Before answering, I would like to welcome the young people in the Gallery from the Youth Advocate Programme, Foróige and Springboard Family Support Project, all of whom appeared in front of the Joint Committee on Children and Equality. Deputy Keogh, the Chair of the committee, asked me to say that. They were before the committee in respect of the topic of online safety, which, I assure them, is something we always discuss here across the political divide. Listening to young people's voices is an important of that. …

The short answer is that I will speak to my colleague the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, in relation to this. Thankfully, we live in a country that has had full employment for 16 consecutive quarters, but we are not in any way complacent in saying that. We are seeing a churn, for want of a better phrase, in the jobs market. There is no room for complacency. That is why IDA Ireland, which had its most successful year ever last year, and Enterprise Ireland are receiving a lot of Government support.

On the Deputy's point about the need to have a plan for replacement jobs in Laois and the use of IDA Ireland land is a fair on, as is that which he makes around people's quality of life and traffic congestion. We believe passionately in balanced regional development. On foot of the Deputy raising this matter today, I will ask the Minister to speak to IDA Ireland and to come back to him directly.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again and for acknowledging Deputy's Aird's interest and work in this area as well. I am very sorry to hear of those extraordinarily painful, difficult and sad situations regarding children. I will seek an urgent update from the Minister on the specific drug and the condition to which it relates and on the Deputy's broader point regarding early access. I am taken by the point the Deputy made in respect of the process, particularly as, quite frankly we are now in a vastly di…

I take that point too. I think €1 in every €8 in the health budget is now spent on drugs. The Deputy's particular point about rare diseases and the need for Ireland to significantly up its game in terms of an early access programme is serious and sincere. I will ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to come back to him directly. Considering that this matter comes up too often in the House, perhaps we could facilitate time for a proper detailed debate on it in order to hear everyone's ideas.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue with the housing assistance payment. As he rightly says, the law is clear about people not being able to refuse a tenant on the basis of HAP. He is also right to highlight the fact that there are sometimes people trying to skirt the law in this regard. I will bring those comments to the attention of the Minister for housing. The second issue he raised about rent limits is important and I am pleased to tell him the Department has now undertaken a review of all the existing H…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue about the financial contribution scheme and Dublin City Council's view that it requires funding for it. Truthfully, I am not sure of the next steps but on foot of the Deputy raising it, I will speak with the Minister, Deputy Browne, and ask him to come back to the Deputy directly.

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that I know has been harrowing for his community and constituency this week. On a human level, there is the trauma and loss of childhood innocence for an 11 year old and the other child the Deputy rightly referenced. For that child to come across and fire a gun, it is but for the grace of God that nobody was seriously injured. That is not to take away from the trauma and the real shock and fear it has caused in the community. I will ensure this is discussed across Government,…

I join with Deputy Neville in welcoming the students from Confey College. Before I get to the seriousness of the water burst, if you got a day off school for that and a day in the Dáil, it is not a bad week, and there is a bank holiday on Monday. They are welcome and it is great to have them in Leinster House. The point my colleague and friend, Deputy Neville, makes is a serious one. I know it is one he has been campaigning on and highlighting for quite a while. We have rightly resourced Uisce Éireann to a signific…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of St. Aidan's and St. Senan's. I thank them for all they do to meet the needs of the young people of the community and people with additional needs in Enniscorthy. I also acknowledge that for them to be able to do that in the way they want, and the way people expect them to do it, we need to work with them to support them. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will ask that the Minister, Deputy Naughton, speak to the NCSE and that it or the Minister make direct contact with…

I thank the Deputy. I make the broad point that this country, including Irish farmers, benefits hugely from free trade. Most of what we produce in this country in the agrifood sector is sold abroad. We are a better and more prosperous nation, and farmers are better and more prosperous, as a result of free trade. However, we had specific concerns about Mercosur because level playing fields, common application of standards and environmental issues matter too. That is why we did not vote in favour of the Mercosur deal…

On foot of the Deputy raising this matter in relation to Loreto College Swords, I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and ask that she engage with the Deputy directly to see if a solution can be found. On education capital more broadly, I would say that the list is not the final word from Government. There will be further allocations made in the time ahead in relation to building more school projects. That is really important. The Deputy's point is that in the here and now, 16 young women cannot access tra…

I thank Deputy Hearne for raising this issue in relation to Ballymun and the absolute horror his community experienced this week when that young child found and discharged a gun. As the Deputy quite rightly said, it is a miracle nobody was seriously harmed or even worse. I take his point that this is not an isolated incident and that there are broader issues in respect of community safety in Ballymun. Similar to my response to Deputy McAuliffe, I assure the Deputy that I will speak with the Minister for justice on …

I thank Deputy Brabazon for raising this significant issue of annoyance, concern and inconvenience for his constituents on the James Larkin Road and in the surrounding areas. As he says, all of us and our communities expect some degree of disruption when works have to be carried out. However, we also expect that these works will be completed in a timely manner and that there will be an awareness and an understanding on the part of those charged with carrying them out on behalf of the taxpayer that they would be don…

Deputy Clendennen is absolutely right. I love the local improvement scheme. It works really well. It makes a real difference to rural communities. As he said, people in rural communities who are always looking to get on and help themselves but sometimes are looking for just a little support as well. It is also clear that people like the LIS, and that is why there has been such a demand. We have seen that across the Deputy's county in places like Birr in the context of the carrying out of works on non-public roads t…

I am conscious that Fingal East has one of the youngest populations in the country and is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. We are seeing more houses being built and more people moving in, and they require school places. Sometimes the Department of education can be right on the macro and wrong on the micro. It needs to take a look again at specific parts of the country, including the Deputy's, where there is acute need. We made a significant additional allocation of €668 million to the Department of …

The answer is that I am hoping we can do more on measures in the budget to help people adapt, and I am hoping we can do more in each budget that comes thereafter. The budget is 6 October. I know the Deputy does not need to be told this, but the point I was trying to make is that we should not reduce the conversation in here to just about a cash support right now if there are actually other things we can do that would have greater benefit for people's households. We have made a lot of changes already this year. We a…

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy. Of course, the Government did not wait. It brought forward, objectively, one of the largest packages of supports in the European Union to assist our citizens. It is either the largest or second largest package in the European Union, depending on how you look at it, and it is around two and a half times larger than the average package in the European Union. While I welcome the European Commission's high-level proposals of yesterday as an important contribution to this discussion, we in Ireland, i…

Truthfully, it is quite the opposite. We have already brought forward a package of €750 million. That is the opposite of refusing to act; it is acting. It is concrete, meaningful action and people see it at the pump. They know that the diesel price is lower than it was before. It is still too high but people know it is lower. They know the petrol price is lower than it was. Hauliers and their representative body have welcomed the package. Farmers and their representative body have welcomed the package. We continue …