I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and I accept fully the importance of the LEADER programme in respect of regional economic development. Since 1991, I have been a great advocate for it and it has played a huge role in the development and enhancement of rural areas, particularly through rural economies and entrepreneurship. With co-financing from the European Union, LEADER has created thousands of projects throughout Ireland, along with job creation, community development and environmental projects. It is fun…

With regard to Deputy Canney's point on LEADER, I will engage with the Minister again to see what can be done. With regard to the TAP scheme, the vaccination programme has been very effective in nursing homes and very effective overall in terms of those aged over 65. The prospect has been raised that if we have very high volumes of infection as a result of the Delta variant in the non-vaccinated population, it would feed through and break through the vaccine protective wall. We will be keeping a very close eye on t…

The Minister for Finance is very clear on this in relation to the story in terms of an official in the Department of Finance warning the Government that exempting apartments bought by investment funds from a tax increase would make it impossible for first-time buyers to enter the market. We all know in terms of policy development, and for healthy policy development, that a range of opinions is offered and should be encouraged and nurtured in any Department or agency. Briefings, thoughts and insights are provided. I…

The Deputy said at the outset we should set parameters for NPHET. NPHET is independent of the Government.

We might not like its advice from time to time and we may not always go with it-----

There is no need to be shouting.

The Deputy said something that breaches anything he has said since the outset of the pandemic on setting parameters and interference.

It is up to the Government to decide, having received advice. My view is we could not proceed on 5 July, based on the model. I hope the Deputy accepts that. We cannot proceed on that basis on 5 July.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Now we have to work with the industry on how best to proceed, including testing and other aspects which the Government might have to look at. We want to engage with the industry on that. On vaccine roll-out, "Yes" in terms of Janssen. The HSE is working on that. We will operationalise the advice. AstraZeneca, AZ, supplies are not available immediately because we have to deal with the 60 to 69-year-old group and get them done by 19 July.

We are doing that. We are looking at all that.

This issue has been raised on numerous occasions in the House. In mid-May, the HSE advised that it had conducted a review of compliance in maternity hospitals units based on national guidance around visitations.

At that stage, 14 of the 19 maternity hospital units were fully compliant with the guidance. Last week, that number was 16 and I understand from a note I have to hand that the three remaining hospitals were to be fully compliant with current guidance by 21 June, last Monday. Consequently, we are being told they are all compliant. If the Deputy knows of hospitals to the contrary, I will gladly take that on board. We know who is on charge from a clinical autonomy point of view in terms of maternity hospitals. It is t…

We have given an answer repeatedly on the services that will be available in the new national maternity hospital. All services women are entitled to avail of in this State will be available in the new hospital, without question.

That is a clear assertion I am making and it is based on agreements going back over two to three years, most recently in the documents the HSE and others have engaged on. On governance, I have made my view clear on that and the Minister is engaging with stakeholders on stronger public interest representation on the board of the new hospital. That is important for a range of reasons.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. There has been a substantial increase in funding to health, particularly the winter initiative last year. There was a total of over €4 billion, the largest ever budget. It has yielded results, including 5 million home care packages over the winter period into this year. That has facilitated a greater flow. We have higher levels of activity in the hospitals than we had pre-pandemic in 2019. That is good news and means people are coming to our hospitals. We want to protect th…

My only concern and motivation is to protect people. I do not want to close anything down. Why would I or anyone want to close anything down? The reason is obvious: there is a pandemic and it has devastated people's lives.

Nothing ever added up for you during this pandemic.

If we had taken your advice from the beginning, there would be far more people sick and dead as a result of the pandemic.

You have been in denial since the beginning of the pandemic.

Your approach is the Bolsonaro and Trump approach. Denial after denial of the existence of the pandemic is your approach.