I do not agree entirely that people cannot avail of the schemes. Quite a number are availing of them. I know people like those the Deputy just described who have been in a position to purchase homes. The situation is particularly acute in Dublin, which I acknowledge.

It is possible in Clare for people in the areas the Deputy identified to purchase homes, particularly with the support of the help-to-buy scheme, the first home and various grant schemes and the local authority home loans that have been made available. It is improving. I know of people in exactly the categories the Deputy mentioned who have managed to purchase homes in the past year or two.

The majority are double-income families. No question, and I acknowledge that. The Deputy makes a fair point in that regard. It is a combination of factors, but there has been huge take-up in respect of the help-to-buy scheme. The first home scheme is particularly geared towards trying to help people bridge the gap in the context of what a house costs, with the State providing equity to make up the balance in order to enable people to afford to buy homes. We will continue to work at it.

That is an outrageous assertion. We established the council back then. I believe passionately in the idea of an independent fiscal advisory council. I respect the outcomes of the council's deliberations. That is democracy. Any suggestion that there is an attempt to undermine the council is outrageous, ill-founded and wrong. I looked at Sinn Féin's budget proposals. I recall that its response to the energy crisis last year was the Liz Truss response. We saw what that did to the British economy.

Sinn Féin wanted to bankroll the oil companies-----

-----and the gas companies, which would have had very difficult consequences for the Irish economy.

The Minister for Finance will revert to the Deputy. Deputy Doherty is party's spokesperson on finance and can engage with the Minister.

I have no doubt there will be a very prosaic explanation for what is going on.

There was no missed opportunity last night. I have to say that no country has joined the ICJ case by South Africa because it has only asked for preliminary provisional measures. Typically, countries intervene after the country that has asked for preliminary measures submits a substantive case. As a legal person, the Deputy knows in her heart that no opportunity was missed last night. Can we have a degree of honesty? If she really wants a cross-party approach, we need honesty on this, not political rhetoric and play…

People talk about a cross-party approach. A week ago, all of those opposite got together with People Before Profit, which even this morning could not condemn the Hamas attack on October 7. Labour wants a cross-party approach yet it attacked us a week ago and called us cowardly, notwithstanding the fact that we are before the ICJ. The bona fides all around in the context of working on a cross-party basis are a bit thin on the basis of the approach taken up to now. I have to say that. I will put my cards on the table…

Deputy Boyd Barrett attacked me this morning. He has attacked me for going to Israel to try to get Irish civilians out of Gaza. In the same breath, he has asked me to help to get Irish civilians out of Gaza and condemns me for trying to do that.

We need a bit of honesty if the Deputy wants a cross-party approach.

According to UNICEF, Ireland has probably been one of the better performers when it comes to reducing child poverty globally. We are in the top ten.

That is where Ireland is positioned globally. There has been a consistent reduction over the past number of years in child poverty. Covid created challenges but we put huge investment into social protection. We targeted that investment at children at risk and will continue to do so in the context of social welfare payments, which will be doubled in the forthcoming payment next week as part of our cost-of-living package.

Our free primary schoolbook scheme is a dramatic intervention that significantly reduces costs for families, particularly in the context of participation in education. We have made progress. We need to continue to do so.

There is no question that we have made significant interventions such as the free book scheme and in the reduction of costs for health, for example.

It depends on the nature of the public forum. There should always be engagement between State agencies and the public in structured ways that can lead to the provision of information, questions being answered and issues dealt with. It is unacceptable that there should be discoloured water in the two houses to which the Deputy referred because overall, drinking water quality from public supplies in Ireland, as confirmed by the Environmental Protection Agency, is high in Ireland. It states that water quality from pub…

In Dundalk, is it?

There is active work under way in respect of raising the retirement ages in our Defence Forces and in other uniformed forces as well. It takes a cross-departmental approach. We had meetings prior to Christmas on this. I anticipate that measures will be decided upon shortly that should inform the gentleman spoken about-----

-----that might assist him before that deadline of 2025. We had interim measures and increased the ages on that basis but I am looking for a more permanent sustainable solution because I agree with what the Deputy is saying.