There were 18 hospital protests around the country last Saturday in probably one of the most widespread and largest campaigns throughout the country in terms of what is happening in the health service. Tens of thousands of people marched in different sites, which is wonderful to see. The Taoiseach mentioned overcrowding in accident and emergency departments. It is not happening because pesky people are getting sick too often. It is important to say that. Accident and emergency overcrowding is happening because of a…

The issue of transparency of declarations is vital to a functioning democracy. This is because we have a dark history in this State of business people, developers and so on, people with money, buying influence regarding what happens in this democracy. It has cost us phenomenally, that type of buying of influence. The other side of this equation has not really been focused on at all as of yet. Michael Stone was nominated to the board of the Land Development Agency shortly after the donation. That is significant. The…

A number of facts.

A Cheann Comhairle, I have asked a question here. It has not been answered. I have only 30 seconds left here.

No, the Minister suggested his name for that.

A Cheann Comhairle, I asked a question.

I have made no assertions.

If you think that the presentation of these facts includes an assertion, that is very telling in its own right.

I asked the Minister one question.

Did he know about any of those contracts at the time?

It was not answered. It is absolutely incredible.

I do not call myself anything.

The history of forestry in Ireland is wrapped up in many ways with the history of the Irish people. We were heavily deforested by the British as part of centuries of colonial asset stripping and now, as a result, we are one of the least forested countries in Europe. This has obviously damaged Ireland immeasurably and we are a poorer country as a result. It is quite ironic, therefore, that what we are seeing 100 years after independence is an Irish Government, unable to replace those forests, outsourcing the job to …

Irish farmers are the primary stakeholders of Irish land. Rural Ireland does not have a future without the family farm and Irish farmers should have been the vehicle to deliver solutions in relation to Irish land. Farmers have the best record in terms of afforestation in this country. Given that the incomes of farmers have been reduced so significantly for so long in this country, it is shocking that the Government did not seek to roll out this particular project through farmers in order to ensure that the income g…

I understand that it is possible to submit FOI and general data protection regulation, GDPR, requests verbally under the legislation. Can the Minister explain that process to me? Can the Minister explain to me where the line is drawn between professional and private records from a ministerial perspective under the FOI legislation? For example, could I ask the Minister for copies of emails, texts and WhatsApp messages relating to his non-disclosure of a donation that was made to him by Michael Stone and the communic…

I would like the Minister to look into the issue of verbal FOI requests and to consider what I requested in my last contribution as an official FOI request. A Minister who is in charge of standards in public ethics should be the engine of transparency in terms of ethics in the public sphere. Everybody knows that too often we see that procedure and the FOI system itself can be used to hide things. For example, my office has put in FOI requests to the Department of Health and the HSE. The Department of Health will co…

I have given the Minister examples.

They are being sent back from Dublin now.

This Saturday, there will be 17 protests outside 17 hospitals around the country owing to the major overcrowding crisis in accident and emergency departments. These will take at Cork University Hospital and in Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Letterkenny, the Causeway Coast, Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry, Monaghan, Cavan, Mullingar, Drogheda, Blanchardstown, Naas and Wexford. People will come out in their thousands and start the protests with a minute's silence for the hundreds who die annually due to overcrowding in our h…

-----of eight accident and emergency departments over the past 15 years. It is still wedded to the closure of Navan accident and emergency department.