The Central Bank may be in a position over time to do something.

There may be a route there, but that in itself is not going to change what is happening now.

I do not want to be facetious but under the triple lock arrangements at the moment, it would not be possible for the Naval Service to go overseas. In any event, I applaud the crew of the Madleen -----

-----because they acknowledged themselves that it was a symbolic gesture.

As the King of Jordan said to me at the weekend, we need trucks and trucks of aid, not drops. We need absolute, unimpeded aid going into Gaza at huge scale. On the other hand-----

He has, actually and in fact, the European Union remains the largest donor to Palestine and the Palestinians. Apart from all that, the international community, particularly the EU-Israeli association agreement, is something we have to focus on. That would have impact. As I mentioned in response to Deputy Bacik before I ran out of time, the Foreign Affairs Council will be meeting the week after the UN conference, and the European Council will meet after that.

We will do everything we can to endeavour to get an outcome in respect of the EU-Israeli association agreement. It will be difficult, because a lot of countries in Europe do not have the same mindset that we do.

My understanding is that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has determined to grant an aquaculture licence to Woodstown Bay Shellfish Limited and that the licensing process involves consultation with a wide range of scientific and technical advisers as well as various statutory consultees. I am informed that the legislation also provides for a period of public consultation, which for this application was apparently held in 2019 and was rerun in 2021. In total, 609 public submissions were received. I …

There is a process here. I do not interfere in every single process. I do not have executive authority to do that. I think the Deputy knows that.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue, which is obviously of huge concern to those in County Louth, in Carlingford and Dundalk. The additional investment in Irish Water, or Uisce Éireann, is a key priority for the next national development plan for clean water but also for housing supply. We will be ring-fencing quite substantial capital allocations for housing supply but also, as is clearly needed judging by the issues the Deputy has instanced, in wastewater treatment. One of the challenges with wastewater trea…

There are challenges. Nonetheless, earlier this year, the new Government allocated up to €700 million additionally over the Estimate for a whole variety of schemes to give them the green light. It allocated about €450 million for new projects and then approximately €300 for the tenant in situ scheme and for further acquisitions of housing and so on by local authorities. Other schemes are coming through all of the time. It was interesting to listen to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, this morning, which is c…

First, the Department makes its assessment in respect of new schools in terms of demographics, existing schools in the area that may be absorbing a lot at second level, and future trends. I am not in a position right here to question the work the Department has done on this. I will raise it with the Minister and indicate that the Deputy has raised this issue in Greystones on the Order of Business. I will particularly ask about the 29 students who are, from what the Deputy is saying, still awaiting places. I would h…

I accept fully the frustrations as articulated by the Deputy in respect of this issue. As far back as September 2024, the Department of Transport sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for driver testers and this increases the total permanent posts sanctioned for testers to 200, which is a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022. A recruitment process is under way, with the first tranche of new testers now being deployed into the service. We hope that as additional testers enter the system, testing cap…

I take this issue very seriously. I have met with Traveller organisations and agree that it is a very serious situation. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health to respond.

I accept the Deputy's point and a lot of progress has been made over the last number of years in respect of caretakers and school secretaries in terms of salaries and so forth. We are committed to ensuring that grant-funded school caretakers will be afforded the opportunity to avail of an agreement similar to that offered to grant-funded school secretaries. There is more work to be done on both fronts but we will work with the trade unions involved, in the context of public expenditure constraints and so forth. I w…

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to draw up a new action plan on insurance. We did a lot of good work in the previous government in respect of insurance. Insurance companies have to come to the table as well and respond to the reforms that have occurred, which industry and others sought, in terms of awards and all of that. More crucially, in terms of flood areas, there are issues without question. The State has to be cautious in the sense that the insurance industry has to play its role. Where …

I will have to look into the background. An Bord Pleanála is saying that the site is designated for a school. The docklands will have to have a fairly extensive campus for a primary, further, post primary and special education. The city council identified that as the site for the school but perhaps more engagement needs to occur with the owners of the site. I will discuss that further with the council. In my recent interactions, that site did not emerge as a topic for discussion. Broadly speaking, development has b…

Apologies. The Department of foreign affairs, along with the Department of Health and others, provides financial support for centres in London, in particular, where there is a service to engage with survivors of mother and baby homes, advising them, counselling them and giving them the wherewithal to apply for the schemes. We will engage with our UK counterparts in respect of trying to ring fence that and avoid any loss of benefits.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 7, inclusive, together. I attended the European Council meeting on Thursday, 20 March where leaders continued discussions on Ukraine and European defence and security. Other topics discussed were the Middle East, competitiveness, the next multi-annual financial framework, MFF, new own resources, migration, oceans, multilateralism and the western Balkans. Leaders were joined by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, for a working lunch and a euro summit took place on the ma…

I thank the Deputies for raising a variety of issues. Deputy Malcolm Byrne focused on the multi-annual financial framework. This will be a very challenging debate, which we commenced last March. I met the President of the Commission about six weeks ago for a substantive meeting on a range of issues. I emphasised the importance of the Common Agricultural Policy retaining its core ring-fenced funding framework. One of the issues will be around how we can increase it. The significant pressure on the multi-annual finan…