Of course the Government acknowledges that the resignations were deeply disappointing. Of course we acknowledge that.

We need, of course, to examine the reasons that those resignations took place. The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has spoken directly to Laura Magahy and Professor Tom Keane. He has engaged directly with the Sláintecare implementation advisory council. He will, of course, go before the Oireachtas health committee. Yes, the Government is considering the structures that are in place and will consider the request for an extension of time by the implementation advisory council in that context. If there is a require…

I thank the Deputy for raising this very personal and sensitive issue. I personally know of a number of women and their families who have been impacted. I know the devastating impact it has had on their lives. The Government is here to support the women and their families. That is why we decided, with the full support of this House, to put in place a tribunal to support women to get justice without having to go through what can be the extraordinarily difficult process, in an adversarial environment, of going to a c…

I want to make the point that the purpose of the tribunal is to get cases settled quickly, in months rather than years, and to respect the deeply sensitive, private and confidential nature of the issues at hand. The hearings are, of course, held in private. There are also pre-hearing steps designed to reduce the adversarial nature of claims, including allowing women to give written statements rather than verbal testimony. This is a much more informal process than going through the court system. We acknowledge the n…

The tribunal's rules of procedure enable it to make directions to progress urgent matters. The tribunal registrar has confirmed that urgent claims will be facilitated. It remains the right of any woman or family to go to court. The Government wants to make the tribunal entirely user-friendly and the vehicle of choice for the settlement of these issues. We recognise the right of women to go to court if that is their choice, but the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is continuing to keep the issue under r…

I mentioned Covid-19, not as an excuse, but as a reality. The reality is that 5,179 people have died in Ireland with Covid-19. There have been points over the past 18 months when our system was under real strain, and we got through that thanks to the heroic work of our front-line workers in the HSE, allied health professionals and others working across the system. Despite that extraordinary strain, which we hope is a once-in-a-century level of strain that any health system would have to withstand, we have made real…

The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, spoke with Professor Keane over the phone because he is in Toronto. He has spoken on more than one occasion with Laura Magahy since her resignation took place. He has spoken and met with the implementation advisory council and will now consider its request for an extension of time. We will consider that in the context of the consideration of what we need to do to strengthen the governance arrangements in respect of Sláintecare implementation. We are determined to get this righ…

I thank the Deputy and I know she raised this issue yesterday as well. Undoubtedly, the significant increase in gas prices internationally is now working through to the very high increases which we are seeing in electricity prices. That is a real concern. We are also seeing it, of course, at the pumps in the forecourts in regard to petrol and diesel. The Government will take this into account in framing budget 2022. The fuel allowance is a really important support for about 375,000 households in the country. As the…

I thank the Deputy. We will, of course, consider the point that he has made in regard to the commencement date of any changes that we make. As I said, for those in receipt of the fuel allowance, they will start to receive the benefit of that next week but there are many people who do not get the fuel allowance currently, given the eligibility criteria. It is a means-tested support and people are allowed a certain level of income above the basic social welfare, as the Deputy knows. There are many people who do not g…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. What I can confirm is that the review of the national development plan is almost complete and will be published before the budget. We now have agreement from Cabinet in regard to the overall financial framework. It is going to be the largest public capital investment programme in the history of the State for transport. It will involve an investment of the order of €35 billion across the decade out to 2030, and the review of the NDP will involve providing an update for some…

I thank the Deputy for again raising the issue of the former Debenhams workers. I will look into the issue of that training fund because we have sanctioned it and the fund should be up and running to provide the support for people who want to return to work, if they have not already returned to work. The decision we made yesterday, I believe, is a fair one because it would be grossly unfair, having not allowed employees to trigger a redundancy claim for a period of 18 months, to then deny them that period as being …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As he knows, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities and EirGrid are working closely with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan's Department to ensure that we have security of supply across this winter and, indeed, into the future and have taken certain steps to ensure that is the case. In regard to data centres, there is a balance to be struck. We, of course, have to recognise the additional pressure that places on the system, but we also have to recognise the success we hav…

I thank Deputy Mattie McGrath for raising that question. The Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, met with the INMO and the local representatives in the area-----

------in respect of St. Brigid's hospital in Carrick-on-Suir. I will allow the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to come back to the Deputy on the detail of that.

I thank Deputy Griffin for raising this issue. As the Deputy will be aware, the Minister for Education and the Government generally place great priority on the issue of literacy and encouraging children and, indeed, adults to constantly upskill and enjoy the undoubted benefits of reading. I note that the issue of local authority librarians providing services for primary schools is an important one. The Minister for Education is conscious of the importance of library services. The Minister for Rural and Community De…

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising the national maternity strategy. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, was in a position to provide full funding for the plan in the current year. Very significant progress has been made in its implementation but we certainly acknowledge that more needs to be done. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy formally with an update.

I thank Deputy Matthews for raising this issue. As the Deputy will be aware, the recent Housing for All document commits to the establishment, consistent with the programme for Government, of a commission on housing. It is intended that the terms of reference of the commission will include consideration of the referendum on housing and it will have the opportunity to hear from a range of stakeholders as to what they believe the referendum should focus on. This is a programme for Government commitment and I look for…

I thank Deputy Patricia Ryan. I do not have specific details of that particular drug. As the Deputy will be aware, there is an agreed process for the approval of medicines and the consideration of value for money through the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. I do not know exactly what stage in the process that particular drug is at but I will ask the Minister and his officials to revert to the Deputy with a detailed reply.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle, and thank Deputy Durkan for raising the issue. As I stated a moment ago, the relevant bodies here are all working together - the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, EirGrid and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. They have taken certain steps to ensure continuity of supply. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has said he is confident that there will not be any unforeseen outages. As the Deputy will be aware, there have been certain early warnings issued over …

I thank Deputy Stanley. I certainly will. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, are active on this issue. We are, as a Government, acutely aware of the issues with the licensing of forestry operations in Ireland. This is as a result of the Department having to make changes to the appropriate assessment procedure due to European Court of Justice and Irish law rulings relating to environmental regulation. We have very significantly increased the resources in the Department with…