The only criticism I remember was that a TV programme gave details of the grants. It was considered politically wrong to let the public know they could avail of a grant if they wanted to buy and refurbish a derelict building or vacant house. These grants have been spectacularly successful and we need more of them. Some local authorities have been good on social housing but others have not been. We need to call that out.

It is not always about handouts. You can go around certain local authority estates and see six vacant houses. Millions are not needed to put those houses back into use. They should never be vacant for beyond a month. I am not just saying this now; I have said this to local authorities time and again. We have taken void initiative after void initiative. The dependency culture kicks, that they will fill a void if given €50,000 or €60,000. No. If a house is idle because someone left it a month ago, it should be alloca…

First of all, every child is entitled and has a constitutional right to an education. It is our job as the Government to vindicate that right. I do not accept the Deputy's presentation that the Government does not care. The Government does care. There is evidence of that. I do not want to go through all the statistics as that does not console a particular parent or family who are having difficulty in getting confirmation of a school place for next September. Expenditure has increased exponentially in the special ed…

The Deputy is correct. As I said, 399 new special classes for the next year have already been sanctioned in the past month. This has been done much earlier than in previous years. I do not have a detailed report in terms of each particular class. There are many with which there are no difficulties, but there are some in respect of which there are difficulties in terms of the logistics of getting them built, getting modular buildings in place or in terms of planning. Again, I am working with the Minister, Deputy McE…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I join Deputy Bacik - I omitted to do so earlier - in expressing my deepest sympathies to the families of Emmanuel Familola and Matt Sibanda and the community in Donegal on the sad and shocking drownings at the weekend of the two young teenagers who were enjoying themselves with their friends. What happened made for a very sad weekend altogether. In respect of the issue raised by Deputy Tóibín, the audit will not look back 15 years. The audit that is currently being conduc…

In relation to the Deputy's general comments, a lot of huge advances have been made in our health service as well. In fact, through the various layers of management on hospital sites now, we know a great deal of data is being collected in respect of individual patients once they enter a hospital and go in for particular treatment. A lot of information is garnered in respect of every individual patient nowadays. There is a need for further investment in digital health and electronic patient records. In the upcoming …

It is getting to the front line.

We cannot be that superficial about it. Of course it is going to the front line.

Sorry, we need-----

Some €25.8 billion has been allocated to health in 2025. That is six or seven times ahead of the figures from four or five years ago. The value-for-money thing needs to happen as well, and on another fine day the Deputy will be in here rightly raising those issues. He cannot have it both ways though. It is always a question-----

We will be allocating more to health. We do need to analyse it as well. Separate from the normal funding going into acute and tertiary services, we accept we need investment in the digital health area and we-----

No, it has not happened since the Deputy raised it last week. There has been a lot happening in the past week. The extension of voting rights for Irish citizens overseas is a complex and technical matter because that was the subject of the Bill originally.

It was both overseas and the North originally in 2020.

It is my understanding that it would require a referendum to change the Constitution, but we will come back to the Deputy.

First of all, the Government has taken very strong action in respect of this. That is the international perception of Ireland, by the way, except in this House. It is probably one of the few places that does not acknowledge the range of actions the Government has taken, from the recognition of the Palestinian state to the intervention in the South African case under the Genocide Convention, from the very significant funding of UNRWA to the pursuit of an advisory opinion from the UN, both cosponsoring the resolution…

Israel is rising roughshod over the views of the world and, as I said last week - Deputy Bacik acknowledged that, in fairness - committing a war crime-----

-----in respect of the collective punishment of the Palestinian people-----

That is continuing in terms of the prevention of aid, support and the basic necessities of life into Gaza.

We have issued a statement jointly with a number of European Union states-----

I have had enough of your statements. You would not take on the people that you know.