Obviously, it is the Government's intention to get the legislation passed through the House and that will affect the timeline for the subsequent election to take place. It really depends on getting the legislation through.

I cannot give that right now.

Bank of Ireland is a private institution and it makes its own decisions. The Government has decided to focus its work through An Post and through other initiatives such as the remote working hubs and enterprise centres, plus the Housing for All and Town Centre First strategies. We are using our mechanisms on a number of fronts to revitalise towns and to get investment back into towns. When we have met the banks, we have repeatedly stressed the need for them to retain and maintain their regional and rural footprints…

This issue is not acceptable but it will need change. That is being pursued on a number of fronts, not just in the context of the case the Deputy has identified but it has wider implications for other cases as well and that has to be corrected.

The NDP is fundamentally about the allocation of capital funding, which dovetails and aligns with current policies and programmes that individual Departments and the Government collectively have identified and prioritised. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in particular, has identified the requirements for childcare into the future in terms of the funding that will be required over the lifetime of the plan and in terms of the Estimates on a multi-annual basis. That is the conte…

I accept the Deputy's point. There is without question an issue with work permits, visas and ensuring we have an adequate labour supply in the market right now. One dimension of it was discussed earlier in terms of upskilling and providing a range of skills, which is being done to an unprecedented degree. The other aspect we have to urgently review, and this is now under way in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, under the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, is the work permit system, to facil…

The Christian Brothers should not be selling off those playing fields. They should be made available to the people, clubs and young people in the area. That is the proper thing to do. Do I have the legal power to enforce that? I do not believe I do. I will certainly follow this matter up with the Minister for Education to see what persuasion can be applied but in situations like that, given the scarcity of amenity and recreational land in such locations, it should be retained for the purposes of recreation and spor…

I cannot. We do not run a dictatorship.

The Government remains focused, calm, flexible and in solution mode on the protocol and on the relationship between the EU and UK. There must be political will on all sides. There cannot be unilateralism, which is the opposite perspective to that of the Good Friday Agreement. Unilateralism is the opposite type of impulse than that represented by the Good Friday Agreement. My sense, until recently, was that the British Government was anxious to work with the EU to get a resolution. European Commission Vice President…

I move: That, notwithstanding anything in the Order of the Dáil of 30th July, 2020, setting out the rota in which Questions to members of the Government are to be asked, Questions for oral answer, following those next set down to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, shall be set down to Ministers in the following temporary sequence: Minister for Rural and Community Development Minister for Health Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Minister for Justice whereupon…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on education oversees implementation of the programme for Government commitments in the area of education, including preparing for post-Covid education. The Cabinet committee last met on 13 May and discussed topics including special education policy in schools and increased demand for places at third level in 2021 and 2022. I have regular engagement with Ministers at Cabinet and individually to discuss priority issues relating to th…

There are a lot of questions there.

Sure, I am multitasking all the time. Deputy Ó Ríordáin raised the issue of free schoolbooks. I would need to talk more about this, to be honest. Targeting of resources is still very important in terms of children who need additional supports in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. It is the old argument about universality of provision versus targeted provision to those who need it most and those on the lowest incomes. Given the multiple needs in our education system, I have no issue with increasing the number of…

I was just testing Deputy Lahart. He is alert.

Deputy Conway-Walsh spoke on open access to college. She needs to think that through. I do not agree with it. It would create mayhem overnight. We do not have the capacity to do that, nor is it necessarily the right thing to do. We need to have a wide provision over time so people can access courses, modules and so on to take the urgency out of the leaving cert and to remove the idea that it is the be-all and end-all. We need to create a roadmap for young people so there is a route to where they want to go, through…

On Deputy Crowe's point, I am not sure whether the schools have applied to the Department, but he should engage with the Minister for Education. He has made a fair point on the broader issue in the town and the two schools needing expansion or a new plan for post-primary provision in Shannon. I will work with Deputy O'Sullivan. We have already opened two new special schools this year, one in Cork and one in, I think, Dublin West. Sites are crucial. The city council has made a site available and we should push hard …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 20, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on housing has met seven times to date in 2021, most recently on Monday, 30 August. The next Cabinet committee on housing is yet to be scheduled. The committee works to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of programme for Government commitments regarding housing and related matters. The focus of recent meetings has been on the completion of the Housing for All plan, which the Government published on 2 September. Housing…

I thank all the Deputies who put questions to me in respect of housing issues. I will first deal with rents generally, which covers a number of the questions. On the issue of a rent freeze, the Government has been advised in the strongest possible manner that it is unconstitutional to introduce a three-year freeze. I remember years ago, before an election, Opposition Members put forward a proposal for a commercial freeze. Subsequently, when people got into government, they could not do it because they were told it …

I am not paranoid at all about it. What I will say is that a lot of people across this House were involved in trying to bring this to a conclusion, along with a lot of people, across the party divides, in the council.

Many people worked to get the project to where it is at now. If we go back again, there is no guarantee of a conclusion. It could take another ten to 15 years. That is a realistic perspective on it. The key issue Deputy Conway-Walsh raised in terms of the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme is provided for, as I understand it, in terms of people who are divorced or separated. I will come back to the Deputy on it but my understanding is that they will have access, as they should, to the loans. Deputy McAuliffe raise…