That was the Deputy's language.

We have a responsibility to ensure not only that the right policies are in place but that we use the right language to describe them.

The Taoiseach has, including in the interview which is the cause of the Deputy's question, talked about the rights we have to look after those who need support and the benefits migration and openness bring to our country and economy, which he has done on many occasions. Regardless of where somebody comes from, if they are born here, making Ireland their home or if they seek refuge here, they have a right to expect that we will do all we can to prevent them from being homeless and give them support, which we do. It …

Of course I accept that the spending of so much money on a bike shed has caused great anger among the public. It was not a decision that I made but I am responsible for the use of the country's money. I understand that the Office of Public Works recently engaged with the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I believe a report from it will be forthcoming on the subject and will lay out what happened and the recommendations to avoid this happening again.

The Deputy raised the status of the occupied territories Bill with me earlier this afternoon and I did not respond to her. I am glad to have the chance to do so now. She will be aware, given her legal eminence, of the fact that trade competence sits with the European Union and the Commission of the European Union rather than us at national level. The Taoiseach has, given the obvious sensitivity of this issue, sought further legal advice on the matter. As it is the Taoiseach who sought that advice, I do not know whe…

I thank the Deputy for raising that matter. I am sorry to hear of the obvious distress that would have been caused to the Deputy's constituent who had to contact her. From a funding point of view, we are providing, and will continue to provide, record levels of funding to the HSE. The funding that was provided for this year, and which will be provided next year, is a comprehensive attempt by the Government to ensure our health services are well funded in the context of demand. I know the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, …

The funding is coming from the Government to recruit more and more people for the HSE. I will ensure that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is aware of this matter. I believe he is, given that it was referenced in the Dáil last week. I will do so again.

In the middle of the year, we provided additional funding to the HSE for not only this year, but in advance of budget 2025, to ensure it is better funded than it had been before and to respond to the funding difficulties that began to develop at the start of this year. The HSE can only recruit those it is funded to recruit. It is not an embargo. It is the way every other Government Department and public service works.

It does not matter how much money we make available to the HSE in the Deputy's world. It does not matter what we do. It is a fundamental part of how we have to spend the country's money that in order to recruit somebody to do a role, the money has to be there to pay for it. The budget that we make available to every part of our public services contains a recruitment budget that we need our public services to operate within. It will lead to more people being recruited for health services and more funding being made …

The Deputy is a person with a great interest in scientific matters and has a lot more expertise than I do in this area. I hope he knows that the HSE, if it is procuring genomics testing in other parts of the European Union or elsewhere in the world rather than Ireland, will only do so if such testing is carried out in laboratories in which it has confidence. It will only send samples to other places of research that it believes meet the right standards. I cannot give the Deputy a specific answer regarding the statu…

I understood the board had been reconstituted.

After the resignation of the board that took place a number of years ago, the Department of Finance was successful in reappointing the board. I will raise the issue with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, this week in the context of our budget discussions and see whether there are any issues I can help with. I imagine that the heart of the issue is not lack of funding, but the difficulty of getting the right people to do the work the Deputy referred to. However, I will raise the matter with the Minister as the board pr…

Okay.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government has invested significantly in further education and training in recent years by increasing funding from approximately €900 million in 2020 to just over €1 billion. That is all in current terms. We have also put in place a new grade for adult educator, to which the Deputy referred. That post and role was formally established in April of this year. The Cavan and Monaghan ETBs have confirmed that some classes have been deferred. I understand Education and Train…

I will have to come back to the Deputy on the matter. It is a specific issue and he is looking for a specific figure I do not have at the moment. I will find it and make sure the Deputy gets it.

It is worth making the point that in terms of the total value of claims that have been adjudicated in this period, the net change in the value of the contract is a small amount of the total claims that have been made by the contractor.

On the standing conciliator, to whom I assume Deputy Kelly is referring-----

Standing or independent; it is the same point. It is not really a question for the board as to whether it has confidence in that independent adjudicator. Indeed, it has challenged the decisions that were made by the adjudicator recently through the initiation of High Court proceedings. As I said in answer to questions earlier, I expect and support the board to take all the steps it needs to minimise the cost to the taxpayer.

We need the HSE and the hospitals to ensure that the posts they recruit for are posts that are budgeted. That is the general stance in regard to the funding of posts within our health service, as it is across the rest of government. I will raise the specific hospitals the Deputy mentioned with the Minister for Health.

Deputy Harkin knows I do not know the answer to her question. She knows I do not have the information regarding traffic calming schemes, no matter how important they are, in every village in the country.