I thank the gardaí on the work they did. They faced much provocation, some of which was premeditated, from what I saw. There were many agitators about the place. I refer to those who are anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown. I do not buy the argument that those driving the anti-lockdown protest were doing so just because they were fed up. Clearly, co-ordinated positions were adopted, perhaps not by everybody but by significant numbers. The aggression and hostility directed toward the gardaí was unacceptable. The gath…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the funding application from the Newcastle Combined Community Association, given the enormous community it serves and the level of investment that has been put into the facility. I will engage with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on the points the Deputy raised in the context of the URDF. A number of frameworks support communities and this should be looked at in the context of one of them.

I thank all the Deputies for raising this issue. I understand and accept the impact these bank closures have on the various towns throughout the country and the implications for the towns concerned, for businesses in the towns and for people in general in doing their banking. The 14% shareholding does not give the Government any role in the running of the banks and that has been the position for quite a long time. The Government does not run the banks, nor is it minded to do so. That said, we are committed to rural…

There are GPs all over the city and GP networks-----

City Hall is in the centre of the city.

The regional college is in the west of the city. I do not mean to be facetious. There is good capacity in the city for vaccination. That is important. Deputy Pringle made a very important point, which I want to acknowledge, about the need to ensure we can provide for people in their homes who cannot leave their homes because of conditions or illness. Measures are being organised through GPs to do that. I take the Deputy's point on that. On Deputy Gould's point, the large majority of vaccinations will take place thr…

Is údar áthais dom a bheith ag caint inniu le linn Sheachtain na Gaeilge, an ócáid a eagraítear go bliantúil ag an tráth seo chun ceiliúradh a dhéanamh ar an nGaeilge mar theanga bheo bhisiúil na hÉireann. Is ócáid í Seachtain na Gaeilge a thugann an deis dúinn ar fad solas a scalladh ar an tábhacht a bhaineann leis an nGaeilge mar chuid lárnach agus luachmhar de chultúr saibhir agus uathúil na hÉireann. Tugann Seachtain na Gaeilge an deis freisin le solas a scalladh ar an obair fhónta atá ar bun agus beartaithe ag…

Is féidir liom é a chur ar fáil.

Beidh mé ag cur cóipeanna ar fáil.

Cuirfear ach tá deacrachtaí ann de bharr Covid. Ní cóir go mbeadh daoine ag dul timpeall ach tabharfaidh mé cóip don Teachta.

Clearly, the Deputy is engaging in a propagandistic, sloganeering approach to housing. In the recent budget, the Government allocated unprecedented resources to a broad suite of measures to deal with the housing crisis. The largest social housing programme was budgeted for in 2021, in terms of public and social housing, including direct builds by approved housing bodies. Yet the Deputy has consistently ignored the largest budget in history that has been provided for housebuilding generally. We had planned to build …

The Government will build a number of ladders in terms of creating opportunities for young people who are caught up in a rip-off rental market. We want to liberate young people from that scenario and give them opportunities to buy homes and be in a position to afford houses that will be built. The new equity scheme is targeted and aims to do that, along with the further proposal of a new affordable purchase scheme, with the State directly building affordable houses, and the retained and expanded help-to-buy scheme.…

First, I disagree with the Deputy. We have been guided by the public health team all the way in terms of the path ahead. NPHET is very clear that the five-level framework is the correct approach and then we should apply flexibilities in different given situations. That is the first point. Suppression of the virus, irrespective of form, does not change in terms of what we must do as a society regarding congregation. It does not actually change, according to the public health experts. Social distancing and avoidance …

It actually is.

I am clear in how we are approaching this. I did not interrupt the Deputy. The bottom line is that two months ago, the Deputy was in favour of the living with Covid-19 document. He said it should not be torn up. A month later, he said it should be zero Covid. The Deputy is changing his mind every single month. I regret that because I want to work with him. I want to work with people. However, the bottom line is that we have to get the numbers down. The Deputy knows that. We must get hospital and intensive care numb…

I support the introduction of it but the Deputy and everyone in this House agreed that we would take on board expert advice and public health advice. Those authorities have not been as enthusiastic about it because they believe polymerase chain reaction, PCR, testing is the gold standard. The Deputy knows that and I know that as the Deputy has been briefed on that in public health meetings just as well as I have. That said, NPHET has stated antigen testing has a role in terms of outbreak settings and so on. Profess…

Antigen testing will be undertaken in the path ahead. We have been doing serial testing for quite some time. I do not know why the Deputy is suggesting that we are not-----

We have been doing serial testing in all nursing homes for the last year. We have also been doing it in direct provision centres and meat factories for periods. As we have been doing serial testing in different settings, the concept of serial testing is there.

We did not do it in schools because it was not advised to do so but we have been doing serial testing consistently and we will expand it again where the public health advice deems it necessary. Sick pay has also been addressed in the context of Covid-19, as the Deputy knows. It is a bit populist and wrong to speak about 2,000 Brazilians coming into the country in the way the Deputy did. Many of those people are Irish or Irish residents. I do not know the exact details of those people but there has been a Brazilian …

People leave and come back in but there will be a need for mandatory quarantining.