Leave the bully boy antics out of the Chamber today and just for once take off the party jersey. If you are suggesting that amplifying, as we have been asked to do by the RSA, the fact that people should be careful on the roads today and avoid driving-----

If you are suggesting that the glib weather forecast-----

People are watching this today and it is extremely important to get the facts out.

I do not care about engaging with Deputy Doherty but the people who are-----

Please, Deputy. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. A bit of decorum would be great. People are looking at this today and want to know what is going to happen, and I want to tell them. There will be an increased focus on allowing local authorities to fast-track more works that can be done in the here and now. There are already examples, with 900 that have been delivered. Flood relief schemes have been classified as critical infrastructure. There is an overhaul of the flood warning schemes and help for p…

-----the party that are climate deniers will come back and have a discussion.

Today is not a day for party politics but, unfortunately for Deputy Doherty, he just cannot reach deeper, even on a day like today. Shame on you, Pearse.

It is what-----

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for raising this important issue. I thank Tony for his advocacy in relation to his daughter, Aoife, and for speaking up for all the other mums and dads. This is an issue I have come across in my own constituency when I knock on a hall door and meet somebody behind it who, not to age people, is perhaps in his or her 70s or 80s. Deputy Whitmore meets these people in Wicklow too. They have been doing their best. In some cases, the family are working well, but are of course worried about what…

It is a fair question. I understand why the Deputy says what he says and why parents can feel like that. Certainly the State is not waiting for that to happen but we need to avoid that emergency and cliff-edge moment where the conversation the State has with the person with a disability only happens at a moment of crisis, personal trauma and loss. That is what we need to get much better at. The Deputy asked about what we have done regarding the disability capacity review. We have genuinely tried to ramp up signific…

I get blamed for everything sometimes but I am certainly not behind that proposal nor is there one. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue because road safety is an extraordinarily important issue. Our road safety statistics in this country are going in the wrong direction. We all think of Grace Lynch. We are pleased and proud in this House that the new regulation on scramblers will be named in her name, in her honour and in her memory. I think of her family this morning. The action we have taken regarding scramb…

I certainly will. I know Ciarán Cannon well from his past posting in the House. I know him to be a very good and reasonable person and a good, evidence-based advocate. He was in this House and he is in his new role. If there was ever an issue that we should not be partisan on, and it is not in our discussion, it is road safety. We all want to see a reduction in deaths and injuries. I think we are all alarmed - I am certainly alarmed - at the dangers we see on our roads. There are more distractions than ever before …

I acknowledge that this is an issue that the Deputy has raised a lot in this House. It relates to Uisce Éireann, how it functions and, perhaps almost as importantly, how it answers to and engages with the Government, the Oireachtas and communities as well. To be honest, I expect a bit better in relation to this too. I can assure the Deputy that it is not just an issue on his side of the House. On this side of the House, many of my colleagues point out the need for better community engagement and better engagement w…

The only reason I am smiling is I thought it was a very good way of sticking in the name of the Deputy's by-election candidate. We will select our by-election candidate on 22 February for Galway West. The point the Deputy made is a very serious one. I take his support for the developer-led infrastructure. It is important. It is particularly important in rural communities where even forgetting developers, local authorities and public representatives say to us they could deliver 15 homes here or 20 or 30 homes there.…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue with me in relation to Skerries and Rush. It is not the first time she has raised it with me and I acknowledge that she represents and is from a community that is in the fastest growing area of the country with one of the youngest populations. She makes this point as we make progress on housing, and I am pleased to see we are making progress on housing. There has been a 20% increase in the number of homes built last year compared to the previous year. We have to m…

Of that I have absolutely no doubt, knowing the Deputy well. Please do because this is what we need to do. We have to invest in housing but also in communities like hers. My own is not that dissimilar, where there is an increased volume of development and a growing young population. We need to make sure that we put that social and educational infrastructure in place as well. I get the acuity of this and the pressure that schools and parents are under too. Tranche 1 of the capital plan last week was a really importa…

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this issue. I am acutely aware of the deep concern felt by people who live in Donegal and particularly, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, patients and their families who depend on this air service to access specialist medical care, including cancer treatment. He has given us a sense of the depth of feeling with so many people having signed a petition in such a short time. I am clear that the route is not about convenience. It is about trying to manage illness with dignity and red…

I thank Deputy Bacik for raising this. Of course I am aware of it. I would appreciate further engagement with her on it. It will probably require longer engagement than we have here today. As she said, it arises from the Supreme Court judgment of October 2023 in the case of Revenue Commissioners v. Karshan (Midlands) t/a Domino’s Pizza Limited. There has been a period of time since then. It goes without saying that Revenue is independent of me, as it should be, in relation to how it applies tax law in Ireland. Obvi…

The Deputy mentioned the "bridge to nowhere". I remember Sarah Palin using that phrase. When Barack Obama rang Sarah Palin when she was chosen as a vice presidential candidate, he wished her luck but not too much. I wish the Deputy good luck with his party's conference this weekend in Cork. I would push back on the idea that we have not invested in Cork. There has been €400 million in URDF funding for Cork alone.

I have long made the point that we need to see a Cork city task force. When I was Taoiseach we set one up for Dublin and we are seeing the benefits of that. I think Cork should follow that lead. It is also a commitment in the programme for Government. I have raised it with the Lord Mayor of Cork and the Cork city chief executive. I am due to visit shortly. I will get the Deputy a specific update on the events centre in advance of his gathering, I hope. In fairness to the Taoiseach, I know he takes this issue very s…