I thank the Deputy for the important question. I will ask the Minister with responsibility for older people to meet her to discuss what more can be done. We are spending more on home support now than ever before. The home support budget for this year is the largest ever at €840 million, delivering more than 24 million hours of home support to more than 60,000 people at any one time. However, the Deputy pointed out the disparity between rural parts of her constituency and less rural parts of the country and how we c…

I thank the Deputy and I join him in thanking Colin Dempsey for his work on this project and bringing it to the Deputy's attention, and the Deputy, in turn, bringing it to the attention of the Dáil. He is right that everyone wants to see an efficient public transport system but other issues also matter. Safety and inclusion also matter. As we go about out daily lives, all of us want people to access public transport in a way that is inclusive and safe. My understanding is that disability awareness training, DAT, is…

I thank the Deputy. I do indeed know Carnew well as I represented it until the Electoral Commission took it off me. I am sure it is well represented now. Regarding IPAS centres, I am not familiar with that one. It is always important that communities are informed. However, I am also very proud to live in a county that has welcomed so many people from migrant communities and people seeking international protection. Communities across County Wicklow have done that. The flow of information with communities is importan…

The Deputy is right. Survivors should never read that information third-hand or in the media. The Minister, Deputy Foley, shares that view. I will speak to her about what can be done to update the survivors directly and to apologise for any way in which that information has been disseminated and put into the public domain in a way that is not sensitive to the survivors and does not attach paramount importance to their needs. My understanding is that the report is due to come to Cabinet but let me seek clarity on th…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and I thank Mick Finnegan for his incredible advocacy on this issue. He has been in Leinster House on many occasions because of his advocacy work. I sincerely thank him for that. I will speak directly to the Minister involved and I will come back to the Deputy.

It was on this date in 1919 that the First Dáil met for only the third time. It was an historic day, with the confirmation of a new Ceann Comhairle and the election of a new President of the Dáil, then Éamon de Valera. It also led to the creation of a new Government, and Ireland's second Ministry was formed, with the likes of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, W.T. Cosgrave, Constance Markievicz, Cathal Brugha, Count Plunkett and Eoin MacNeill. It should bring home for us the value of our democracy that the meetings…

I want to put on the record of this House that it was also in good faith that we engaged constructively and respectfully in government formation talks with both the Labour Party and the Social Democrats, and I thank them for that engagement. I do not believe there are policy differences which we were not prepared to negotiate on, but obviously I respect the decisions of both these parties to not enter Government on this occasion. We must have a Government - a Government which functions effectively and in the intere…

We must work together-----

Before the Deputies shout at me, maybe they should wait to hear my next sentence, because I was about to say that I think and hope many in the Opposition share this view, that we should work together on the big issues of our time. We should work together on housing and on disability services.

That is what the public want to see. Shout me down if you wish, but that is what the public want.

You are.

It is time to listen to listen to each other. It is time to work in the best interests of the people who send us here and pay your wages and mine.

To meet the goals that we share, we must have a strong - it is not sounding great for cross-party co-operation, but anyway - and stable economy. We stand here this afternoon on the precipice of a moment of extraordinary economic turbulence globally. We had a report last week from the ESRI, which estimated more than 80,000 jobs in the Irish economy could be at risk. There are people who got up this morning, regardless of who they voted for in the general election, who have gone out and done a day's work and are genu…

-----but debating a confidence motion. Do not shout me down, again. Stop now.

We are debating a confidence motion, one which everybody inside and outside this House knows will only have one outcome.

We know Sinn Féin has a record of putting party interests before national interest. I am sorry to see other Opposition parties going down that same populist route.

At a time of crisis, this national parliament has a duty to show leadership to the country. I recall the unity we have found in this House in moments of crisis and economic challenge. We came together and pulled together during Covid-19 and the Brexit times. The context we now face is a potential global trade war, which will not be without consequence for Ireland. I have every confidence that this country will work its way through it, but it will require a co-ordinated and sustained effort in the vein of our respon…

-----and we need to push in one direction. I want to work with everybody on all sides of this House. There is no monopoly on good ideas. We need constructive ideas and proposals. I firmly believe that every politician who puts his or her name on a ballot paper and got elected to this House deserves to have his or her voice heard. Deciding to enter public life is not easy; it means long hours, time away from one's family and a high tolerance for criticism. Politics is probably the most denigrated profession in the c…

Calm down, again.

The Ceann Comhairle then oversaw a subsequent debate for 20 hours at a Dáil reform committee. A proposal was put to a vote at the committee. It was approved by a majority, which is how democracy works.