Last year's fifth years faced challenges due to Covid-19. We want to evolve from where we were and from the measures we had to take because of Covid-19 and we would like to think that next year's leaving certificate exams will be taking place in a different environment because of the vaccination programme and the ongoing successful impact of that programme in being able to reopen society and return to some degree of normality. There is a broader issue of the reform of the leaving certificate itself and the National…

A range of people and families have been facilitated in access to medicinal cannabis through the imported licence arrangement. As to the precise reasons why people have not been able to access this programme, I will follow up with the Minister for Health to get an understanding of that. I have not looked at the parliamentary question response the Deputy got and I do not know whether that outlines why that has happened or what challenges the programme is facing.

I answered Deputy Paul Murphy's question yesterday. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is meeting the unions and there is an established industrial relations process involving those groups which has been under way since 2018 as a result of a resolution of some of the larger organisations. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan was prophetic in his comments last week about the local property tax application process and Revenue subsequently followed suit on his suggestion. He raises a good point about epilepsy and I will purs…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 6, inclusive, together. I participated in the world leaders' summit at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, COP26, in Glasgow on 1 and 2 November. I had an opportunity to engage briefly with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Johnson, during the summit, and we agreed to meet in the near future. I also attended a number of events hosted by him during the summit. I spoke by telephone with Mr. Johnson on 20 July in light of the cancellation of our meeting planned for…

It is costing billions.

I thank all the Deputies for their helpful suggestions and perspectives. Deputies Kelly and Haughey referred to my remarks last week on the protocol, which still stand. We have been here before. The meeting we had in May was comprehensive and lengthy. We had subsequent meetings with the European Commission. In the autumn the situation was on a good track with the European Commission looking at the overall situation and coming forward with a package of quite far-reaching proposals. In particular, European Commission…

Ministerial engagements with counterparts are happening but the opportunities will be taken in the context of those engagements to raise those issues and to point up the primacy of continuing dialogue between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

On legacy, if I may say, the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council is still considering this. We met again on 24 June. Our Government met the British Government and the Northern parties in a process of intensive engagement. I raised this with the British Prime Minister. They are in no doubt as to our position on this. The British Government will have had a good hearing from all the parties and will now be in no doubt that there is almost unanimous agreement outside the British Government on its direction of trave…

I did not get a chance to reply to Deputy Boyd Barrett's question.

I never doubted the Deputy's ingenuity to get his point of view across no matter what the context is. The Deputy must have done a good leaving certificate.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 15, inclusive, together. There is no dedicated Cabinet committee dealing with transport; rather transport-related matters are discussed in a number of Cabinet committees as appropriate. This occurs most usually at the Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Investment which last met on 30 September and is due to meet on 22 November and at the Cabinet Committee on the Environment and Climate Change which last met on 3 November. Issues relevant to the transport sector can aris…

First of all, earlier this afternoon I dealt with issues pertaining to the NTA and the strategy. I again have to agree absolutely with Deputy Devlin. It has been completely and deliberately spun in a different direction by Deputies; for what reason I do not know. The three key priorities are BusConnects, DART+ and MetroLink. All three of those key projects in the national development plan, NDP, are being moved very quickly by the Minister. They will be brought before the Government, some before the end of the year,…

That is the start date but, as Deputies know, all the environmental impact assessments and all the preliminary work have started already. Major work has already gone into MetroLink and we have to get it ready for planning. As public representatives, the most effective thing we can do is to collectively get behind it when it gets into the planning process. That will be challenging because Deputies will come to the House saying different things when we get to that stage.

It is equally important to point out that under the strategy published yesterday, and Deputy Kelly raised the point about emissions and so on, implementation of the full measures will reduce transport emissions in the greater Dublin area by 69%. This is very significant because further investment in DART and Luas, which are already fully electric, is how that reduction will happen. It will also be as a result of the complete transition away from fossil fuels for buses within 13 years, although I would like to see t…

Deputy McDonald raised the issue of school transport in respect of Carrigaline Community Special School. It was a very good announcement and decision that we, together with the ETB, got that school up and running so quickly, which was necessary. The ETB and Bus Éireann should ensure there is proper school transport. I will engage with the Minister and the parties involved in the development of that school, which is providing good quality education for the children who needed access to special education in what has …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 22, inclusive, together. Issues relevant to agriculture are discussed, as required, at a number of Cabinet committees, including the Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Investment, which last met on 30 September and will next meet on 22 November, and the Cabinet Committee on Environment and Climate Change, which last met on 3 November 2021. The agriculture sector is the largest indigenous industry in the country and has a key role to play in the economic and social vibr…

There were a number of questions there. Deputies Kelly and Cahill raised the issue of afforestation and issues with the licensing of forestry operations because of changes to the appropriate assessment procedure, due to European Court of Justice and Irish law rulings relating to environmental regulation. We are addressing these issues robustly. I am not happy with the low level of planting over the last decade. It is not where we should have been and we are not where we should be today. In the context of what Deput…

Coillte also has a strong agenda in terms of biodiversity and we will be engaging with Coillte in that respect. There is a legitimate argument about the nature of the trees that have been grown over the years but we have to follow through on commitments made. One of the difficulties is that many involved in farming have lost confidence in the programme because of the series of objections and the difficulties in felling and getting licences and so on. The system has to be overhauled. Additional resources have been p…

Are you against the carbon tax?

That is my point. About €723 million has been allocated-----