I appreciate that. On the operational issues, those are matters for the Garda Commissioner. I am not in a position to intervene in the operational organisation of An Garda Síochána. The issues have been there for some time. The Minister is in a very difficult position if the Garda Commissioner has not been invited to the conference as well. His predecessor took the same position and I accept that position, by the way. I think the Garda Commissioner should be invited to the conference - that is my view. I think boyc…

I would argue that the gardaí have strenuously denied the allegations that were asserted in this House and issued statements to that effect. The Minister took the allegations very seriously. Of course, it is open for complaints to be made to Fiosrú, which is an independent party that can hear any allegations in respect of An Garda Síochána or members of An Garda Síochána. There are women in An Garda Síochána, Deputy Coppinger.

Women in An Garda Síochána have every right to be believed as well. I am not making any comment on individuals here but I would just make that point. There was a strong refutation of the allegations that were made in this House in respect of members of An Garda Síochána, who have no right to defend themselves in this House or do not have that facility.

The Deputy asserted that they committed offences, which they would strenuously deny and the context would be strenuously denied. I have to say that. Fiosrú is there to follow that.

First, I thank Deputy McDonald for raising the issue and for reading out Nikita's letter to her, which clearly illustrates the very debilitating impact endometriosis can have on women. It is extremely debilitating, painful and the span of impacts are very wide. Regarding a phased response, this can be at GP, gynaecology or indeed specialist centre level. There has been progress for endometriosis. Approximately €5 million in additional funding has been spent and €2.1 million has been allocated for this year. If it i…

There has been significant progress in this area. That has to be acknowledged. More than 200 new patients were seen in Cork's endometriosis service from May to December last year. About 94% of women on the waiting list in that region are now seen within six months. As I said, more generally we are seeing improvement in terms of the Tallaght centre also. The Government is listening. In terms of the State, the Government, the HSE and everybody involved in this area have been engaging to get the national framework con…

It is important to get the framework.

There are a number of issues there and I thank the Deputy for raising them. I fully understand the trauma that the family of Daniel Collins is going through in respect of the delay in getting surgery carried out. I do not want to go into the background of every individual case in terms of complexity of the case and so forth. My understanding is that there has been engagement. The assistant director of nursing lead for the spinal surgery management unit spoke with Daniel's family on 2 April and discussed his plan of…

Nobody is happy with this. I am certainly not happy with it and I know the Minister is not happy with it. The Minister is meeting with the board and the HSE regarding these issues. The two further reports, one of which is about dysplasia, need to come in. The three reports will be assessed in totality. We need - over time because we do not want to create any further disruption - to get to the bottom of this, and we will with these reports. The report about spinal surgery has been very clear and transparent about wh…

A lot of progress has been made and that does not get acknowledged. The HIQA report is a good report insofar as it clearly lays out what happened. What happened was wrong. It was incomprehensible. I said that yesterday. It is beyond belief that one would insert devices into a child that are not CE approved. It is very hard to comprehend that. That is unacceptable. In terms of spinal procedures more generally, we are increasing activity year on year. There has been a 35% increase in activity compared to 2019 but we …

First, we will implement the recommendations of the HIQA report. Second, there is a task force on the broader issue of paediatric spinal surgery headed by Mark Connaughton with which the Minister will meet tomorrow. In terms of governance issues, we will engage with those from now on. Instead of waiting for further investigations we will proactively look at the structures and governance framework there and respond to that. We all know that the big issue in paediatric medicine more generally is the transition from t…

We will meet and the Minister is open to meeting and engaging with the advocacy group. We would like to work through these issues with the advocacy groups and give our perspective as to what would lead to more immediate and quicker results that everybody wants in relation to all the issues the Deputy outlined in the question.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue which is very serious. I would make the overall point, and I do not want to go into the history of provision, that there has been dramatic exponential growth in the level of investment and provision both on the education side, in terms of special needs, and on the health side. On the education side, it is much more clearly to be seen in the transformative impacts over 20-odd years with investment in special education. Back in the late nineties and early 2000s we had no spec…

I do not disagree with the Deputy at all. I agree with him that there is an issue with the budget going in and the services coming out. That needs to be constantly interrogated. There is no question about that. I am chairing a Cabinet subcommittee meeting on disability and we are establishing a disability unit in the Department of An Taoiseach to work hands-on with all the various Departments and get a co-ordinated approach in every single Department towards the disability issue. On therapists, in July 2024 funding…

Aontaím leis an Teachta go bhfuil géarghá ann i bhfad níos mó infheistíochta maidir le huisce a dhéanamh sna bailte beaga ar fud na tíre, go háirithe sna háiteanna iargúlta. Níl aon amhras ach go bhfuil easpa infheistíochta sna bailte beaga ag an mbabhta seo agus tá drochthionchar aici sin ar chúrsaí tithíochta agus ar an infheistíocht go ginearálta. I agree that there is a very significant issue in terms of capacity of Irish Water and in terms of investment, particularly in small towns and villages. If they had th…

I refer to our engagement with Uisce Éireann, and I will be meeting with it. Given the scale of what is required in the country, we have to be a bit more innovative as well. It is not on that 132 houses cannot get built or are waiting for years for connection. I know there has been a resistance to the private sector developing some of these systems and I understand why, by the way, because in the past certain operators did not fully do the infrastructure properly and there were consequences. However, we are going t…

I pay tribute to the family of Sean Browne for their advocacy and for pursuing this case to seek justice and full transparency and truth surrounding it. In my engagements with the British Government, both as foreign Minister and now as Taoiseach, I have already sought an inquiry. The Court of Appeal has ruled and I think that the British Government has to respond to that ruling. I hope that we could get to a conclusion between the British and Irish Governments on the legacy question more generally so that we would …

First of all, I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Yesterday, in response to a similar question, I condemned unreservedly the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. There has to be an independent, prompt and thorough investigation into the killings of 15 emergency responders. As far as I am concerned, they were murdered. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, tweeted about the matter this morning. I think his words sum it up: More than a month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. As aid has dried up, the floo…

That is the ESRI, figure, as Deputy Hearne well knows. All Members will be aware that a figure of 50,000 homes a year was identified as being required over the next five years. Very few of the Opposition Members identified how to get there. The tenant in situ scheme does not build houses.

Yes, but it does not build houses. Let us not conflate the two. It is important to prevent homelessness but that scheme does not build houses. The focus has to be on how we get houses built faster and as quickly as we possibly can. I note that Deputy Hearne is quoting Sherry FitzGerald. When the Government used similar private sector bodies last year to identify projections, his party subsequently ridiculed the reliance on private sector agencies for doing that. The Deputy cannot have it both ways.