Yes. Neither Ged nor I were born so we cannot be held responsible for that one.

There are a couple of serious points there. This is the first time I have ever been in this House while somebody seems to be bemoaning so many Ministers coming to Laois. Deputy Stanley obviously has not met Deputy Willie Aird. It is easier to go to Laois and try to deliver. We intend to continue to visit. Deputy Stanley is right that there is no election for quite a number of years, be assured of that, but there is a hell of a lot of work to do. We intend to be out and about on the ground in communities, including …

I thank Deputy Maxwell for raising this issue on behalf of people in Cavan and Monaghan where he sees it as an issue on the ground, and it has been brought to his attention. The programme for Government and the Government's new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, commit to maintaining the right of social housing tenants to purchase their home. The aim of the tenant incremental purchase scheme was to try to strike that balance but balance is always a subjective term that requires constant monitorin…

That is a very fair way to put it. As housing supply begins to rise in Cavan, Monaghan and across the country, should we then go back and ask, "Hang on, do the balances we had in place at a time of more constrained supply merit being looked at again?". That is a logical thing to do. I thank the Deputy for his words in relation to the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, who has been a real reformer with the Minister, Deputy Browne, in trying to find practical ways of increasing housing supply. The changes…

It is not that crude at all. I thought that we were going through a Thursday where the Deputy was not going to call on me to abolish a tax or a charge or spend loads more money but I should have known that it is Thursday, and it happens every Thursday. The reality of the situation is that public service broadcasting matters. Public service broadcasting needs to be funded. I encourage the Deputy to support public service broadcasting. There have been a range of scandals and crises in RTÉ but there are also really go…

I thank Deputy Cummins for raising the issue, and I respect and accept the sincerity in which she does so. The first thing I suggest is that in general we should be having earlier engagements and conversations in this House, in committees and, of course, with the school communities. I take that point. I suggest that perhaps at an earlier time post this summer, we have the conversation about next summer because there are always learnings. I take that point. I am going to balance that by saying that since 2019, the s…

No, I do not. I thank Deputy Nash for raising this issue. I accept the importance of it. I will follow up on the matter with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and the HSE and will ask that they engage with Deputy Nash today on it in the context of seeing what more can be done. I take the point that it is an expansion of capacity that we need. Let me engage further on this with the Deputy today.

I thank Deputy O'Gorman for raising this issue. I acknowledge the very good work that has been done by the Oireachtas committee, which is chaired by my colleague Deputy Michael Murphy, who continually keeps me apprised of this work. I very much look forward to the report of the committee. My message to everybody on the committee is that we should not rule anything out in relation to steps that may be needed. I approach this issue with humility. In the context of what we are doing in relation to road safety, I can o…

I truthfully do not know the answer, so I will not pretend I do. However, I will endeavour to find information and ask the relevant Minister to respond to the Deputy. All information and books should always be age appropriate. I think that is something we all believe is important in both our libraries and education system. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for our libraries, Deputy Buttimer, and the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to come back to Deputy O'Flynn directly.

That is a really good idea. I think of my local beach in Greystones, where tracks were put in place relatively recently that allow people to walk, push buggies, use wheelchairs, etc. This has been transformational in terms of improving accessibility to the beach. The Deputy's point about accessing bathing water in and of itself is an important one. We are back to this issue again. We do not have to split the atom here. If some counties are doing it well and others are not, we need to share that information. On foot…

I thank Deputy Roche for raising this important matter. Of course, we all want to make sure that new parents, mums and dads, are able to spend time with their babies. There are currently two weeks of paternity leave available in Ireland. It is also important to say there are also nine weeks of parent's leave and benefit available to both parents. Parent's benefit is currently paid at a rate of €299 per week. Let us be truthful here: the take-up of parent's leave is much lower among men than it is among women. Again…

I thank Deputy Gould for raising this issue. I met with Grace Lynch's parents last week and was really struck not only their advocacy but also - I do not wish to speak for them - by the very clear views they have on what more that can and should be done in this space. I am very happy that we would engage with Deputy Gould on this as well. There is definitely an issue. I had a good conversation with the Minister for justice and the Minister for Transport on it this week. There is a legitimate issue around supporting…

I thank Deputy Currie for raising this project. She has worked with Coolmine Community School and the board of management to get an application for a new building into the Department, which was submitted a couple of weeks ago. I can confirm that the Department received the application from Coolmine Community School on 5 May for that large-scale capital funding to provide a new school building. The Department recently already agreed a brief for the provision of two special education classrooms as well, which will be…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. On foot of his raising it, I will specifically ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to engage with him on the particular and immediate issue he is highlighting in Kildare. I take that point. When I talk about what we are going to do more broadly, he is highlighting an issue that is a factor in the here and now for people. We are significantly increasing our investment to childcare, core funding and the employment agreements for people working in childcare. We are fully committe…

Of course, the Ministers are not doing that at all. Let us be clear. This is a decision the FAI has to take. If we start making decisions on the floor of the Dáil in relation to running Irish soccer, God knows where we will end up. The reality is there are very clear rules that UEFA and FIFA have. Those rules specifically exclude and preclude parliaments from making decisions in relation to the governing authorities. The FAI has gone through a process, I think it has gone through a robust process. It has made a dec…

In fairness, that statement says that the Palestinian Football Association expresses its appreciation. There should always be engagement between governing bodies that the taxpayer funds.

We definitely needed to see more progress and the Minister, Deputy Foley, is ambitious about making that progress. Under the new maximum fee caps, we have seen the highest possible upfront cost for a typical full-day place of 45 hours per week drop. The Deputy is correct that that is still too high. However, the cost has dropped from €198 per week to €183.70 per week. The commitment is very clear. It is not just my commitment; it is a commitment every political party in the House gave. The parties in government and…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. As he knows, I know the roads in Wicklow and Wexford well. He is correct that like many counties in the country they saw a significant impact from that storm. Work has been underway. I spoke to Wicklow County Council about submitting documentation to the Government, which I am sure also applies to Wexford. That has happened, in fairness. I would like to see the process come to a conclusion very quickly. The Deputy is correct that there is a window when the weather is relati…

I thank Deputy Kenny for raising this issue, which is quite a serious one. The summer programme is fully funded by the Department of Education and Youth and schools are supposed to run the programme within the budget provided by the Department. I am not unfairly having a go. Of course small costs above and beyond might arise and a decision may be made to do something outside the programme. I get that somewhat. The level of cost the Deputy is highlighting is completely at odds with the purpose of the programme, whic…

I thank Deputy Bennett. While we do not have plans to open new emergency departments, we do have plans to continue to drive investment into hospitals at levels 2 and 3, including Monaghan hospital. I remember visiting it a number of years ago. It is a very good hospital and it is ambitious about doing more. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue, I will ask the Minister for Health to come back to her on Cavan emergency department wait times and any further plans in regard to Monaghan.