-----yet when people have responsibility locally everybody comes back to the centre to solve their problems.

I will check for the Deputy in terms of where the legislation is, but this Government has dramatically increased home care hours for people.

Sorry, the Deputy needs to be honest about it too. There has been a dramatic improvement and increase. The only thing holding back home care has been the recruitment of people, not resources or funding.

The Deputy knows that as well and she should acknowledge it.

I said I would check. I will come back to the Deputy on that.

First of all, globally, in terms of women's reproductive rights, Ireland, through its work on overseas development assistance and with other member states in the EU, does a lot of work in supporting the health and well-being of young girls and women across Africa and across many of the developing states. We work with the Clinton Foundation as well in that regard. In many locations, we have achieved very good outcomes in terms of reducing death, injury and ill-health. In terms of last night's vote, the legislation w…

I do not have the details of the case so I cannot give a specific answer in respect of the school. There have been challenges in recruiting qualified personnel for posts of that kind. That may be the case for this school or post, but I do not know. The Deputy can give me the details.

I will talk to the Minister in respect of it.

Sorry?

We have been investing very significantly over the last three years in wastewater treatment. Phosphorus pollution is a clear issue in urban wastewater and nitrates are in an agricultural context. We are not demonising farmers at all.

I have spoken to farmers in recent weeks. They are very interested in good methodology and good farming practice as well. They are as concerned as anyone to make sure our waterways are clean. Irish Water is the body responsible for the overall development of wastewater treatment plans.

The big issue in all this is capacity to get more and more done physically. Resources are there. There is a plan to get the plants built and treatment plants in place.

I am not aware of the specifics of it, although the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, rapidly briefed me on it.

I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on this to see if the various agencies can get together to resolve this. Invariably, these issues are not straightforward to resolve, as might appear at first glance, but I will talk to the Minister.

The Minister’s priority for DEIS was to engineer the biggest expansion of DEIS since it was originally established in the early 2000s and the Minister has achieved that over the last two years, in terms of the number of schools covered by DEIS and all the teaching supports which is quite significant in terms of the reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio in DEIS schools and the other supports that follow with DEIS designation. I agree with the importance of libraries. Some of the technology grants and supports can be …

I welcome the Deputy's raising this very important Bill. It is at pre-legislative scrutiny stage. I smile sometimes when people want something implemented as soon as possible. I often prefer that approach coming from the Opposition. If the Government brought in legislation and said we want to introduce it as soon as possible, the Opposition would cry "guillotine, guillotine" and all hell would break loose.

It is a very important Bill. It is at pre-legislative scrutiny.

I am sorry, just for the record for Deputy Ellis, the Bill has finished pre-legislative scrutiny so we will progress it now.

I accept what the Deputy is saying in respect of the challenges facing section 39 organisations. There were discussions between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the unions involved. We urge that those engagements would be restored and that we would have talks on this, and that the necessity for action on 17 October would be avoided. We do not want any distress caused to people who depend on these services daily. We would like to get these issues resolved and get into a pro…

That is a good suggestion. I will talk to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine with a view to putting forward the recommendation the Deputy has articulated for dealing with the issues that are critical for the sustainability of the food industry. There is much we can do in optimising the circular economy more generally.