I assure the Deputy this is receiving a lot of attention, as it should, from Government and the State. We want to see this resolved. I understand a mediator met with the group this week - I think on Wednesday. There is work following on and flowing from that. I really understand the emotion and sensitivity of this but I would urge - I think it is the responsible thing for me to urge - people to come off hunger strike. I understand the depth of feeling, the pain and suffering. I get that, but if people could come of…

We have provided the health service with funding which will enable it to increase the numbers of people working in the health service, including in community healthcare, like healthcare assistants. I will ask the Minister for Health and the HSE to directly revert to the Deputy on the situation in south Tipperary and see what can be done to assist. The HSE should be in the business of seeking to recruit more people. Sometimes there can be challenges in identifying appropriate people but I know the human consequences…

I have not yet had the opportunity to see the programme but I intend to see it. I have heard quite a bit about it over the course of the week. The Deputy can be assured the Government will be looking into the issues raised on the programme. I will ask the Minister for Finance to directly respond to the Deputy. I am not aware of any such issues, nor would I necessarily be. The point about the Central Bank of Ireland and Minister being satisfied is an important one so I will ask the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to come …

I certainly will. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and no doubt he will engage with the Garda Commissioner, who decides the allocation of gardaí across the country, on that matter. I was at a Cabinet committee discussion on justice and Garda recruitment issues this week. There are some encouraging signs. The programme for Government commits to further increase the capacity of Garda training infrastructure. The Minister has started work on that and potentially moving training projects from Templemore…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know it is an issue of importance to many people, including people in Dublin West, commuters and people going about their business and encountering these toll charges. The Deputy has made some very interesting suggestions that merit further examination. As she knows, TII has a role in this. She has called on it to give consideration to this. I will certainly bring her views to its attention. I am also aware TII officials are due to appear before the transport committee in…

I will speak directly to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill on this matter. We have made good progress on cancer care and cancer treatment in recent years in this country and it is important we build on that. We have a national cancer strategy. We are increasing our capital investment in health as well. I will try to understand the rationale around those timelines and whether there is anything that can be done to expedite them. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy. While we are on the issue of canc…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter for her constituents in Castlecomer. The Deputy and Councillor Michael Doyle have been working on this issue of greater water capacity in Castlecomer and the wider area so I thank them for that. Uisce Éireann can confirm, as the Deputy and her constituents know, that there are supply and demand issues on the Clogh-Castlecomer water supply zone. This has resulted in supply disruption impacting customers at times when supply does not meet demand. I understand over …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is a really important one and particularly important in her constituency. I am proud of the work we have done together to try to bring some level of closure at this point to families, who were quite frankly abandoned for far too long, in terms of the State apology and the initial phase of compensation. The Deputy is absolutely right that there was to be a phase 2 for survivors and it is important that it progresses. In fairness to the Minister, I understand he is finali…

What I would say to them is that love is love and they live in a Republic where equality must be at the core of all that we do. Homophobic attacks and violence are crimes and there needs to be zero tolerance of them. The Minister for education reminds me that this week is Stand Up Awareness Week, an important initiative by Belong To in our schools. I thank it for the work it is doing. Perhaps this is something we could discuss on a cross-party basis. I would certainly be very happy, on behalf of my party, to arrang…

We have been working on this together over the past while. We meant what we said during the election. Having a childcare system that is fit for purpose, empowers parents, is affordable and accessible, and has quality at its heart is a core priority for this Government. If we can get this right over the course of this Government, we can transform childcare in a way that other parts of society and our education system have been transformed in years gone by. The first step is that the Minister will before the end of t…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I was familiar with this in times gone by and would have had engagement with the family, as I know so many representatives over the years have, both in Wicklow and in government. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries, Deputy Dooley, to update me on the matter, to come back to the Deputy directly and to see if we can have some engagement with the Gaffneys as well. I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley.

Yes.

I do not want to unilaterally agree on behalf of the Government but it is a very sensible suggestion. This is certainly not a new area but it is a relatively new area that Members in this House, people in local authorities, citizens and people new to our country are all trying to grapple and engage with. I am not seeking to be divisive here but the debate should not be hijacked by anybody nor should anybody be shouted down. There should be an opportunity to really look at this. How we involve our citizens in this d…

Today, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and I met Tom Fletcher, as did the Taoiseach and, I think, the President. Tom Fletcher is the humanitarian chief of the UN and he has just come back from Gaza. He is literally one of the few people you can speak to who has been on the ground in Gaza. As the Deputy correctly alluded to at the start, the fragility of the ceasefire is very real. It was good to be able to have a conversation with someone in charge of humanitarian aid in the United Nations who is now talkin…

Yes, is the short and blunt answer. The Deputy has probably heard in recent days that there are now plans for a reconstruction conference on Gaza. This is likely to be in Cairo next month. We need to see where the invitations go but Ireland will certainly be represented there at a senior level. There will be an opportunity for Ireland, along with other international partners, to see what more we can do. The Deputy is entirely correct that the immediate focus is flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid. In a practical se…

The European Union welcomes the peace plan. It is imperfect, as all peace plans are. We also have to be very honest that there is a lot of high-level detail in the peace plan. As phase two commences and we begin to flesh out what some of these things look like and how they operate it is going to be a real challenge. Yes, we have got to keep the pressure on Israel 100%, and we also have got to keep the pressure on Hamas. We have watched the public executions carried out by Hamas on innocent Palestinian people. Hamas…

That remains my position and that of the Government. I think it is objectively fair to say, and there is not much disagreement on this across the House, that the immediate focus has been on the humanitarian aid and supporting the peace plan, on seeing the ceasefire and the hostages being released and looking at practical ways that we can help. International law remains international law and breaches of international law remain breaches of international law. The commitment in the programme for Government on the occu…

My position remains the same as I outlined in this House many times. Of course, I am going to discuss and engage with Government colleagues on this and the Government will obviously make its decision as a collective and present its legislation to the Oireachtas. I will dutifully debate that back and forth in this House. I need to allow that process to take its course. I have respect for the way the Government makes decisions. While I reiterate my commitment to the legislation, I also remind people why we talked abo…

I agree that just because we are a small country is not a reason not to do something. More and more over recent years in the European Union, many coalitions of small and medium-sized countries have come together to work on issues and that has helped move the dial at European level and sometimes at an international level. Recognition was one, as was the fact that we went from being one of only two countries to seek a review of the association agreement to getting to 17 and then 19 was another, along with the fact th…

Like the Deputy, I welcome the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed on the first phase of a deal to end the horrors in Gaza and to try to bring about peace. I also warmly welcome the release of 20 Israeli hostages after two long years in captivity. Every effort must also be made to find and release the bodies of the remaining hostages. Our focus must now be on preserving the ceasefire and flooding Gaza with desperately needed humanitarian aid. The people of Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering. In all…