As I said, there has been no policy change. The law is clear in the Control of Exports Act 2023, as set out by these Houses of which the Deputy is a Member, and in our European obligations under the framework and the eight criteria that have been established. Ireland has been firm and strong in recognising the State of Palestine. We have supported the people of Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, the competent authority which provides aid. We strongly supported it when Commissioner Várhe…

Very clearly, it is because it is in compliance with the law and with the criteria set down by the EU. We do not assess applications on the basis of made-up criteria. The criteria are grounded in the EU framework, which has eight clear measures, and the Control of Exports Act set down by this House in 2023. As I said in my substantive response, we have to satisfy ourselves that the end user will not bring any unintended consequences and that citizens are not being harmed by its actions. That is what we have to do. …

I thank Deputy Moynihan for his question. My Department is continually monitoring the labour market and the impact of artificial intelligence. We have a number of relevant pieces of research I can cite, including research from the expert group on future skills needs published last year, How AI is transforming the Irish Labour Market. This work highlights the speed at which Ireland is moving in relation to AI, noting the strong demand for AI jobs but also the robust supply pipeline in relation to AI. Ireland has a t…

We are working very closely with all our skills partners and enterprise agencies to ensure training is being delivered in the key sectors that are at risk, namely, graduates, as well as particular cohorts of the employment market like ICT, professional services and legal and financial services. We have a huge amount of skills upgrading to do in those areas. Take the IDA for example. We set out an ambition to train 40,000 people over the four-year strategy and in year one we have hit 33,000. That demonstrates the ca…

We have updated our digital and AI strategy, which has 80 deliverables, while working right across our skill partners to ensure our citizens are getting that transformational training that makes those jobs sticky. We also have done a huge amount of work on establishing our national skills observatory with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and his Department of further and higher education to profile those skills and to ensure we are having the output from our tertiary education partners that really reflects a changing …

I thank Deputy Doherty for his question on an area which is very close to the concern of the Government, which is energy affordability in our country and the ability of households to pay. Something the Government keeps a very close track of is those who are in arrears for 90 days. It is a critical component that shows stress over a period of time. I want to outline what the Government is doing to really reduce costs at the kitchen table, as the Deputy put it. First of all, we came forward with a record level in an …

We are acting right now at a record level in the economy, supporting people at the fuel pumps and through reductions in electricity VAT rates. We are supporting people right across the economy to ensure they are not cut off. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has met with all the energy companies and given the Government an assurance that anyone who works with energy companies in relation to their bill will be supported. The Deputy has brought forward a number of measures he said he costed at €100 million a mont…

We have always acted in the past and we will continue to do so to protect the most vulnerable in society.

I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan for his very important question. I fully share the concern he has raised. That is why we have set about conducting an investigation in the Department of enterprise to impartially ascertain the evidence, working with the European Commission and the Swedish authorities, which came forward with additional evidence in the past ten days. We are also working with Aughinish Alumina to try to ascertain the truth. We will get to the bottom of the supply chain. We will need assurances that it …

I will. I said that we are carrying out an investigation to get the evidence. As a Minister, I cannot make a decision without impartial evidence before me. We are working with the European Commission, which is the competent authority in this regard, to essentially recommend sanctions to the Department of enterprise and the Government. We are the enforcement authority. We carry out the execution of the sanction but the policy piece is the remit of the Commission, which we feed into. We will be working to ascertain t…

Yes, we have spoken to the Ukrainian Government and we have asked it for the evidence it possesses regarding the allegation that is before us. It is currently engaging with the Department in relation to that. That is why I said our investigation is very wide-ranging. It is a genuine investigation to get the evidence. I am working with the Swedish authorities on evidence that has come forward as well. We need to go through the process to prove the allegation the Deputy puts forward. I put on the record to be helpful…

I thank Deputy Murphy for his question. I am a firm believer in Sláintecare. It is one time when the Oireachtas came together and charted how health policy evolves irrespective of the change of Governments that we have within the country. First of all, the Deputy is quoting from a leaked report, which I have not seen and have no knowledge of. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, commissioned a report - ordered the HSE to do so - into Children's Health Ireland because of significant concerns that she ha…

First of all, I reiterate I have not seen the report. I do not know when it will be completed. I do not know what version the Deputy has that has been leaked. I do not know whether the Minister has received it yet. The Minister for Health commissioned this report and asked for an investigation into the practices at CHI to ensure there was equity of treatment of patients. The Minister asked for this and the Deputy is quoting the results of it. I do not know whether the Minister has seen that report and what actions …

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am aware of the many community groups up and down the country that give so much to organising festivals that benefit the wider community and attract significant numbers of visitors to rural areas. A number of Members put queries to me on this issue during the week. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, has been doing a lot of work with a number of festivals in his area. Deputy O'Flynn has outlined how much out of pocket some of the festivals are and the exposu…

I will revert to the House on this matter. This year, we are under significant pressure in terms of our budgetary perspective. However, we may be able, over the coming years, to look at what is needed to keep running these established festivals and how we can support them. I can commit to having a look at that in the next couple of years to see what my Department can do, together with the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, who has a lot of responsibility in this area. I appreciate that many genuinely voluntary organisatio…

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for his important question. We have about 300,000 people in Ireland who are living with rare diseases - about one in seven of the population - which is very significant. We have made commitments in the programme for Government and we are working with the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, whom I know is very committed in this area. One of the critical areas we are working on is access to new medicines. That is why, later this year, we will bring forward a life science strategy w…

I will raise this issue with the Minister of Health. As the Deputy pointed out, she is committed and has been meeting families on this. In budgets between 2021 and 2025, an additional €158 million was made available for new drugs and of the 263 new drugs, 72 were new drugs that were licensed in that regard. We also have the rare diseases strategy from 2025 to 2030, which the Government is working on to ensure we breathe life into its recommendations to support the families the Deputy referenced. That is what the Go…

I thank Deputy Doherty for this important question. It is an area on which I can empathise. Many community groups have given so much of their time to bring in festivals that contribute to the local economy. I spoke with Barry O'Neill about the Rory Gallagher festival earlier this week and the concerns he has, some of which the Deputy outlined. I have to be careful about what I can do as regards contacting the parent company. When an entity goes into liquidation, the rules are very clear and prescriptive in legislat…

No one in this House, in any political party or none, wants to see any child in poverty or deems it acceptable, might I add, that any child would be in poverty. That is why we are doing everything we can as a Government to ensure we are assisting. Let me demonstrate some of the facts. First, regarding the target, in figures produced by the CSO, we have reduced child poverty from 8.5% in 2024 to 7.8%. That is too slow, but it is progress. Our child poverty unit is doing a huge amount of work. In budget 2026, we incr…

I appreciate the Deputy's contribution. I will raise the matter with the Ministers for education and children. As a Government, we really need to ensure that children get access to early intervention. I know the July provision has been a huge success but we have to do better. I will take the Deputy’s contribution and bring it to the attention of both Ministers.