Micheál Martin

I was just about to make the point in terms of the cybersecurity attacks. Sorry, we will protect those who are coming into this country. There is no question. Do not always be so fast to denigrate ourselves. Do not listen to all the noise out there. What happened during President Zelenskyy's visit was a good security operation by our Defence Forces and by an Garda-----

Through the Chair, we need to acknowledge that and the very effective work of An Garda Síochána and our Defence Forces. There is a lot of noise which suits other interests to portray Ireland in a certain light. The Deputy should be wary of that, too. Deputy Lawless raised the issue of cybersecurity. Cyber threats and attacks have increased significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 28, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure last met on 3 November and will meet again early in the new year. The Cabinet committee works to drive infrastructure delivery and the implementation of the revised national development plan. As Members know, last week, we brought to Government the essence of that plan. The reform of the delive…

Is that CFRAM?

Which one is that?

Where was that?

I love the demarcation lines. The "Rosslare to Cork city, but particularly in Waterford" part of it. I am sorry. I get it. Do not worry.

It is just an observation. I will start with Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, who made a very good point. Hopefully, with this national development plan and the allocation of ten years, we will avoid this stop-start where we get a project from A to B but C is not provided for at all. We had that over the last two decades, I suppose. I recall how the Cork-Limerick road had planning in an earlier era and t…

That is okay. It is a word that is not uncommon. Anyway, I have had my issues with BusConnects down through the years. There have been issues for habitual users of bus services who feel the changing of services or the reorientation of scheduling and so on has eroded what they would have had prior to it. Then we had all the issues around what were, in my view, over-the-top initial plans, which then…

The Deputy has a great capacity. He is brilliant at it, actually. From a political agitation perspective, the Deputy has a great capacity to turn what others would see as success into defeat. For the Deputy in opposition to say that we are not releasing-----

The Deputy is trying to ask how I can-----

I spoke to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about this and he is very clear that the Navan line is going ahead.

The Government is absolutely committed to it. On Deputy Lawless's question, there is a huge increase in apprenticeships. We are recruiting people back. We are anxious for people to come back into the country, and people are coming back into the country. The construction industry is confident enough in terms of the numbers for getting the housing done, for example, and the huge retrofit programme …

We need a bit of entertainment and lively engagement, too.

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Is léir gur chuireamar an-chuid áiseanna ar fáil sa cháinaisnéis, go háirithe do na daoine bochta agus do na daoine ar ioncam íseal. Rinneamar an-chuid infheistíochta in infreastruchtúr na tíre agus mar aon leis sin chuireamar an-chuid isteach do dhaoine le riachtanais speisialta agus do dhaoine a bhfuil ioncam íseal acu. Tackling energy and affordability is…

Last week, various bodies were saying Government was spending far too much as it is. This year's budget is about €117 billion, €98 billion plus in capital and so forth, and then we have increased current expenditure over the past three years by 15%. We are spending very significant sums of money. We are targeting it in terms of infrastructure, low income families and making sure that those in the …

Because we believe in targeting resources as opposed to universality. Sinn Féin must be the only left-wing party in Europe and across the world-----

-----that does not believe in targeting resources.

We believe in targeting resources.

There is a €2 billion social protection package, which is about protecting pensioners, families with children and-----

-----particularly, people on low incomes. That is the choice we made, and also to improve our infrastructure.

We do have to deal in a more systemic way with the high cost of energy. There are significant factors in Ireland that lead to the high cost of energy. That is well known and well documented. The bottom line is that we have had a very significant budget in terms of expenditure. Deputy Doherty wants to add another €2 billion to it for a short-term intervention which would apply to very wealthy peopl…

When I met with Department of Social Protection officials and the Minister-----

-----they were very clear about targeted measures, particularly in terms of the most vulnerable children in the country.

Deputy Doherty just wants to ignore all of that.