Thank you. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak about the national development plan, NDP. This plan was first launched in 2018, with the revised version published in 2021. It is the largest, greenest and most ambitious plan of its kind to date and will have a value of €165 billion out to 2030. My Department will play a central role in supporting the delivery of the plan and making its ambitions a reality. Such significant investment does not come without delivery challenges. The NDP sets out the range of acti…

I move the following Further Revised Estimates: Vote 16 — Tailte Éireann (Further Revised Estimate) That a sum not exceeding €84,104,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2023, for the salaries and expenses of Tailte Éireann, including a grant. Vote 23 — Electoral Commission (Further Revised Estimate) That a sum not exceeding €5,681,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on…

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following Order in draft: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2023, copies of which have been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 20th February, 2023.

Absolutely. Hear, hear.

Like the Deputy does with her questions.

Yes, absolutely.

I move: That, notwithstanding Standing Order 215 of the Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann relative to Public Business or the Resolution of the Dáil of 14th December, 2022, the following Further Revised Estimates for Public Services for the year ending 31st December, 2023, be presented to the Dáil on 22nd February, 2023, being a date later than that prescribed for the presentation of Estimates: Vote 16 — Tailte Éireann (Further Revised Estimate). Vote 23 — Electoral Commission (Further Revised Estimate). Vote 34 — Hou…

I will make my point as briefly as I can. I have heard the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, describe the forces that at the moment are changing our world, changing Europe and Ireland and changing the lives of the tens of thousands of people who have come to our country. Sometimes, when I try to interpret what that change means, it is those glimpses that I see in my community and in the country that remind me of what this means on a very human level to those who have experienced the global trau…

I move the following Revised Estimates and Further Revised Estimates: Vote 12 — Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised Estimate) That a sum not exceeding €306,765,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2023, for pensions, superannuation, occupational injuries, and additional and other allowances and gratuities under the Superannuation Acts 1834 to 2004 and sundry other statutes; extra statutory pensions, allowances and gra…

Thank you Ceann Comhairle. As I laid out in my statement to this House last Wednesday, I have been undertaking a review of my 2016 general election expenses in recent weeks. I also reviewed expenses incurred during the 2020 general election. In seeking to determine the full facts of the matter, I consulted with the local organisation in Fine Gael about any involvement from Michael Stone in both of those elections. The situation regarding support in 2016 was confirmed to me and I made a statement to the Dáil and to …

I thank the Deputy for his questions. It is important to be clear, when he uses the word "donation", that what exactly we are referring to here is an inadvertent corporate donation that I have now declared and will return to SIPO. The donation he referred to repeatedly that is at the heart of this is the issue of postering and the donation to which he refers is the commercial value that is attributed to posters that I did not know were being paid for and that I assumed to be voluntary. Every time he uses the word "…

-----I will make the point that this refers to postering that I assumed was done on a voluntary basis. He asked me who made the allegation; who passed on the point in 2017. It was a journalist at that point. I have been unable to determine who that is. As regards the review I initiated from the end of November across December, which took time to do, at that time I believed, but it took me some time to establish, that all the support I received had been on a voluntary basis.

I thank the Deputy for recognising that the donation to which we are referring here is the putting up of posters. It is postering that I assumed was happening on a voluntary basis-----

-----that has created an issue for which I now must be accountable in the context of the return of my SIPO forms and expenses, which I have done. As regards who carried out the review, I asked those who are involved in my constituency organisation and my team who have been involved in the campaign. As I said, until recently - I made a return in respect of my expenses for 2016 - I believed that activity had been provided on a voluntary basis. At campaign time, we put up many hundreds of posters in Dublin Central. I …

To answer the question the Deputy put to me regarding the action I did not take in 2017-----

-----that is one of the many issues for which I hold myself accountable. I look back at that point and what I should have done in 2017 when I became aware of the issue was to amend my electoral expenses at that time to take account of the use of a commercial van that had a value of €140 at that point. It is one of the examples of my assuming that activity had been provided on a voluntary basis-----

-----and that commercial issue I should have recognised.

I thank the Deputy for his two questions. To be clear, it was only as I initiated a more thorough review of the 2016 campaign in the aftermath of receiving further contact that it became apparent to me that those individuals had been paid, but they were not paid for by me-----

-----or by Fine Gael Dublin Central.

I acknowledge the point. The key issue here is at that point it constituted a declaration. I accept that point. The key mistake I made, which I have acknowledged to the House this evening-----