There has been a lot of commentary tonight to which I have been listening. I welcome everybody in the Gallery. Some of the commentary I agree with while some of it I fundamentally disagree with and, in my three minutes, I will try to explain as much as I can. As a teacher, I taught for 15 years in a school. I would have had interaction with our autism spectrum disorder, ASD, hub, which we had in Fermoy where I taught for most of my career. I challenge anybody, including the Minister and Minister of State, to find a…

I have been listening to the debate in the Chamber and upstairs for the past 90 minutes or so and can see that a lot of people are speaking from their own personal experience. I live near the River Glashaboy, in Glanmire, and living in the Cork city area with the River Lee, it is inevitable that our day-to-day lives are affected and shaped by the water around us. I have had to go into people's houses and kitchens, like the Minister of State, that have been affected by flooding, and they are some of the toughest day…

I welcome the pause, but, obviously, a pause is not a permanent solution. It is not a binding decision and everybody in this House is going to be watching with interest what happens over the next few weeks. We in Fianna Fáil have always prided ourselves on being the party of education. The number of SNAs in the country has increased by 45% since I became a TD. That is a good story but in the past week we have somehow upscuttled a lot of that progress and good work. I join Deputy Boyd Barrett in calling for a cessat…

I will leave the Minister of State with three points because I know he will be engaging with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and his senior Minister in the next few days. First, the cliff edge that I have spoken to him about regularly cannot be the reality. The review I spoke to him about which happened every year needs to be consistent so we do not face this cliff edge in the future. At this point, the loss of any SNA is not tenable given the climate and context of what has happened and the lack of trust and the anxie…

Deputy Smith will ask the next question, Ceist Uimh. 150.

Thanks, Deputy.

Thanks, Deputy.

Deputy Ó Murchú has a supplementary.

The Minister may give a response. That is all we have time for.

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty - To discuss preservation of the GAA pitch at St. Mary's Boys' National School, Lucan. Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher - To discuss an application for port listing of Killybegs in line with new regulations. Deputy John Paul O'Shea - To discuss delays in waiting times for outpatient appointments with consultant orthopaedic surgeons i…

I wish to raise the issue of the emergency works grant for Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire. It is my former secondary school and I used to teach there many years ago. The reason I am raising this - I typically do not raise individual issues like this on the floor of the Dáil - is out of pure frustration, especially given that this is the week when we are announcing a large capital programme in education, which I welcome. I have been working with this school since November trying to get a roof repaired and we canno…

I thank the Minister of State for coming this evening to take this Topical Issue matter. Over recent months, there has been ongoing debate about the merits of providing enhanced influenza vaccines such as high-dose or adjuvanted formulations for people aged 65 years and older. The Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, conducted a health technology assessment, HTA, which found that enhanced vaccines are likely to provide greater protection than standard influenza vaccines in older adults, with the potentia…

I thank the Minister of State. I know she is here instead of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. She has probably heard me in parliamentary party meetings in recent years talking about access to drugs in the round. It does not surprise me that the response from the Department is that we need to do more research because that is generally what it does when it comes to expanding and rolling out drugs across the board for patients. There is one thing that annoys me. As a Government, we have made a political decision…

The Minister of State may be surprised because I am going to start by saying something positive. I commend the Minister, Deputy Browne, who has listened to people from the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenches since coming to office, particularly about initiating developer-led infrastructure and facilitating future housing development. It is a no-brainer that many of us have called for for many years. Once in a while, it is good to be listened to, so I hope that listening continues. I think it is the only way to ge…

I broadly support what Deputy McGrath has said. We are in and out of here for the best part of 12 months talking about this issue. Everybody is talking about getting the task force together expeditiously. I think the Taoiseach said in an Irish Examiner article before Christmas that he hoped to come to a decision about the formulation of it by the end of January. I know we still have a week of so left for that timeline to transpire. People just want certainty for the reasons Deputy McGrath has outlined. To be fair, …

Twenty-five seconds.

I read the Taoiseach's 2024 report, although it is 2026 now. I specifically read the social policy and equality section. Within that is a broader discussion about disability inclusion in a wider context. Under that, the Taoiseach set up the Cabinet subcommittee on disability, which he has referred to on numerous occasions here and in his dealings with me. I bring to the Taoiseach's attention that if people are looking for residential care or an independent living environment for their son or daughter in Cork, which…

In recent weeks we have seen extremely troubling reports about the misuse of Grok, the AI tool developed by xAI and integrated into the X platform. This tool has enabled users to generate sexualised images of real people, including children. What engagement has the Minister had with this organisation in relation to the use of AI to generate harmful and illegal content on that platform over the past number of weeks?

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response. I echo his sentiment. I and other members of the media committee feel the behaviour that has occurred in recent weeks is illegal and harmful and we cannot tolerate it. Can the Minister outline any direct interaction he has had with X? Has he had such interaction with it or does he intend to do so? One thing I picked up from the witnesses who appeared before the media committee last week is that there is probably plenty of legislation in place but that the necessa…

A lot of this is new to us. This is obviously developing very fast. The very nature of these media platforms and AI tools in particular mean that much of it is new. When questioning the Minister, I am not trying to point the finger at Coimisiún na Meán or anybody else. In retrospect, does the Minister think that we could have acted on this faster, particularly in the context of learning lessons for the future and so on? The Minister said he hopes that a statement will be forthcoming, and the sooner the better. In t…