I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. His colleague Deputy Malcolm Byrne raised it a number of weeks ago as well. Obviously, it is a pressing issue for Deputy Brennan and his colleagues in Wexford and in Gorey in particular. The Department has stated that site at Gorey provides a good location for expanding capacity in the form of a permanent modular extension for the school. That modular accommodation will be delivered under the Department's devolved special education needs reconfiguration and modular accommod…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. Arklow certainly needs that sort of focus in terms of eliminating dereliction. The Deputy's observations are exactly correct and conform with those of the Government. The Minister has produced data in respect of this matter. Some local authorities do far more than others, which motivated the decision in the recent budget to move enforcement in respect of dereliction to Revenue. The view is that this will, in its own way, bring consistency. A lot of mapping, etc., has to happen. …

I thank Deputy Gould for raising the issue. He is correct in that this is not an issue that anybody wants to have a dispute over. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan raised it this morning. I spoke to the Minister about the case last week. My understanding is that there are ongoing interactions with the company involved. There has been a health technology assessment and so on. This has proven problematic. My heart goes out to the Coady family. They have lost their son Rory. The situation is very challenging for Paudie unless…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I have spoken to the Minister for housing about this matter, which is under active consideration in the context of raising the income thresholds. It was raised a number of years ago, but the Minister is examining it. I hope to be back to the Deputy before long.

I acknowledge that the war in the Middle East, which the Deputy somehow managed not to mention, is a war that has created shocking constraints in oil supply and has led to an increase in fuel prices across the world. Globally people are very concerned about what they see as the biggest shock to the energy sector in many a time. They are saying it is bigger than 1973 and 1979 combined, and even 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined. It is a very serious shock to the energy system that has been brought about, which has dramat…

Tá an Rialtas dáiríre faoin gceist seo agus tá an-chuid déanta againn ó thaobh costas maireachtála. Níl aon amhras faoi sin sa mhéid atá déanta againn sa gheilleagar agus leis an gcáinaisnéis a bhí againn an bhliain seo caite agus an bhliain roimhe sin. What Deputy McDonald has outlined is something for everybody. It could be €4 billion or €5 billion in terms of what she announced. Sinn Féin did not cost it.

I think it is approximately €3.5 billion-----

The Deputy says that but what is the cost? I would say it is around €5 billion.

The bottom line is that we have allocated €750 million already-----

-----and there is a budget in October. We need to also bear in mind how best we target the resources we have. We do not have money in the bottom of a drawer like Deputy McDonald is suggesting. Much of that surplus is in the Future Ireland Fund and the infrastructure and nature-----

Unless Deputy McDonald is advocating we take it out of the funds, she needs to clarify this.

The money has been put aside-----

-----and a lot of it is being invested in the economy, in jobs and in housing right now.

First of all, we will not be introducing a mini-budget. I will say at the outset that we have taken a strategic approach to this. The most fundamental approach we should take is an understanding of the impacts of this - not just the immediate impacts of this, but the medium-term impacts on our overall economic life in terms of the impact on jobs potentially, the impact on prices and so on. We have announced €750 million. There is general relief in terms of the reductions in excise duty on diesel and petrol, which b…

I would not agree with the Deputy that it is too slow. Look at the response to the measures that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, announced in February. There have been over 1,730 applications for attic insulation, up 81% year on year; over 1,000 applications for cavity wall insulation, up 62%; 350 applications for heat-pump installations, up 95%; 7,000 applications for window and door upgrades - that is a new grant; over 10,000 applications for solar PV, up 65% year on year; and over 1,500 homes at risk of energy pov…

First of all, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government is committed to ensuring that there is safe and equitable access to termination of pregnancy services. Significant steps have been taken in this regard, including the expansion of hospital services, the introduction of safe access zones and the continuation of the revised model of care for termination in early pregnancy. These measures have substantially reduced barriers and they have increased accessed to services for those who need them. Give…

-----there was sustained discussion in the House and at committee level which facilitated the subsequent outcome.

On this side of the House, as the Deputy will be aware, it is a vote of conscience on matters of this nature. Life or death matters are votes of conscience. We will examine the legislation. There will be debate around the area of fatal foetal abnormality. There was significant debate around it on Committee Stage in advance of the referendum and during the referendum campaign. There is a desire in many people to maintain faith with the amendment and the debate around the changes that occurred, which were debated dur…

First of all, no one is wiping anybody out in rural Ireland. It suits the Deputy to create a storm and to spread rumours saying the Government is going to do this and that. Let us get the background to this. Everyone in this House was agreed that housing was the number one priority, or at least I thought it was the number one priority, facing this Dáil at its commencement. The objective in terms of the short-term lets legislation is actually to get more houses back into the rental market. The policy decision we hav…

When the Government has a final position, there will be plenty of opportunity for debate in the Dáil. We are not rushing anything in and we are not going to ram anything through. The Deputy needs to be clear as well. Long before any of this happened, change of use always required planning. The Deputy knows that. He is pretending the Government has suddenly invented that. We have not. He has been around meetings and is on Facebook every second night at a meeting here and a meeting there-----