I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this issue. I know a number of Deputies have also raised it with the Minister, Deputy Coveney. The passport service commenced the scaling up of operations on 4 May 2021 in line with the phased easing of restrictions set out in the Covid-19 resilience and recovery plan. The service has been focused since then on four priority areas, namely, clearing the Covid-19 backlog of 89,000 passport applications, processing all renewal applications, including new applications, within ten workin…

I assure the Deputy that the passport service's goal is to continue to scale up operations after Covid-19 and to return to normal levels of service as soon as possible.

As I said before, I am not aware if people have been in touch with my office in terms of a formal meeting and so on.

I said I would be willing to meet them. I have, of course, been in touch with the McCarthy family and I hope we get an opportunity at a future date to properly pay tribute to Dr. Seán McCarthy, who was an outstanding medical practitioner and GP, an outstanding sportsman who played for Tipperary and, of course, a wonderful Deputy, Senator and Minister of State. I hope we get that opportunity to pay due tribute to him and his contribution to public life and the well-being of the people of Tipperary and the country. I…

First, as I have said, the core Government priority is to build houses, both social and affordable, and to release more State land to facilitate the building of houses and get more delivery in developing houses overall. In respect of HAP, that scheme has been there long before this Government was formed, going back, as the Deputy said, to 2014. It is a more expensive way than social leasing, it has been asserted to me. Be that as it may, I do not believe that leasing is the optimal way to provide social housing. In…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue for people. She is always very close to the issues on the ground, to be fair. I will certainly talk to the Minister for Health and ask him to engage with the HSE, Bus Éireann and the Department of Education to make sure this gets sorted. People's entitlements should not in any way be curtailed because of operational difficulties as a result of Covid or whatever. That is the bottom line.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. The Truce, which marked the end of the War of Independence, came into effect on 11 July 1921. Recognising the significance of this date, an all-party Oireachtas committee in 1986 recommended that the Sunday closest to 11 July would be the most appropriate date upon which to have an annual national commemoration ceremony to commemorate "all Irishmen and Irishwomen who died in past wars or on service with the United Nations". At this year's ceremony, which took place…

The points made by the Deputies concerning the need to more effectively and strongly commemorate women were well said and it is well merited. Turning to the events at Jadotville, I do not want to pre-empt the review, but I am familiar with the case. I met all those involved, I have seen the film about the events as well and have read about the background to all of this. I sincerely hope that those men will get the recognition they deserve. Moving on to the question about other events, it has been a great pity that …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 9, inclusive, together. The parliamentary liaison unit in my Department assists the Government in its relationship with the Oireachtas. It works with the Office of the Government Chief Whip on issues that arise at the Business Committee and the Committee on Dáil Reform and Standing Orders, including Dáil reform proposals and amendments to Standing Orders. The unit supports the Office of the Government Chief Whip in the implementation of the Government's legislative programme. I…

The Deputy probably did it too.

I thank Deputy Kelly for acknowledging my role as a champion of Dáil and political reform in the previous Dáil. I acknowledge that.

The Deputy said I championed it. I noted what he said carefully. Deputy Calleary spoke about one of the key aspects of one of the reform measures we pushed, which is the Parliamentary Budget Office. That was a Fianna Fáil proposal in the previous election that we followed through on. Some of the key reforms in the programme for Government include expanding the role of the Parliamentary Budget Office to independently audit the cost of individual tax and spending measures contained in political parties' budget submis…

I will come to that. You may download it to your phone where the quick response, QR, code on the PDF may be inspected or scanned. These digital Covid certificates will be emailed or posted in the coming days. It is already happening. A certificate of recovery will be available from 11 days after a positive test and will be valid for no more than 180 days. The digital Covid certificate can be requested via a helpline, the details of which will be published shortly.

The certificate will come through the Chief Information Officer.

I ask the Deputy not to misbehave.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 18, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on Covid-19 was re-established by this Government last summer to assess the social and economic impacts of the potential spread of Covid-19 and oversee the cross-government response. The committee, which I chair, meets regularly as required. It last met on 28 June. The date of the next meeting has not yet been set. A Covid-19 oversight group chaired by the Secretary to the Government meets regularly to provide advice to the Govern…

Generally, in response to this issue, there are choices facing Government and the Oireachtas. We can decide not open indoor hospitality at all. That is a decision we can take. Is that what people want us to do? If so, they should please articulate that. I think Deputy Murphy is of the view that we should not. He has been straight about it. I do not know what Deputy Boyd Barrett's view on it is.

I do not know what delay means. Do we delay until vaccination? That is fine. NPHET is of the view that if we restrict it with a verifiable and enforceable approach to the vaccinated and those who have recovered from Covid-19, that is a safe way of doing it and that is what the legislation reflects. We are, therefore, doing this in context of public health advice. Public health advice did not reference children. I take that point. The children will be part of a family bubble, however. They will be part of the family…

Long Covid is an issue I take very seriously. We need to follow through and do some more research in terms of the numbers of people who could get long Covid and the long-term implications of the disease.

It is important that the proper balance and perspective be considered in this debate. The Government took measures to rein in vulture funds, or cuckoo funds as the Deputy calls them, and funds in general, in terms of competing with first-time buyers and to stop the type of activity we saw in Maynooth, which was the bulk purchases of housing estates in competition with first-time buyers. Measures were taken on the planning side, and with the imposition of 10% stamp duty, to prevent that competition with first-time b…