Please.

Withdraw what you said.

So, you will not withdraw it.

I do not have any notes.

I thank the Deputy for his political advice. I do not need any notes to debate the Deputy in relation to these matters. It is highly regrettable that I had to ask him to withdraw comments about politicians coming in here and gormlessly expressing views around hate and toxicity in Irish politics. We should all call that out. If it happened to the Deputy, I would call it out. If it happened to anyone over here, I would call it out. Most people would call it out if it happened to anybody in this House. However, the De…

The Deputy refused to stand up and condemn hatred. Instead, he stated that he had a rationale and an understanding.

Well, then-----

When the Deputy stood back up, I asked simply if he would consider reflecting on what he said in his opening contribution. He chose not to. He tried to-----

The people of Waterford will adjudicate on the Deputy in due course.

Well said, indeed, Deputy Healy-Rae. I thank you for saying it. I am really sorry, as I know everybody in this House is, to hear of the abuse that the Deputy and his family had to put up, particularly in the context of the comments about and images of his late mother. That is utterly despicable and reprehensible. There is not a Member on any side of this House who does not think that. You are not gormless when you come into this House and make those points.

It is a seriously important issue. It is fair to say that impacts on nearly all of us in different ways, if we are being honest. It is an issue that impacts people right across our country. It is an issue that particularly impacts children and younger people. There is a level of misogyny and sexism, and there are really serious issues in the context of vile online abuse. People are being targeted by faceless online users who seek to intimate people, silence them, stop them from saying something, get inside their mi…

I thank Deputy Healy-Rae. We all knowledge that the advent of technology, online media and social media have brought benefits. We all see it in our own lives. Deputy Healy-Rae gets his message out to the people in Kerry that way as well. He is right, however; it cannot be the Wild West. There must be rules, laws, sanctions and regulations as to how that still relatively new structure works. What I am telling Deputy Healy-Rae and the people of this country today is that we are moving into a new era in relation to th…

I thank Deputy McDonald for bringing the case of Tori to my attention. I believe her colleague Deputy Kerrane has raised the matter with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am not directly apprised of the situation but I am very happy to be directly apprised of it now and to work with Deputy McDonald to intervene and see how we can support an Irish citizen in what sounds to be, from Deputy McDonald has told me, the most appalling of circumstances. If Deputy McDonald would like to engage with me on it, I am happy to…

The plan is to take Committee and Report Stages-----

It is the Government's intention to take Committee and Remaining Stages.

The Government is willing to provide much more time to debate the issue. I have no doubt there will be a vote in a minute so let me at least put forward our view. We are happy to provide more time tomorrow. We are happy to provide longer time. We are happy to provide as much time as it takes tomorrow night. I take the point that we do wish to take Committee and Remaining Stages together and on this we may have a difference of view. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys has been keeping me apprised with regard to the NAS. …

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising this issue. I was very grateful to have an opportunity to speak to Prime Minister Starmer on his first day in office. I am pleased that he had an opportunity yesterday to visit Northern Ireland and meet with the First Minister, the deputy First Minister and the parties in Northern Ireland, including Deputy McDonald. I look forward to meeting him in Downing Street next week. I will obviously have a range of issues that I will want to discuss with him. I look forward to trying to g…

I have looked into the issue because the service does excellent work and we all want to see this resolved. It is my understanding that, following consultation with the Department of Social Protection, the board of the NAS and the Citizens Information Board, CIB, have agreed to implement the Labour Court recommendation in order to address pay divergence and to ensure that staff in the NAS are paid the same as those in comparable grades in other companies under the CIB umbrella. For clarity, my note tells me that the…

It means we genuinely want to engage with the Deputy on this issue. Her party has put down a motion in good faith on a really important issue. I was reading through it earlier and know that it touches on a range of very important issues in this space. I accept that the motion was put down in good faith and that the Deputy is not asking me to comment on the specifics of a case that is before the courts. I have been assured that a person convicted of a sexual offence is disqualified from having a licence either for l…

I really think this about much more than votes. This is about trying to reform our disability services. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are working intensively on this matter. We had a meeting on it as recently as last Thursday. Following a Cabinet committee meeting, we allocated significant additional funding of €6.89 million to provide for an assessment of need waiting list initiative. This will provide a further 2,500 private assessments to be delivered within the next six months, delivering on a c…