In Douglas, close to where I live, there was a terrible once-in-a-century flood and the scheme there worked yesterday. On the Owenacurra river, a flood scheme is emerging for Midleton. Again, we want to see these developed. The money is there to get these projects done. I do not make these points to try to attack anybody or anything like that, but only to point out some realities and the need for an honest debate about this subject. I think adaptation is the key issue for the country in respect of climate change no…

Getting one month's rain in a day means we have to adapt faster. This means we have to put in the flooding schemes much faster and society has to respond in that spirit.

We will look at all of those issues in both schemes we have for flood relief, including the humanitarian aid scheme and the scheme for business. With regard to Midleton, there is a total project budget for the flood relief scheme of approximately €50 million. The option has emerged for Midleton to protect 250 properties and that will provide protection in flooding from the Dungourney and Owenacurra rivers. The environmental impact assessment is being prepared for the preferred option. Hopefully, planning will happe…

I thank the Deputy for the question and I thank all of the staff who help to keep our health services working on a 24-7 basis. They deliver a public service under very challenging circumstances. The Minister for Health received a letter and I have read the letter. He is very concerned with the issues raised in the correspondence and will meet with representatives of the GPs next week and will discuss the issues they have raised in their letter. The budget for the hospital has increased from €142 million in 2019 to …

The Minister will meet with the doctors. I take the Deputy's point that emergency departments can become the gatekeepers for the rest of a hospital. That was the point I was making in that it does need a more whole-of-hospital approach. Where that happens, there are very good outcomes in hospitals across the State. The Deputy referred to Cuban GPs.

They are exported by their government.

I am not sure that is a system that I would like to be co-operating with.

They have exported their doctors for oil to Venezuela. They do so in some areas in Africa for humanitarian benefits. However, it is a very repressive regime in terms of the suppression of civil society.

These are issues the Deputy would raise with me if it applied to a different jurisdiction. We need a more open and honest debate about these things. There seem to be certain countries we cannot talk about at all. It is dressed up in idyllic terms. I have been to Cuba and they have a strong primary care system. However, the level of State control over individuals and over people is not something we in this democracy cherish or would endorse. The day that governments get to export their GPs - try that with the Irish …

I do not understand.

The Deputy should have listened to my reply to Deputy Bacik, who raised this issue in a substantive way on Leaders' Questions. I said it was a Government decision to bring in this budget between all of the Estimates for every Government Department. I upheld the right of the CEO of the HSE to engage with Deputies across the House. It is not the first time the CEO has done this.

All of what the Deputy raised, I answered very clearly in terms of what I believe in respect of the HSE chief being in a position----

In respect of the budget I would make the point that the Government has allocated something very similar to what the Sinn Féin Party proposed in its alternative budget.

I do not think the Deputy is in a strong position.

I have concluded.

We are providing the funding for flood relief schemes. When the Deputy says it is not good enough, that is the reality of delay. People object, not just in the planning process but in the courts. Deputy Mick Barry was a classic example of it there. He came in advocating for flood relief protection schemes, he himself having supported alternatives and having gone against the OPW schemes as he still is. I have no problem with a barrier on the Lee. We need a flood relief scheme in Cork city, given its history. It is b…

I have not read the ombudsman's report yet but I will. My initial observation is that we need balance and perspective again here. When over 100,000 people come into the country in one year, we are not going to get a response that meets with conditions of normal times. A war has been waged on Ukraine. We have facilitated the arrival into the country of 73,000 Ukrainians. Sorry, we have housed 73,000. We did not have 73,000 houses.

We have responded to a lot of those commitments. I am just making a general point. There seems to be a view abroad that we can do everything at once. We did the right thing and Europe did the right thing to facilitate fleeing Ukrainians coming from war. We did the right thing. There are limitations to how well one can do it in such a short space of time. I will read the report. The Department has responded to a lot of the issues, I am informed.

I have not seen the report. The report has not been completed. The Deputy seems to be on the inside track.

We need to reflect on that, too. I am not so sure anybody should be on inside tracks or orchestrating a particular outcome from what should really be a very objective and open process. I will leave that with the House. I will read the report and am looking forward to receiving it. We will then consider it.