On civil liberty grounds, he is now saying not to do that. Perhaps we need proper engagement in the House. In first three minutes, the Deputy spoke about how terrible we are in not protecting children and so forth. We are coming up with an age verification tool to protect children and he is telling us not to do that if it has implications for civil liberties and so on. That is basically what he is saying. However-----

On the alternative, I am not clear about the feasibility of banning mobile phones in their entirety. We did it in schools and the Deputy opposed it.

We did, and the Deputy opposed it.

The Deputy opposed the policy of enabling schools to ban mobile phones in schools and now he is telling me we should ban them all over the country, and for every child-----

Is the Deputy talking about children aged 12, 14, 15 or 16? Where is the cut-off?

Sixteen years of age. Okay.

That will be easy to implement, I would say.

Come on.

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that is very close to her heart and for which she is advocating strongly. The €200 childcare cost is a programme for Government commitment. We will progressively implement that. The next budget will be important in that regard, in addition to what has been achieved already. We accept that childcare remains a very significant cost for many families and affects participation in the workplace, the proper care of their children and identifying the developmental needs of their chi…

Investment has grown significantly. It is up 12% again this year compared with last year. The sector will receive about €1.5 billion this year, but demand will grow. We also have to keep an eye on the quality of childcare that is provided as much as on capacity. That is why investment in the workforce is important. A total of €45 million has been provided this year in ring-fenced funding for another wage order on top of the €45 million that was provided for last year. We are making incremental progress on pay for c…

The pause means what I said as I discussed in response to earlier questions raised by other-----

The Ministers will engage with those schools and with the National Council for Special Education on that review. The schools themselves have appealed the decision, or will have appealed it, and there will be engagement.

Russia's invasion is and has been an horrific act, violating not just territorial integrity but also causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, including Russian soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers and the appalling attacks on civilian infrastructure. Circumvention of sanctions has been a feature of the war. Europe has tried everything it possibly can, including the appointment of a former Secretary-General of the European Commission, Irishman David O'Sullivan, to try to deal with the circumvention of sanction…

First of all, the age verification tool is currently being piloted, or the intention by the Department is to pilot it.

Robust age verification is part of the infrastructure we need to build to protect our children online. Our counterparts in Europe are of the same view on how to achieve this and we will work together to ensure the online realm is safe for children. Piloting, by the way, is about evaluation, asking whether it works and whether it has other implications. The intention is that it would be privacy-preserving and would protect people's rights but we will explore all that too. The other side of the coin is we need to ena…

There is a workforce plan under way within the Department and the NCSE in respect of special needs assistants. Consultations are taking place and that would involve a review.

On the guidelines, there is a circular from 2014. As I said, the workforce planning involves all the issues the Deputy just discussed.

The Deputy is saying there are two patients left.

Again, I do not have the full details or specifics of the case but the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will undertake to examine it and understand the full background of it before making commitments in respect of it.

Obviously I did not attend the committee and am not aware of the full details that ensued but if you were to look at every agency in the country and back at where staffing was three or four years ago - it may not be the case here and I put that reservation or qualification in - there has been an increase generally. Numbers in the public service have risen very considerably. We are going to have to look at methodologies, how we do our business and how we do our work. MABS is a very important service and I am very su…