies. It is entirely unacceptable to dance on the head of a pin in the way in which the Taoiseach is doing.

When I raised with the Taoiseach last week the need to extend maternity leave and benefit by 12 weeks for mothers and parents affected by the Covid-19 crisis, he said the matter was complicated and complex but that the Government would do the right thing. Yesterday, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs announced a three-week extension to parental leave to be brought in next year under budget 2021. I put it to the Taoiseach that that is too little and too late. Those new mothers and families who need the addi…

In addition to everything the Taoiseach has recalled regarding the setting up of this inner city initiative, it should also be recalled that the north-east inner city was caught in the grip of what was referred to as a "gangland feud" at the time. He will recall that lives had been lost, the community, including children, was traumatised by the incidents they had witnessed and at the time there was an understanding that there had to be an intervention that was wider than a policing or criminal justice response. Tha…

I welcome that the Taoiseach is open to a review. I am keen to acknowledge the substantial amount of work done by the board and I commend those involved on it. Nevertheless, this review has to be about the community. It has to be about the people who live in the kind of atrocious housing conditions that the Taoiseach has himself witnessed. Should the Taoiseach go into any of these blocks of flats and ask himself whether this is how our citizens should be living in 2020, the clear answer would be "No". Poor housing …

The Greek Street flats are in the north-west inner city. They are not captured by the catchment area. I am not saying this to catch out the Taoiseach at all. I am simply raising it to reiterate the point about the catchment area for the north-east and north-west inner city. A line was arbitrarily drawn. I hope that as part of the review which I hope will be commissioned, those responsible look at the boundaries and accept a north inner city area of Dublin without artificial distinctions that are not helpful to land…

I applaud the Taoiseach's commitment to coherence and openness across the Government. However, I would caution that too many cooks can spoil the broth, as they say. It strikes me that this is a most irregular arrangement. Not alone will the Tánaiste have an office within the Department of An Taoiseach, but we will now have an office of the leader of the Green Party within the Department of An Taoiseach. The Taoiseach has set out considerable resources. He referred to five or six special advisers for the Tánaiste. I…