-----and the treatment of every individual with respect. Our education system has shown that.

Government policy through education has been very inclusive and we have very supportive of every child who comes into this country who needs to access education.

Who?

I thank the Deputy very much. That is why, this morning, the Government launched the accelerated infrastructure report. The Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, has led the charge since this Government was established nearly a year ago with regard to an infrastructure division within the Department of public expenditure. He appointed an external task force led by Mr. Sean O'Driscoll and a number of people from the private sector or involved in State agencies who have first-hand knowledge of the challenges and barriers t…

If the Deputy could put us in contact with that company, the Ministers, Deputies Peter Burke or Jack Chambers, would be interested in meeting. The first Minister, as Minister for enterprise, would maybe see if he could do anything to help it in its situation. Then, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, could do well to listen to that company in terms of the barriers it has faced. The Deputy said An Bord Pleanála is the problem. We have established a new planning commission, which has been substantially resourced, much mor…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue which has been at the heart of Government for the past four to five years and has seen dramatic expansion of supports for home care. There is no question about that. That is part of the challenge. The broader perspective is that population growth and particularly the ageing of the population is a significant backdrop to what we are currently experiencing. I think the population of over-65s has increased by about 37% in the past decade, whereas the overal…

I fully agree that we have to continue. There is urgency there, certainly at Government level in respect of this issue. The expansion has been quite dramatic and significant but so has been the growth in the population, the need and the demand. The Deputy is correct in saying that we have to concentrate and focus our resources on the home and keeping people living at home for as long as we possibly can. That is in the interests of the individual, of course, the family and broader society. We also have to recruit qu…

I spoke to my officials yesterday again on this. I want to thank the survivors for the engagement I have had with them. There is absolutely no need to even contemplate going back on hunger strike. I will fulfil the commitments that I have made along with the then Minister for education. I wrote to the survivors, and I will fulfil those commitments as soon as we possibly can. We are putting together the detail and fleshing out the commitments I made in correspondence with them on these. I want to give the Deputy tha…

Ireland has been a strong supporter of the establishment of the tribunal and will provide financial supports, as we have generally in the area of international jurisprudence and, indeed, the various international courts, such as the International Criminal Court, ICC, the International Court of Justice, ICJ, or any of them have been very strong supporters of those. I share with the Deputy the condemnation of these appalling attacks. In my discussions with President Zelenskyy yesterday, I was very clear on the enormo…

I ask Members of the House maybe to consult with me and we will engage with the survivors. I understand the Deputy is asking in good faith, but there is no need to go back or even contemplate it. Work is being done on this to flesh out what I committed to. The guarantee stands. The commitments stand. For anyone to have to go back on something like that would be very damaging to their health, so I would be very concerned about that. People's lives and quality of life into the future are at stake here because not tak…

I am not aware of that particular cut, but I will talk to the new Minister for Defence in respect of that. I did set up the office of the Reserve Defence Force. We really have beefed up the capacity behind it, all with a view to increasing the number of reservists because it is a very important dimension to our Defence Forces. My view is that we should be doing everything to incentivise the recruitment of reservists, not disincentivising it.

We have a party Whip system, and we do not have open votes on every single Private Members' Bill that comes before the House-----

-----but in terms of protection of whistleblowers, there is very comprehensive legislation to protect whistleblowers. That is there and there are good systems in place and avenues by which disclosures can be made, dealt with and responded to in a systemic way. I am not clear in terms of the Deputy's comment on civil servants knowingly breaching the law. The law is there to be enforced. If the Deputy knows people have broken the law, he should report it to the Garda, which can follow it up. We need to be careful, ho…

-----and for the people of this country. Every now and again, we need to affirm people in their work-----

Yes, I know, but we tend to give everyone a bad name.

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. I want to acknowledge his absolute consistent support and adherence to a high-quality food production system in this country and agriculture. At the moment, the European Union currently imports around 200,000 tonnes of beef from Mercosur countries annually. What is being proposed now is that the Mercosur countries will be granted a beef quota of 99,000 tonnes subdivided into 55,000 fresh and 45,000 frozen, with an in-quota tariff of 7.5% to be phased in over six equal s…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. My understanding, if it is the same issue, is that it arose prior to the budget and the then Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, advised that, as we say in Irish, níl aon dul as. There was no way to deal with it other than to bring in new measures because of European Union monitoring and what it had assessed in terms of the existing scheme. I accept it is challenging for the broiler farmers but I am not clear there is an alternative pathway. I will bring the matter to th…

As I said earlier, I am very concerned about these reports. The European Union currently imports approximately 200,000 tons of beef from Mercosur countries annually. There was an assessment done some years ago on the proposed EU-Mercosur agreement that it would result in an additional 50,000 tonnes once it was fully phased in, but approximately 99,000 tonnes would benefit from an in-quota tariff of 7.5%. The fact is that Mercosur beef is coming into the country and it has been, and it is very worrying that carcinog…

The EU has very stringent SPS standards and they have to be implemented and enforced.

Our standards are among the highest in the world. It is interesting that in other trade deals some of the countries did not manage to export too much into Europe because of the SPS standards, which are often described as non-tariff barriers.