Meath will not be in the Munster final.

The Deputy did not suggest any increase in corporate tax because his party is of the view that there should not be increases in corporate tax because of the wider investment issues facing the country. I take it I am being accurate on that issue. I do not believe price caps would be optimal either or would give us the outcome over time in terms of how the market would operate. On what we are doing, we have the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, we have a new food regulator that we are establishing to br…

The Government will claw back-----

The unemployment figure today, at 3.9%, is the lowest ever in the history of the State in the context of a rising population. Over the past 20 or 25 years, the population has risen quite dramatically, yet our economy has really kept pace. The rate of 3.9% is the lowest unemployment rate in the history of the State. What it indicates is there is absorption capacity within the State in terms of those who will or have lost jobs in certain sectors. That is a very traumatic issue for the people concerned who lose jobs a…

I believe that the public should have access to historic monuments of the calibre and importance of Aideen's Grave and, indeed, megalithic tombs. Obviously, there have to be safeguards and there has to be proper organisation of that. In short, I believe that people should have access to these very significant monuments. I did first year archaeology and had a very good trip to Lough Gur one time, which taught me the importance of such access and how we can learn from our past.

How do we do it?

The ECB sets the rates. The Deputy knows that. Proposals that come forward should be credible and doable.

In terms of the expert group, Mr. Justice Meenan submitted the final report on the current system for managing clinical negligence claims to the Ministers for Health and Justice prior to the onset of Covid. The Meenan report has been published. It is the basis for getting forward. I will talk to the Minister to make sure that we progress this as soon as we can.

I accept the Deputy's general view with regard to the value and importance of adult education, and in particular adult tutors within the education and training boards, ETBs, and the adult education sector. The Deputy will be aware there has been an ongoing issue and a campaign around this but it is within an industrial relations framework. Various offers have been made and various hearings have been heard. We would like to see this accelerated as quickly as we possibly can to get a resolution to these issues to res…

That would be an unprecedented intervention in the market and it may not work.

I will not comment on other countries and the challenges they are facing also. It is a fundamentally significant step that we are bringing greater transparency. We want to give greater emphasis to the challenges faced by the primary producer in the costs of production and so they can get a return. We want primary producers to sustain. The sector has been very strong the last couple of years in areas such as dairy and so on-----

I will raise this with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, if the Deputy could bring the specific example. Sometimes specific examples can illustrate a wider systemic problem, or could be the catalyst for a new policy proposal. There are always these issues between thresholds and repayment capacity and so on, but I would err on the flexible side right now. People are paying very high rents and whatever loan they would receive from the local authority to enable them to pu…

I am familiar with St. John's Hospital. It plays a very important role in the overall provision of services in the mid west, and especially in Limerick city. I remember many years ago visiting probably one of the first minor injury clinics there, which was an innovation that St. John's pioneered at the time and which became quite the norm afterwards in other hospitals. I am not aware of the specific project. Subject to it being consistent with the clinical safety issues - the right type of medicine at the right tim…

My understanding is that the Deputy may be referring to a specific case. I do not know whether that informs the general but the Government is committed to reforming the family law court system for stronger protections, supports and empathy with all concerned, particularly children and women. The Minister for Justice is alert to Deputy Durkan's concerns.

It has been an outstandingly successful programme which has benefited clubs in all localities and clubs in disadvantaged communities even more, from my long association.

We are in constant contact with our European partners and American Near East Refugee Aid, ANERA, about the escalation of violence in Palestine. We have frequently condemned all killings in Palestine and attacks by the Israeli forces in certain towns and villages in the West Bank of late. We called for de-escalation of the violence. Cutting off diplomatic relations would achieve very little. It would marginalise Ireland even more in respect of the-----

-----Middle East process. We want to continue to contribute to a resolution of the issues there, which we do as a country in our supports to ANERA, non-governmental human rights organisations in Palestine and our support more generally for the Palestinian National Authority.

We are expediting the process. The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Chambers, has facilitated a significant expansion of testers and instructors. By the end of the year, there will be up to 200. The solution is higher volume to do more testing and deal with the backlog.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which he raised previously on the non-national roads sector. There is no doubt that inflation has eaten into the available resources. The total allocated this year for regional and local roads is approximately €626 million, €46 million of which is current expenditure and €580 million of which is capital, compared to €597 million overall in 2022. There was an increase this year in capital funding but as the Deputy said, much of that has been absorbed by inflation in the cos…

We have delivered ahead of targets in respect of adaptation grants and we continue to invest significantly in this area. I do not accept the argument that the local authority could not release a specific grant to a specific individual because of such a lack. I do not buy that.