I do not say that to minimise any trauma any individual goes through but we need a balanced debate in perspective and to acknowledge the progress that has been made while resolving to do even better in respect of other issues.

Yes, we can. Indeed, over the last number of years, we have dramatically increased capacity. Deputy Bacik mentioned the beds but she forgot to mention that, by the end of 2024 alone, we had 1,300 additional beds in the system. As the Deputy will know, during the Covid period, we took the opportunity to dramatically increase bed capacity in our hospital system, particularly in the critical care area, where there was significant increase in the number of beds. We expanded our ICU capacity by about 28%, which is signi…

Four more are due to open in 2026.

First of all, the Deputy has made an assertion and equated the ending of the one-off cost-of-living measures that were introduced during the height of the Ukraine energy crisis and so forth with cuts. That is wrong and he knows that. That is the first assertion, premised upon which his arguments are made, that is flawed. We must embed into the permanent social protection system, employment system, transport system, education system and health system supports that are permanent for people with a disability. That is …

The disregards will continue to expand in budgets to come.

We are not restoring once-off payments across the board. We are not going to do that but we are going to continue to support, right through every area of government, supports for people with disabilities. We are going to implement the new strategy, which was agreed with advocates and organisations that advocate for people with disabilities, in consultation with the various organisations, in particular, in the fields of employment. In the field of mobility and transport, the Minister for Transport will be coming to …

More fundamentally, we acknowledge that there are very significant pressures on people in terms of costs and pricing and making ends meet. The most effective way to deal with that is how you manage the economy more broadly and how you get inflation down to very low levels and have average wage growth and real income growth that significantly helps people to deal with those pressures. If you look at nominal wage growth in the economy, it is at approximately 5.5% or 5%. Inflation is at 2%. In 2024, 2025 and 2026, we …

We reduced VAT on energy and we extended that reduction to 2030. We did that.

There is an issue with electricity prices. There is no question about that. The Minister has set up an affordability group on energy to deal with that. There are regulatory issues and more pan-European issues. We are an island nation. There is wider distribution. We are investing hugely in the grid and choosing investment in infrastructure because we need to make sure the growing population has access to energy in the years to come. We are prioritising in a strategic way the allocation of resources for the benefit …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue in respect of establishing a group to identify issues relating to the future of Cork's city centre. We have not been waiting for the establishment of this group. There has been very significant investment in all the key areas in Cork. A €200 million investment for the airport was announced by the DAA last year and, of course, because of the renewable energy agenda, the Port of Cork has successfully secured funding from Europe and Government backing through the Ireland Strat…

It is the city council that does not want to call it a task force. When I met it some time back I was told that it has issues with that term because its view is that the city has made a lot of progress. The city council accepts that the future needs a certain vision and approach. We will not get too exercised about terms. I have had consultations with the city council, as have others. We are close to putting flesh on the bones of this and bringing it to Government for a decision on the establishment of the group an…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is important. I will engage with the relevant Ministers. Dublin City Council has a role and the private sector is also involved. There is an issue to be resolved. From the perspective of the arts community and citizens generally, the role of the centre, which is of benefit to generations and is in the public interest, is one we would like to retain. I will get an update from the relevant Minister on this.

Yes.

All parties in the last Government invested hugely in cycling. Successive Ministers for public expenditure, in particular, invested very significantly in active travel more generally, and that is to be seen across the country in the form of transformative projects. That is a good thing. I reject any stereotyping or categorisation of cyclists.

I do not want to breach any rule concerning the separation of powers but I am very clear that any general comment that impacts negatively on the perspective on cyclists is wrong. It should not be made. We should be very clear about the importance of cycling and about facilitating cyclists.

Also, we should be very careful regarding contested space on our roads to ensure that we protect cyclists. About €1 billion been invested since 2021 in walking and cycling projects across the country. The active travel and sustainable transport programme of the National Transport Authority, NTA, continues to be very significant, with higher amounts being provided again this year.

We have been recruiting. We need to be a little more analytical on this as well. I take the Deputy’s point in that the waiting times are not satisfactory whatsoever. The model needs to be examined. I do not believe it works at all in terms of the referral system and how we are utilising the disciplines. We are recruiting. There have been challenges with recruitment. CORU is improving its performance in respect of those who are qualified who wish to come from the United Kingdom, the EU or elsewhere. A lot of restric…

It is not eight years. It is a little disingenuous to say it is but I understand where the Deputy is coming from. The Government did not introduce a Bill eight years ago. What has been put forward is wholly inadequate in terms of constitutionality, etc. We will not go back over all of that.

What is going on with the settlements is wrong. It will render non-viable the prospect of a two-state solution, which in our view is the only sustainable way to have peace, including between Palestinians and Israelis, in the Middle East. I decry the continuing expansion of settlements in the West Bank. In our view, we need to move on to phase 2 of the peace process in Gaza, have a sustainable transitional force there, achieve decommissioning and have proper reconstruction of Gaza. We received a legal opinion from t…

The Government took its decision last week notwithstanding that significant improvements and safeguards were achieved. Quite a number of MEPs, including Barry Cowen, Billy Kelleher and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, worked effectively and all tabled amendments that were accepted. That was important in making sure the strongest possible safeguards, including market safeguards, would be in place. Now the threshold has gone from 10% down to 5%, which is a pretty significant improvement regarding any disruption to the market here…