I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 15, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on housing last met yesterday, Monday, 15 December. The committee works to ensure a cross-Government approach to the implementation of our commitments regarding housing policy. This week’s meeting was specifically focused on our homelessness challenge, in particular the national housing plan commitments in this regard, including the development of a homeless prevention framework and a child and family homelessness action plan. We a…

There were quite a number of questions there, beginning with Deputy Séamus McGrath. I welcome also the good initiative we have announced today, namely the extension of the vacant refurbishment grant to 2030, but specifically on the commercial properties and the €140,000 plus a €5,000 grant for assistance to support the owner to design a project. The Deputy is right in saying that we need to make sure that the local authorities prioritise this - in other words, that they put a project manager or whatever in charge o…

Has the Deputy moved across?

The Deputy has a wide compass. He is national now. I ask him to give me the details and I will follow through. It should not happen. I do not know the background to that. I appreciate the Deputy's comments about the Jewish community in Ireland and the impact that what happened in Bondi Beach has had on the Jewish community globally and in Ireland. The murder that took place was quite shocking. Others were injured. The Deputy also referenced the Complex. Deputy O'Rourke spoke about child homelessness. The meeting of…

How could I forget Deputy Ó Murchú? He spoke about estate management powers to deal with what he described as "chaotic tenants". There are powers. I am not sure that the AHBs have different powers. They just have a different way of operating.

They have a different way of operating. They lay it down from the beginning.

Local authorities have struggled with this for quite a long time. My own belief is that persistent misbehaviour and so on should mean you lose the tenancy. That is what should happen. It is hard. We know of housing estates that have awful tensions, difficulties and challenges. I would be glad to work with the Deputy on the issue. I will talk to the Minister about it. Deputy Quaide spoke about the thousands of houses that have been left lying idle. We give responsibilities to the local authorities. Deputy Connolly t…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 24, inclusive, together. I attended the leaders’ summit at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, on 6 and 7 November. Coming a decade after the Paris Agreement and during a period of enhanced geopolitical turbulence, my attendance at the summit was an important opportunity to show Ireland’s continuing commitment to the objectives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement to limit emissions in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. I delivered Irel…

I thank Deputy Byrne for acknowledging that it was important to attend the COP, even though it was a long distance to go. We needed to send a signal given that we are at a point at which the issue of climate change is receding in terms of political prioritisation. This is a real concern. Some people are pulling back from their commitments. On hosting a future COP in Ireland, next autumn we will have the largest ever political meeting held in Ireland. There will be over 40 states represented. It is a ginormous under…

I said I am going to have a look at it. The Deputy asked me to have a look at it, so I am telling him that I am going to have a look at it. Deputy Ó Cearúil is correct on the moves we made in terms of dependency on Russian oil and gas. On public transport, it is key. I have spoken to the Ministers for public expenditure and Transport in respect of DART+ South West. That has gone through all the planning and is shovel ready. The county council has zonings for between 10,000 to 18,000 houses. It feels that this is es…

-----in terms of securing additional safeguards. Quite a significant number of safeguards have been secured. That is contrary to what was there a year ago. They are taking the form of legal instruments that the Commission has committed to. We succeeded in securing the nitrates derogation. It is a significant advancement that we now have that for a further three years. It was challenging and difficult. We worked hard with the Commission to get it over the line. Approximately 200,000 tonnes of Mercosur beef come into…

If we were to add up the figures from everybody's contributions, I would guess that we would arrive at another €50 billion. We have to try keep things moving with planning in the context of progressing as many projects as we possibly can and to make sure that we have sustainability, financing and all of that. I will have to look at the rail prioritisation strategy that emerged on Friday.

First of all, tá an-chuid déanta i gcoitinne ag an Rialtas chun costais a bhaineann le cúrsaí leighis a ísliú. Tá sé sin déanta againn, go háirithe ó thaobh an drugs payment scheme. Tá an tairseach i bhfad níos fearr anois ná mar a bhí sé cúpla bliain ó shin. More generally on the cost of medicine, and particularly charges and so on, this Government has, over the last number of years, significantly reduced the cost of accessing medicine. The DPS threshold in particular has come significantly down, exceeding even co…

I am sorry, this is the issue. Invariably Sinn Féin will come in another day and question Government about how the costs got out of control, value for money and so on. There has to be an engagement between the pharmacy sector and the HSE on these matters. Unfortunately in the Oireachtas from time to time, the Deputies opposite just blow all that out of the water and do not even allow interrogation of the issues. Government will interrogate this again with the HSE and others-----

-----but there are issues here. I mean, there are agreements between-----

-----the Irish Pharmacy Union-----

-----and the Department-----

The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics carried out an evidence assessment.

I am just giving the background as the question was asked. It indicated the evidence was very equivocal in terms of supporting the programme. We will go back and discuss this with the HSE.

During discussions with the pharmacy union-----