I appreciate the Deputy raising this issue. School transport is a vital public service. In the 2022-2023 school year, for example, 149,000 children, including more than 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported daily to primary and post-primary schools. I will talk to the Minister for Education in respect of Tunnyduff National School which the Deputy has highlighted. There have been issues on some occasions in sourcing contractors, or when contractors have been sourced they belatedly pull out…

That behaviour is unacceptable in terms of the relationship between the developers and those who have purchased the houses. There are clear laws of contract and legal frameworks governing the purchase of houses which should be enforced. I will talk to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in respect of it. However, we always have to be mindful that over recent years the State seems to be the last resort and has to intervene in every bad action or dispute. The law should apply here. We will check i…

I appreciate the Deputy raising this issue. As he said, the national childcare scheme is a scheme of financial support to help parents with the cost of childcare. A component of the scheme is a sponsorship referral which makes special provision for vulnerable children. Officials in the Department are aware of the issues the Deputy has highlighted regarding the sponsored subsidy rates to date. The issues are currently being examined as part of an internal review of the sponsored subsidy. Any changes will be consider…

That is primarily an issue for the HSE locally to resolve. Sometimes, the HSE will readvertise a position. These situations have evolved through demographic issues and so forth, including challenges in general practice in rural Ireland particularly. I will ask the Minister to talk to the HSE, but he does not get involved in every case. I presume that the HSE is alive to the issue with a view to trying to resolve it, but I will speak to the Minister about it. I understand that it is the Deputy’s birthday today, so I…

I thank the Deputies for raising these issues. Deputy Andrews referred to the GRA and the Garda situation. We support community policing and invest heavily in it, but the issues that remain outstanding in respect of the rosters should be resolved through the available industrial relations machinery. It is important that those avenues – the internal mechanisms and the established industrial relations mechanisms – be explored fully. Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan discussed school transport. What he described was not in th…

In schools is where I would have them. The Progressing Disability Services, PDS, programme has a different view, but coming from an education background, that is what I believe. We had it ad hoc in the past before PDS and it worked in many areas. To be fair to the HSE, it will argue that children who were not in special schools did not get the same level of access, but children in special schools have severe and profound issues that need attention from the variety of therapists. The issue described by Deputy Martin…

First, I agree with the Deputy that the new children's hospital will be transformative when completed and will represent a significant step change in tertiary care for children in this country. The opening of the two satellite centres has already had an impact. I visited the site last year when I was Taoiseach and there is a greater degree of completion now than there was some years ago. Since the Government came into office, it has had a very clear focus on the hospital. That focus is about getting the hospital co…

I did not.

I never said anything.

With respect, I never said anything about anybody not getting additional funding. The Deputy just said that I did. That is untrue. Do not be putting words into my mouth. The Deputy came out two weeks ago about sources he had saying that remedial works needed to be carried out. In the public interest the Deputy should reveal the sources.

What is the secret?

If someone comes to the Deputy and says that he or she has information-----

No. The Deputy should put the source in. Who came to the Deputy?

Through the Chair if I may-----

I am answering the Deputy's question. I am simply saying that in the public interest. There are lots of agendas here. I am not talking about the Deputy now. I am talking about the cost of this. We must protect, as best we can, the taxpayer. I never gave a date on this. The reason I did not give a date is that I am aware of the tensions between the contractor and the hospital development board, which have been there for a number of years. There is no secret about that. There is a way to deal with this and it is not …

It is in the nitty-gritty and the daily grind of contesting the claims that are being made and testing them objectively, and then doing the best on behalf of the taxpayer.

With respect the Deputy she has been very short with proposals or options for the housing supply side. She has not put anything forward. There will be no break in house building. There are record levels of house building going on right now. If the Deputy had read the progress report this was very clear. Last year 30,000 houses were built. This is a 45% increase on 2021. We need balance in the debate and I respectfully ask that there would be some acknowledgement at least of the progress in house building and supply…

The most effective advocates for housing should be in this House. No one should be depending on any lobby group. I do not depend on IBEC to tell me that housing is the biggest crisis in this country. I have said this from day one since I came into Government. On coming into Government I was adamant that a member of our party would become the Minister responsible for housing, to take on the challenge and to build greater progress.

We have reached our target and have exceeded our target in house building but-----

-----it is not enough and we need more housing. The problem, I respectfully suggest, is that the propositions the Deputy brings would actually reduce the supply. That is the challenge. All of the Deputy's approach-----