The Single Market has evolved in different sectors at different paces and to varying degrees. In health, governments have always retained the idea of national competency, especially in the area of medicine approvals. We spend €3 billion annually on medicines in Ireland. By definition, I can understand why governments would want to have some oversight of such a large expenditure as that.

Yes, I am. Obviously the projects are in train. We will draw down the funding we were allocated in the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

It can be a stressful situation for families and young children who are progressing into second level in this case. It is early March. It is hoped that will be resolved in the next month or two to give certainty to those kids. I will alert the Minister for Education to the question the Deputy asked.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The facility of enhanced community care in the old orthopaedic hospital in Gurranabraher, has been a fantastic innovation on the northside in respect of people with chronic illnesses in particular.

I know. I set it up, as Minister for Health 20 years ago, so I know all about it.

I established SouthDoc. I do not know whether the Deputy spoke to the local GPs about how they feel it is operating. I will talk to the GPs locally and we will talk to the HSE and examine the situation to see what can be done and what the optimal way to provide treatment is.

I appreciate the Deputy raising this issue. I am not aware of the specifics of the case. Transport is not provided in every situation, but it can be provided in certain situations. I will alert the Minister to this and he will get back to the Deputy.

I will talk to the Minister for Health and we will get a reply back for the Deputy on the specific issue in that situation .

Is the building complete?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It clearly deserves to be highlighted and profiled. This is a very unusual position, where a building is complete. The Deputy is saying there is a contractual row with the contractor.

Obviously people are probably adverse to making public comments that might increase the leverage of one party or the other, particularly the contractor in this case, but it is clear the situation is absurd and something needs to happen there.

To be fair, the Deputy contacted me during the week in respect of the Sean Brown case and he has been consistent regarding the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in seeking answers from the British Government regarding that terrible atrocity. In the Sean Brown case, I support the family in its quest for an inquiry. We would have preferred if both Governments and all the political parties in Northern Ireland could have agreed to a proper legacy facility and mechanism. The British Government and the Irish Government did no…

It is earlier than 60, is it not?

On the issue raised by Deputy Kenny, there is an investigation under way of Ideal Care Services and the unvetted staff issue. The model should be examined but we should be under no illusion that it would take a considerable length of time to develop both the physical capacity and the multidisciplinary capacity that would be required to deal with vulnerable children. On balance, I favour the idea of a stronger State involvement than merely privately outsourcing. It does not mean that all privately outsourced facilit…

Caithfidh mé a rá gur drochscéal ar fad atá le feiscint i nGaza. Tá sé dochreidte an méid atá á fhulaingt acu agus caithfidh muid gach aon iarracht a dhéanamh chun an cogadh seo a stopadh. Tá muid sa tír seo ag déanamh gach iarrachta agus tá sé sin soiléir ón méid atá déanta againn go dtí seo ó thaobh cúrsaí polaitíochta agus airgeadais de agus ó thaobh na cabhrach agus tacaíochta atá tugtha againn go UNRWA agus a lán comhlachtaí eile atá cumasach ó thaobh cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt i gcúrsaí bia, sláinte, …

Ireland's position is well-recognised. When speaking with any Arab nation, they say they appreciate the Irish position on Palestine. On the question of recognition, it is not about waiting around. It is about deploying that in the most optimal way possible for the people of Palestine. What do I mean by that? The Arab states are currently very close to concluding a peace initiative on which they are briefing America, the European Union and us. It will have a number of dimensions to it. Clearly, it will involve an im…

-----solution and recognition. There is no issue in Ireland regarding recognition but it does merit consideration at least. I put it to the Deputy that any sensible person watching would say that we must use it in the most optimal way possible for the benefit of the Palestinian people. That moment is not too far away.

First, I take issue with some of what the Deputy said about my response from last week, because I did deal with the protection issue. The Government has brought in a raft of legislation and measures to protect tenants. There is also the rental tax credit, which was brought in in the budget before last and was increased in this budget. More fundamentally, the issue is the supply of housing. More than 100,000 new homes have been delivered since 2020, and that figure takes into account the stoppages during the Covid p…

First, we need to be honest with people. It is great in politics to say, "Oh, we have a target of 50,000." I think the Deputy said the Labour Party had a target of 1 million houses in ten years-----

-----with no inkling of a plan to do it. We are the only party in the House - sorry, the Government and the three parties together----