The Taoiseach and Tánaiste have spoken about greater involvement in relation to Palestine.

I offer my thoughts and wishes to the family of Pat Muckian who died last night following an attack in Dundalk on 3 May. Pat was very respected and was a member of a hugely respected family in Dundalk that has been through a huge tragedy. I wish to put that on record. Regarding the European Commission and the rules on tendering, we all know we need to see accountability and transparency and need to ensure there is due diligence. However, we have seen the issues related to lowest cost tenders and it is absolutely vi…

We have had much failure over many years in regard to the provision of the care of the elderly and we have not necessarily put in place those pieces that we should have. Everybody welcomes the greater level of enforcement powers for HIQA and the necessary reforms, and we will support this Bill. However, I do not think it goes quite where it needs to go. Of course, it provides for compliance notices for the Chief Inspector of Social Services and improved data collection, which is necessary so we have a notion of the…

"We are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces". That is what the Oireachtas committee on justice said in 2005. That says it all. Bombs ended up on the streets of Dublin and Monaghan. There were 34 victims and a huge number of people were injured. Their families have been impacted all this time. This happened because of British state forces and their agents. It was facilitated. No one has looked into this to the degree it needs, outside of journalists and f…

A lot of us learned, if we had not already understood, the dangers of cybercrime with the HSE attack. We all get scams through mobile phones, whether number generation and a call from Revolut or text messages that plague us every day. It is an issue. It impacts everybody. So many are sent that, unfortunately, even if a small percentage are executed, it will impact a huge number of people on the basis of the information they get. Is there any update on whether the legislation has been progressed around Pegasus and P…

I am asking for an update on any progress made in the installation and promotion of communal and district heating systems in the State, any targets for the number that could be installed and if the Minister of State will make a statement on the matter. I do not think he will be shocked I may raise the issue of Carlinn Hall in my supplementary answer. I have met SEAI about possible solutions. I think there is a long journey to go and I hope there will be governmental support for the residents.

I can just give the Minister of State a number of requests and he could say "Yes". I would be reasonably happy with that.

I appreciate that. In fairness, I welcome that the feasibility study was carried out by SEAI with regard to geothermal and heat pump technology to replace what is in the gas-fed system. We all know the issue that 50% was lost. It used to take two units of gas to provide one unit of heat and that there was a loss in the system. I met the SEAI and am very happy it is willing to facilitate the possibilities. We are now looking at third-party companies from a point of view of putting a proposal together. There will be …

Will the Minister provide an update on the assessment of applications under the community services programme administered by Pobal? Will she provide the number of applications received, the numbers that were successful, those still being assessed and any plans for providing additional funding before the end of this year? I do not think it will come as any surprise that my follow-up question will be about Muirhevnamore community centre, and I may also have a question about Blackrock community centre.

I welcome the Minister of State's answer. We are dealing with a huge number of applications because there is a huge amount of need. That goes without saying. Everybody across this campus could probably speak to the work done by many community organisations and its absolute necessity for the community. I ask that whatever can be done is done to ensure we can deliver as much as possible. We know the financial pressures for businesses and community organisations from the necessary added costs from wages. We also know …

I ask that the huge work done by the like of Muirhevnamore community centre on the basis of being in an area of disadvantage be taken into account. We all know that, with community centres, you can be between timelines when it comes to anchor tenancies and so on. I know some of that is happening at the moment which has probably added pressures. I also know work is being done with SOLAS and the LMETB to rectify these and provide an added service. It is a service where there is a lot more work and throughput on the b…

Tá an t-am caite.

The Minister is over time.

Tá an t-am caite.

Will the Tánaiste provide an update on his Department's interaction with the British Government with regard to the 30 April implementation of the new Brexit-related customs checks on EU goods using Britain as a land bridge, and will he make a statement on the matter? It is that issue that has been brought up in the past while regarding interactions with the British Government on a whole pile of issues. It was the Tánaiste's former party leader and former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who said it at an EU affairs committ…

I welcome the fact there seems to be a significant amount of interaction in dealing with this. I also welcome the Tánaiste's own interactions with regard to all the stakeholders. Can I take from his answer that, at this time, he does not foresee any major issues with regard to this particular implementation and that if there are, we have sufficient facility to deal with it? We all know the issue and, in fairness to the Government here and businesses across this island, Brexit was something that was forced upon us. …

It is obviously absolutely necessary that the work of this consultation group and all those other stakeholders would take place. We need to make sure we allow for the free flow of goods as easily as possible, with all the difficulties Brexit has caused. We know a huge amount of effort has been put in, particularly at this end, from the point of view of ensuring mitigations. The European Union has been very good in the solidarity it has shown to Ireland. However, we will constantly have issues as long as the Border …

It is welcome that we are having this discussion. The problem is that we could probably all operate on the basis of 25 minutes each and deal with multiple issues we all have spinning in our constituencies of parents who have come to us in absolutely dreadful need of services, places in schools and all that is needed when they are dealing with their kids with disabilities. First, I need to bring up an issue relating to De La Salle College in Dundalk. We all know the issues that exist in the school building programme…

-----good enough. There is an appeals process but I am very worried that we do not take into account complex needs and those with other additional resources-----

-----they are getting at the moment that might not fall into that bracket but could end up in a bracket on the basis of not getting supports. Like everyone else, I have received a huge amount of correspondence from parents and grandparents with kids with autism-----