On Deputy Mac Lochlainn's question, I want the scoping review completed as soon as possible. It has been a very traumatic journey for the family of Shane O'Farrell. I have been in touch with them on an ongoing basis. Deputy McGuinness and others have raised this consistently in the House. Scoping reviews can be effective in terms of subsequent inquiries. I do not know if Covid is a factor in the delay in completing the review but I have spoken to the Minister for Justice on this. Obviously, once the review starts w…

Yes. We all need to reflect on this a little. Ultimately, we have to have faith in our services and strengthen their capacity to serve in accordance with the principles and policies we lay down here in the Oireachtas. That means constant interaction with the authorities and management bodies. It also means proper internal and external accountability structures. There is a challenge here for all of us. I am a parliamentarian like all Members present and we all call for specific investigations or inquiries but there …

The Deputy just ignores them and says they have no rights and that the gardaí are all wrong. He says the gardaí are oppressors. That is wrong.

That is not a balanced approach. The legislation will be debated in the House. I would have believed the Deputy would support it because it enables us to restrict the journey of the virus. That is the crucial part of it all. It is a matter of keeping the numbers down and trying to achieve some semblance of normality and to reduce severe illness, mortality and the numbers of hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care. That is the purpose of the legislative framework but we do not want that going on forever. T…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 to 27, inclusive, 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 on issues that cut across multiple Departments. The division supports …

Deputy Mac Lochlainn raised the issue that he raised yesterday. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, about this and I believe that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is meeting the group shortly, having invited them in February, when he met them, to make a submission, which he got at the end of April. It is important to say that the Government has responded strongly to the mica issue in Donegal with the allocation of substantial funding. Grants are available under the five remedial options, from €49,500 to…

First, I have to repeat to the Deputy that the Government’s fundamental aim is to provide unprecedented funding to facilitate the largest social housing programme in the history of the State over the next five years. That is the anchor of the Government’s housing programme. We want to provide 50,000 social homes over the next five years. In addition to that, we want to provide affordable homes through a variety of initiatives which the Minister has undertaken, not just in shared equity, or indeed where the State is…

With the greatest respect, I did not invite anybody in because I was not in government when these funds were invited in. The Deputy knows that but she keeps up the great political lie that Sinn Féin keeps articulating in terms of trying to pretend that Fianna Fáil was in power for the last ten years when it was not. We are now in government with Fine Gael and the Green Party for the last ten months and we have identified housing as a major priority and capital is needed in the country to provide housing and apartme…

We need a home ownership market, we need a social housing programme and we need a rental market as well, but I see nothing in the Deputy's proposals.

I see nothing but bluster and empty rhetoric because, when it comes to it, what does Sinn Féin do on Dublin City Council and other councils? It opposes projects that could have delivered 700 houses in different localities around this city.

It is complete hypocrisy how you perform on the housing programme.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very serious issue indeed. The first point I will make is that this is an attack on our health service by criminals. There should be no truck or any quarter given to criminals of this kind who undermine patient safety, and seek, by their actions-----

Let us give these people no truck. There should be a collective national effort to articulate one single simple message. What you are doing is outrageous and wrong. It is morally wrong-----

-----to put patients at risk in this manner.

That is the Government's position on this and I would hope the Opposition's position also. I am responding to Deputy Tóibín's point. I would appreciate the opportunity to respond.

It is a very serious issue.

I have three minutes and my time is being interrupted by an unseemly intervention.

All of the right people are in the right place in responding to these criminals. Cybersecurity is not something new. Every state, system and private sector operator is facing cybersecurity threats and attacks on an ongoing basis. That is my first point. My second point is that in the last budget alone we trebled funding for the NCSC. We trebled funding for it. More than that, it has not been rudderless as Deputy Tóibín stated. That is a wrong phrase to use. It has not been. There is a vacancy that is being filled. …

I said even during the last budget debate and, since I became Taoiseach, I have been very focused on the international cybersecurity threat. We have significantly increased funding for the NCSC and, within the HSE, both capital and current funding have gone up dramatically in recent years. Current expenditure has gone from €45 million to €83 million of ICT spend within health; capital expenditure has gone from €85 million to €120 million in 2021, which is an illustration-----

The overall point is we are consistently increasing funding. This is an ongoing battle, as the Deputy knows. Cybersecurity will not go away any time soon. We will constantly review increasing resources and capacity over coming years to deal with these criminals, who are fundamentally responsible for this attack on patients and our health service. It is important that all those with responsibilities on social media or public media more generally do not facilitate these criminals in the publication of any material th…