Sorry, you do. You are just playing it all ways.

I just want to make the point. I am not making a different point; it is a very important point. If the State did not intervene in the emergency fashion that it intervened, businesses would have gone under and people would have been destitute and impoverished. That does not excuse fraud but if the State had been more cautious and slower and went through every single case, people would have been in deep trouble during the Covid.

The State took people on trust. The State said we have to intervene comprehensively and decisively and help people in their hour of need. That is what we did.

You come back four years later and you say, "You are wasting money and you are full of it," etc. That is just disingenuous distortion. That is what that is.

I want to say this: we will go after the overpayments.

The Department will go after the overpayments.

Fraud must always be pursued and dealt with-----

-----but there is always a balance in life. Let us give people credit. A lot of people did the right thing during Covid-----

-----particularly the Department of Social Protection.

The Government is committed to dealing with the means test in respect of the carer's allowance and it will be in the next budget that progress on that front will commence. We will have to wait until budget time and the lead-up to the budget on that issue. It is a very important issue that is in the programme for Government and all parties to the programme for Government are very committed to doing this. It is very important. More broadly, it is about how we can support families with children with special needs acro…

The economy has been extremely strong in recent years. That has helped the profitability of many companies, including banks. By the way, the Central Bank governs the supervision of banks, as the Deputy knows. However, I do believe that in the next while we should focus on finance available to building and house building in particular, that both the cost of that finance would be reduced and that the banks would engage much more on the single greatest priority facing this country, which is housing. That is where my f…

No. There have been huge mortgage drawdowns for first-time buyers in recent years and banks benefit from that, but we need more housing. If you talk to anyone about house building the cost of finance is a big inhibitor. It is a big problem. We need to look at the cost of finance to get to 50,000. I am interested in solutions not sloganeering or politicking and so on.

Deputy O’Connor has been pursuing this issue for some time, to be fair to him. He has made some progress but he would like it to be faster. I mean that seriously. These things can take time. He has my support and that of Government in respect of this project. I will see to it if we can, through the various agencies, get a design consultant appointed.

Yes, Deputy McGreehan has spoken to me on this and I will talk to her again later. First, the Irish Government has been very proactive on the Middle East and the Palestinian question in recognising the State of Palestine and taking a very strong position in supporting UNWRA as the only viable UN agency that can enable education in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere as well as medical provision. We have also been very strongly involved in ensuring a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza and working wit…

I am coming to that. I know that.

This is the point I am making. Once this is done and the next thing is done, then it is something else and it is always used to denigrate the Government.

The Government is progressing that Bill and is progressing legislation.

Mar is eol don Teachta, tá deacracht ó thaobh Fhoras na Gaeilge faoi láthair. Níl aon amhras faoi sin. Níl an Rialtas anseo freagrach as an deacracht sin. Táimid ag déanamh gach aon iarracht an cheist sin a réiteach. Mar aon leis sin, táimid sásta níos mó infheistíocht a chur isteach i gcúrsaí Gaeilge i gcoitinne agus níos mó tacaíocht a thabhairt d'Fhoras na Gaeilge. I gcomhthéacs an clár Shared Island, táimid sásta níos mó a dhéanamh le Foras na Gaeilge agus leis an áisíneacht a bhaineann leis an Ultais. Beimid a…

That is a misreading of my comments. Sometimes people get the impression that vetting is extremely comprehensive in terms of the background of a person. It is not as comprehensive as people might believe. The big cry in the House for quite a while now has been for more gardaí, getting more people into training and so on. I will ask the Minister for Justice to reply to the Deputy more comprehensively and specifically in respect of Templemore, but I think we need to reflect on things generally. That is the spirit of …

First, I dealt with that comprehensively earlier when Deputy Rice raised the exact same question, and I made the point that a clinical audit is being conducted by an external international expert on surgery for children with developmental dysplasia of the hip across CHI and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh. Developmental dysplasia of the hip, as I said, is a problem with the way a baby's hip joint forms, and some children with DDH may require surgery. CHI and Cappagh hospital are committed to sharing the f…