I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue and I appreciate his interest in my longevity in politics. On a serious note, we have to keep working hard to effect change. We all have to keep at it. It is interesting that in the last 20 to 25 years, health has been transformed. There is no comparison between outcomes and survival rates today when compared with 20 or 25 years ago. I said yesterday in the House that the reason for this was that we took a more strategic approach to the big diseases that were…

I think I understand fully where the Deputy is coming from. There has been huge pressure on that hospital over recent years. The workforce has increased - I went through that with the Deputy - and the budget went up 20% in one year alone. In 2022, it is €315 million, an increase of 19%. Actually, that is since 2019, so it was not in one year. The new 60-bed module was put in in 2021 and has opened. There were rapid-build projects. There will be further developments. Work has just commenced on a new four-storey, 96-…

Yes, and we have to work to-----

No. In the south west, it is essentially Cork University Hospital, CUH. There is Mercy University Hospital and so on, but CUH is a tertiary-----

A bigger population. It does not matter. We need to resource and advance Limerick more. We have to. It does need more capacity in terms of personnel, facilities, beds and so forth. The enhanced community care side of it is very important also so that we can reduce the number of people presenting who do not need to go to accident and emergency departments. It is very important they have proper, good-quality care at different sites and different centres.

There are a range of plans in place, particularly in terms of the cancer control programme and the role of cancer services. I am not sure as to the reason for those particular chemotherapy appointments being cancelled, but in terms of the overall cancer programme, it is extremely important that appointments be kept and that people get their treatments in the manner prescribed by the protocols around cancer treatment.

If information has come, it should obviously be referred to the Garda-----

-----immediately. We must allow the Garda to pursue cases.

People should be brought before and held accountable to our criminal justice system. There can be no hiding place for anyone in that respect. That will be an issue we will have to assess in terms of what potentially will be the impact of an inquiry on cases that are live and current and are being proceeded with. I will engage with the Deputy further on the matter.

I am not clear on the big picture point the Deputy is making. We are commencing houses. We are allocating resources to approved housing bodies and to local authorities to build social houses. We want them built as fast as we can get them built and, on a 12-month basis, we can see at the end of the year how many we get built, how many we acquire and how many we lease. That is the key point.

I will go back to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and get it to respond to the Deputy's specific query, but the broader point is we set a target of 24,600 units of all types of housing this year. We want to exceed that if we can. Next year, we have a target of 29,000, which will be more challenging because of pipeline issues and so on, but we are determined to try to reach the targets we have set on an annual basis.

What I would ask is for the Deputy to send the details to the Minister for Education in respect of the specific schools. Every effort should be made, be it by providing temporary accommodation in respect of some areas, to make sure that kids and young people can access schooling. As the Deputy has said, some of this can get resolved by the time the next academic year starts, but there are mechanisms now whereby schools work together with regard to transparency around the lists and those who apply to different schoo…

I appreciate the Deputy's acknowledgement that this is a good scheme. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about the specific issue the Deputy has raised. I presume it is to do with valuations - I am not sure - as to why different rates apply to different counties. I will follow it up. I know it is the Deputy's objective that we would create a scheme that can help people and get people into housing. I accept that. I will follow it up.

The negotiation of trade deals is a Commission function and Parliament here can decide to ratify it, if it wishes, or not. We must have a balanced approach to this. I have not heard compelling arguments against free trade agreements, particularly from a country like Ireland, which is an open economy that exports 90% of its goods and services and creates thousands of jobs. The Canadian deal has been very beneficial but everyone is condemning it. Actually, it has been beneficial. There are 400 Enterprise Ireland clie…

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important road safety issue. I will write to the RSA to communicate his views and concerns around the road safety aspect of this. It is complex with regard to the wider issues and how we deal with it. I will not go into the different methodologies and so on. I have been reading a lot of articles on what they do in other jurisdictions, but if we were to mention it here, it would only be treated in the wrong way. The Deputy has raised this as a road safety issue and the Deputy…

I would not be immediately aware of the details of that specific school and the issues there. Suffice it to say, the quality and commitment of Irish teachers are the bedrock of our education system. I will ask the Minister for Education to look at the specifics to see what can be done to help the school more broadly in terms of the curriculum choice that requires the specialist teachers and how we can assist in making sure they can get the teachers concerned.

State contracts are issued in accordance with European Union procurement law. There is very little the State can do to cherry-pick who gets or does not get a contract. There are times when local authorities, states or even governments might like to do that, but then you are down a slippery slope. We urge that EROs not be challenged in the manner this one is being challenged. I will come back to the Deputy on a specific update. I will get information and communicate it to her as to where we are now.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. He has consistently raised this issue. It was a significant initiative by Government to reduce student fees by €1,000 this year and €500 next September. There have been post-Brexit changes, generally speaking, in terms of the grant regime in Scotland vis-á-vis Irish students and fees. I will discuss this again with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to see what can be done but it is not as straightforward as we would like. I will see …

I thank the Deputy for alerting me to the news that I am sanctioned. It is a new development. I do not think I have ever been sanctioned before. I will have to be updated on that and see what the implications of it are. It is part of a broader propaganda war being waged by Russia. As I said in relation to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's comments on the challenges around accommodation of Ukrainians, we all have to stand together across Europe on this. Diplomatic channels are the last resort, always. Diplomacy matters, no m…

I thank the Deputy for raising that. It has been raised by a number of Deputies. Regarding any anomalies of that kind, we do not want to punish people for being on a training course or that they would lose the once-off payment. We will come back to the Deputy to clarify that but my understanding is those anomalies are being dealt with. The Deputy raised issues in terms of pensions, which are broader social protection policy issues. On means testing, these are once-off payments in respect of an energy crisis and sho…