2026-05-14

Another day, another story of shocking waste on the watch of Fine Gael and Fine Gael. A public accounts committee investigation has uncovered that the Government has overspent to the tune of €40 million on IT projects in the past two years. This is crazy stuff, again and again. A DNA information system was supposed to cost €760,000; the final cost was €2.7 million. A childcare IT project was supposed to cost €7.1 million; its final cost was over €10 million. A new Garda case management system collapsed with €500,000 already spent - money wasted, down the drain. What in God's name is happening? What is going on here? Nobody in charge, no oversight, no accountability. From bike sheds to IT projects, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are serial wasters of the public's money. It is easy come, easy go, and people have had their fill of it. What is the Tánaiste going to do to put a stop to the serial wastage we are seeing under this Government?

Hear, hear.

The Deputy says "no oversight, no accountability", but is that not exactly the role of the public accounts committee and is that not exactly why that information is in the public domain? It is because we have oversight.

To tell us it is wasted. We are trying to make sure it does not get wasted.

We have accountability. We have oversight as well. When the Deputy quotes selectively, it leads us to one view. When you look at the thing in the round, we see that many projects come in on time and on budget. Many come in under budget as well. We must continue to call out and highlight those areas where they do not and continue to ensure that they do better. The Deputy likes to create the view that every bit of investment in cycling or somewhere to park a bike is waste.

Who said that?

It is a little bit more complicated than that. It might not work for the old TikTok videos but it deserves a more considered response than Deputy Doherty ever gives here in this House.

Will the Tánaiste address the issue? Will he address the fact that the Government is wasting millions of euro while asking ordinary people to tighten their belts?

If the Deputy wants to talk about wastage, he should get a mirror.

We move on to Deputy Wall.

Speaking on behalf of the still very relevant Labour Party,------

Hear, hear.

-----childcare is a major cost of living for many working families across this country. In too many cases, parents are paying a second mortgage in childcare fees while others are struggling to even find a place for their children. Many community and small providers are barely getting by while educators are leaving the sector day by day. At the same time, we hear that a major childcare chain is being sold to a UK investment firm for €75 million, a chain that has come to Leinster House with its begging bowl and lobbied hard for an increase in fees and for funding increases. Ireland is sleepwalking into a corporate takeover of childcare. The Labour Party was the first party to propose €200 childcare fees, something that all parties seem to agree on. When will the Government get serious about delivering a fully public system of early childhood education and care that delivers affordability for parents, quality for children and fairness for small and medium providers, who are the backbone of this sector?

I thank the Deputy. I believe that a proper publicly supported childcare system that works and has enough places, access and affordability is key, not just as an equality issue or a social issue - though it is both - but as an economic issue. It is an important issue. There is a consensus in this House, at least on the destination we want to get to. We have made progress. Any parent who uses the national childcare subsidy scheme knows that scheme provides more funding and support now than it used to. People know that core funding has increased. People know we are now investing more. For the first time, the State is now investing directly in publicly funded State facilities as well. I believe that with four budget left to go for this Government, the next budget needs to deliver a roadmap to get us from A to B and show how we will make that progress. I want childcare to be a major priority in the forthcoming budget.

More than 7,000 notices to quit were issued during the first three months of this year, which is an increase of 51%. The Tánaiste's response to being challenged on the highest levels of evictions since the Famine was quite shocking and revealing in its lack of concern for the real-life trauma, stress and anxiety of thousands of households, many of them children, families and workers, who were evicted in the first three months of this year. The Government's new rental measures were brought in to benefit the vulture funds and vulture landlords. The Government caused this and allowed them to hike the rents, but refused to give the existing quarter of a million renters any new protections from evictions. Does the Tánaiste accept the Government's policies have caused this and that what we need is an emergency ban on no-fault evictions? How can the Tánaiste stand over it?

Time is up, Deputy.

He did not even respond in terms of this being trauma and people's lives being thrown upside down - thousands of them. Yet, the Tánaiste says, "Oh well, we will see what we can do." Why will the Government not put a ban on evictions in place?

Thank you, Deputy Hearne. The Tánaiste to respond.

The Tánaiste says he cares. He says he has compassion. This is what is needed.

I do not accept that at all. What I accept is that we are seeing more tenancies in this country now than we did last year. We are seeing more landlords in the market now than we did last year. Yes, we did see a spike in notices of termination. That is a statement of fact. There are other statements of fact in the report the Deputy has not mentioned, including the very significant-----

Does the Tánaiste accept the trauma?

I absolutely accept that when we live in a housing emergency people experience trauma. I also accept that we need to get private investment in to build houses and that not every house will be built by the taxpayer in this country. Private investment is a really important part of any sustainable housing market. We have a difference of view on that.

I have just received notice of what will be proposed for a massive increase in council rent in South Dublin County Council. It is looking to increase the basic rate of council rent by 25%. It will mean thousands of euro extra per year for many families at a time of a cost-of-living crisis that people simply will not be able to afford. It is not just South Dublin County Council. We have seen this in Dublin City Council where rents have been increased by almost 30% - there is huge resistance and opposition to that - and it has happened in other councils across the country. This is not happening just accidentally in multiple places across the country; it is coming from the Government. Looking at the programme for Government and the Housing Commission report, there are references to merging social and cost-rental housing over time, and this new report from the Department of housing talks about changes to facilitate closer alignment with market rent. In other words, get rid of social housing, effectively, and have people paying these completely unaffordable rates. How are people meant to be able to afford massive increases in their rents at a time of a cost-of-living crisis?

Hear, hear.

As the Deputy knows, the setting of rents is a matter for each local authority, quite rightly. We either believe in local democracy or we do not. We fund it well enough. We have set it up well enough. We have councillors elected right across the country and there are chief executives. It is up to each local authority to decide their situation. There is also a need for fairness in relation to rent. We provide a lot of social housing in this country and there is a need to make sure people are paying a fair rent as well. That is an important part of the social contract. There are many people looking for a home and trying to buy a home. There are many people in private rental accommodation. There are many people who have scraped and saved to buy their own home too. There is a need for fairness and if there are some rents local authorities do not believe meet that fairness test, there is a case to make sure they are set at an appropriate rate.

This coming Monday, the European Parliament will vote on a framework that will allow gene-edited foods onto Irish supermarket shelves with zero consumer labelling and no safety screening. While we have our own ban on the cultivation of traditional genetically modified organisms, GMOs, we cannot, under this legislation, ban the import and transport of EU-approved genetic material for food and animal feed. There is a real risk that Irish organic farmers, whose livelihoods depend on keeping their crops entirely new genomic techniques, NGT, free will actually be contaminated because trace amounts of wind-blown NGT can lose them their organic certification. My understanding is also that under this final law, because it allows for an earlier law to be brought in, it is making GMOs, in this context anyway, fully patentable. Therefore, corporations will have control over some of the material. In this context, given the Government allowed this to proceed to this stage, will the Tánaiste now instruct Government MEPs to vote against the legislation so we can have further scrutiny because this will pose a risk to Irish organic farming?

I have been at this long enough to know I never instruct my MEPs. They will each consider and scrutinise these issues well, but the Deputy highlights an important issue I will not pretend to be across all the details of. I will make myself familiar with it now on foot of the Deputy raising this and will engage with my own party MEPs in advance of that vote on Monday. I am happy to come back to the Deputy on this.

I raised with the Tánaiste a few weeks ago the issue of the Irish Water works on James Larkin Road.

Yes.

Those works continue at a snail's pace. I will raise today, in the context of the bank holiday weekend just gone, that DART services were suspended for maintenance works. At the same time, we also had the Dublin City Half Marathon take place in which 13,000 athletes were running. This caused transport chaos, particularly across the northside. I witnessed up to 30 people standing at several bus stops when the buses were caught up in traffic, we had no DARTs and the roads were chock-a-block. There was no alternative way for people to get around. I ask that something be done in relation to long bank holiday weekend works on the DART. The DART is absolutely necessary on those particular weekends.

I thank Deputy Brabazon. I am a bit frustrated to hear they have not made progress more speedily on those Uisce Éireann works. I really appeal to Uisce Éireann, when Members of the Oireachtas, Government or Opposition, raise issues in this House to please take them seriously. Please, just take them seriously. Uisce Éireann is a State body and TDs raise issues here in good faith. When they raise them on the floor of the national Parliament, if Deputies could receive a comprehensive and meaningful response I would appreciate that. In regard to DART works more generally, it is a statement of the obvious that upgrade works and the likes cause a level of inconvenience. I accept and acknowledge that. I know that traditionally Iarnród Éireann has chosen bank holiday weekends to undertake projects of significant scale because the extra weekend day allows it to achieve more progress more efficiently, rather than doing it over multiple weekends or inconveniencing weekday passengers and people who are going to work. Iarnród Éireann tells me it is standard international railway practice for bank holiday weekends to be used for works. I will ask the National Transport Agency, NTA, to work closely with Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus to see if any measures could be put in place to help mitigate that, including maybe increased capacity on bus routes. I will follow up with the Minister for Transport on that.

I will raise the issue of the provision of public footpaths, and their maintenance, repair and infill. There is no dedicated funding for such within the local authorities. There is active travel funding, roads funding and all of the other streams, which are very often criteria-driven. For example, any engineer who is requested to have a look at the provision of new footpaths, maintenance or repair, the answer received is that there is no funding. I am looking for separate footpath funding to be dedicated to each council so they will be able to repair and maintain what they have.

I thank Deputy Roche for raising this issue. It is an interesting point. The primary focus of investments in the regional local road network is on the protection and renewal of them, which obviously plays a crucial role for communities, local economies and the likes. We have very significantly increased our funding on that. There is a discretionary grant under the regional and local road grant that can be used by councils for a wide range of works, including footpaths. Local authorities have that discretion from that grant allocation. I know some local authorities decide to do footpath programmes from that grant. The broader point the Deputy is making, when we are trying to encourage people to be active and the safety issues in rural Ireland in particular, is a valid one. I will certainly work with our colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and others on this to see if there is more we can pursue. I will come back to the Deputy on it.

The much-needed additional gardaí announced for Swords and Malahide are very welcome. However it does not address the need for a fit-for-purpose station in Swords. The station we currently have was built when Swords was a village. We now have a population of over 41,000 and growing. It services the areas around it, including Portmarnock, Donabate and further afield. The gardaí are doing the best they can with limited services, including working overtime to deal with antisocial behaviour, etc. An upgrade has been planned since 2005 and nothing has happened. We really need a fully functioning Garda station. I met the Minister for justice in October. He promised to visit the station. I raised it again on the floor of the Dáil and he promised to look at it again. Can we do something about it?

I thank the Deputy for her contribution and for acknowledging the additional gardaí, who are badly needed. We need to continue to increase the number of gardaí through Templemore. The Deputy is right that as we increase the number of gardaí, we need to make sure we have modern fit-for-purpose stations. The population of Swords is now much closer to the population of a city than that of a village. I welcome the fact that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, said that he will visit. I certainly follow up with him on that.

Fine Gael has always believed in rewarding hard work, encouraging initiative and aspiration and supporting people who try to build a better life for themselves and their families, but increasingly our tax system is sending the opposite message. Workers today are pushed into the 40% tax band at income levels that are no longer considered high by any reasonable standard. We now have one of the lowest entry points to the top rate of income tax anywhere in Europe. That means people who take on extra hours, who go for promotion, who build a career or try to earn a little more are seeing more and more of that effort taxed away. A tax system should reward ambition and not penalise it, making work pay and not making people question whether it is worth it. Does the Tánaiste agree the next four budgets provide an opportunity to take a more ambitious approach to widening the standard rate and strengthening the principle that work should pay?

I fully do and I thank Deputy Currie for raising this issue. People who work hard should be able to get ahead and not just get by. Work must always pay. There are far too many people in this country who feel they play by the rules, do everything they possibly can, spend long times commuting, have childcare costs and the like and at the end of the month, they say "Is that it?" when they look at their payslip. We need to do better on that. We have a proud record on this. In 2015, you paid the higher rate of tax at just over €33,000. It is now €44,000. I want to see a personal income tax package in the next budget and in the next four budgets.

I will raise an issue of the utmost importance in Youghal, County Cork. Under the HSE capital plan, we were promised that there would be an exploratory look into Youghal in respect of a new ambulance training college by the National Ambulance Service. We need this in our community for the economic investment, the jobs coming from the State and because of how much work was put into this under the previous Government. I am asking the Tánaiste for his support in respect of that. What we also need in Youghal is a better and faster ambulance service and a full-time base that is funded and staffed, which is under that same capital plan. There have been some deeply sensitive cases in Youghal recently where people have been waiting too long for ambulances with tragic consequences. Will the Tánaiste speak to the Minister for Health to see if we can get this moved on as quickly as possible? I have done my utmost on behalf of the people in east Cork and Youghal to see that this issue gets the attention that it needs and deserves.

I certainly will. It is a very important issue. The National Ambulance Service plays a literally life-saving role right across our communities. I am proud of the work that we have done together in Government where we increased overall funding for the National Ambulance Service by 41% between 2022 and 2025. We increased staff, with 588 more staff to a total number of 2,655, and we invested €126 million in the ambulance fleet in those years as well. I will raise the ambulance service in Youghal and the commitment to the new ambulance training college there with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and ask that she come back to the Deputy directly.

As the Tánaiste is aware, Saggart is the location of a State-owned IPAS centre. This was purchased by the State without any meaningful consultation with residents or Opposition TDs. Sinn Féin submitted an amendment to the recent International Protection Act for community consultation but the Government opposed this. Any area that has seen an increase in population like Saggart will see pressure on existing facilities. One of the measures that people in Saggart have been calling for is high-visibility policing. I welcome the recent announcement of the high-visibility programme in parts of Dublin and across the country, but residents of Saggart were extremely disappointed that they were not included in this programme. I submitted parliamentary questions to the Minister for justice that were ruled out of order, stating that the Minister has no responsibility for these actions, which I find a bit bizarre. What the residents of Saggart are looking for is a safe well-managed village environment for everybody in Saggart to enjoy and they are calling for high-visibility policing for Saggart and the surrounding areas. Is this something that Government can support?

The Minister for justice is not accountable in terms of where gardaí are deployed, which is only my best guess as to why that question would have been ruled out of order but, of course, the Government has an active interest in policing, Garda numbers and working with communities. I am very conscious that the community in Saggart - good decent people in Saggart - have asked Government for a number of investments in differences in their community, with high-visibility policing being just one. I will certainly follow that up with the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and ask him to come back directly to the Deputy.

In October 2024, the Tánaiste launched the report of the Dublin city task force. One of its key recommendations was to recruit an additional 1,000 gardaí for the city centre. He strongly endorsed the report. I am sure he will remember he wrote in the Irish Independent, "I am up for it. I hope you are too." Eighteen months later, only an additional net 40 gardaí have been recruited across the city centre divisions. I asked the Minister for justice about it this morning. He said that it is still Government policy but was unable to give me a timeline for when this would be delivered. He went on to say it was very much dependent on recruitment and retention in Templemore. He mentioned the fact that communities all over the country are calling for extra gardaí as well so he did not sound particularly up for it, to be honest. Can we take it that the policy of an additional 1,000 gardaí in the city centre is being moved to the aspiration column? Is there a clear set of measures that the Tánaiste can point to that this commitment the Government made for an additional 1,000 gardaí in the city centre will actually be delivered within a timeline?

I remember that day well. I think the Deputy was at the launch with me. It might be the day the Deputy suggested the date of the general election. I remember it was a busy day but I am very pleased we launched that report and that we have taken a number of decisions recently in terms of resourcing the Dublin city centre task force, including the appointment of Robert Watt to oversee the office to deliver that as part of Dublin City Council. He is a very experienced public and civil servant. The plan has been fully endorsed by the Government and by Dublin City Council. We are seeing Garda numbers increasing in Dublin. We are not allowed to mention the "B" word but I am sure as he is out and about in Dublin, the Deputy is seeing recognition from the community in Dublin around high-visibility policing and more Garda numbers. We need to continue to drive that forward. It is factually true that Garda numbers in Dublin city are increasing again and we remain committed to the target of 1,000 gardaí.

There are four children's disability network teams, CDNTs, in County Wexford and none of them have a full team. Some are missing psychologists, some are missing occupational therapists and some do not have nurses or social workers available and it is not possible to cross cover. In other words, someone on the CDNT team in Wexford cannot provide the service to somebody who has a requirement in New Ross. It has been said to me that the CDNTs in Wexford are in chaos as a result of the lack of staff and full teams available to them. Children and their families are really suffering. Will the Tánaiste advise on the Government plan to ensure that the CDNTs across County Wexford and across the country have a full complement of the services required?

I can quote a lot of statistics but that is not going to fix the challenge. We are increasing the number of people working in CDNTs. We are funding more posts and training more people but there are clearly real challenges in terms of fully staffing some of these teams. The Deputy mentioned specific issues with regard to the four teams in County Wexford and the inability - perhaps for very good reasons, I do not know - to cross cover. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, to take a look at that to get an update from the HSE and to come back to the Deputy directly.

This week, I went to Clonshaugh in Dublin to see what was supposed to be the 199 bus, which was meant to go from Glendalough through Roundwood to Bray. The 199 service was announced in April 2025. In May, I was told by the NTA that it was fully funded. In June, it went out for tender and in August, Nolan Coaches won that tender. It bought a bus and hired four drivers for that service. It was meant to start in September. September came and went - no bus. January came and went - no bus. March came and went - no bus. The Tánaiste can see where I am going here. There is no 199 bus, certainly none that is operating on that route. The funding would appear to have been pulled from this bus service. Many people are making very big life decisions on the basis that they need that service, whether it is to go to college or work. They need to know when this bus is going to be up and running. Will the Tánaiste ensure the funding will be there? It needs to happen immediately. This has gone on way too long, with no answers from the NTA. The Tánaiste spoke earlier about how agencies should be responsive. I, and the community in Roundwood, have had very little information from the NTA. Could the Tánaiste please give an update on that?

I thank Deputy Whitmore for raising the issue. I have heard the annoyance, to put it mildly, of our constituents regarding this issue. On foot of the Deputy raising it today, perhaps we could convene all the Wicklow TDs with the Department and the NTA to try to get some facts on this. I will certainly play any supportive role I can, and I will link in with the Deputy's office to set that up.

We had no rail service on the northside the last bank holiday weekend, from Connolly to Howth and Drogheda. I get Iarnród Éireann's needs around the ability to do 76 hours of work across a bank holiday weekend and the benefits of that but, equally, we had 12,000 or 13,000 runners coming to the north city centre to run the Dublin city half marathon, and absolutely no rail service to carry them in or out of the north city centre. I understand Irish Rail's position but if we are going to do that, the NTA and Dublin Bus need to be working twice as hard to ensure there is a bus service to cover that hole. I went past Bus Áras on Saturday morning where there were huge queues of people waiting to leave, and in Howth in the evening time, there were lines of people waiting to leave. The bus service was clearly not at capacity. I endorse Deputy Whitmore's comment. I am trying to get information from the NTA on a whole range of issues but it is difficult to get information, data, clarity and answers from it. Can we get answers and work with the NTA and Dublin Bus to make sure these services are provided?

Again, I am annoyed and irked to hear about this. I am not annoyed with the Deputy or Deputy Whitmore. State bodies have to be accountable to the Oireachtas and the democratically elected people. That does not mean they are always going to give us all the answers - I get that - but you have to at least feel as an Oireachtas Member of the Government or the Opposition that you are getting a proper flow of information. I will certainly take that away. Uisce Éireann was raised a few minutes ago, and we have the NTA now. I do not work for the NTA or Uisce Éireann and I do my very best to answer questions but the fact people are having to come into this House and raise these issues because they cannot get those answers from a State body is not acceptable. I will personally pursue this at every opportunity. I thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising the issue. He is right; there are good, international railway practices as to why they bank holiday upgrades. He gets that, as do I, but there is also that important thing called joined-up thinking and the NTA, Dublin Bus and others need to work together to make sure that if one service is going to be down, another service is ramped up. It is not rocket science. It is not splitting the atom but it needs to happen. I will follow up directly with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on foot of the Deputy raising this today.

The South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital presented a proposal for the opening of theatre 5, which is vacant because the two new ophthalmology theatres opened were for orthopaedic treatment. There are currently 11 orthopaedic consultant whole-time-equivalents in the hospital, with two more coming in January. The proposal was that this theatre would open and work 12 hours a day and up to 10.30 p.m. for recovery of patients there, and that would include additional staff. The proposal was made, the hospital understood it was accepted and it was acknowledged that it was accepted. The recruitment has occurred but the hospital has now been told the money is not going to be provided for the additional staff. At present, there are 7,382 patients waiting for outpatient appointments, 363 waiting for treatment and 233 waiting for day care. That has all been put on hold now because the funding has been withdrawn and the hospital is concerned about it.

I thank Deputy Burke for raising the matter. I know the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is committed to working with him on this issue, as am I. Significant investment has been made at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in recent years. The annual budget has increased significantly and staffing has grown significantly, with the former by more than a third and the budget by more than 64%. We have seen several significant capital projects completed with the relocation of the ophthalmology outpatient department from CUH to South Infirmary in 2022. However, there is clearly a need for those new developments and projects that were expected. On foot of Deputy Burke raising this today, I will engage with the Minister who will work with him closely on this.

On 15 April, I raised with the Taoiseach this issue about patients of the highly respected Dr. Fiona O'Reilly in the greater Clonakilty surrounds, who are not being seen by SouthDoc after-hours services, due to Dr. O'Reilly discontinuing her membership with SouthDoc. On 23 April, I received what I would call an angry reply from SouthDoc management, telling me that I failed to seek clarification on the issue from the SouthDoc regarding the facts. What South Doc management does not realise is I am a TD and a servant of the people. It is my duty to ask questions in this Dáil on behalf of my constituents, and I will quote facts which are in this letter from SouthDoc management, sent to patients of Dr. O'Reilly stating that this doctor is no longer a member of SouthDoc and it is, therefore, unable to provide out-of-hours consultations or appointments to her patients. It goes on to say that if you have a medical emergency, ring 112 or 999. The people who got these letters, and I got a number of them again today, in the greater Clonakilty area, some were over 80 years of age and more with small children, are extremely upset and worried to think that if they are ill overnight, they are not to contact SouthDoc. We need to find a solution here and it needs to be 100% patient-focused, as I am. The patient should not be caught up in any disagreement between parties. Can the Tánaiste help Dr. O'Reilly's patients resolve this matter with the HSE?

I thank Deputy Collins. We are now on the third example of an elected Member of the Oireachtas being frustrated by their inability to get answers from those who are accountable to the democratically elected Members of the Oireachtas. I thank him for raising the issue. The staff in SouthDoc in Clonakilty do fantastic work but I am aware of the issues the Deputy has raised in this House. I will speak directly with the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and ask that she inquire with the HSE and come back to the Deputy directly.

We all recognise the scale of the challenge facing the transport sector as we work to meet our climate obligations and, obviously, heavy goods vehicles are among the most difficult parts of that sector to decarbonise. Electrification is progressing but it is not yet a realistic option for the majority of those long-haul operators. It is in that spirit that I ask the Tánaiste to clarify what can be done from the Government's point of view with regard to support for hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, as a transition fuel for the haulage sector. It can reduce emissions by up to 65% when it is sustainably sourced. It works in existing diesel engines with no modifications needed and is blended with diesel and used in heavy transport in the Netherlands, Finland, Italy and the UK. Major manufacturers like Volvo, Scania, MAN and Mercedes Benz use HVO in their engines. Hauliers especially face increased climate compliance costs, and HVO offers an immediate and practical pathway to lower their emissions without any new vehicles or infrastructure. Could the Tánaiste indicate what steps might be taken to encourage the use of HVO and to assist this sector in its decarbonisation goals?

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this issue. First, as the Deputy knows, we have worked hard to try to support the haulage section and I praise the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, for his leadership on that and the engagement we have had with the Irish Road Haulage Association and others, which is right and proper. However, the Deputy's question is also quite important because it is harder for some industry sectors to transition, and what they do not need from us in this House is a lecture and attitude they get sometimes from the left and far left who are not here to hear this. They are a crucial part of our supply chain and economy. We need them to work and we need them to function. Our policies need to get more sophisticated in recognising that, whether that is incentivising people to be able to make that transition or better support. People are good and decent; they want to work with us. We need to challenge ourselves as to how we can help them make that transition, and HVO is an important part of that conversation. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is familiar with that, and we have had some conversations with the sector on that too. On foot of the Deputy raising it, I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy directly.

Before we finish, as Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I often have the task of going through parliamentary questions and refusing them, or asking that they be referred to the appropriate agency. I want to follow up on the complaints I have received, and a letter from Deputy Carol Nolan, to inform the Tánaiste again that the replies are inadequate, and there is little or no response from the agencies. As Leas-Cheann Comhairle, dealing with these parliamentary questions and having to sign-off on some refusals or lack of information, I believe the Tánaiste is correct in saying they are responsible to the House and I agree with the approach he is taking.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I hope the agencies have looked in on today's proceedings. He does his very best to chair these proceedings, and I do my very best to answer as best I can the questions put. It is fair to say there is clear concern across this House about the lack of responsiveness of several unelected heads of agencies, which needs to be reflected on. Both this Oireachtas and the Government should consider how to ensure that because this is not about us; it is about the people we serve.