In response to Deputy Ó Murchú, I will follow up with the Minister for Health with regard to an update and timeline for the Drogheda department of psychiatry and the issue of nursing and other vacancies in the health service in the Louth-Meath area. I thank Deputies Tóibín and Barry for raising the issue of Harvey, which was also raised in the House earlier today. I have received correspondence from Harvey's mother and I have responded. I have spoken to the chief executive of the HSE and the Minister for Health on …

That was the report I referenced. I will talk to the Minister for Health and the task force that he set up. I will familiarise myself and come back to the Deputy on whether that can be published. I certainly want to meet the advocacy groups with the head of the HSE and the Minister for Health at the start of next month to see how more progress can be made on this issue, and to discuss any information, reports or otherwise that are in place and that can be helpful in this regard. In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett r…

I do not believe it is. There has been a very significant level of investment. I will read the IMO’s comments in that regard, the Minister will engage on that and, of course, we will have a new health budget delivered on budget day just two weeks from today. In response to Deputy Wynne, I am happy for there to be a debate in this House on UHL. I might have said on that occasion that it would be useful to have the Frank Clarke report into the horrific and unimaginable loss of Aoife Johnston's life published in advan…

The Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments and considers policy matters in relation to the European Union and international issues. The committee generally meets in advance of meetings of the European Council to discuss the agenda for these meetings. In addition, it considers current EU and international matters, including the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine. The committee most recently met on 10 June, when it loo…

I thank colleagues for raising this first issue. I am conscious as we are sitting in this House and in the time since I have come into this House, there have been significant further developments and escalations in Lebanon with the explosions the Deputies have referred to of walkie-talkies. This follows on yesterday from the explosion of pager devices. This situation should be utterly condemned. It is never acceptable to carry out explosions and attacks among the civilian population. It is not acceptable now and sh…

I agree with every word Deputy McDonald said on this issue. I thank her and Deputy Kerrane for engaging with me on this matter, along with Deputy Feighan. This is a really distressing case. It is important that everybody around the world, including in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, know that we are speaking with one voice in this House on this situation. An Irish woman - an Irish citizen - has been the victim of horrific male violence. She has been the victim of the most brutal, horrific attack one can imagine…

I thank Deputy McDonald. Absolutely, step one is to get Tori and her mother, who is out there actively supporting her at this very distressing time, home. For this to happen, the travel ban needs to be lifted. It is the current block in terms of Tori coming home. The immediate request and demand of Ireland is that this happens. With regard to the issue of legal representation, I am advised that free legal aid will be made available but I share Deputy McDonald's view that it should not arise because Tori is not a cr…

Where are you working?

On what is probably our last exchange, I wish Deputy Ó Ríordáin well. His election to the European Parliament is a major milestone for him and his party. I genuinely wish him well as he continues to represent Dublin and Ireland, albeit in a different capacity. I say to all those elected to the European Parliament that everybody in the House is rooting for them. When they go over to a major Parliament of course from time to time people wear their party jerseys but the Irish jersey is required in terms of working tog…

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin. He has made me feel even stronger about the point I made in my first response about the importance of the Equal start programme. I was not aware of the statistics on three-year-olds, but they are stark. I am pleased that the Equal Start programme, which is like DEIS for pre-school, will begin this September with 32,000 of the youngest children benefiting for the first time from positive discrimination, if you like, in funding and staffing allocations. We are determined to do more on DEIS …

This Government takes the housing crisis extremely seriously. It is the biggest societal challenge we face. It is an intergenerational challenge that causes significant anxiety across the country. The Deputy knows we take it seriously and he knows some of the figures he never mentions when he stands up to speak on this issue. That is his prerogative. We now live in a country where more than 300 homes are going to construction every working day. More than 500 people, including individuals and couples, buy their firs…

We did not need the Housing Commission to tell us we needed to increase housing targets.

Hang on a second. We are doing it but we do it in a clear, methodical, evidence-based way. I clearly announced before I became Taoiseach that we needed to build 250,000 more homes between 2025 and 2030. Many people scoffed at that - not people in this House, in fairness - and said it was not possible or credible. Now ESRI research, Housing Commission reports and the CIF indicate it is absolutely possible for all parts of Ireland - not just the public sector - to deliver 50,000 homes on average per year from 2025. I…

It only includes direct Exchequer funding.

You were there.

I enjoyed my visit to Scarriff and meeting the Deputy there. I apologised for the Deputy not receiving a formal invite and I wish him well with his new-----

The Deputy was looking out for the others. I thank him. I appreciated seeing him there and wish him well with his new role in the European Parliament. The Deputy raised a number of elements and I will try to work through them. We need to be honest with people on accommodation. The Deputy rightly raised the situation of a young man doing his best to get educated and get to work. That is something everybody is instinctively supportive of. I also need to be truthful that we have about 31,000 people in emergency accomm…

I agree with the last point. Of course we have to put systems in place and built a sustainable migration system. I assure the Deputy a huge amount of work is under way daily to make that happen. We will have another Cabinet committee on migration tomorrow. The Minister for integration, the Minister for Justice and others are working intensively on this. I am very proud of their work. I do not say this to be argumentative in what is possibly our last exchange but there is sometimes an inconsistency in the approach w…

I do not want to personalise this to Ukraine but the Deputy is talking about people living in one area and having to move to another. That is often because we find there is a building that is half-used for which the taxpayer is paying. I cannot stand over that either. All of this is hard; none of it is easy but it all has to be done in a compassionate way. These are human beings with rights but it is just an indication of some of the challenges we face in trying to balance the various responsibilities.

Can I, with the indulgence of the House, give Members an update on Ms Tori Towey, which I have just received in real time? I do not want to take away from Deputy McDonald's question but I have just been informed that the travel ban has been lifted. Embassy staff will take Tori to the airport as soon as she is ready to go. The embassy, of course, will continue to follow up on the case, which is still active, as of now. I just wanted to inform the House of that and to thank all in our embassy for their work in relati…