In fairness, we have been out talking about this and so has the Minister. Ireland has maintained an effective eight-year fare freeze alongside targeted measures like the young adult card, free travel for under nines and the 90-minute fare, which is support that compares favourably with international practice. We have to balance affordability with a financially sustainable transport system that is able to fund service improvements, network expansion and fleet investment. We have to do all of that. Most European coun…

Certainly, I will refer this to the Minister for housing. Regarding the defective concrete block scheme, there has been very significant progress. Approximately 3,500 applications have been received, 1,289 applicants have commenced remediation works, 527 homes have completed remediation and 1,462 have submitted remedial works. We have spent about €322 million on the scheme so far. In relation to supports, of course people should get support in facilitating them in accessing the scheme, particularly those who are vu…

I appreciate the Deputy's interest in this issue. I was very pleased with the decision of the HSE senior management to approve the reimbursement of Skyclarys for patients over 16 years of age with Friedreich's ataxia following substantive engagement and negotiations with the company. The company did come to the table with a significant new offer in respect of the drug itself. The HSE has advised that it is working to have reimbursement under the high tech arrangements in place from 1 October. For the treatment of F…

That is crucial, obviously. It was crucial that the stocks would be in the country.

The HSE is now working through processes required------

-----to enable the relevant specialists to register with the high tech-----

I apologise but it is a significant issue that everyone in the House is concerned about. I pay tribute to the families.

At this time of the year, the school transport issue causes a significant degree of stress and so on. Notwithstanding that, we are transporting far more children now. There are about 180,000 students being transported. It was a key part of the original free school initiative of Donogh O'Malley. Transport was key to it in rural Ireland, in particular. There is continuing expansion and additional resources. However, there are significant challenges in terms of students attending schools that are not the nearest schoo…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I was at the Tullamore Show and the ploughing championships, and the Fianna Fáil think-in was in Tullamore as well. It is all happening. I also went to Tullamore D.E.W. distillery, which has received €150 million in private sector investment in its extraordinary facility, which is linked to the farming community of the midlands and provides significant employment in the area. Offaly, Laois and the entire area is also becoming a potentially very significant energy hub, part…

We have seen that the event centre in Cork has taken a considerable length of time.

As I said earlier, we have an effective eight-year fare freeze alongside targeted measures in terms of public transport. We have the-----

-----young adult card, free travel for under-nines and a 90-minute fare. For most of the year, I have been taking questions from Deputies, all of whom want additional services, be that additional bus or train services, better facilities and so on. We have to have a sustainable basis for funding extensive enhancement and expansion of public transport into the future. That is the balance that has to be struck in this case.

I think a bit of a mistake has been made here. There is no threat to the funding for men's sheds. Government has been very supportive of men's sheds. I met quite a number of participants at the ploughing championships yesterday and they acknowledged that the Government has been particularly supportive of men's sheds. I have opened a good few of them and have been to them, particularly in Carrigaline in my constituency. They do a broad range of work, including in woodwork, construction materials, art, sculpture and …

That was not the consideration. The more fundamental point is Government expenditure ceilings, which are set by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure. Every Department has to operate within those ceilings. Most Deputies want us to expand services. Deputy Ward is correct insofar as the numbers of people on public transport have grown exponentially, which is a great thing. Then others - correctly, by the way - want more services. We need more services. One of the bigger issues this year has…

I will say two things. AI is here to stay-----

-----but at least within Europe, we have the European Union AI Act which has been in force since August. That is the first European Union-wide risk-based legal framework for AI, banning unacceptable uses and imposing stringent requirements on high-risk systems. I urge a note of caution that those who were driving this for the last four or five years are now saying "Hang on a second".

It is, but they have developed the market fairly significantly. I am not saying. I believe in regulation. Europe is the most regulated; the US is not. The second point I make is that we have effectively had a moratorium on data centres for four or five years in Ireland. That gets lost in all of the debate. Yes, prior to that we had a significant growth, but data centres are an integral part of the ICT industry. We just cannot neatly separate them out as people are endeavouring to do.

I want to make one fundamental point. The methodology used in that is open to question, in my view. Anyone below 60% of the median income is adjudged to be in poverty. I do not necessarily go along with the relative poverty approach. Consistent poverty and deprivation is a more accurate measure. The Deputy spoke about DEIS. DEIS does not get measured.

I apologise; the Deputy referred to a school classroom. In DEIS schools, there are much-reduced pupil-teacher ratios. She was quite dismissive of the hot school meals not being measured-----

That is €1,100 to a parent with one child. It is €1,700. That is not to be dismissed. It does not get factored into those surveys. Free schoolbooks were not. To me, preventing poverty is, first of all, about guaranteeing children access to education, food and good, regular hot meals, and also ensuring that their families have supportive incomes, which we do through the social protection system, and we have substantially increased the child support payments, with record increases. They were not incremental, as the r…