Deputy Tóibín was first to speak. In respect of the Navan hospital review, I have not seen it yet so I cannot confirm his perspectives on it as regards his view that it has many shortcomings. I will engage with the Minister for Health on the review. The issues are not simple either. Clinicians on all sides have different perspectives on this in County Meath and elsewhere. We have to ensure that whatever we do is in the best interests of patients in the first instance, and that the best outcomes are achieved in trea…

That is good. There are also a number of other recommendations we are continuing to work on. Deputy Bacik raised the issue of the expansion of GP care. This year, the Government took the decision to expand quite substantially, through income thresholds, the number of GP care medical cards for access to GPs. That will be quite substantial, with hundreds of thousands more. We are not abandoning the over-sevens but I believe we have to re-look at how we do it. Invariably, what happens is that an announcement is made i…

The supports cover not just those areas the Deputy has identified. Much more support has been provided in the budget over and above the specific payments to which the Deputy referred.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 17, inclusive, together. Through the Government's shared island initiative, we are engaging with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future and delivering tangible benefits for the whole island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. In the budget last week, the Government confirmed an allocation of €100 million to our shared island fund for 2023, consistent with our commitment to the fund and to take forward our all-island investment priorities…

Regarding Deputy Durkan's question, the whole idea of the shared island unit is to be without prejudice to the constitutional position. That is why I think it has gained such traction, so we need to be careful. That is all I would say to Deputies who, in good faith, have put forward various perspectives. The reason it has gained such traction among civil society in Northern Ireland is because people accept its bona fides. It is not a Trojan horse for anything. People accept that it is meant to deal with issues on t…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 to 20, inclusive, together. Housing for All is the most ambitious housing plan in the history of our State and contains actions to ensure over 300,000 new homes are built by 2030, along with delivering fundamental reform of our housing system. The target to 2030 includes 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost-rental homes. The plan is backed by the highest ever State investment in housing and it is beginning to have a significant impact. Despite the…

Regarding the increase in income thresholds, the Minister is examining that with his Department. I hope to receive a update on progress at some stage.

Did the Deputy say the person he referred to was not on the social housing list?

I have spoken to the Minister on this and work is under way on increasing the income thresholds. I agree with Deputy Durkan. We should accelerate the use of modular homes and system-built housing. We need different types of housing, including increased use of timber-framed housing. Only 20% of housing here uses timber-frame construction, while it is 80% in Scotland. We need faster and more innovative approaches. We must also stop all the opposition to different housing types. It seems the first response, as opposed…

I thank the Deputy for her contribution. When George Orwell wrote his great novel, 1984 , he talked about the party’s emphasis on doublethink. Describing it, he explains that party members have “to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them”. Most people who have read 1984 took it as a warning but the Deputy’s party seems to be taking it as some sort of instruction manual.

How else can we reconcile the party’s performance on this issue? We have just watched the Deputy condemn the Government’s proposal in respect of industry contributing to the cost of mica redress. Just last week, her colleague, Deputy Doherty, stood in this House, in the same place as the Deputy, and declared, "I also welcome the defective concrete products levy." I then listened to comrade Ó Broin on “Morning Ireland” this morning dodging and weaving on the issue, as only he can, and being Jesuitical in his approac…

Then again, the Deputy’s party had a Private Members’ motion in June 2021 in which it demanded "that those responsible for the manufacture of defective blocks are held to account, and that industry contributes to the overall cost". In that debate Deputy Doherty was equally clear that builders and suppliers "are held to account with a contribution extracted from the industry towards the remediation."

The Deputy's party is the party of doublethink and the three-card trick. It is for mica redress and industry making its contribution until it is not. It supports the levy on concrete products until it does not. The industry responsible for the problem should pay until it should not.

Sinn Féin is making this up as it goes along.

I will put it this way - God help us if it ever gets near the national finances.

In respect of first-time buyers, we have to look at things fairly. This Government is giving unprecedented support to first-time buyers. The help-to-buy scheme has assisted 35,000 first-time buyers, at €30,000 per qualifying property. The new first homes shared equity scheme will provide further supports to first-time buyers. In the past 12 months, more first-time buyers bought their first home than in any year since 2008. This Government is doing an unprecedented amount to support first-time buyers and that will c…

Go bunúsach, an polasaí atá ag Sinn Féin ná Tadhg an dá thaobh, i gcónaí. They are on both sides all of the time. By the way, Animal Farm applies to the Deputy’s party more than any other party in this Dáil any day. There is no question about that.

Ask a lot of the dissidents and a lot of the people who left her party down through the years. They can verify the degree to which Animal Farm applies to it. That is why Orwell-----

I welcome our visitors from Ballyhaunis secondary school. It is why Orwell should always be a core part of the second level curriculum, just to prepare us.

The danger, of course, is that the party opposite, as I have said, in particular take 1984 as an instruction manual and it does it very well, holding many contradictory opinions at the same time.