They would be disciples of all of that.

There is an important point to make because comments have been made about the former Minister, Paschal Donohoe and the International Development Association. First, the IDA provides highly concessional finance, grants and zero or low-interest loans to the world's poorest countries and supports 75 of the poorest countries globally, including 39 in Africa. It is the largest single donor for basic social services in these countries. The IDA 21 negotiations concluded in Korea in December 2024 and covered IDA operations…

The mid-point recommended by officials in the Department of Finance was €150 million. The Minister for Finance-----

My understanding is the FOI was in respect of the then Department of Foreign Affairs. My understanding now from preparing this note is this. The finance officials sent this information to me when I requested it. The Minister for Finance agreed to €141.4 million, classified as "the low option". The proposal was then approved by Cabinet and the business case is to be released in full under FOI. IDA negotiations are conducted by officials, not ministers, across all donor countries. Ireland's negotiations were handled …

Sorry. It was just to put that on the record.

I can come back separately to both of the Deputies.

To Deputy Quaide in respect of the specific issue of long-term Covid.

The others are more general policy issues.

Ní aontaím in aon chor leis an Teachta. Before I start, I express my gratitude to the Ceann Comhairle and her team and all the staff in the Oireachtas who help us elected representatives to do our job, day in and day out.

I refer to the clerks, security staff, cleaners, catering staff and all who quietly go about their business and create what is essentially the community that underpins our nation's democracy. I also thank all the TDs in the House. We may differ on matters - we do not agree on everything - but I believe we are all here for the right reason, which is to advance the interests of the people of this country. I wish everybody a well-earned break with their family and loved ones. I thank my own team and the officials in m…

As for judging any government, there is a whole range of issues and I will get back to some in the supplementary response.

We are doing more for children now in terms of our investments.

Deputy McDonald did not want us to do targeted measures for child poverty in the budget, but we did it.

That is a bit silly. The bottom line is that we are prioritising children and we want to do that. It is accepted that there are issues facing children in this country, but we provided for a major 20% increase in investment in disability services. As the Deputy knows, we are now developing a new education therapy service, which will be transformative. It will start in special schools early in the new year. It will be expanded into all special schools in the school year beginning in September of next year. Then we wi…

A total of €3 billion has now been invested in special education, and rightly so. It will continue.

The Deputy has identified a number of issues, ranging from public transport and the M50 to road safety. For me, the latter is the most significant issue. There is very significant traffic congestion on the M50. It is a vital piece of national infrastructure. Growth in our economy and in our population has added significantly to the traffic. Overall levels on the M50 have grown by 11% since 2019. There is huge investment going into public transport. I do not agree with the 2:1 ratio. It is too crude a mechanism. A l…

An Garda Síochána will be very active over Christmas in particular. It is conducting a dedicated road traffic enforcement operation throughout the Christmas period, which began on Monday, 1 December and will continue until Monday, 5 January. The Deputy is correct. Investing in better and safer roads, continued enforcement of the law and increasing the allocation of gardaí to front-line duties are all part of the measures that we are going to be taking on an ongoing basis. We are going to implement the road safety s…

From the Deputy's perspective, that is the short-term popular answer, is it not? All that would do would depress supply. The fundamental answer to homelessness is supply. The Deputy's party has never got that. All its proposals, in my view, would actually depress supply and reduce it. That is the fundamental difference between us. I am not going for the short-term popular thing, to ban this and all of that. It sounds great, but it would be damaging to getting more supply into the market. That is the bottom line. Ho…

They are great old slogans. Dusting down the old policies: it is all just rhetoric and jargon.

The Deputy is saying we keep doing the same thing. We have built over 50,000 social homes, or delivered over 50,000. The new plan will deliver 72,000. That is substance.