They might be embarrassed when they hear me say this. I address the Ministers and I am glad there are some females in here as well because there is something I would like to know. With the funding that is being spent at the moment in the education network, we have seen a whistleblower come out over the SPHE, which is actually porn being taught to children between the ages of 12 and 15 in school. I want to know from the Ministers sitting here if they agree with it. Do they agree with children between the ages of 12 …

It has been all over the news. There is a teacher after resigning her position.

It has been on the news and the media.

I am delighted to hear that because then we want to have an investigation to know if there are teachers being taught this and then having to teach this to children under the age of consent. This is what I want to make sure. Something like this should not happen under the age of consent and I would support this. The Government is spending upward of €900,000 on telephone boxes to hide telephones in schools. It then comes along and gives out free books, which I welcome, but it took away the SNA teachers. It took away …

I would like to put forward a question to the people in Ireland and to all the different generations of people who have voted for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and other parties. I ask them today whether their children and grandchildren are for sale because that is what this budget is. The Government is trying to buy the votes of those who have voted for those parties for decades. I will break it down for the people of Ireland who have voted for those parties for years and ask them again why they are goin…

While I welcome this increase, it does not go far enough if you take into account the last three or four years of inflation and the cost of properties. Let us take as an example a cottage that somebody has left to a family member. Three or four years ago, before costs increased as a result of inflation, you could not give away a cottage for €25,000 or €30,000. Now they are all making €100,000 or more and they are derelict. Did the Deputies on the other side of the House there ever hear of tradition? Did they ever h…

They think we all have sheep.

Or the traditions?

Again it is another failure. Bulk buying like this creates, in effect, a cartel. They are coming into an area, bulk buying the houses and creating a cartel, and then they dictate the prices for the area. They are doing it all in prime locations. If a company in the State is building a housing estate, it must have 30% for social housing. When we look at the scenario where houses are being bought up, however, there has only been an increase in stamp duty from 10% to 15%. The only way we can stop this is to hit them a…

Yesterday I attended a presentation in the audiovisual room from the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and a spina bifida advocacy group. It was one of the most packed audiovisual room presentations in the five years I have been here. When their stories were told, there was not one dry eye in the room. There were parents with their children in wheelchairs. There were people there on crutches whose spines are twisted. They were given a commitment by the Taoiseach two years ago when he was the Minister for Health. He told t…

I thank the Tánaiste. He mentioned CHI, the HSE and advocates. These are the same people who have been heading this since 2015 except with a new name. Nothing has changed. The same people from that system have a new name with new positions but they are the same people. The one thing the Tánaiste left out in his contribution when he mentioned anxiety for people was the main issue, which is the pain that children are going through unnecessarily. Some of these children cannot leave the country for these operations. Th…

How many of those children were operated on twice-----

-----from the rods breaking in their backs?

Double figures were given.

The figures the Tánaiste has given are inaccurate.

The figures the Tánaiste has given are inaccurate because some of those operations have been done twice. The rods broke in those children's backs. They were operated on twice within two years, and they are also in those stats.

The Taoiseach needs to meet them.

Carers. It is in the wording. It is carers. I am from a family of 11. In his last number of months and years, people came to care for my father. As a big family, we were able to do much of it ourselves but we had people who came in part-time. I cannot thank people who do that kind of work enough. The dignity and the home life they have, being cared for in their own home, is unbelievable. How many people have left full-time jobs to go and become a carer? Looking at the Government sector, it pays people full-time wag…

This Bill is about making sure that digital health records are used safely and effectively to improve healthcare in Ireland. I will begin by referring to data protection. I wrote to the Minister two years ago about the very subject matter of the Bill, namely health records. Sometimes in a hospital a doctor will send on a patient's records and the next thing that happens is correspondence will arrive which states that not all of the records have been received. If a patient is allergic to penicillin or whatever, all …

Since the start of this Government's term of office, I have been talking about accountability. The Rural Independents were the first people here to raise the issue of UHL and the management structure there. New management has been put in place. In the interim, Jessica Sheedy and Aoife Johnston both died. How many more died? There has been poor management in this hospital. I am not going to mention the name of the CEO, but there is only one CEO. The damage that person has caused to the hospital and to the hard-worki…