I have the greatest of respect for her, given her views, commitment and perseverance. It was an extraordinary journey to make in the context of her views on Shannon Airport. However, we need to be clear that Shannon Airport is not a US military base. Spain and Italy have US military bases, but Ireland does not. We need to be very careful that we do not mischaracterise Shannon Airport. That would damage the airport. I have concerns in that regard. Throughout the war in Gaza, there have been attempts to mischaracteri…

We are doing a number of things. We are recruiting more therapists. We are changing the system. There were too many therapists involved in the assessment of need process and not enough in the provision of therapy services. We are also creating a new school-based therapy service, starting with special schools. There will be speech and language therapists and occupational therapists in the special schools and we will extend that into the mainstream as we progress. The Minister for education received funding this year…

I advocated strongly with the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, although it was the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, who responded. This is a matter for CIÉ and Bus Éireann. They have responsibilities too, and the board has responsibilities.

We write the cheque, but when it comes to health and safety and the protection of children, there are balances. The buck stops with the company, if we are honest. I hope that this initial breakthrough, whereby up to eight children can be driven by people up to 72 years of age, will be expanded. Perhaps we will learn lessons from this and see how it works, with a view to being in a position to expand it.

First of all, I introduced SouthDoc to west Cork, so I am a great believer in SouthDoc and that whole model. I thank Dr. Fiona O'Reilly for the work that she is doing. We are not responsible here in the Dáil for every management decision at local level or in the various co-ops. This is the first time that the Deputy has brought this to my attention. The Minister is here as well and she will follow up on the case. We should avoid language like "bully boy tactics" because the Deputy is impugning the character of peop…

It gives licence to people to do things. We need to watch our language when we are talking about public servants.

That is all I would say now.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is interesting that more and more people now want to continue their careers into their 60s. That is a positive story about lifespan. We are living more healthily with a better quality of life. As the Deputy is aware, the legislation allowed it to 62 years. He is ahead. He has all the detail. As he said, 112 gardaí have availed of the opportunity to continue working since the September 2024 increase to the mandatory age of retirement from 60 to 62. The Garda Commissioner …

For the fire services, we have had 629 new recruits since the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, agreement of 2023, but-----

-----I am generally in favour.

We have to reflect the-----

-----increased lifespan with increased working time and give that option to people.

First of all, it is 32 cent on diesel that the Government has reduced prices by, and 27 cent on petrol. If the fuel package scheme is taken along with the green diesel reduction, you are up to 20-plus-----

The Deputy described it as 10 cent. It is 32 cent. If we can have factual analysis, that would be fine. If we did not do it, petrol prices would be 32 cent higher now. Sinn Féin has voted against reductions twice now. The key is that we have to-----

----- provide measures, as we did in the budget, to try to cushion, first of all, low-income groups. We felt we had to target prices there. The child support payments and so on were significantly increased, and we will in the forthcoming budget have a very strong focus on the cost of living. We will try to do it in an embedded way, not as just a one-off, but we will examine all options. The Deputy mentioned third level colleges.

The Minister, Deputy James Lawless, has done a lot in terms of access.

First of all, I thank the Deputy for her long-standing advocacy and work on this project. It is a large-scale project involving both refurbishment and extension of Boyne Community College. It is actively progressing through stage 2A, with work ongoing. As the Deputy knows, stage 2A involves a design team, developing designs, full cost planning of the campus project, and preparing documentation to facilitate the lodging of statutory approval applications to Meath County Council as part of stage 2B. There are complex…

To be fair, the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, alerted all of us to the ferry companies operating to the islands when we were discussing the package at the weekend. It will be covered under the transport package. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, will ensure the ferry companies operating to the islands are covered. I appreciate the Deputy raising the question because it is an important one and Government was very happy to be in a position to do that. It is an important form of…

It is a specific school project. Obviously, it has grown very fast from what the Deputy is saying. Has it gone from a three-teacher school to a ten-teacher school?

There are special classes and so on. We have a very large school expansion programme on the way. Huge funding has been allocated to it. I will alert the Minister to the fact the Deputy raised it here this morning.