I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on health last met on 17 July and is due to meet again soon. The committee oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to health, receives detailed reports on identified policy areas and considers health reforms including Sláintecare, the reform of public health and health system preparedness for future health threats. It also receives reports in relation to programme for Government commitments in th…

I thank the ambassador for her work over the past number of years. We enjoyed our engagement with her and I really appreciate that. Deputy McAuliffe raised the issue of Beaumont Hospital. There are four major projects under way there. The national development plan has allocated very substantial funding to the Department of Health and the HSE for the realisation of those projects. The key is to keep the pressure on to get them through the various stages. Health capital tends to be slow and health projects tend to be…

I have the reply to Deputy Cullinane somewhere.

I apologise. They relate to mental health, early intervention and Jigsaw. I will talk to the Minister. There has been a significant growth in Jigsaw services across the country. I will talk to the Minister in respect of Waterford. I agree with the sentiments the Deputy has articulated. Jigsaw is a very good organisation. It has got a lot of good State support in recent years. A decision has been taken on 24-7 cardiac services. Deputy Cullinane asked about the implementation and delivery of it. A lot of progress has…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 20, inclusive, together. Ireland has accepted challenging emissions reduction targets at EU and national levels. Our programme for Government has reaffirmed the Government's determination that Ireland will play its full part in tackling what is a global issue. We are seeing encouraging signs. Ireland's emissions have been falling for the last three years, and we now have lower overall emissions than at any point in the last 35 years, despite our population growing by 50% over …

Deputy Cleere was the first into the fray, regarding flood schemes in Kilkenny. He gave a very articulate presentation of the challenges and complexities of flood schemes. They take a lot of time and consultation. Given the frequency and ferocity of storms today, we need to move faster with some of these schemes, because the devastation of a flood on a household or on a town, or on shops and businesses, is huge and shocking for people. The national development plan, NDP, has allocated substantial money and capital.…

I was up late last night preparing for the third grouping after watching the presidential debate.

It is fine.

I watched it and then I worked on the parliamentary questions.

At the outset, I want to take the opportunity to offer my deepest condolences to Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family and his parents, Gillian and Stephen. No words of condolence or consolation to Harvey's parents are enough. It is an extraordinarily traumatic thing to happen to any family, but in these circumstances even more traumatic in terms of the experiences the family and Harvey had with the hospitals and the clinical world itself, and it is unacceptable. The Minister met with the HSE and CHI board and has been…

I am not applying my reply to the two cases the Deputy mentioned, for example. There is a fundamental question we have all faced if we are honest, whereby people come to us and say that as a parent they believe their child should get a particular intervention or surgery. If a doctor or clinician does not believe that is appropriate at that time or believes that the outcomes may not be optimal at that time for the child concerned, what is Deputy McDonald suggesting? This is a reality on an ongoing basis. It seems to…

I appreciate the sincerity of the issues the Deputy has raised in respect of the challenges facing the country. Fundamentally, I make the point to the Deputy that since 2019 employment has grown in this country by 506,000 people. That is 506,000 people over five years. We have a strong and resilient economy and the most effective intervention in terms of poverty or living standards is work and jobs. I argue that the policies we have advocated here are advantageous to the enterprise economy and its continuation as c…

I have indicated that we are going to do that. I said to the Deputy, prior to the summer recess, that we would target our resources as opposed to universal allocations.

Through our social protection frameworks, we have mechanisms that will enable us to do that in terms of the various payments and so on that we can increase, but we will prioritise in respect of the child poverty question. We will prioritise in terms of disability and in terms of the additional costs that families with people who are disabled have to incur, and we will seek to alleviate that. We are conscious of the programme for Government commitments we have made in respect of the carer's allowance also. The budge…

First, I take the opportunity to welcome you back, Deputy, and I am looking forward to our continued engagements. I think we both share a love of west Cork and the people of west Cork, as well as their representatives in terms of quality, calibre and so forth. I am going to miss Deputy Cian O’Callaghan. I thank him for his forensic engagement over the last while. I also thank Deputy Cairns for her tributes to Councillor Patrick Gerard Murphy, a colleague of ours. We are in deep sadness because Patrick Gerard was a …

First of all, Deputy Cairns's critique of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled Persons is wrong. There was significant participation of people with disabilities in the formulation, delivery and announcement of that strategy. They enthusiastically participated in that. Structures have been created to follow through on it. That is a kind of a cynical, poor response by the Deputy to what was a genuine-----

I am just saying to the Deputy-----

I met with the people at the launch of the strategy. I have created a disability unit in my Department to drive change. We will do it over the lifetime of this Government.

It is right across the board. In terms of cost of living, it is not that simple and the Deputy knows that. However, there will be measures in the budget to help families with disabilities in terms of income supports. There will be measures in the budget in that respect.

We are not creating a free-for-all in terms of the rental market more generally. We are creating a national rent pressure zone, ultimately including the entire country. The bottom line is that we need more supply of houses. We need a significant and substantial increase in the supply of housing. That is the key. Without additional supply we will have a very challenging rental market. The Deputy indicated a case of 50%, which sounds illegal to me. I do not know whether or not the landlord is registered with the RTB.…