There can be NATO peacekeeping that is accordance with UN principles and the UN charter and the UN acknowledges that such as in the Balkans and so forth. It is not the end of neutrality. Neutrality is defined by membership of a military alliance. We are not members of a military alliance and we have no intention of becoming members of a military alliance. The idea that Russia would have a veto over Ireland's-----

A Security Council resolution can be vetoed by Russia.

The General Assembly was used decades ago. It is not a feasible option for sanctioning peace initiatives and the Deputy well knows it. It is not a viable or feasible approach. Every peacekeeping mission in which we have participated has been sanctioned by the Security Council and it is increasingly becoming more problematic to even get agreement on humanitarian corridors in places of conflict as we have experienced in Syria, Ethiopia and other areas. The issue of deportations involving families is very traumatic an…

We have had increased migration in the context of the numbers now applying which went from an average of 3,500 in 2019 to approximately 14,000 to 15,000 in the past two years. This has a serious impact on services and our system. We need to accelerate it and make it faster for both the application and appeals processes but the message must be there that there are rules in Ireland and they must be seen to be applied. That is the bottom line. Deputy Moynihan raised the issue of the competitiveness agenda. The omnibus…

On Ukrainian accession, Ireland has been one of the leaders in pushing for an acceleration of accession and the Commission is working away on it. Hungary is against it and its negativity has slowed down the process by indicating its opposition to the various processes involved in the Ukrainian accession to the European Union. This is a pity as I believe the people of Ukraine see their future in a European Union. They see protection in it with regard to freedom of expression, freedom of movement, free speech and bet…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 19, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on disabilities has been established to oversee the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of disability, with a specific focus on children’s disability services and disability services more generally under the forthcoming new national disability strategy. The Cabinet committee on disability last met on 5 June – a few days ago - and is due to meet again on 7 July. Under the programme for Government, we a…

What is it called?

I thank all the Deputies for the issues raised. Deputy Bacik asked the initial question about therapists. Approximately 461 were approved by the Cabinet today. That was sweating the existing asset, if you like, within our third level system, seeing how many additional places we can provide in addition to those already in place across a range of therapies. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was asked by the Cabinet subcommittee that met two months ago to come back in a mo…

There will be engagement between the Department of Health, the Minister for Health, the HSE and CORU because there is an issue around recognition of qualifications for those who travel from overseas, even from the United Kingdom and within the European Union. It takes too long, given therapists are crucial. In other professions such as medicine it happens much more quickly in terms of mutual qualifications. There seems to be an issue in the therapy grades. I am concerned about that. We need to engage with CORU to g…

I apologise. On dysplasia, I did not know that and was not aware of it. I will relay it to the Minister for Health. To Deputy Dempsey, I say independent living is important. She is correct a lot of parents have real anxiety about later life and if anything happens. That is something we are focused on. I spoke about Waterford, I think. To Deputy Ward, we are working to do everything we can to get places for children in schools. That is ongoing, focused, relentless work.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 31, inclusive, together. On 10 April, I announced the new phase of the Government’s shared island initiative in a keynote address to the fourth shared island forum. Our programme for Government sets out an ambitious agenda for building a shared island, backed by a further €1 billion commitment to the shared island fund out to 2035. Already on 25 February, the Government announced over €50 million from the shared island fund for new programmes to run from 2025 to 2030 on sustai…

I thank the Deputies for raising a variety of issues. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked about the sports front. There has been a range of investments. Casement Park is a significant one, with a €50 million allocation. There is also the sports club electric vehicle, EV, charging scheme, which got into difficulty in terms of procurement and the roll-out of public EV charging points in community sports clubs across the island. In September 2024, the Department of Transport announced that more than 220 sports clubs across th…

But they do not see it as a hard border.

We have been criticised on the opposite side, on the other side of the scale. There have to be rules around migration. I think the Deputy's view is that there should not be, which is fair enough and he is entitled to have a view, but I think his view is that there should not be any rules at all.

That is not sustainable. I thought he was talking about asylum seekers coming North and South.

Anybody who is legally resident in Northern Ireland can travel to the South.

Deputy Coppinger raised an important issue. Gender-based violence is not nationality focused, or exclusive to any person irrespective of race, creed or colour. It is something we need collectively to rid out of society. It takes a lot of work. We have policies relating to it in this Government. As Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, did a lot of good work in this area. Her successor, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, is following up on that. Under the shared island initiative, we have a joint programme on gender-based viol…

The Deputy said this is a moment for the Government to articulate its leadership in human rights, or words to that effect. The Government has been demonstrating its leadership in human rights for quite some time and since this war began, consistently and strongly. We have been consistent in our support of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination and in condemning the war crimes and genocide occurring right now in Israel. We have provided strong humanitarian support, but also political support, t…

-----between the Government, the Opposition and the people of Ireland in respect of what Israel is doing in Gaza and undermine the integrity, commitment and good faith of the Government. The Deputy bandies around words such as "facilitate" and "complicit in" genocide, which are false. There is a false narrative being peddled by the Deputy. The latest now is this issue of the Central Bank's role in issuing prospectuses. The Deputy and I know that the Central Bank does not approve, issue, sell or oversee the sale of …

-----but the truth does not matter in this. The issuer, the State of Israel or the Israeli Government, does not become regulated. We are not regulating or endorsing anything.