Is the Deputy saying the issue is the planning application?

The investment will be provided and we are committed to it. I will get the details for the Deputy in that regard. I thought the Deputy said there was an issue with the planning application being submitted. Is that the case?

I just did not catch the first part of the Deputy’s question.

There is no issue with fully vaccinated citizens in the North in terms of the validity of the certificates they already have. There is no issue there.

I do not believe any child with ASD should be expelled from schools. Children and young people with autism should be supported and the necessary supports should be provided to facilitate their continued participation in education in an appropriate setting. It may emerge, sometimes, that a setting may not be the most appropriate, depending on where the child is on the autism spectrum. All schools should be open to providing places for children with additional needs. I have engaged with the Minister of State with spe…

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, will give consideration to this report. There was a working group on this issue. Prescribing is a serious matter, so obviously the Minister and the Department will have to give due consideration to the report. It is the intention of the Minister to work on the recommendations. If the Deputy engages with the Minister, he will bring her up to date on the state of play.

The Deputy is probably in touch with the HSE in the mid-west. Extensive resources have been provided to the health service this year. They are unprecedented in scale and involve primary care, community-based care, diagnostics and acute care. There have been challenges in the mid-west, particularly in University Hospital Limerick. There is no doubt about that. The HSE is conscious of that and we will do everything we can to support the HSE in respect of alleviating the pressures in the hospital.

I accept what the Deputy is saying. There clearly is a problem there. We have provided resources but in these situations, there should be a far faster response in terms of equipment needs, aids and appliances. If the Deputy could send me on the details I will try to ascertain what is wrong. I do not disagree with what he is saying.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. He has a long track record in being innovative in this area and suggesting sensible technology-based alternatives that could help the overall situation with organic waste and so forth. I will follow up on this. There should be more pilot projects and finance and resources should be made available to facilitate projects of the kind the Deputy has advocated, both for intensive farming and agriculture more generally. I will follow up in that regard. I appr…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 6, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality and the associated senior officials' group oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy, equality and public services, including matters relating to justice, policing reform and community safety; arts and culture; children; disability; social inclusion; gender equality; direct provision; the Irish language; and sport. The Cabinet committee on social affa…

On Deputy Paul Murphy's question, what he has articulated would represent a shocking abuse of power. I do not have the full context or story behind it but he said it went to GSOC and other avenues. The Garda has dedicated units within counties to deal with situations like this. It is clear to me that there are avenues for people to deal with the abuse of power. One of the issues in the country is that the existing authorities and agencies should deal with this robustly and clearly. Again, I do not have the backgrou…

I am okay with that.

I appreciate that. It was important to the Deputies who raised those two matters that I deal with them at some length. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised a question about St. Mary's parish hall in Booterstown. Deputy Devlin has a particular interest in the matter. I cannot get involved in every case in every school in the country but I take the point and think we should be doing everything we possibly can to provide for additional ASD places. We must facilitate capacity expansion to ensure that there are enough ASD places …

The Deputy must appreciate that I cannot sort out every interaction.

Deputy Kelly raised a key issue. I agree that we must engage with the social media companies in respect of the appalling racist abuse online because it is unacceptable. I engaged with the companies prior to becoming Taoiseach. I salute the Dublin team the Deputy mentioned for walking off the pitch. That is the kind of initiative we require to deal with this, once and for all. What happened after the final of Euro 2020 was shocking. I do not know what it is with the online world but certain people change their perso…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 12, inclusive, together. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, is an independent statutory agency operating under the aegis of my Department. The role of NESC is to analyse and report on strategic policy matters relevant to Ireland's economic, social, environmental and sustainable development, and to advise Government. I appoint the members of NESC. The membership of the council comprises a chairperson and a deputy chairperson, and three people nominated by each of th…

Deputy O'Reilly is correct with regard to the well-being framework and the redeployment of child psychologists to the vaccination programme. That should not be the case now. We have an independent work force in respect of vaccination. There may be certain people at senior level who were deployed and who played a management or co-ordinating role in respect of some vaccination centres, particularly in terms of testing. There was a lot of redeployment in the early phase of the pandemic when people were redeployed to d…

I am just making the point. This is an industry which is very mobile. There are clearly challenges in the modern era in respect of it. Individuals would need to be consulted as well to ascertain their desired outcomes. However, there should be no blacklisting of individuals who take a stand or who have a particular perspective on issues. That should not happen. I can see the complexity around security of tenure, pensions and so on, although I do not think it is as simple as was articulated. That said, workers need …

I dealt with that when I addressed cross-Border issues.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 14 together. The economic division in my Department supports me and the Government in developing and implementing policy across relevant areas to support sustainable economic development, including job creation, infrastructure, housing and climate action, and social dialogue. This work is particularly focused on ensuring a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of the programme for Government and issues that cut across multiple Departments. The division supports the work of th…