It is much different from what it was ten years ago-----

-----but we still have to support those in emergency accommodation. That is what I am saying.

This is a complex matter, particular as it relates to those who are dependent. Where would the Deputy draw the line in devising a scheme for fuel allowance? It could be broadened exponentially. We have already expanded it to those on the working family payment. Approximately 470,000 people are now entitled to the fuel allowance. We have expanded it significantly from where it was. I will raise the point the Deputy made with the Minister for Social Protection, but it is not easy. The Deputy is introducing the idea t…

I know, but that person would be working.

How can we differentiate between-----

I hear the Deputy.

Basically, we are spending about €1 billion annually in general practice to support patients. Some 43% of the population now has access to free GP care and Government investment has significantly increased. There is a strategic review of general practice currently under way, and I presume it will take on board some of the issues the Deputy has raised in terms of growth areas in population and the need for greater access to GPs more generally. There has also been increased access to pharmacy capacities in respect of…

I propose to take Question Nos. 1 to 24, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure met last week on Monday, 18 May. The Cabinet committee works to drive infrastructure delivery and implementation of the national development plan. From the start, we have set out our ambition to deliver a step change in Ireland’s infrastructure. The revised national development plan sets out unprecedented investment of over €275 billion for critical infrastructure across the country to 2035, including an overall in…

Our economy is strong and our population is growing, and we are building a robust infrastructural backbone to support this. We are seizing the opportunity now to invest for the benefit of current and future generations.

Deputy Geoghegan might communicate with Deputy Hayes on that one.

The Deputy left out the main supporters, the people who made it happen.

Did 21 speak? I thank them all. Deputy McGrath began on Cork BusConnects. I am familiar with it and may have been responsible for some of the delays in terms of the consultation required with residents and communities. The initial preferred routes that the NTA produced created huge anxiety and stress for many families across the board and we all had to intervene to try to get common sense. Then, lo and behold, there were changed routes. There is an issue with how BusConnects does that. I have had that issue with Bu…

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I presume that the 1,000 housing units are being sold on with a view to development for housing.

I asked that rhetorically.

I cannot help the-----

----- energetic responses from Deputy Boyd Barrett. He is engaged anyway. He is on every word I am saying, which is important, too. I am not being facetious about the matter, but I presume and hope that is the case and I will engage with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to make sure that it will go for housing and that the 1,000 houses will be built because we need those 1,000 houses as well. In response to Deputy Paul Murphy, there are various reforms in An Post. I have talked to An Post. The Deputy has raise…

It is happening anyway, but Deputy Hayes said that it was not happening at all and the Deputy Geoghegan said it was. The Taoiseach now believes that it may be happening. It is important. It is a huge housing development, and we obviously need public transport to service it and the Luas would be an outstanding facilitation of that. In response to Deputy Coppinger, I will talk to the Minister. If it is recommended by the task force that we need a second special school in the area, I would support of that. I will see …

-----transport, rail. I do not know if the Deputy would be playing golf there, but Adare is doing well, and that is no harm for that region either. In response to the Deputy Conway-Walsh, I was very disappointed that she never mentioned Fianna Fáil.

Fianna Fáil built Knock airport - everybody knows that - with Monsignor Horan, and she could not mention Fianna Fáil. She could not mention Charles Haughey. Monsignor Horan embraced him when he went there to dig the old sod. Everyone said we were stupid, all of the media and the Opposition. They all said that it was nonsense and asked how bad and stupid could we get.

Lo and behold, 40 years later, it is still doing very well and the Deputy could not mention Fianna Fáil.