I appreciate the issues the Deputy raises. First, there has been an unprecedented resourcing of home care packages. The one major constraint at the moment is securing the necessary number of people to work in home care. That is the only constraint; it is not resources. That is a challenge in terms of making sure that we can get enough workers into the sector from a variety of sources. That work is under way. There will be engagement specifically with the HSE on ambulance services and on the issues that have been ra…

There is no excuse for that. There should be nobody waiting. No child with special needs should be waiting for equipment in the health service. That is my view. There is plenty of capital money there. They have come back in now towards the end of the year and there will be underspends in some capital areas. As a bottom line, there is no excuse for it. I will again engage with the Minister in that regard. People with special needs should get timely provision. I accept the Deputy’s point.

I will tell the Deputy which it is. Look at those two appointments and contrast them with the appointments the Deputy’s party has made.

Just look at it. Dr. Cara Augustenborg has been appointed among four new members. She is an environmental scientist, a senior fellow in environmental policy at University College Dublin and possesses-----

It is not just an old pal. Someone with substance in the area has been appointed in terms of-----

She has a PhD in environmental science and engineering from the University of California. I could go on.

Dr. Morgan Bazilian is a director of the Payne Institute and professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

He has two master's degrees and a PhD in areas related to energy systems and markets.

Unlike, of course, Jarlath Kearney, the former Sinn Féin special adviser who is on the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. I do not know the expertise.

There is Joe O'Donnell, a Sinn Féin donor and former councillor who is on the Maze/Long Kesh Development Corporation.

I could go on. The contrast is that there is expertise behind these appointments and they went through the proper format.

Yes, they did. They were appointed by the Government. They did indeed.

The contrast is stark between the how the Deputy’s party approaches it and how this Government approaches these particular appointments.

There needs to be a balance in this debate as well. The fundamental transformation that took place in terms of pre-hospital emergency care-----

Again, there is constant interrupting all of the time. The Deputies either want an answer or they do not want an answer. My view is that the professionalisation of pre-hospital ambulance care was one of the best things we did in this country. We professionalised emergency technicians and that whole area.

Yesterday, when I had a substantive question from Deputy Lowry on the issue on Leaders’ Questions, I made the point that both the Health Information and Quality Authority and those who are professionals in this field believe the framework that has been developed over the years is the optimal one. I said that in the light of what has been articulated by people on the ground and by Deputies, there needs to be a review of that. However, let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater either. A lot of progress has bee…

They just keep knocking everything and making it out to be ridiculous.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I accept there is an issue around substitution and that there are very significant challenges. Various measures have been taken by the Minister to date to try to improve the situation in terms of additional teachers being added, and in terms of supply panels and existing new areas where significant challenges have been demonstrated in substitution, and the Minister has appointed 100 extra teachers. I take the Deputy’s point that people would work over and above the 22 hours. I w…

I agree with the Deputy. In order to guarantee the security of energy supply into the future, we need accelerated investment in infrastructure. We also need to work collectively across the House and on councils to try to create a culture of prioritising security of energy supply and electricity supply, with a view to saying that we cannot be putting obstacles along the route every time something is proposed. We want to decarbonise. That means more wind energy and, in particular, more solar. It also means we have to…

We are doing everything we can to try to deal with the backlog and to get licences issued and as the Deputy knows the House passed legislation to that effect. Progress is being made but we need to make faster and more accelerated progress and implement all the reforms that have been indicated with the agreement of the Minister. We are also looking at other measures to try to ensure a faster planting situation, particularly of native woodlands in line with our climate change agenda, and to provide supports to the fa…