It has to be fleshed out. It is not as simple as just calling for it. It has to be developed-----

-----and worked through. In terms of mental health supports, additional psychologists have been recruited under the roadmap to the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. In addition, there is full provision for school guidance counsellors. That is something to which I committed during the confidence and supply arrangement and it is now 100% restored because of my commitment to doing it both in opposition and in government. It provides very important supports to students at second level when returning to …

Yes. Everything that has been done so far in the reopening of schools has been done in partnership. It is important that the inspections take place and that they are done as a way of ensuring improvement and constructive compliance. I surmise, and I will seek further information on this from the Department, that it wants to bring schools with it and that it does not wish to be naming and shaming, which is how some types of inspections can evolve. Instead, where the inspectors see shortcomings, they would work with …

The planning for that starts now. The chief inspector was adamant that this is the plan and the commitment. In terms of higher education and the enhanced protection measures that NPHET has asked the universities and institutes of technology to take, each college is adapting various measures suitable to the campus and location. A number of them are online for many courses. One is looking at blended learning and students being physically on campus for some hours of the week, but much of it is online. Different colleg…

That is why NPHET has advised. The Minister with responsibility for higher and further education is engaging with the various institutes and universities with a view to enhancing their measures further.

The programme for Government sets out the Government's commitment to working with all communities and traditions on the island to build consensus on a shared future. This work will be underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement and respect for the principle of consent. I wish to see a renewed push to use the potential of the Good Friday Agreement to deliver sustained progress for all communities on the island. The Government committed to establishing a shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach to work towa…

It has to be all but that applies to Sinn Féin as well. Sinn Féin needs to adhere to international agreements, the Good Friday Agreement being one of them. I do not believe Sinn Féin should have collapsed the Executive over a heating initiative but it did. We were without an Assembly and an Executive for three years. This cuts all ways. I do not believe in or agree with what Boris Johnson or the British Government did. I have made that very clear to him. It is wrong. One should not breach agreements, which were sig…

I do not have to, because the Deputy is creating all these straw people.

The Deputy is wrong, but worse-----

I am trying to give my political views on this and respond to the question. I am simply saying that these things are deliberately misleading, and are deliberately said in order to be misleading and misrepresent people's positions for the electoral base and electoral advantage. We have had too much of that in the politics of the island, particularly insofar as they relate to a fundamental issue that I have worked hard on all my life, as a public representative, a Deputy and a Minister. I have sought to work with peo…

I am an enthusiastic supporter of the Good Friday Agreement.

I only wish Deputy McDonald and Sinn Féin were consistent on the agreement since it was signed. There is provision in the Good Friday Agreement for a referendum. Of course there is. Equally, I have made the point that I believe it would be very divisive to have one in the next number of years because we need to bring people together. I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett's points on the health service. That is precisely what the shared unit can do. In the first instance, let us commission research on the respective stre…

It is no longer about whether one is the purest on the national question.

It is about doing something pragmatic and significant on issues such as health, education and work.

The North needs an economic transformation. I have said consistently that the disadvantaged areas in the North, both loyalist and nationalist, need a Marshall plan for school completion and access to third level education. The levels are too low in some communities in the North and have been so for too long. I want the shared unit to delve into those areas because that is ultimately how we build peace and reconciliation on the island and bring together different communities, not through divisive politics.

The Government published a very comprehensive plan today for living with Covid-19 for the next six months. The plan has three key principles, namely, to protect the lives and health of our people and to limit the damage that Covid-19 can do to peoples' health long-term; to protect employment and economic resilience as best we can and to keep jobs in our economy and enterprises viable; and to improve the quality of life through the restoration of public services. We want to do what we did with the schools, a confide…

To bring 1 million people back into our schools, children and teachers, was a very significant thing to do in the middle of a global pandemic-----

With respect, I did not interrupt.

Come on, stop interrupting.

It is unprecedented for people to be intervening but perhaps it is the Sinn Féin way. It is unparliamentary. I regret the fact the Deputy has decided to take a very partisan political approach to this issue today. In terms of public services, I have already referenced education. The plan is also about the unprecedented challenges facing our health services over the coming winter. An additional €600 million has been allocated for innovative measures to deal with capacity issues right through the six months. That is …