I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I will bring it to the attention of the Minister for Health and ask that she engage with the Deputy directly on the women and infants health programme and the HSE on the need for that consultant post for complex conditions during pregnancy.

I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this issue. It is not the first time he has raised it. He raised the application process window on a previous occasion and I was pleased that we were in a position to reopen it. I will now speak with Ministers Naughton and Moynihan on clarity and staff requirements for schools, in particular the issue the Deputy highlighted around home-based provision and the need for clarity for parents. I am conscious it is a very tight window. As I said earlier, and I say sincerely, once we get…

Yes, we will. I thank Deputy Doherty and Deputies across the House, including on the Government benches, for raising this issue. We will reopen the portal. The Deputy is right; on occasions we can agree in this House. This is a vital programme that plays a very important part in the lives of children with additional needs, be they special educational needs or children from areas of economic disadvantage. The summer programme is a vital support for families. It is specifically designed to support children with compl…

I do not want to mislead the House. On the last issue, I need to talk to the Minister for education and ask that she comes back to the Deputy, as I am sure she will. I take the seriousness of the point he makes. Schools will be contacted today because the Deputy is right that they need that clarity. My understanding is that, while the schools will be contacted today, the portal will open next week. This is a programme that is growing very significantly in terms of the numbers of children. We all know in our own con…

I believe in honest politics as well, and I think everyone in this House engages in good faith on behalf of the people they represent, as the Deputy does too. I reject the assertion that this is in any manner of means a cut because that would suggest that the budget of one Department will be lower than it currently is. The budgets of all Departments are growing. I do not need to remind the Labour Party, which served in government at a very difficult time, what cuts are like, when we had to make extraordinarily hard…

Respectfully, Ministers not being held to account is baloney. We had a budget oversight committee meeting the other day. In fairness, the Deputy was at it, he contributed and he asked all his questions. Others did not bother turning up. The meeting ended 40 minutes early. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I were there looking for questions to take, and the Chairman-----

I just want to be clear. The budget oversight committee met. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I were there to answer every and any question anybody wanted to ask, and it ended with 40 minutes to spare, which the Chairman then filled.

It does not matter who did not turn up.

People can come back in with further questions as well. There were 40 minutes of unallocated time there. We are very accountable to this Oireachtas, and I want people at home to know that. I also want people to know that the rising of the Dáil has nothing to do with this at all because these are figures that will affect 2027, when there will be a significant opportunity. We will have a summer economic statement, a national economic dialogue and plenty of opportunities. I believe in good, honest politics. So does De…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It is good to see his colleague Deputy Ennis settling in well beside him. I think I have been in touch to arrange to meet them. I will be meeting them in June. The Taoiseach has also met them, as have the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins. When I say "them", I mean the Before We Die group. I thank them for their work and advocacy and for shining a spotlight on this situation. Sometimes you just have to stand up in this House and ad…

I am going to commit to meeting the group in June. I am happy to engage further with the Deputy on this matter after that. This is an interesting area in respect of which extra funding is 100% required but where monitoring the impact of that funding on the systems in place also matters. For example, we are increasing respite funding by €25 million this year. We are also increasing funding for home support and personal assistance hours this year. I can say that, and it is true, but then there are demographic and pla…

What was definitely not on my bingo card for 2026 was Aontú quoting Friends of the Earth, but politics throws new things at you every day. The issue relating to the cost of electricity and the energy crisis in Ireland is a serious one. That is why this Government, through the Minister, Deputy Calleary, is expanding the fuel allowance. We extended the allowance for a further month in order to help people like those the Deputy referenced. It is also why we have taken a number of decisions to reduce excise on diesel a…

The Deputy is ignoring the point I am making. It sounds very good in short clips and sound bites, but the reality is that he is ignoring the economic benefit of the data centres. He is ignoring the economic benefit in terms-----

I am sorry. Deputy Tóibín is giving Deputy Lawless a chance today.

He is giving him a chance today.

I did not think that the weekend went so badly for Deputy Tóibín that he has had a leadership heave against him. Anyway, he should give the man a chance.

The rules are that the Deputy asks the question and I get a chance to answer it. For people sitting at home, I want to outline the reality of the situation. Aontú, on behalf of Friends of the Earth, is suggesting that data centres are costing all of this money. That ignores the fact that I put on the record of the House the economic analysis available to me, as Minister of Finance, in terms of the benefit to this country in terms of taxes and employment. The Government does not have the luxury of ignoring that. If …

I want to say this. The Friends of the Earth report will be considered. That report says things the Deputy did not mention. It concedes that under the high renewable growth scenario, we actually see a situation where accelerated renewables are presented as sufficient to displace significant reliance on gas. The message the Deputy should have taken from the report is that we need to accelerate the move to renewables. That is what this Government is committed to. If Aontú is willing to finally step up and accept that…

I thank the Deputy for the question on housing and how we give our young people hope in terms of the ability to own or indeed in some cases to build their own home. I do not say this in any way disrespectfully to the Deputy but taxes are an important part of funding the State and we cannot just reduce or abolish them all. We have taken a number of measures recently to reduce the cost of construction and to try to assist around viability but we have also taken a number of measures on the tax side, particularly the h…

I always believe in an honest debate around migration but the honest debate has to be grounded in facts. People who arrive in Ireland from abroad through a variety of circumstances do not have an automatic right to social housing. The Deputy knows that too and he knows that in Kerry as well. People from Ukraine contribute very significantly to our economy as well. Obviously, they do have the right to work and indeed many businesses around this country tell me how reliant-----