Gabhaim buíochas le Deputy McDonald, and I thank her for raising what is an extraordinarily important, stressful, and worrying issue for many families in Ireland. As the Deputy has rightly said, I have met many of the families, there are many families that I know and many children whose faces and names I still remember. Nobody, not Deputy McDonald or me, nobody on this side of the House or on that side of the House wants to see any child waiting in pain. On that we can all absolutely agree. The Deputy is absolutely…

I thank Deputy McDonald. First, I answered her three questions sequentially and clearly. I will continue to engage with her on the three answers I gave her. Second, it is a little dismissive to suggest words and rhetoric when 120 procedures this year is not rhetoric and massive levels of investment in theatres and hiring more nurses and doctors are not words; they are real actions. I know it suits the Deputy to suggest these are just words and rhetoric but they are real things we are doing to make a real difference…

How do you square that circle in terms of extra staff and extra investment?

It is true. It is in Sinn Féin's alternative budget available on sinnfein.ie .

I will specifically answer those three questions, but I am conscious that people follow these debates and discussions at home and in the time available to me I want to say a few things. First, six years ago abortion was constitutionally banned in this country, so a lot has changed. We had a referendum, the result of which was decisive. Since then we have steered legislation through this House. Draft legislation was published in advance of the referendum so that people would know what the law would look like if they…

Gabh mo leithscéal. It does matter because when you publish draft legislation alongside a referendum, stating that it will be the law if people vote "Yes", it has to count for something. I welcome the constructive way in which the Deputy engaged on the matters. I am not being coy about the three matters. I am being honest. The Government has yet to consider them, but we intend to discuss them at a Cabinet committee on health shortly.

I, too, pay tribute to those who spoke out. As the Deputy correctly said, I was very influenced and informed in my own views. I am also very conscious, as the Deputy said, that they played a much larger role than any politician in this House, most particularly myself, in bringing about a successful "Yes" vote because they spoke to the people of Ireland and the people of Ireland responded compassionately. I also participated in debates, however, as did the Deputy's party and other parties, when we told people that a…

I thank the Deputy. I accept the sincerity of her view. Whether people agree or disagree with her view, it is well known in this House. We should not engage in revisionism. An awful lot has happened. We had a constitutional ban on abortion. We had the eighth amendment. This House was not empowered to legislate at all. We all went out, across party lines, and campaigned. It is kind of amazing now to think that actually happened, given there was a minority Government. People pulled together and we brought about good …

I thank the Deputy for repeating her contention. Obviously, I do not agree with her. Even the three-day wait period has seen clarification on how it operates since the Covid pandemic. That used to involve two in-person visits but that is now not the case. That was something that came about during Covid that was deemed to work clinically well in the health service and was therefore embedded. I am not dismissing many of the points that have been made in this House but outlining the process the Government will go thro…

I also went further. Elections sometimes interrupt people's tenure of service but in 2019 I also brought about regulations to designate the professions of counsellor and psychotherapist under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act. I established the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board. I appointed its members in February 2019 and they held their first meeting in May 2019. Everybody knows the pressure the Department of Health has been under with the Covid pandemic and the like since. A lot has …

I thank Deputy Collins. I appreciate the passion with which she discussed the issue. I just do not believe phrases like "treating them like dirt" add much to the debate, though. That is the Deputy's view.

It is the Deputy's view and their view. Here is my view: this Government, which I am proud to lead, very much respects and values the work carried out by these workers. The Deputy is right that there are many aspects of our public services, including health and social services, that rely on people who have been traditionally outside the public sector. We are the better for it as a country. Indeed, many of our services working with some of the most vulnerable in society are reliant on those individuals. They provide…

I thank the Deputy. I will undertake to engage with my Government colleagues. As she has rightly indicated, this cuts across a number of Departments. Many of the organisations fall within the Department of children. I have outlined on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, that Tusla has made payments. Some fall within the Department of Health or the health agency family. Some are within the Department of housing and its agencies. We have two things to do arising from this question. The first thing we need to do …

I thank Deputies for their contributions. In relation to the EU migration pact, let us be really clear: we will have a very long debate in this House, we will have a vote in this House and there will be ample opportunity for that. For those who are watching in, the motion that is before us today is simply to refer the pact to the committee for scrutiny. That is what we generally do. It goes to a committee, it is scrutinised at a committee, and it will come back here before the Dáil. Let me assure Deputies on the re…

----- but the appropriate thing is for it to go before the justice committee. How the justice committee decides to assess-----

Give me-----

Just give me one second. Deputy Verona Murphy has been at this for long enough to know how it works. I do not tell the justice committee what to do. There would be uproar if I started telling the justice committee-----

No, go down-----

Go down to the-----

The way these things usually work is that the committee sets out its own work.