Ireland has a different attitude to this. We have not nationalised water. Sorry - we have not privatised water.

We have nationalised water, unlike the UK. We are in a far different situation here. I would argue the propaganda sound bite does not work in the comparison Deputy Barry made. I happen to agree with some of what Deputy Ó Murchú said. We can modify and make changes. Over time, people are becoming more comfortable with some aspects of how we monitor trade. If the EU gets the data, there is a lot more we can do to ease people's concerns. The bottom line is to get into talks. If we can get a talks process going between…

When I said "I met", I think we getting too literal about this. I met the people concerned in Derry. It was not a meeting around a table. We discussed the matter. I am not into nitpicking about the issues, nor should the Deputy be. Rather, we should approach these things in good faith and not try to create advantage.

Subject to my schedule. My officials have met them. We are anxious to properly analyse these issues. When I said there should be no hard border, there is no one stopping anyone on the Border and saying they cannot come in because they are a migrant. That is a hard border.

A hard border is someone stopping people, as is happening in many borders around Europe. That is the point I was making in responding to the Deputy.

Hugh Kelly, 59; Robert Garwe, 50; Martina Martin, 49, Martin McGill, 49; James O'Flaherty, 48; Catherine O'Donnell, 39; Jessica Gallagher, 24; Leona Harper, 14; James Monaghan, 13; and little Shauna Flanagan Garwe, five years of age. Ten women, men, boys and girls representing everything good, kind and beautiful about Creeslough, Donegal and our country were taken away in a tragic incident on a quiet Friday afternoon; fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, each one an enormous, incalculable …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue because it is one that goes to the heart of the kind of society we are and want to be. The Government is very concerned with the increase in homelessness and it has a comprehensive suite of responses. We need to understand and assess the nature of homelessness in modern Ireland. It is different from what we might have traditionally perceived it to be and it is a changing dynamic all of the time in terms of the presentations on a monthly basis to the emergency accommodation …

The conditions that existed in the Covid crisis were that we legally restricted people's movements, on public health grounds, to distances of 2 km early on and 5 km in some instances. There was a very clear legal underpinning for any decisions we took, given the restrictions the Government and public health interests put forward. In the context of the current crisis, there are arguments, of course, to do the same. That is the point and the matter is under consideration by the Minister in respect of that aspect of i…

------in terms of the overall number of houses built. The reality is that looking at the figures on home completions, commencements, permissions, home purchases, first-time buyers and mortgage draw downs, they are encouraging this year. They give us confidence that the Government's overall 2022 supply target will be met, but we need to go higher than that every other year. That means, and I have said it consistently to everybody in the House, that if we want to reach those targets into the future and we really want…

First, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. At the outset, that Labour's motion is very broad. At times it is not clear who, specifically, it is targeting. At one leap, it is almost as if every voluntary and community organisation would be made a public sector organisation, if one were to follow the entirety of the motion through to its logical conclusion. As the Deputy knows, quite a number of these organisations are private, appreciate their autonomy and would not necessarily want to come under public secto…

I thank the Deputy. In the health sector in recent years, for example, upward adjustments have been made in the pay of some eligible section 39 workers, following a process led by the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform at the Workplace Relations Commission in 2019. That resulted in funding being made available for pay increases for a pilot scheme involving 50 agencies. In 2021, there was further engagement by the Department of Health at the Workplace Relations Commission, which…

The Government does not want disconnections this winter above all else. As the Deputy said, for winter 2022 the usual one-month pause on disconnections for non-payment has been extended to three months, from 1 December 2022 until 28 February 2023. For vulnerable customers, the pause on disconnections for non-payment has been extended to six months, from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023. I understand that work is now being progressed by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to waive the fee to enable pe…

We have identified a whole range of measures that will be paid out from now until Christmas that will help the financially vulnerable. Substantial payments are being made which should help people not to get into difficulty with their pay-as-you-go bill. That said, the additional needs payment is there. Anybody who is financially vulnerable should engage with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, and with the additional needs section to ensure they get the resources so they are not in a debt situation in res…

Is this about new sergeants being appointed?

I thank the Deputy for raising this. It is an important issue given the overall situation and to the need to enhance retention and recruitment in the context of the Defence Forces. As the Deputy will know, a civil-military review of mandatory retirement ages and service limits of all ranks in the Permanent Defence Force has been conducted and the recommendations arising from the review and their impact on current pay and pensions are being considered by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. That consider…

Eight.

Even as he spoke, the Deputy illustrated some of the knock-on effects that can happen, so obviously the matter needs some consideration. The overall objective is to retain and extend the numbers working in the Defence Forces. We have to find a way through that and do it expeditiously. I will talk to both Ministers in respect of the issue.

It will be a very challenging winter. Experience across the world is showing that with a combination of influenza and Covid-19, or new waves and potential variants of Covid-19, it could be a very difficult winter. Covid numbers are increasing, which places real strains on our hospitals and nursing homes, results in delayed discharges from hospitals increasing, affects flows through hospitals, gives rise to things backing up and places people in emergency departments under real pressure. We started preparing for the…

My understanding is that those availing of the rent-a-room scheme will be entitled to the renter's credit. In terms of wider standard licensing, if the Deputy could give me instances of or context relating to those, I will take them to the Ministers for Finance and Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

I would appreciate it if the Deputy could, in confidence, forward details of those three cases to me because I am interested in the context and background as to why he received those calls today. There are protections in place such that it would take a number of months before anybody could be evicted. People cannot be evicted today, tomorrow or overnight.