Some issues are more important than shouting at each other across the Chamber. This is a very serious issue. I assure Deputy Cairns that the entire Government and the Cabinet committee chaired by the Taoiseach are co-ordinating the effort concerning this issue. For the information of the House, I confirm that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, now intends to open 350 additional beds this week. This will make a significant difference. A huge amount of work has been undertaken to get to this point. I acknowledge this asp…

That will be a matter for the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. He is working very intensively on this.

The Deputy does not need to speak for the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien; he can speak for himself. He is already working very hard on making a real difference in regard to this. Deputy Cairns implored the Government not to play politics with this. I respectfully suggest the same.

Lads, I do not need any help. It is not fair to suggest that moving from 4,700 people seeking protection in our country to 100,000 people is a seamless transition. That is not fair. I am aware of the questions I was asked. I was asked questions in regard to the community engagement plan. I said it has gone to tender in the past two weeks. I was asked questions about how we will further support communities. I outlined that we will announce a €50 million allocation to communities this week. I am absolutely assuring t…

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising these issues. Everybody in the House appreciates the beauty, benefit and importance of Galway as a city not just to the west and north-west regions but as a city of strategic importance to our country. Some of the issues are, quite frankly, related to the local authority and there is no getting away from that, but I accept that not all are. Of course, local authorities received significant funding. I am not casting aspersions on any local authority, but they need to set out their…

Of course it has to comply with its obligations under climate change. Even in discussions at Cabinet yesterday and announcements by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, make it very clear that it can no longer be about Government, be it national or local, telling other people that climate change requires them to change. There is a significant programme of change that every public body, including local authorities, need to undertake. To be clear, the legal requirement of Ireland…

I absolutely will not. The Deputy can have a go at and slur the Government, if he wants, but when he talks about the HSE, he is talking about hundreds of thousands people working every day. The HSE is nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants and people who get up and work bloody hard to try to run our health service. Thus, I do not agree with cheap-shot political lines at all. I will agree, however, that we continue to face major challenges in healthcare. We are all aware of that. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donn…

We are also living in a country that has the highest life expectancy in Europe, as deemed by the World Health Organization. Not everything the Deputy says about the HSE is entirely true either. It must be doing something right.

If the Deputy wants to blame the HSE for everything that goes wrong, he also has to acknowledge-----

-----when the health services progress. It is a statement of fact that the Deputy and his constituents are living in a country that has the highest life expectancy in Europe. He wants to blame the Government for everything but when something good happens, that is incidental and has nothing to do with us.

He cannot have it both ways. The reality of the situation is there are too many people waiting too long-----

-----but it is also true to say that there were fewer people waiting last month than there were at the Covid peak. We are seeing real progress and inroads as a result of an unparalleled and unprecedented level of investment. That will continue and it will benefit the Deputy's constituents. The new ophthalmology service we will see in Cork this year will also fundamentally benefit the area.

I do not concede that at all, because we are seeing Garda numbers grow through Templemore. This will be the first year since the Covid pandemic that we will see Garda numbers increase. We will see more new Garda members than gardaí leaving the force. We saw more than 90 trainees enter Templemore in November and more than 130 enter Templemore earlier this year. We saw more than 155 trainees enter Templemore this week and 53 others say they would like a place this year, but they would like to go in later in the year.…

I thank Deputy Bacik. We consider all proposals and I look forward to debating that legislation. In relation to the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond's meeting, I note that two major retailers dropped the price of bread on the day the meeting was called. I do not think that was coincidental. We do not apologise for the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and others having an relentless focus on keeping the pressure on here. There is another meeting scheduled for June. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, wi…

I note the significance of the WRC finding. I will certainly follow up with the Taoiseach in relation to the conversation the Deputy is relaying he had with Debenhams workers. I know from one of my briefs about the difficult time they have been going through. We have been trying to provide opportunities for skills, education and other job opportunities. We will reflect on the WRC position and I will get the Deputy an update on when the legislation is due.

My understanding is that Mr. Ultan Courtney was engaged by the LGMA at the behest of SIPTU to chair discussions. I also understand that a lot of progress was made during those discussions but, regrettably, it was not possible to reach a positive conclusion to the satisfaction of all parties. The Government would absolutely encourage all parties to continue to engage. Let us keep engaging constructively to resolve the outstanding industrial relations issues within that facilitation forum.

Without commenting on the individual case, issues regarding redundancy are set out through both contract law and, as the Deputy referenced, the industrial relations mechanism that is in place. It is not for the Government to intervene here, as there are clear industrial relations mechanisms in place.

I can assure the Deputy that the Government's intention was not that. The Government's intention was to identify any potential accommodation that was available and, in the first instance, any accommodation that was available quickly. The Deputy and I understand why that was done in terms of responding in an emergency. As we move into a more sustained phase and need to move from the initial phase into more medium-term planning, the point the Deputy makes about every local authority needing to plan in relation to thi…

I thank Deputy Griffin for raising this issue and echoing and amplifying the frustration of his constituents in relation to this. At a time when we are trying to support and sustain the rental market, encourage landlords to stay in the market and help people who are renting, it is important that the RTB can function efficiently for anyone who tries to contact it. I will pass on the Deputy's views to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and ask him to respond to the Deputy directly.

I am very excited about the research Bill. It is a chance to get a stand-alone piece of research legislation right. Yesterday I announced that we will have a research advisory forum so we can hear directly from the community and from researchers to make sure we get it right. The Deputy is entirely correct. The establishment of five technological universities has been a big achievement for the Government and a big benefit for regional Ireland. The next step is new contract opportunities so they can achieve the scale…