With regard to the payment scheme, the Minister did not depend on the commission's reports in respect of framing and establishing that payments scheme. In other words, he went beyond it and beyond the recommendations of the report. That legislation will come through the House and Members will come forward with their amendments and proposals. The Minister will consider those on that Stage of the Bill. The institutions burials Bill is also evidence-----

I will come back to that. The Deputy said the Government is not committing.

I have not interfered in the investigation. The Government took the decision to widen it out at the very beginning because in the modern era there has been a lot of leaking and so forth. In terms of the comments I made, I was asked basic questions about whether I would be offering an apology. It was not the first time I was asked that in respect of the Government's response to the publication of the report. There are wider issues. We are not responsible for the commission and how it did its work. It did extensive a…

That commission had been established some years ago. The commission of investigation model is the one we have. It may not have been the optimal model for this type of investigation-----

We did separate ones in respect of the industrial schools and others, and perhaps lessons can be learned from that.

I am not in a position to say yet, but I certainly hope we can bring it to a conclusion as quickly as possible.

I propose to takes Questions Nos. 5 to 7, inclusive, together. The Government continues to implement Global Ireland: Ireland's Global Footprint to 2025. Despite the constraints of the pandemic, considerable progress has continued to be made, as set out in the Global Ireland Progress Report published in May 2021. This includes: a further significant expansion in our network of missions and agency offices; new strategies for IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland; our success in securing a seat on the United Nati…

Deputy McDonald spoke about vaccine sharing, the TRIPS waiver and so forth. I argue that the European Union has been the leader across the globe in respect of vaccine donation. It is the largest donor, ahead of the United States, Russia, India and any other country or continent for that matter. It has made an extraordinary effort not to have any export bans at any stage, despite some efforts in the early stages of the pandemic. We might remember all the rows with AstraZeneca and all of that. I pushed hard for there…

Yes. I will come to that.

The TRIPS waiver itself does not deal with that.

It would never have provided the magic solution that was suggested when it was advocated. There is no single or simple answer except that we must improve production capacity within Africa. The European Union is uniquely the global organisation that will do just that. Africa currently imports 99% of its vaccines and 94% of its medicines. That is unsustainable and we must work within the EU with our partners in Africa. There is a summit coming up and the European Union, through technology transfers in the short term,…

To be fair, Africa has suffered worst in respect of vaccine sharing and access to vaccines. That must be dealt with. Given Ireland's history of pharmaceutical production and capacity, we should be lending any knowledge we have in order to achieve that, and to help Africa with access to vaccines and developing manufacturing capacity. Work is under way in South Africa and Senegal, and the European Commission is going to-----

No, we do not. The Commission will help to develop the capacity and the technology transfers to enable them to produce on home soil, but this takes time. In the interim, we must get the vaccine supplied to Africa as quickly as we possibly can. Deputy Haughey raised a number of issues. There will be a mid-term review in respect of the strategy. On the Security Council, I commend the work of the Irish ambassador to the UN, H.E. Ms Geraldine Byrne Nason, and the team there. I was delighted to meet with them in Septemb…

My Department incurred expenditure of €11,615,375 on advertising in 2021. This figure is provisional until the 2021 accounts are finalised. The majority of that spend related to Covid-19 public information campaigns, amounting to €11,565,853. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic there have been 68 separate public information campaigns, with each campaign using a combination of national press, regional press, radio, digital display, social media, TV and online video. The campaigns played a vital role by informin…

I thank all of the Deputies for the questions raised. On Deputy Alan Kelly's question-----

Yes, but it provoked questions from others which the Deputy must be happy with. In any event, I will deal with the core point he made. I did not involve myself with the specifics. I take the Deputy's point about power and such a large volume of expenditure being allocated to advertising. It happened in the context of a once in 100-year event. The pandemic is still with us, and I remember right throughout the pandemic Members in the House calling for different types of communication. The breakdown of the money spent…

I attended a meeting of the European Council on Thursday, 16 December in Brussels. Cruinniú suimiúil agus tábhachtach a bhí ann. This was preceded by the Eastern Partnership summit, also in Brussels, which I attended on Wednesday, 15 December. The European Council had a full agenda, addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the Union. We discussed Covid-19. We addressed the epidemiological situation in the European Union and the impact of Omicron, reiterating the importance of vaccination, co-ordination an…

In her opening remarks, the Deputy made reference to the situation with regard to housing and health before raising the issue of the cost of living. Without question, this Government has embarked on a step change in respect of housing through its Housing for All strategy. There will be investment of more than €4 billion per annum from the State alone in addition to private sector investment. The largest social housing programme ever to be concluded will be under way in 2022. There is affordable housing, the Land De…

There has.

We do listen to people. Today, for example, the Government approved well over €100 million in expenditure on O'Devaney Gardens, where well over 1,000 houses will be provided.