I asked the Taoiseach about it on 5 July in the Dáil and I spoke about the allegations that unlicensed implants had been used in children, and the Taoiseach said he was going to talk to the Minister about it. Did the Taoiseach talk to the Minister about it?

The Minister said he always wanted to see the publication of the external review. I asked him about that in mid-July. I asked about publication and, at that stage, the Minister did not say that, although he said it would be communicated to people appropriately. Why did he not say at that stage that he was going to publish the report?

Then the question is why it took so long. A specific question was put to the Minister and I got an answer from CHI in May, so the question must have been put in April. The question “asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of any external or internal pressure being placed on clinical staff at Temple Street to restart spina bifida-related surgeries in advance of the conclusion of the external review”. It concerned restarting kyphectomies despite the fact that they knew about these complications and they knew tha…

I am telling the Minister that was the case in March. I want to go back to the timeline. I think the Minister accepted that the reason things were published and processed was the article in The Ditch . I want to go all the way back to last year. Does the Minister know that the first freedom of information requests, FOIs, from the journalist, Pádraig Ó Meiscill, were submitted in October, then the surgeries or kyphectomies were suspended in November and then the internal review started? Does the Minister accept that…

Does the Minister accept there needs to be a spinal surgeon on the external review?

There are no medical-grade springs for children. There just are not.

People across the country are horrified at the revelations from Temple Street. Children with spina bifida have been failed by the State yet again. There are extremely long waiting lists and extremely high rates of complications and we now know about the use of unlicensed implants and about non-medical springs being inserted into very sick children. When did the Government become aware of this and what did it do about it? The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is quoted in the media as saying his Department only became awar…

He said it twice.

The Taoiseach said it twice yesterday. He said it twice deliberately to get the headlines he got. He said it here and at a press conference. That is the truth of it. It is a year since the Government received the report into defects in apartments, which revealed the shockingly widespread nature of serious defects, mostly fire defects, in the majority of apartments and duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2013 as a consequence of the regime of self-certification. At the start of this year, thankfully, the Governmen…

One of the things that emerged from the committee hearings yesterday was the central and important role of Renault as a key commercial sponsor and partner for RTÉ. If one adds in all the other car companies, as well as the other fossil fuel companies, be they airlines or fossil fuel companies directly, that advertise with RTÉ, it must make up a large proportion of the advertising on RTÉ and across the media generally. Does that not now pose a question on the need to take action, as was taken in respect of tobacco, …

I want to raise the issue of international parental abduction and ask whether this topic came up at any of the meetings and discussions. This is a situation where one parent takes children out of the State, Ireland, but it could be any state, into another country and they are effectively kept there are not returned to their parent. Obviously, it is a horrendous situation for the parent and the family involved, the fact they are separated from the children. The Taoiseach might know of one case I am aware of currentl…

You support the live export of calves.

Blame the victims.

Not agreed.

We need to have a debate this week on the shocking revelations about the dark side of the dairy industry. As a Dáil, we cannot just close our eyes to the horrific treatment of hundreds of thousands of calves on a yearly basis and rise for the summer recess. The Taoiseach earlier seemed to suggest this was just about a few bad apples. That is the Government washing its hands of its responsibility for creating an industry in which, bluntly, the export of live calves can either be profitable or humane. Clearly, the de…

The "RTÉ Investigates" programme was on last night. The deadline for having Private Members' Bills in was last Friday. The idea that the Opposition could have anticipated using its time to discuss a programme that was on this week is just not possible.

This is news now. An investigation has been announced by the Department.

We should be able to debate this, rather than going off until September.

Last week, others and I raised with the Taoiseach the treatment of Tesco.com workers - those drivers and pickers who make the online store work, who pick up the produce in store and deliver it to people’s homes – and in particular the fact that these workers have had imposed on them unilaterally a change of their rosters that means some of them are down over €4,000 a year as well as having massive disruption to their plans, including their family lives, childcare and so on. Many Tesco workers shared the video of ou…

It is profitable.