As the Deputy knows, the establishment of the tribunal was based on the recommendation of Mr. Justice Charles Meenan and was provided for in legislation enacted in the previous Dáil, which had the support of all political parties in the House. It is the Government's view that the tribunal offers a number of advantages when compared with taking High Court proceedings, as outlined by Mr. Justice Meenan in his report. The tribunal is up and running. The Deputy is correct that three claims have been received by it and …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He has been a consistent advocate in respect of this matter. We have committed to establishing citizens' assemblies on a number of issues, including the Dublin Lord Mayor, biodiversity and drugs. I will come back to the Deputy on their sequencing and prioritisation. The Government will give further consideration to the matter as well. I take the points the Deputy has made and I will come back to him.

The Minister for Health will be bringing forward details on the review of the legislation and I hope he will do so in the next number of weeks. It will be a comprehensive review covering all aspects of the implementation to date. The Minister will come before the House to outline this.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The Government, working with our European Union colleagues, has already conveyed and articulated our deep concerns about what is happening within Hong Kong more generally, particularly as regards democracy being applied. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and I will continue to make representations on this specific issue and more generally about what has been happening in Hong Kong.

I thank the Deputy. It is important to point out that according to the most recently available HSE data from 10 May, more than 6,675 applications have been processed under TAPS and €93.9 million in direct financial support has been provided to the nursing home sector. In total, €42 million has been made available for this year while €92 million was provided in 2020. There are also additional supports available for PPE, Covid response teams and so on. The good news is that this was never meant to be a permanent sche…

Project Woodland is a good initiative. Clearly, there have been significant backlogs as a result of all the objections to a host of licence applications in recent years. There has now been significant recruitment to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and a 90% reduction regarding aspects of this. However, there are still backlogs. I met recently with the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, the Secretary General of the Department and the assistant secretary with responsibility for this area with a v…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is obviously a good and solid project in respect of the provision of independent living accommodation, which is something I strongly support. I commend the council for proceeding to build the facility. I will work with the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, the Deputies in the constituency and with the HSE to see if we can get a resolution to this.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is currently preparing updated rural housing planning guidelines which will continue to allow for the development of homes in rural areas, while also highlighting the need to manage certain areas around cities and towns to avoid overdevelopment. He expects to receive an initial draft of the development guideline document in the coming weeks. There will then be a need for an environme…

Kilkee is a popular and attractive location for many people. Many Corkonians, indeed, spend their summer holidays there. I will intervene and talk to the Minister to see if we can get this project accelerated, because pumping raw sewage into a bay of this importance is not acceptable in this day and age. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, has allocated substantial additional funds to Irish Water to improve our overall performance in respect of water treatment plants and water in…

I thank Deputy Tully for raising this important issue. The RSA has begun offering the driver theory test online on a pilot basis and, as such, only a limited number of places are available. The RSA will offer more than 3,000 online tests in June and it aims to increase this number in the coming months, subject to the pilot not raising security or other issues. A key priority for the Government is to move to in-person theory tests as soon as the public health situation allows to allow people to undertake driver trai…

I did meet the CEO of Aer Lingus. The Deputy is correct that I met with him, Deputy Cathal Crowe and all the Deputies and Senators from the region. That meeting served to convey the sense of urgency and importance that public representatives in the mid-west, and in Limerick and Clare especially, feel about this issue, as well as the need for action concerning Shannon more generally and in respect of regional connectivity. I made it clear to Aer Lingus that the Government's priority is regional connectivity. Yesterd…

I will engage with the Minister on this matter. We want to have the optimal level of retrofitting in all housing in order to facilitate energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty. I will examine the matter and talk to the Minister about it. Obviously, some people have had no access to any supports or have not had their houses retrofitted. I will certainly look into the issue.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. However, I caution that we cannot overstate the leverage that can be gained from something like the Horizon fund in respect of this issue because there is not unanimity across the European Union with regard to Israel and Palestine. Ireland has had a very strong position on the matter for many years. Other member states do not share our perspective on the issue. We succeeded in having an agreed conclusion this week in respect of the issue in the context of calling…

As I stated earlier, a limited number of places were made available on the pilot scheme that was announced and initiated by the Road Safety Authority. It has begun offering driving theory tests online on a pilot basis. It will offer in excess of 3,000 online tests in June and aims to increase this in the coming months. The aim is to ramp up numbers as quickly as we possibly can. We do realise the pressing nature of this issue.

I thank the Deputy and others for raising this most important issue. He made a good point that the summer months represent a very good opportunity to get moving on this issue. I stated that in excess of 3,000 online tests will be offered by the Road Safety Authority in June. The authority is also working to increase capacity in its physical testing centres, a matter to which the Deputy also referred. This would see the number of tests in centres increase from an average of approximately 15,000 tests per month prior…

Those are very succinct and pertinent questions in the context of the debate that took place yesterday at the EU Council meeting. Ireland was broadly able to accept the conclusions. The Commissioner made a presentation. What I would say is that a simulation or modelling exercise or a comprehensive impact assessment needs to be carried out in respect of the effect of the Commission's proposals on each member state. That has not happened yet. That is the next stage of the operation. That will deal with the expansion …

The budget for health this year has been very expensive and unprecedented. The issue has been to facilitate the safe return of non-Covid services. The focus in the reopening of society on a cautious and phased basis was to prioritise the return of health services. The cyberattack has hit that even more in terms of what it did to the national integrated medical imaging system, NIMIS, diagnostic system and scanning capacity, particularly in radiology. That is coming back in quite a number of hospitals. There is no do…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together. On 22 October last, I set out the Government's vision and priorities on a shared island at an online event at Dublin Castle. Our approach is founded on the Good Friday Agreement and engaging with all communities and traditions to build consensus on a shared future on the island of Ireland. I established the shared island unit in my Department to act as a driver and co-ordinator for this work. Operationally, the unit is focusing its work in three areas: c…

Deputy Richmond asked about the specific number of in-person dialogues that have taken place. I do not have a specific number with me but I can refer him to the shared island unit which can give an update and briefing on the matter. We have been pressing for, and insisting on, full adherence with meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council. We are being told that there is no deliberate policy of non-attendance at some of the sectoral meetings. That is something we will continue to pursue and on which we will en…

The same point applies to the Stormont House Agreement. There can be no unilateral action under the Stormont House Agreement. There must be full engagement with all of the parties and, indeed, the two Governments. That is the approach of the Irish Government to that matter. Deputy Tóibín asked about justice for the families of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre. That is a matter for further discussion, as are a range of other issues across the board. In response to the questions asked by Deputy Boyd Barrett, I…