I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for raising this serious and worrying situation. I met Traveller representative organisations last year. I met the Traveller disability group in Cork and the national organisation. Suffice it to say it is very worrying. Without question there has been an increase in suicides among the Traveller community and particularly among young people. We have to examine this in depth. It relates to a range of issues. Above all, where Traveller groups participate in education there has to be follow-t…

We have to change this. People must feel part of society and feel they have an opportunity. This is vital for mental health and respect.

My apologies.

In terms of housing policy, plans and resources the Government is the biggest actor, player and provider of resources in the housing market. That is a long way from the so-called free market extremism that Deputy Barry is asserting and labelling the Government with. The opposite is the case. The Government is providing record numbers of social housing. Last year we built close to 30,000 houses. The Government is supporting affordable housing, cost rental and Croí Cónaithe. Think of all the various schemes from soci…

I want to nail Deputy Barry's sloganeering and I am entitled to do that. Deputy Barry started it. He said "extremism" and I am entitled to come back on it.

The Government is considering the eviction ban and will examine it. Why will we do this? It is because we want to make sure that whatever we do does not make the situation worse. Deputy Barry is not worried about this because what he is worried about is how he can label the Government again in six months' time if the situation is much worse because of the decisions we take.

We are going to look at this seriously----

-----in terms of protecting people as best we can and making sure we do not have a continuing exodus from the rental market that would mean fewer houses to give to people and to rent to people. Those are the issues that we have to consider.

The Government spends far more than €1 billion, as the Deputy knows, and we will draw that down. The Deputy is underestimating what has happened already under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, BAR. The level of investment in piers and harbours across the country is because of the BAR and the allocations are multiples of what we used to annually provide. There is no comparison. There was an open invitation to communities affected, particularly fisher communities around harbours and piers, and the BAR has helped us to a…

In ports such as Rosslare, where there has been huge investment by the Government, some of that will hopefully be drawn down from the BAR, but we are doing it in any event because of Brexit. There are other aspects. The dairy industry has grown, notwithstanding Brexit. It is not as bleak a picture as the Deputy has painted, as he is wont to do-----

We are going to draw it down.

Is this in Clonmel?

The Deputy would have to acknowledge there has been a lot of good work happening in Clonmel town.

There has been huge refurbishment and development of a very significant kind, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, was there recently in respect of both housing initiatives and new investment.

We have to work with the local authority, which is the key player here.

We can sometimes set up new bodies, agencies, task forces and all of that, when the simpler thing to do is to identify the issues and have the local authority work with the Government and other local organisations, and then come back to Government with a clear plan as to how we revitalise an area, such as the area the Deputy has just identified. That is probably the better way to do it.

I acknowledge there has been an issue in terms of payments and we had a Cabinet sub-committee meeting last week in respect of this issue. Measures are being taken both to deal with the immediate situation of some people needing immediate payments and to create a new model that would make for more regular payments into the future. That is the type of situation that many Deputies have come back to us on, individual cases, so it does not arise into the future. It has to be dealt with systemically and that is the appro…

It has been a very good scheme and it is one that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, deserves great credit for initiating in the first instance. We have to evaluate schemes as they evolve. This was part of the housing initiative to create affordability for people to live in various locations, and to provide affordability to couples and people who might want to own and live in their own house. It also has the add-on effect of dealing with dereliction and giving the capacity to refurbish houses that might have bee…

I discussed this earlier with Deputy Fitzmaurice and I thank Deputy Tully for raising it again. I think the progressing disability services for children and young people programme was initiated around 2013. I had issues with it at the time. I believe multidisciplinary teams in special schools are the optimal way to help children, but that does not cover all children. That is the point the HSE would make, that it is trying to provide a service for all children. That said, it has moved policy-wise from the Department…

I thank the Deputy. He has had a long-standing commitment to these issues over the years as a public representative. I agree with him on the Windsor Agreement. We must allow people to read the detail of it. It is a very detailed, comprehensive response to legitimate issues that were raised by political parties in Northern Ireland in particular and by unionist parties in respect of some issues. They have been comprehensively responded to. Parallel to and in advance of all that, I have always been of the view the ins…