It is not agreed.

In fairness, in response to what Deputy Mairéad Farrell said, it is a straightforward request to ask the Taoiseach to meet Relatives for Justice. We do not need the side commentary in that regard. I wish to revisit the Irish protocol. I want to know about the interactions the Taoiseach has had. I accept that the European Commission changed tack when he made contact with it, but has he talked to the Commission since to ensure there is no chance of Article 16 being invoked again? We have had terrible language recentl…

This is a technical measure, but it provides an opportunity to speak about necessary capital projects. I wish to add my voice to those of other speakers who spoke about difficulties with the audit system, the planning system and with moving major capital projects forward, be they schools, hospitals, certain housing developments and the like. Representatives of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. and the National Transport Authority, NTA, attended the transport committee meeting yesterday and they spoke about the…

I am very glad to have an opportunity to speak in the debate on the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2020. I acknowledge that it is a very technical Bill. As with a number of other Bills we have dealt with, it is concerned with updating our infrastructure to deal with international crime and make sure we are following EU directives. That is all absolutely necessary and is to be supported. I agree with the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, when she spoke earlier, that there are jurisdictional questi…

Does the Taoiseach agree that a necessary element in delivering an all-Ireland response would be the sharing of information on travellers? We are all aware that the Northern Executive Minister of Health, Robin Swann, has been looking for this information and this issue to be dealt with since last March. We have heard from the Department of Transport and members of the Government, including the Taoiseach, that there is a GDPR issue. I welcome that the Taoiseach said something rather positive about his interaction wi…

I have a similar question to one the Tánaiste was asked previously. It relates to his proposal on facilitating working from home and the idea of 20% of public servants working in that scenario and, obviously, Covid-19 being a major accelerator of it. The Tánaiste, however, said he was exploring the possibilities of acceleration of the national broadband plan. I know the Minister, Deputy Ryan, said he had conversations with National Broadband Ireland, NBI. We have also been told by NBI in committee meetings that it …

In the limited time I have I will go over and back in asking my questions. I commend the work that is being done at stakeholder, ministerial and official level. We met the Department of Transport and I appreciate that it is operating in a sort of war cabinet type scenario in that when it comes upon a problem, it deals with it. However, everybody agrees that a huge number of problems for hauliers here are being caused by the fact that many British firms did not prepare for Brexit in the way the need for preparations…

It has been said here that we describe our front-line health workers as heroes and they have done absolutely heroic work, and nobody would deny that. Nevertheless, we are debating in this House once again a lack of respect and equality. It would have been absolutely straightforward for the Government to reintroduce the healthcare assistant rate and it would have been fair, given our current circumstances. Placements have been postponed and there are concerns from the INMO and SIPTU about this matter, as our already…

This was another incredibly difficult week for survivors and their families. We know that many of them are beyond disappointed and are angry about this report. We can talk about the societal and individual failures regarding the hellhole system of mother and baby homes, but we need to stress that churches failed their people. They were given this power by a State and a political system that absolutely failed everybody. We now need to deliver for those survivors. We also need to remember those who did not survive th…

I wish the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the Ceann Comhairle, all the staff, Members and beyond a safe Christmas. I hope I have not been too much of a nuisance during the period but I cannot promise much in terms of the future. I ask the Tánaiste if it is possible to have a review of JobPath, which is an incredibly expensive job activation scheme. Seetec and Turas Nua have been given €240 million in respect of the scheme. We have seen "RTÉ Investigates" uncover correspondence which stated that these two companies are in b…

The provisions in the Appropriation Bill, particularly the carry-over in regard to capital expenditure, are obviously a necessity. In terms of dealing with housing, we not only have to use fiscal rectitude but we also must ensure we are more imaginative if we are to solve the housing problem for people in this country. I would like to draw attention to two particular capital projects which Louth County Council has submitted to the urban regeneration and development fund. One of them is a project to develop Bridge S…

I want to add my voice to much of what has been said. I wish the Minister, the HSE and all of our front-line healthcare workers, some of whom have been through a gruelling year, a safe Christmas. I thank them for all they have done. Like others, my thoughts are with those who have lost people during this pandemic. It is vital that we are having this discussion. There was a point when we would not have thought it possible that we would be here in December talking about possibility of the vaccine being rolled out acr…

I add my voice to what Deputy Gould has said. I wish all Members and Oireachtas staff a happy Christmas. I thank the Minister, Deputy Coveney, the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and the officials in the Department for the work they have done. There have been significant difficulties and they have always made themselves available to this House. Regarding what the Minister said about how we cannot mitigate every problem related to Brexit and that there will be significant difficulties rather than just hiccups, I we…

At this point in any debate, most of the good points have already been made, so I will add my voice to everything that is commendable and obviously not to anything that I disagree with. We all accept that the collective action by the European Union on vaccines has been very positive. We must ensure the roll-out of the vaccines. Several speakers referred to the difficulties there may be if we do not get a steady supply quickly enough in this State. There are difficulties in the sense that we have heard reports that …

In the meeting of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs earlier, we dealt with Mr. Liam Lacey of the Irish Maritime Development Office, IMDO. He seemed very relaxed in respect of Brexit. When asked a question regarding Calais and difficulties with IT systems, however, one thing he said was that there had been some element of communication between the IMDO and the port of Calais. Some of the difficulties indicated in the media in the past two weeks were not foreseen nor was how they will be sorted out. I wou…

I will speak to amendment No. 6 in the names of Deputies Ó Broin and Cian O'Callaghan. The important thing is that we have all accepted the need to move online in these particular circumstances. It does, however, create difficulties for many people. I believe that is a fair point to make. We need to ensure that effective public participation is provided for. At this time, a number of local authorities, including Louth County Council, are drawing up development plans. Given the circumstances with regard to planning,…

My question relates to Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, which will not come as a shock to the Minister. DkIT was slow to the game of attaining technological university status but we all accept the absolute necessity of same. I welcome the funding that has been provided to enable DkIT to make this journey and the fact that the HEA has put Dr. Ruaidhrí Neavyn in a prime position to ensure this happens. I ask the Minister to provide an update on his interactions with DkIT and the HEA and an update on the status …

It has been stated here before many times that student nurses are doing essential work and should be paid. I welcome the statement from the Minister for Health, when answering a question from Deputy Cullinane, that the review of student nurse allowances will finish this month. I asked the Taoiseach this question, but whether he misunderstood me or I was unclear, I will try to be more straightforward now. The review is welcome and needs to happen. Could we also look at whether it might be possible for this allowance…

Yes. I am a poor substitute but I will do my best.

I commend Deputy Nash on the most important statement he has made in this Chamber.