Deputies O'Rourke and Haughey mentioned cybersecurity. I do not know whether Deputy O'Rourke is for us participating in this security centre. He is. The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is a multinational and interdisciplinary hub of cyber defence and it is located in Tallinn. It is staffed and financed by member nations and it is not part of NATO's military command or force structure. We applied for contributing participant status in November 2019 and the formal process to finalise accession is …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 21, inclusive, together. The housing and infrastructure unit supports me and the Government in building a successful society and economy through sustainable economic development with a particular focus on housing and infrastructure policy. This includes supporting the work of the Cabinet committee on housing which oversees the delivery of Housing for All. The unit monitors implementation of Housing for All and prepares quarterly progress reports. The most recent of these, for q…

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the issue of the local property tax in respect of vacancies. Vacancies and dereliction are two separate concepts. In a recent analysis, 96% of all apartments in Dublin were occupied despite all the commentary that lots of apartments are empty. I think that was in the Daft report; I will check the source of that. We need to be careful with our descriptions and definitions. The principal purpose of the residential zoned land tax is to encourage the timely activation of zoned and service…

The Minister said his announcement is imminent. I will ask him to confirm when he will make an announcement in that respect and come back to the Deputy. It is welcome that we have cut the fares for public transport and that it is leading to an increase in uptake. Free fares is not a realistic prospect. The Government made the decision to cut fares as part of its anti-inflationary measures. We also made the decision in the budget to halve fares for 17- to 25-year-olds. That will also be effective and important in en…

That is not my understanding but I will follow that up. Deputy McAuliffe raised the issue of-----

I would love to call out to Finglas to visit the family resource centre. I will talk to the Minister about the primary care facility, housing need and the potential provision of housing in that area. I will talk to the Minister about the specifics of the proposal made by Deputy Murnane O'Connor in terms of providing greater opportunity to the people of Carlow to avail of affordable housing. The criteria provided will facilitate the inclusion of people who live in the area to avail of housing. That is a worthy objec…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 22 to 29, inclusive, together. The public service, justice and policing reform unit is part of the social policy and public service reform division of my Department. The work of the unit supports me, in my role as Taoiseach, on policing reform, criminal justice, public service reform, social affairs and other related matters. It incorporates the policing reform implementation programme office, which oversees the implementation of A Policing Service for our Future, the Government's p…

There is a range of issues to be covered. First, on the draft policing, security and community safety Bill which Deputy Bacik raised, in April of last year the general scheme was published. Among the objectives, clearly, is to provide a new, more coherent governance and oversight framework to strengthen both the external oversight of An Garda Síochána, as well as its internal governance. The approach was recommended by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland in its 2018 report. In preparing the scheme, …

I will revert back to the Deputy. I will engage with the Minister on that. We are all looking for a comprehensively sound database in respect of the crime statistics. Deputy Daly raised the issue of GSOC and historical inquiries. The volume of cases currently being heard by GSOC is quite considerable. As I have said previously, there has to be some balance, unfortunately, in terms of the work of GSOC and what gets prioritised and dealt with. There are real issues there. There are up to 2,000 cases or complaints per…

A proper apology. An apology was issued-----

Maybe I took Deputy Daly up wrong but I thought he was looking for an historical inquiry into the case but we will have to assess that in the context of the capacity of GSOC, to be frank. We will look at that. On the death of Shane O'Farrell and the scoping exercise, I have met the O'Farrell family, most recently with Deputy Niamh Smyth, who raised Shane's death initially today. It is a very harrowing case and a very sad situation. I hope that the scoping inquiry will be brought to completion very quickly because i…

Think it through in terms of the decisions. There is information and access but to what great degree? Policy has to dictate the public health system and the public health service.

Deputy Paul Murphy asked about the stamp 2 visas. I believe these have been extended on nine occasions.

The rhetoric articulated by the Deputy suggests that the Minister is doing nothing. The Minister has extended these on nine occasions.

There comes a time when we must have some balance also in what we are doing on overall policy and frameworks, to be fair all around. I do not have the full details on Deputy Barry's question on the inquest. I will come back to the Deputy on the issue he has raised. Deputy McAuliffe asked about policing. We are working on this committee. We did not get to deal with it yesterday but at the next committee meeting hopefully we will bring that to a conclusion. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Dep…

Ar dtús báire, tá na geallúintí dleathacha ann ionas go mbeidh gach seirbhís atá dleathach sa tír seo faoi láthair agus sa todhchaí ar fáil san ospidéal nua. Níl aon amhras faoi sin agus tá comhairle dhleathach faighte agam féin agus ag an Rialtas gur sin an scéal. Is turas fada a bhí ann go dtí an lá seo. Caithfidh mé é sin a rá. The 300-year lease at €10 a year is effective ownership. I have received legal advice to that effect. It is ownership. Deputy McDonald may disagree, and it is her entitlement to disagree.…

I am not talking to you, Deputy. It is going to be built as a hospital. I have read it all. There are no impositions in this. It is basically saying "Go and build a maternity hospital". Let us for the sake of clarity accept that. Let us not try to cloud in terms of the conditions of this. None of these are an imposition on the maternity hospital. In fact, it is a co-location. The question I want to put to the Deputy is that nobody has explained to me how the difference between a 300-year lease at €10 per year and o…

I have led from the front on this. I have asked the Minister for Health over the last year to get this issue resolved once and for all because it has been going on since 2013. The previous Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, brought in Kieran Mulvey, for example, to bring all the parties together. Let us not pretend there has not been detailed, exhaustive engagement between all parties to this over the past nine years. We have led on this and I am determined that we get something done and get the hospital built for…

Some are. What is the issue then if the Deputy is not arguing there is a conspiracy?

At some stage, we have to take people at good faith in regard to this.