The Deputy has moved very quickly from the 120,000 Russian troops amassing on the Ukrainian border to blaming the British and the US. That is fantastic. He is back on terra firma again in terms of his ideological position on these matters

I did not say that at all.

I think I covered all three Deputies in the one response there.

I fully agree with Deputy Richmond. There is full engagement with the United Kingdom Government in respect of all aspects of the current situation in Northern Ireland, including legacy, the protocol and implementation of the trade agreement. On Deputy Kelly's question, I am not aware of any agreement but I will come back to him on the specifics of the issue he raised with regard to RAF armed operations in the State. To come back to Deputy Barry, the Partnership for Peace is well known. The country has entered into …

There are new hybrid threats happening all over member states of the European Union.

Look at what happened in Belarus, which is protected by Russia. The use of migrants to create issues with EU member states was appalling in that respect.

I fully take on board what Deputy Haughey said. I believe I answered his question in my response to Deputy McDonald in respect of that 344-page report from the ombudsman. We will come back to that again.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 16, inclusive, together. The Covid-19 and health unit of my Department supports me and the Government in co-ordinating the Government's response to Covid-19, and in developing and implementing health policy and related matters. This includes supporting the work of the Cabinet committee on Covid-19, the Cabinet committee on health and the associated supporting senior officials' groups and structures. The Cabinet committee on Covid-19 assesses the social and economic impacts of …

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised issues in terms of health. He stated that there has been a chronic lack of resourcing and referred to difficulties recruiting. The Deputy said that nobody wants to work in the service. There are 132,000 people working in the service. Since 2022, there has been record recruitment to the health service of 12,500 net and 32,000 gross. It must be remembered that there are people leaving at different times due to retirement, etc. In order to stand still, the HSE has to recruit 9,500 staff each…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 24, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy, including sport, arts and culture, equality, including children and youth affairs, and public services, including matters relating to justice, policing reform and community safety. The Cabinet committee last met on 25 November 2021 and will meet again in the coming weeks. I have regular engagements with Min…

I thank the Deputies for raising a range of issues with me. Deputy McDonald referred to domestic violence and the violence against women policy. The publication of the Tusla review will be this week and it is my understanding that the Minister is intent on doing that. There will be a joint delivery board chaired by the Secretary General of my Department and the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, and it will report to the Cabinet committee that we are discussing right now. When the Deputy refers to a sp…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is a very serious one for many people throughout the country. We know that inflation has risen very significantly globally. The origins of this are fundamentally global both in terms of oil and gas prices which have risen dramatically across the world - the Deputy will have to acknowledge that - and the unevenness between the supply of products and the demand that rose dramatically as a result of societies and economies reopening and emerging from Covid-19. This is t…

We all know people are suffering the brunt of the current inflationary cycle. Everybody knows that.

Inflation has gone up dramatically all over the world. The difference between the Deputy's party and the Government is that we are doing something concrete and substantial about it.

We are not just sounding off about it. The Deputy has put forward very little of substance to deal with this current inflationary cycle.

As far as the Deputy is concerned, we should throw another €2 billion or €3 billion at the problem. That would be very inflationary. The Deputy disagrees with the basic premise that underpins the economic model in this country. That model has resulted in a significant recovery from the Covid-19 situation. It is challenging right now because of this inflationary cycle. We want to work with people, trade unions and employers to navigate our way through this pandemic-generated inflationary cycle and to do it in an int…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The article to which he refers relates to a secretly recorded transcript of a meeting-----

-----which has its own issues attached to it.

I believe that public servants and people more generally are entitled to brainstorm and hold meetings without being secretly recorded. That is a very basic right and entitlement of people. In terms of the relationship between the Department of Health and the HSE, the Minister holds biweekly meetings with the CEO of the HSE, the Secretary General of the Department of Health and the chairman of the HSE board. The Comptroller and Auditor General audits and signs off on the accounts of the HSE. That is how it operates.…

There have been successes, but there are also, in my view, major concerns around the delivery of services-----