I thank Deputy O'Shea for raising this important issue for his constituents. The N20 is a strategically important route. The proposed project aims to enhance regional accessibility, to improve the network, to connect the cities of Cork and Limerick, and to improve connections to west Cork and Kerry. It will really help to allow balanced regional growth and development. The N20-M20 Cork-Limerick project will provide much better connectivity between Ireland's second and third largest cities, as well as other towns al…

I thank Deputy Clarke for raising this very important issue. After I leave the Chamber I will discuss it directly with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has responsibility for mental health. There are a number of actions that the Minister of State is already working on. I want to say that funding is not and will not be a constraint to this. There are real challenges around recruitment, retention of services and, more broadly, reform of CAMHS services. I will ask the Minister of State specifically to come ba…

I thank the Deputy. It is my intention to bring the general scheme next week. There is a very small chance it will go to the following week but it is my working assumption that I will get it to the Cabinet next week so, yes, I believe we will meet the timeline in June. I have been keeping in touch with the Chair of the foreign affairs committee, Deputy Lahart, about this. The Attorney General is doing that for me. I believe I will have that advice to help inform the PLS process. I probably will not have it in advan…

I thank Deputy McCormack. I agree with the premise. All of us on the Government benches feel very strongly about this. There was very good engagement with the INTO by many of us in our constituencies and at the day it held this week in Buswells Hotel. I thank the INTO for the constructive way in which it has engaged with us. Obviously, all of these matters will be considered in the context of the budget but this Government is fully committed to education, supporting our schools, principals, teachers, and crucially,…

The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I are listening to Deputy Ó Muirí and he is so right. What has haunted me from the programme, and he has captured it very well, was the lack of basic humanity. Yes, there is more this Government needs to do and will do. The Minister, Deputy MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, are leading on this as regards safeguarding legislation and all of that. We will do it as a priority and we are taking it extraordinarily seriously. However, there is als…

I think the INTO will be very satisfied with its very effective campaign this week. I say that in all sincerity because it did have a very effective campaign this week and clearly met with so many TDs as it should in doing its job in highlighting the needs of its schools. To reiterate the point I made earlier to Deputy Mythen, and on the concerns he raised regarding schools, in particular in Wexford, Government will look at how we better financially support our schools. We do not make specific announcements on how …

I have got a bit of this today. Everybody does their best in representing their constituents but with the position I hold within Government I need to be conscious even if cases can be readily identified, even if not named. I do not want to comment on that but take that as read. I am not aware of the correspondence from the UN but I will make myself aware of it now the Deputy has brought it to my attention and I will inquire into that now. More broadly, on the whole issue of SLAPP and the likes, the defamation Bill …

I am very pleased to have an opportunity to be here today and I thank Seanad Éireann for inviting me. I have commitments in the other House so I will take this debate along with the Ministers of State, Deputies Thomas Byrne and Neale Richmond. I said in the other House yesterday and will say today again at the outset that I hope the starting and end point of this debate will be not be "Opposition good, Government bad" or "Government good and Opposition bad". People right across this country, including every Member …

I thank Deputy Doherty. Housing is the biggest domestic challenge that this country faces and the people in this country face. It is the biggest societal challenge on a domestic level and it is now a real economic challenge as well. We have to do more when it comes to housing. We, the parties that formed the Government and the Independents who support it, were very clear that if returned to office, we would work to increase the scale of housing delivery. The Deputy's party put forward its plans as well, which I do …

We can come back to that in a moment. Other actions needed include: resourcing An Bord Pleanála properly; enacting and commencing the various provisions of the Planning and Development Acts in order that we can speed up the delivery of planning, because planning decisions are holding back the delivery of homes and infrastructure; increasing the zoned land for housing, and that is what the national planning framework the Minister for housing brought before this House was all about - making sure we have enough zoned …

No, just yours. The misleading of people in relation to Irish Water is your fault. We have been very clear that we are going to have to spend an awful lot more on Uisce Éireann. I met with the chief executive of Uisce Éireann for a number of hours last Friday. Uisce Éireann has presented to the Government real plans that if we can provide it with significant additional capital funding over the summer period in the context of the review of the national development plan, it will be able to, I am sure the Deputies opp…

I am not sure who is playing leader of Sinn Féin today, whether it is you or Pearse. I am not sure whether this is the audition for the next leader of Sinn Féin but I would like to speak, if that is okay.

We will publish a new housing plan-----

They do not want an answer because they are not about the answer.

May I speak? I am sure Pearse does not need your help.

We are going to produce a new housing plan in July. Deputy Doherty can be quite assured that part of that new housing plan will be significant additional funding and enabling provisions for Irish Water and, indeed, for energy. We have been clear, and we were very clear in the election, about what we would do with the proceeds from the Apple account in terms of how that money would be deployed. I agree on this point: water infrastructure and energy infrastructure are key enablers if we are serious about reaching the…

Over the past number of years I have been in government, we have seen a very significant increase in the number of homes delivered in this country. We saw 133,000 new homes delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of them delivered between 2022 and 2024. Deputy Doherty never acknowledges that bit. He never acknowledges that we have rebuilt a construction sector and rebuilt an economy, that we now have a national planning framework, the biggest overhaul of planning legislation in a generation, if not ever, and a…

-----if Deputies want to work constructively and not politicise the issue of housing, to actually make real progress in the time ahead. We now have the legislative background-----

I am not going to be shouted down by the Deputy. I am going to speak, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Between now and the month of July, we are going to work on a housing plan; not a glossy document but a targeted list of actions we can take in relation to water, energy and planning that will get us to 300,000 homes. I assure Deputies we have the money and capital to make this happen. What we now need is political support across this House and in communities to drive on delivery.