I thank the Deputy for highlighting the fantastic work the Samaritans do. When I was Minister for Health we had a discrete lottery fund allocation at the time and were able to assist Dublin and Cork Samaritans with new facilities. We should always seek to ensure their facilities are good and any training or whatever is supported. That is their esprit de corps and ethos. The Deputy's important point concerned loneliness and the need for Government to adopt policies across education and the community more generally t…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Small to medium enterprises are the backbone of our economy. My understanding is that there was a task force up to a year ago and that it has completed its work and its recommendations have been implemented by the Ministers of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. LEEF does very valuable work. There is a long-standing issue with ISME. IBEC is on LEEF representing -----

I know but there is an SME component to IBEC too. I know the issues. There is a multiplicity, or really two bodies in the main, in the SME category. Generally on the export side, Enterprise Ireland looks after export companies. I have always thought there should be a continuum from the local enterprise offices, LEOS, or from the microenterprise sector to enable companies to get to the start-up position and export.

I was reading a chapter of Mark Henry's book, In Fact: An Optimist's Guide to Ireland at 100 the other night. It goes over the progress made in 100 years. Since the 1990s, there has been a transformation and dramatic improvement in wastewater compared with where we were through wastewater treatment plants and so on and a whole range of other issues. I am not clear why the situation is as it is in Annascaul but I will follow it up with the Minister. Níl aon amhras ach gurb é an scéal is fearr ná áiseanna den saghas …

I think the Deputy must acknowledge that there has been tremendous investment by this Government in Rosslare. It has been unprecedented in recent decades.

No, not by the EU, it was by the Government. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform can give it list by list on customs funding and so on as a result of Brexit under the previous Government, as well as new development. Rosslare has been a beneficiary of Brexit, as it turned out, and also now there is the area of offshore wind coming. I see very good potential for Rosslare. On the specifics, I will talk to the relevant authorities but these are issues where there are authorities on the ground who should be d…

The issue of CDNTs is one of recruitment of the therapists. I have convened meetings with the Ministers for Health, Education, and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the HSE to prioritise the recruitment of therapists for special needs children. I have had issues on how this has progressed in certain areas with disability where children's access to therapists is not optimal. The issue seems to be particularly acute in the disability services in respect of the capacity to recruit therapists. O…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. The Government Information Service, GIS, includes the Government Press Office and the MerrionStreet.ie content team and works on a cross-functional and collaborative basis to provide the Taoiseach, the Government and the Department with press office and communications support; to ensure strong collaboration and co-ordination among press and communications officials in other Departments and agencies; to co-ordinate, support, amplify and create communicati…

I will reply to the situation pertaining to CETA, as it was raised first. I have welcomed the clarity the Supreme Court has brought to the issue in respect of the manner in which CETA can be ratified. The ruling by a 6:1 majority was that CETA could be ratified by the Oireachtas if certain changes were made to domestic legislation, in particular the Arbitration Act 2010. The Deputy opposite criticised me for raising free trade but it is my view that her party has been very negative about CETA and has never commente…

We exported €4 billion worth of goods and services to Canada in 2020. CETA is in the interests of workers, taxpayers and businesses in rural and urban Ireland. All agreements have dispute resolution mechanisms. Deputy Paul Murphy raised the SIPO decision. SIPO has decided. It is a body that is independent of the Oireachtas. At times, I worry that if a decision does not go a person's way that it somehow has to be re-interrogated and it must be wrong because it does not accord with the Deputy's position. Every decisi…

No, I mean from the Deputy's perspective. By raising it in the manner he did, he raised the spectre of not liking the result, suggesting it is wrong and that it should be changed. That would be a concern of mine.

No. My point is that if we create independent bodies, there comes a stage when they make decisions and adjudicate, and we must just get on with it. In terms of Deputy Barry's point, I would love to be at the cinema. I have not been there for quite some time.

I missed the Cork Film Festival this year, for the first time in a long time, so busy was I. in terms of the Government message at the end of the advertisements, depending on the quality of the advertisements, some people like watching them while others are impatient to get on with the film. I recall that some years back I went to see the premiere of "Michael Collins" in the Capitol cinema in Cork and a rather innovative PR adviser to the Fianna Fáil Party at the time decided to put advertisements about getting tou…

I apologise.

I am coming to that. I was missing a pen when Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue about housing. There is a cross-government communications approach to housing. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has clear communications portals for people to contact depending on their housing situation on the various schemes they can access. I will come back to Deputy Boyd Barrett and follow up on the point he made about his suggestion for a one-stop shop. I think his suggestion was along those lines.

I will come back to him in that regard. It was a fair point. In response to Deputy Bacik, during Covid, an assistant secretary in my Department oversaw the Covid situation and co-ordinated with other Departments. Advice was taken from professionals in the field about the type of advertisements and other such issues. Research was done by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and other such bodies as to the best type of advertisements. There are professionals in that field and there is no political involv…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 11, inclusive, together. The sustainable development goals, SDGs, adopted in 2015, are the United Nations blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Under the programme for Government, the Government is committed to continue work towards the 17 goals. This is a whole-of-government effort, led by the Minister for…

I thank the Deputies for raising the issues. The focus today is very domestic, whereas the SDGs have declined globally to a far more significant extent, especially with respect to nutrition. The World Food Programme is extremely alarmed at how, over the past five years, the numbers facing famine have grown exponentially and reversed the progress of the previous decade. This is a big worry. That said, we need to keep a global focus on the SDGs. In terms of the transfer of disability services from the Department of H…

I did not-----

They are now standard practice and the Deputy knows that.