I appreciate that and welcome any flexibility there can be that would benefit Louth and particularly the Cooley Peninsula and the huge damage done. Louth County Council has done some short-term mitigation works. It has an application in at this point for €260,000. As regards the Department of Transport, there is an ask in of €1.6 million because of the huge damage that was done to the local road infrastructure and there are wider works that need to be done in mitigation and drainage, and that is before we even talk…

-----and the moneys they may already have spent at this point. It is something I have brought up with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, a number of times.

Once again we are dealing with Brexit - the gift that does not stop giving. None of that has unfortunately been particularly positive for Britain or Ireland, and we know all of the machinations with the political conditions in the North at this point. There has been absolutely nothing positive. We have seen a huge amount of work done on the Windsor Framework and we have welcomed anything that mitigates the difficulties that have been first and foremost caused by Brexit. We all accept that. However, what are we talk…

This is another instance where there is an awful lot of agreement in the room. I suppose it makes up for all those other times when there is not. We all know the huge level of work done by charities. It has been spoken about by many Deputies. At times, the State was not there and people found it necessary to create organisations and service providers and later the State came in with some funding. There have been difficulties but we know we would be in a far worse set of circumstances if that was not the case. Deput…

I think we are all happy there has been a forum called to deal with some of the issues we have previously spoken about in the film industry. It is important there be follow-through on that forum and the other actions that need to be taken on the basis of the budgetary oversight review. We see the importance in the recent decisions at the WRC and the awarding of €434,216 to members of the Irish Film Workers’ Association who complained en masse over many years, but officially two years ago, about the issue of blackli…

More than 25,000 - nearly 26,000 - Palestinians have been killed at this stage. Israel Katz and Benjamin Netanyahu have laid out quite straight where the Israeli regime is. Like many people, I welcomed the fact that Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Malta requested that the European Council ask for a ceasefire. You would imagine that would be straightforward, given the disaster and slaughter the Palestinian people are facing. It was not possible to deliver that, but what is possible in regard to anything next to near san…

Has the Government had any interaction with eBay? There is talk about the possibility of 1,000 job cuts worldwide. We are aware that 900 people are employed here in Ireland so it is a worry for a huge number of people. We have spoken many times about the shared island unit. All of us welcome the capital projects, in particular. I refer to the Narrow Water Bridge project in my constituency. We know that more groups are now aware of these and availing of them. I agree with Deputy Smith that as with all funding stream…

As I said earlier, we all welcomed the letter from Ireland, Spain, Malta and Belgium asking for a ceasefire. It seems very little. It is an abject failure on the part of the European Union that it cannot simply ask for a ceasefire when an awful lot of us and, far more importantly, legal experts would say that a genocide is being carried out. Call it what you will but 25,700 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip. We all know the power differential between the Palestinian people and the Israeli military mac…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle. There is a huge level of agreement on what is going on in Gaza. It is a slaughter of the innocents by the Israelis. We all know of the huge power differentials and whatever else. We are talking in the context of the EU Council. There was a failure to get any sort of agreement calling for a ceasefire as this slaughter continues. There is only so much I can hear about Germany and its history with the Holocaust. I think I have said before that Germany did not have this partic…

It looks like we cannot get any sort of deal on asking for a ceasefire at European level, so what can we get? I assume we can get nothing next nor near to the absolutely necessary sanctions that were introduced due to the war on Ukraine. If we cannot do it at that level, what can we do among the countries that are more supportive on this? What actions have we taken? What conversations have we had about the EU-Israel Association Agreement and those humanitarian conditions? If we are talking very specifically about t…

I have a follow-up question on whether anything in particular has happened in respect of the EU-Israel association agreement and the humanitarian conditions. Deputy Howlin referenced a framework and working with whomever we can work with in the EU and beyond, but particularly the Arab world. Obviously, we should do that. Are we looking at whether anything can be done with partners out there that comes close to any sort of sanction on Israel? Are we going to make an assessment ourselves of the danger of genocide in …

Ceann Comhairle-----

This will take ten seconds. The issue possibly came up in the context of Sellafield, including in the context of infrastructure, leaks and information that has been in the public domain for probably the past month or so. Has it been addressed?

The Taoiseach spoke about the many new pathways to education that provide people with necessary skill sets. While there are substantial deficits as regards the numbers we want trained in the traditional trades, there are also nouveau apprenticeships relating to cybersecurity, robotics and so on. There is great work being done in my constituency by Drogheda Institute of Further Education, Ó Fiaich Institute of Further Education and the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence. We want to see more of that…

The Covid-19 pandemic was a worldwide catastrophe that no one could have anticipated. It brought worry, isolation and loss that will stay with us for some time to come. Some families will never recover. Some lost their loved ones who lay stranded in a nursing home and had to say goodbye through a window or over the phone. It was a cruel and hard time. Most of us rallied and it brought out the best of us. Front-line workers rose to the challenge in a magnificent way. Teachers pivoted to online classrooms and neighbo…

I also raise the issue of Saint John of God Community Services. It has been brought to my attention that 8,000 adults and children receive supports in everything from mental health services to, in particular, disability services from the organisation. We are talking about community services and residential care. My area is served by Saint John of God North East Services, which provides a significant amount of its services in County Louth. It provides services to around 400 people and, in some cases, such as in the …

Tánaiste-----

Can people speak in their own time?

We move to the Labour Party and Deputy Bacik.

Tánaiste-----