I am sorry; the health service has improved dramatically. Cancer care has improved dramatically because, and I stress this point, of the concentration of services. I saw all the protests against the concentration of cancer services in regions all over this country. I saw the pickets and large meetings that people like the Deputy excel in. While people in the Deputy's position are entitled to their view, I am not sure that the position the Deputy was articulating at any given time was in the best interests of patien…

Is the Deputy for it?

I take it the Deputy is for that.

The Deputy needs to state he is for it because-----

There is a new one which stipulates that patients who are acutely ill will no longer be brought there. I ask the Deputy to think about that because clinicians are making these decisions and not him or me. Clinicians are telling us it is not safe to do what the Deputy is suggesting they should do.

The Deputy is saying that the situation with the ambulance roster, and so on, constitutes closure. I put it to him that patients who are acutely ill should go to the hospital that guarantees them the best outcome. We need to be patient-focused. I put that to him very strongly.

My understanding is that Our Lady's Hospital in Navan has not been successful in securing fulltime consultant cover in the emergency department. My understanding is that there is currently a registrar with 9 am to 5 pm cover, a consultant provides out of hours cover and there are four emergency department registrar posts which have not been filled. This has resulted in the use of locum staff. These are important issues that need to be aired in my view and it-----

No, that is not the case. There is a whole range of reasons why certain hospitals, because of size, nature etc., will dictate to a large extent outside of the control of any authority where junior doctors will go into service. We need to have a more realistic debate about it. Fundamentally, if we can do it from the objective that the patient gets the best care and the best outcome, surely that is what we should all be agreed on in this House. I look forward to the debate on that.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The first point I make is that we are in unprecedented times and the world is not in a good place. There is a terrible, immoral and illegal war being waged on the people of Ukraine by President Putin and by Russia, which is causing untold killing and untold damage to energy infrastructure. It has weaponised food and migration and it is causing huge uncertainty across the Continent of Europe and across the world in terms of economic development. The most fundament…

I say to the Deputy that I have no issue with a debate in the House on this and I have no issue with a committee being formed, if that is the desire of the House, to get more into the details on the specific issues. Maybe that is something that can be worked out.

I assure the Deputy that I am not obsessed with anything, but there is a reality of a war that is on our doorsteps. There are 17,518 people being accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, accommodation. That number has increased. The average before Covid-19 in 2019 was approximately 3,500. That was the expected annual average that had been projected by earlier reports. It has increased significantly-----

-----and every country has its systems. We work within the broad European system. We are a country that believes in a multilateral, rules-based system. When people arrive under international protection they apply for asylum. That is then adjudicated upon. A great deal of resources have been allocated to speed up the arbitration and decision-making of that. If people's applications are refused, they can be deported.

The final Bill has been approved by the Government and will now be introduced in the Dáil. Last June, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine met with the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine for pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the agricultural and food supply chain Bill 2022. That general scheme was approved by Government in March. The Minister met with the committee, which subsequently met with other stakeholders on two separate occasions in July. The agrifood regulator …

There has been a very significant increase in funding, particularly in the past two to three years. More than 4,000 services have signed up for core funding. That equates to 93% of all eligible services. The aim is to get to a position where every child will be able to access a place in a crèche or childcare facility. We want to continue to advance this agenda in next year's budget in order to increase provision and achieve the targets Deputy Bacik has outlined.

I actually walked that site with some survivors a number of years ago. Their main concern was that the site they feel makes up the burial grounds - as the Deputy will know, the site at Bessborough is very large - should not be used for housing. If I am right, a previous application was rejected. The planning aspect is obviously an operational issue for the council but we will certainly continue to engage with the survivors regarding their needs, their perspective and their objectives. At that stage, they were not f…

I do not believe in a war at all. The Deputy used a very interesting term, "class war". That would not be my vision for this country or for Europe. We consistently raise with the Chinese Government the need for human rights to be affirmed and for the citizens of China to have access to the same human rights as people in the West. Those rights were nurtured and developed by the liberal democracies of the West. We particularly call for people to be allowed to protest peacefully and to articulate their viewpoints with…

My understanding is that €2.2 million was allocated for the development of long Covid services in 2022. An additional €6.6 million will be invested in 2023. The HSE has an interim model of care to provide long Covid services nationally with the first priority being to ensure that both long Covid and post-acute Covid clinics operate with each hospital group in order that there will be a national service. I am informed that the long Covid clinics that have been established are based in St. Vincent's University Hospit…

-----the Mater, to the attention of the Minister and ask him to come back to the Deputy on them.

We have provided very significant resources for services for people with disabilities. I do not mean to be facetious, but I do not operate or run every service in every area of the country. There is a responsibility on the HSE and the people working in the local authorities to ensure that the necessary respite care is provided.

The Government has provided resources for disability services for respite and residential care. If the Deputy wants to forward the details we will take up the matter.