I thank Deputy Mythen very much for raising this issue. There is, as there should be, constant engagement with all stakeholders in respect of special education. I am pleased that the budget has provided significant additional funding that will allow for 860 extra teaching posts in the area of special education needs and 1,717 extra SNA posts. Also, we will be providing funding of €16 million to roll out the national therapy service in education to special needs schools. I will ask the Minister to respond directly t…

I will try not to do what the Deputy asked me not to do. We obviously need to look at the housing situation nationally but we also need to work locally, county by county, in relation to housing. That is what we are trying to do. It is what the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, are trying to do. The Taoiseach and I will be interacting with a number of local authority chief executives. I will see if we can engage with the chief executive of Mayo County Council as well. Even in a coun…

The Minister of State reminds us of a good point.

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Minister for Health engaged with the national cancer screening service recently and has engaged with cancer advocacy groups too. I am not satisfied if people are experiencing those waiting times. The Deputy is quite right. As well as the clinical importance of quick diagnosis, there is also – as she very eloquently put it – the hugely stressful and worrying time that it is for women and for their families. I…

I thank Deputy Dempsey for raising this case. In many ways, it reminds us of why we need to abolish the means test. We are all hearing too many stories of carers not qualifying because of the income of the people they are married to or in a relationship with. As the Deputy said, there are also cases where people finally get the allowance and then find that if their spouse or partner does a few hours of extra work or gets a promotion, which are good things that happen in family life, they lose out. These are kinds o…

I am always open to engaging on a cross-party basis on this. I was with the First Minister for Northern Ireland in Hillsborough last night with representatives from western Balkan countries. We had a conversation about our peace process and the learnings from it for other parts of the world. It was a brief opportunity to talk to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in relation to legacy matters. We have a framework. It needs to be implemented and translated faithfully into legislation in the House of Commons…

The first thing I will do is read that EU report. Deputy Kelly was right to bring it to the attention of the House. We want to be leaders in terms of the structures we have here. We certainly do not want to be laggards. This matter sounds concerning from what he tells me, which I am not doubting. We have taken a number of measures in recent years in trying to establish the new structures for protected disclosures, greater clarity around what is meant to happen when disclosures come in and greater understanding acro…

It would feel wrong to rise to my feet and not take the opportunity to update the House on the ongoing illegal detention of five Irish citizens in Israel, including one of our own colleagues in this House, Deputy Heneghan. Overnight, a second flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli authorities. It was carrying five Irish citizens, including Deputy Heneghan. I want to inform the House that I have been briefed on the situation this morning by our Irish ambassador in Tel Aviv, H. E. Ms Sonya McGuinness. I was also in …

There will be five years of certainty.

That is an action. We voted on it last night; we took that decision last night. We are permanently reducing student fees in order that students and their parents will have the certainty that over the course-----

They are a hell of a lot cheaper than they are in the North where Sinn Féin is leading the Government.

Sinn Féin would want to get on with it. I cannot for the life of me-----

When Sinn Féin-----

-----returned to office in the North, I do not understand why it did not make reducing student fees a precondition of that return. It set out a number of other policies and it forget the poor students, who are paying multiples of what their counterparts here pay. Shame. It was a terrible mistake. The student loan system in the North is appalling too.

It is not a back-and-forth. I get to speak in relation to this and then the Deputy gets to speak. Student fees are being permanently reduced in this jurisdiction.

Students fees are being permanently reduced. We are also-----

Those opposite do not like when I compare what is happening here with the place where they are in government. We are also taking an important step towards removing the means tests for our carers. A big move was made yesterday in that regard. This is something that everybody in the House supports. Concrete action was taken yesterday in relation to that. We are reducing the rate of VAT relating to hospitality and hairdressers to 9% in order to protect jobs across the country. Again, I have heard much commentary on th…

We have.

Like your 300,000 housing units.

That is not true.