I am wondering are you blaming the State for Scappaticci.

Extraordinary. You have not mentioned it either.

Ah, come on. That is outrageous.

Are you serious? You have some brass neck, I can tell you that.

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Tá an-chuid déanta ag an Rialtas ó thaobh na gcostas maireachtála de. Bhí an-chuid laistigh den bhuiséad a bhí againn i mí Dheireadh Fómhair, go háirithe dóibh siúd ar ioncam íseal agus an-chuid cabhair tugtha againn tríd leas sóisialach chun daoine a chosaint agus cóir agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine. I do not accept the Deputy's overall presentation of the Government's response to what are significant pressures on the people in respect of the cost of living. Of course…

Actually, the energy credit would help the vast, vast majority of those who are not in arrears. The Deputy should think about it for a moment. She identified how many people are in arrears. The vast majority of people are not in arrears. People are under pressure; do not get me wrong. The energy credit applies to everybody; it is universal.

That is what she is arguing should be extended to everybody. Surely it would be far better to help those who are in genuine difficulty.

You are not leader yet, Pearse, for God's sake.

You have been making attempts lately but just let me respond to the leader.

I just want to make the point that we have targeted our measures-----

-----to meet those who are in difficulty, and that is the key. Once-off cost-of-living measures are not fiscally sustainable for the next number of years. The €3 billion and €4 billion we allocated for two years, we just cannot keep doing that. We have a strong economy. We have probably one of the best employment positions of any European Union state. We want to preserve that and we also want to support those who need support, and we will, in terms of energy affordability and security.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I first became aware it yesterday via the media. That is fine. The Department of foreign affairs became aware of the case in October and had been providing consular assistance to Seamus Culleton and his family via the teams at the consulate general in Austin, the embassy in Washington DC and our consular unit in Dublin. We have migration law in this country. We have laws. There is legal status in Ireland and there is undocumented status in Ireland. All countries, bar none,…

There are a number of cases. It could be five to six cases, but they vary in status. The Deputy is implying, wrongly, my approach to this. I would have thought that the prime objective is to secure status. People want to get out of the detention facility. The Deputy knows best.

I would argue that it is status. Let us not do anything that could make that more difficult. That is all I am saying.

This cannot be resolved in the public domain. The Deputy should know that. Either we want to genuinely try to help, and I know the Deputy does-----

The issue is status, it seems to me. That is the number one issue that I would like to see dealt with. I cannot promise anything in respect of securing that, but I would have thought it would be the objective for Seamus Culleton. He is married, he has been there for 20 years and he has a business. That is the ultimate objective that we want to achieve.

Without question care for mothers particularly postnatal is absolutely important. Despite what the Deputy said, the Government has made a lot of progress in this area over quite a number of years, in particular the establishment of nine postnatal hubs, giving women access to postnatal care in community settings. Additional funding of €2 million in 2025 will initiate four further hubs which will bring the total network to €13 million. Some €28 million in new development funding has been invested in the national mate…

The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are absolutely committed to expanding this. I am not clear about that 29-year reference but I repeat that in terms of mental health, the perinatal mental health service is now available in all 19 maternity hospitals, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old. That is the current position. As we discussed this morning, both the Minister and the Minister of State are quite committed to prioritising thi…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is an extremely important issue. The ultimate priority, of course, is housing. All of us in this House agreed a long time ago that housing is a priority. Short-term lets, particularly in cities and large towns, have replaced a lot of rental properties for housing. That is the ultimate priority. Cities and large towns provide the best opportunity for short-term letting properties to be returned to the long-term rental market. We had a meeting last evening of party leader…

It is above 20,000 and we are trying to get the balance right between tourism and housing. It is important to note, there will be an obligation to register. The Bill is the short-term letting and tourism legislation. We published that, as the Deputy knows. We got Cabinet approval. I think it has gone through pre-legislative scrutiny. It will introduce a national register of all short-term let properties to improve oversight and compliance. It also aligns domestic law with the European Union short-term rental regula…