I did not interrupt the Deputy.

I do not serially object for political purposes and to create political platforms. That seems to be-----

-----underpinning your latest development on this front. That is all I have to say.

The State owns the key buildings on Moore Street because it intervened. The Government intervened at the time. It is important to bring the area back to life and to ensure the development will share the history and create an historic trail that future generations can see in a far better way than in the past 50 years. I have been there-----

And on your watch, too.

I know exactly what you are about and I know what your movement is about. I am not sure it exists for benign reasons. I have to put that on the record because there is one series after another. There was good, constructive engagement on this, yet, as ever, the Deputy's party seeks to gain partisan political advantage over everybody else on the issue and to name-call everybody else who does not go along with its agenda. I largely agree with Deputy Duncan Smith's point. In our view, institutional investors buying exi…

Clearly, that has to be examined as well. To respond to Deputy Murphy, the Government is developing a national relationships and sexuality education programme and all children attending all schools will have to have the State RSE programme provided to them. A review into RSE and its provision is on the way. The 1998 legislation, through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, provides for the development or modernisation of curricula in all subjects and that still prevails. As for the ESB situation, I a…

I think I dealt with the issue of Moore Street raised by Deputy Tóibín. I will revert to him with a response from the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in respect of the home of The O'Rahilly and accountability for what was a terrible deed, namely, the demolition of that very important building

I spoke to the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on the evening of Tuesday, 27 April, and we updated each other on the Covid-19 situation and progress on the vaccine roll-out. We discussed Northern Ireland and the importance of the British-Irish relationship and had an exchange of views on the EU-UK discussions on the implementation of the Ireland-Northern Ireland protocol. We agreed it would be useful to meet in person as soon as possible. I previously spoke to the Prime Minister on 8 April about the r…

I thank Deputy Richmond for tabling this question in the first instance. I accept the points he made. He has retained a very consistent and constructive interest in this issue for quite some time. He mentioned the importance of meeting with the British Prime Minister and the necessity for ongoing open exchanges between the British Prime Minister and myself. Such exchanges will continue in the context of the realisation of the Good Friday Agreement agenda, the spirit of that agenda and the legal obligations associat…

The virus, Covid-19, has wreaked havoc and caused a lot of damage in many sectors of the economy, creating a lot of unemployment as a result. It is not the public health restrictions per se that have done that, but the virus. The public health restrictions are there to protect people and society from the virus. That is the context. As a result of the virus and Covid-19, the Government has introduced unprecedented interventions to support incomes and jobs and to keep as many businesses viable as possible so that whe…

To be fair, the Government has acted in an unprecedented way in intervening in the economy to support incomes, particularly through the pandemic unemployment payment. Some €7.3 billion has been paid out to date. We have made it very clear that there will be no cliff edge fall-off in the context of the supports. We stated, well in advance, that supports will continue until the end of June. We are making progress in reopening society and the economy. That is important in order to get things moving again. We must then…

I thank the Deputy for raising these important issues. Of course, it is extremely important to raise the vaccine question. Vaccines are a vital part of our overall strategy to keep the pressure on this virus and to protect people. First, to protect people's health and well-being and then to protect society and enable it to return to near-normal activities. The vaccines have been very effective and impactful in reducing ill health, death and rates of transmission among those who have been inoculated already. It is v…

Regarding the operational logistics the Deputy has raised in respect of various age cohorts, the HSE is working through that. It is clear, however, that we will have to get moving and get vaccinating with available vaccines as they come in. The HSE will operationalise the advice it has received. People are continuing to register and there has been good momentum with people registering for the vaccine in the 60 to 69 age cohort. The vaccines work, are effective and the benefits clearly vastly outweigh the risks. The…

We just do not have the number of vaccines to do that. We have to continue as programmed and that will continue to be the case. We have to get the vaccines out as quickly as we get them in. The HSE is examining the advice from NIAC and will come forward in the next number of days with its up-to-date plan on the operationalisation of some of that advice. Some of that is challenging, as the Deputy just referred to.

One of the facts of the current situation with housing is the enormous amount of land that has been zoned and the number of planning permissions that have been granted but not acted on. There is no shortage of zoned land or projects that have received planning permission, but the projects have not started. There is a big issue there that needs to be dealt with from a housing provision perspective. Some on the building sites say that there is a viability issue. That needs to be worked out and examined. There is a br…

The Minister is doing everything he possibly can regarding the provision of housing. He does not interfere in county development plans to that degree and it is important that there are demarcation lines there in terms of-----

-----the actual county development plans. There is a question that begs to be asked. A lot of land has been zoned over the years and a question must be asked about why that land is not being built on. I am not so sure it is all just about viability.

No, it is not.

It is not.