-----and work with the Deputy, and that legislation will need to be enacted. However, I need to make sure that anything we do is lawful. I am happy to work constructively with the Deputy on that.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 29 together. Chomhghairdeas and congratulations to Deputy Moynihan on his election to the Dáil. I look forward to working with him constructively. I will undertake to pursue the issue of Foras na Gaeilge and revert to him directly on it, as I share his views on the importance of it having funding certainty. I was delighted to make an early visit in my role as Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs to Belfast on 28 January. While there, I met First Minister Michelle O'Neill…

I thank Deputy Moynihan. As he knows, the Taoiseach and I are really committed to the shared island initiative. The good news is we are now seeing what was a concept delivering very practical results on the ground, with so many projects progressing. I could mention the restoration of the Ulster Canal, as one example I visited recently, or the transformative education project at the Magee College campus of the Ulster University in Derry. There are all-island research projects and so many others. We need to continue …

In answer to both Deputies' questions, I absolutely will. I congratulate Deputy McGuinness on his election too. He can take it as read that I am very happy to continue that engagement and to work with him on a cross-party basis on this issue. In the brief time available to me, I will return to the issue of the Omagh inquiry because I want to be very clear on this. When I was in Belfast - this was on the first day of the commemorative hearings of the Omagh inquiry - I noted that the Government took a very clear deci…

I do not need to dismiss the Sinn Féin housing policy because the people of Ireland did.

Sinn Féin must be one of the only Opposition parties in the European Union to actually see its vote collapse in the general election, down by 5.5%. It lost the election.

This is a very serious issue, and I repeat that an issue that is serious deserves a serious response. When I was elected leader of my party and then Taoiseach less than a year ago, I made it very clear that we all needed to work together to fix housing for once and for all. At the start of this new Dáil, we should not seek to divide on this matter. We should actually seek to come into these Houses with constructive ideas as to how we can do more together to ensure the aspiration of people wanting to own their own h…

The completion figures for last year are disappointing; that is true. When we look at the past three years together, however, we have significantly exceeded the housing targets that were set. We significantly exceeded them in 2022 and 2023. We now have good momentum, with in excess of 60,000 commencement notices over the past year. This will, of course, as night follows day, translate into increased completion figures in the time ahead. It appears there was some displacement in the market as a result of development…

I have already made very clear to the Deputy about the programme for Government, negotiated by parties who won a clear majority in the last election and working with Independents, and what we have agreed to do in the programme for Government. That is what our focus is on; moving forward with the delivery of homes with real solutions for people. If the Deputy is seriously suggesting housing statistics cost his party the election, that is a bit ridiculous. People looked at their policies; that is what cost them the e…

Ceann Comhairle, I have to be allowed to speak in this House. We are not getting back to last-----

She could not clarify that you could even access a loan or a mortgage under Sinn Féin's plan. The banks have still not confirmed that. His party would have pulled away the first-time buyer scheme-----

-----it would have scrapped the help-to-buy scheme and it would have ended the first home bridge the gap scheme.

The Deputies do not like it. They seem to think their job is just to critique.

Their job is also to put forward alternatives-----

They put forward alternatives that were emphatically rejected by the people who interpreted them-----

They failed to deliver, they lost the election and we are getting on with the job.

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising the issue of infrastructure and I want to get straight to that. I acknowledge the huge impact the storm has had on people right across the country and most particularly, people in the west and the north west. I am very conscious of the fact we can read out figures showing how many people have been reconnected to power and very good progress has been made, but that is obviously cold comfort to the 12,000 premises that remain without power today. As the Deputy rightly says, 2,750 o…

I hear the Deputy and I hear her advocacy for her county and her region, and for good reason. We will review the national development plan and our capital plans. We intend to publish that as a Government in the summer period. This will be an opportunity to map out what the increased level of capital funding will mean for the lifetime of this Government and provide that pipeline of capital funding. It will absolutely allow us to not just deliver on the capital commitments that have already been made for many project…

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for the constructive way he is engaging on this issue. I am very conscious that this is still a very real issue in his own constituency. While we talk about the next steps, and he rightly talks about the lessons learned, I am conscious we are still seeing in many parts of the west and north west a significant number of people - around 12,000 premises - without electricity. It is down from 13,000 this morning and 22,000 yesterday. This is going on a very long time for people and I genuinel…

The Deputy is speaking a lot of common sense on this. The Government is going to engage with the local authorities regarding generators for communities. One of the most obvious things we should be doing is making sure there are more generators available in communities for when things like this happen. The Deputy is right that nobody can storm but we have to be better prepared in terms of resilience and infrastructure at that local level. Of course we look at national response, but it is important in any review that…