Déanaim comhghairdeas leis na Teachtaí go léir as a gcuid postanna nua agus sean cinn fosta. Will the Minister outline the work being carried out by the Department to provide supports for micro businesses, SMEs and, in particular, businesses in the hospitality sector? We all know about the issues they face with the general cost-of-living crisis and the additional costs and pressures they are under, and promises were made by the previous Minister in this regard.

Everyone is well aware of the local enterprise offices and I know the one in Louth does a great deal of work in engaging, signposting and facilitating all sorts of grants and training. We also know about the work Enterprise Ireland and the IDA do and that is all very welcome, but a huge number of businesses are under severe pressure. There is the general cost-of-living crisis and the added cost of fuel and, even with changes that have been made from a legislative point of view, the price of public liability insuran…

I hope a considerable degree of listening to businesses is being done because if the Minister is listening to the same businesses as I am, he will hear about the severe pressure they are under. I accept those supports that have been mentioned. No business is going to turn up its nose at them but some of them are under severe pressure at this time. I thought a proposal had been made that there was going to be something beyond this and even more significant. I do not think we should get into the frame of comparing ou…

Will the Minister of State outline the process the Department uses to assess the granting of export licences for dual-use goods to Israel and make a statement on the matter? This question is in the context of Gaza and the worries about a wider escalation. We have seen a genocidal slaughter. We need to ensure that we are in no way, shape or form doing anything that would facilitate the weapon systems being used against the Palestinian people.

My follow-up relates to the criteria and how stringent the assessment and the tests are. Is the Minister of State particularly happy? He mentioned consultations with technical experts. We are talking about computer software and whatever and, as he said, dual-use goods. Some of these can be used for normal necessary regular civilian operations but others can also be used in weapons of mass destruction, as we have seen in the likes of Israel over the past while. It is vital for the Minister of State to give some more…

I welcome what the Minister of States said in the sense that what we are talking about is a rigorous assessment and that the geopolitical situation and all updated information at the time is taken into account. If information were to arise at any point in time that an end-user ended up using something in a weapons system where it had stated previously that this would not be the case, that would result in follow-up and would have an impact into the future. The best-case scenario is that all our checks worked perfect…

I want to raise an issue that was brought up by Mr. Peter Hughes, the general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association who warned that the HSE recruitment embargo is seriously impacting service delivery. He said that the current situation, with more than 700 vacancies, was not sustainable and that reliance on overtime and agency staff could not meet the increase in demand for services. He said: We conducted a survey of our branches last month and it showed that we had more over 700 vacancies in the system. W…

There seems to be a theme in the lack of ASD units and the interaction at times between the Department, the NCSE and schools. When people are looking for extensions, planning permission and so on, it becomes even more difficult. I have been approached by a number of parents looking for their kids to get into what they had hoped would be a second autism unit in De La Salle College in Dundalk. I will read out what these parents have been told. The school wrote to the parents of one child that, in respect of their enr…

There are multiple issues for multiple families throughout County Louth and the wider State. The Minister of State has supplied me a written answer concerning De La Salle College. The planning permission for the main extension was given on 21 July. Will the Minister of State examine the issue? According to this answer, "The Stage 2b cost report was received by the Department in Q4 2024 and is currently being reviewed". Obviously, that is a mistake, although I do not know whether it should be quarter 4 of 2023 or so…

Yes.

Yes.

I want to bring up a particular issue. It is the ongoing malfunction of the pedestrian lights at the roundabout with the inner relief road. I am talking about the N52 and Avenue Road, the R172, a major intersection in Dundalk. This has been brought up with me by Councillor Kevin Meenan but also here. If people put on LMFM and nearly every morning, they will hear a different elected representative bringing up this issue and the great worry that is there. Louth County Council executive is progressing with installing …

I may come back to the Minister of State later on the Mount Avenue project but I am dealing with the local authority at this point and we know there will be a road safety assessment because those in Headford and other areas along there are worried about particular issues there.

There are five of you for four minutes, so why-----

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Ar ais go dtí an Rialtas. Is Deputy O'Dea taking the seven minutes?

Hear, hear.

I am on record as saying that I would have much preferred for a general election to have taken place when the previous Taoiseach resigned. However, I wish the new Taoiseach luck in his role. There is no shortage of issues in front of him at this time. I raise the ever-present issue for many elected representatives of problems in our dealings with Uisce Éireann. Lately, I have been dealing with issues locally in the likes of Tom Bellew Avenue in Dundalk. I will not to go into the details of the problem with a valve,…

I would also offer to Deputy Barry that manganese seems to be an issue with water discolouration. Louth County Council and Irish Water have done much work on pilot schemes. Some of my follow-up questions for Uisce Éireann relate specifically to that. House prices and rents are at record highs. There is a rising market. Analysts are now saying that the rate of house price inflation is set to accelerate even further. This is forcing an entire generation of young people to emigrate. Meanwhile, Government has missed al…

We are dealing with the fact the western world has questions not only about security but also credibility. We know there have been absolute failings if we are speaking about the US, Germany, the British and many countries throughout the EU. We know that what Benjamin Netanyahu is involved in is absolute genocidal slaughter. We know there are absolute fears about an escalation and the issues with regard to Iran at this time. There are two issues with Mr. Netanyahu; there are his particular views, which are reprehens…

What about the question on divestment?