Micheál Martin

I apologise. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for her tolerance.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 to 23, inclusive, together. Regulation, and the extent of any regulatory or administrative burden, has recently become a greater focus at European Union level and nationally as a means to further enhance competitiveness. At a European level, both simplification and implementation are important Commission priorities. The Commission is striving to simplify and li…

Deputy McCormack raised infrastructure reform, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses. Some of the measures we have taken in respect of deferring the alignment of the minimum wage with the national living wage will help to avoid the escalation of costs because the SME sector has borne the brunt of a lot of additional costs over the past five years. There is no doubt the reduction in VAT…

They should sort it out. A school is an important facility. The county council should be facilitative in the building of a school.

Deputy O'Rourke raised regulation online. We have now established the regulatory framework governing online. There is ongoing review in respect of it. Children must be protected. That has to be the optimal. Deputy Coppinger raised healthcare assistants and family reunification. We have significant reunification in Ireland under our migration system, in particular when people leave direct provisio…

First of all, I do not believe €750,000 is right, proper or appropriate in terms of 14 steps, but it seems to me the scheme that was completed by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was not just about 14 steps. Nonetheless, the cost is excessive by any yardstick. The Deputy said Sinn Féin had called for a waste audit. I think Sinn Féin could take the example of Deputy Albert Dolan here in front …

Sinn Féin is very good at asking and asking but, surely it has a bit of resources and capacity, if it is that concerned about waste-----

-----other than utilising a particular case, which was bad, to try to just go on the waste thing as a political and electoral exercise. In terms of the interaction between the NTA and the county council, €750,000 is too much. Accessibility is very important. In that context, accessibility for wheelchair users, cyclists, parents with buggies and so on was the original objective, apparently, of thi…

I just have.

The Minister, Deputy Chambers, has already introduced more robust and tighter procedures in the area of public spending. On the other hand, the Deputy is saying we are very mean and so on, we are being criticised for overspending-----

-----notwithstanding her desire that we spend billions more.

The Deputy wants us to spend billions more than we allocated in the budget. Ireland's economy is one of the fastest growing economies globally. The stewardship of this economy has been good by this Government and by the previous Government despite Covid-----

-----despite Brexit, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed and the tariffs emanating from the United States. This has been a competent Government with regard to the economic management of this country.

The policies we have pursued are far superior to anything Sinn Féin has produced on the economic front over the past number of years.

There is no question about that. We have no truck with any waste in public expenditure-----

-----and we will deal with it at every layer of Government. Sinn Féin has councillors on that council. Were its councillors with every other councillor tracking it? It is not good enough that there should be that level of expenditure, but we will deal with it.

A credible which?

Yes, they will. I will say on the IFAC criticisms that you have had both sides. I also welcome the transition year students. By the way, the Deputy's party was notified by email at 2.30 p.m. on Friday that I would not be here yesterday. There was maybe a bit of inadvertent misleading of the House yesterday but we will pass over that. IFAC did a research note recently on the impact of US tariffs a…

We have announced a €270 billion national development plan. That is the fundamental pillar of this Government, and we have already allocated the funding. Today a transport sectoral plan will be published which will be significant for roads, rail and bus developments that will happen as a result of that. We will have a children and disabilities sectoral development plan. We will have a health secto…

I could not agree more in terms of the depraved and shocking violence against women in our society on an ongoing basis. It is truly shocking. This is despite the fact that the Government has taken unprecedented actions legislatively to deal with this, including the establishment of an agency, Cuan, which is doing good work. The previous Government established that to deal with domestic, sexual and…

-----and that disclosure takes place only when, in the court's opinion, it is necessary to avoid an unfair trial. Drafting is at an advanced stage and is continuing at pace. The Minister will also examine other steps, including additional adjustments to legislation, in order to further restrict the disclosure of counselling records and is consulting with the relevant stakeholders in that regard.

To be fair to the Minister, he is advancing and working at pace in respect of legislation on the disclosure of counselling-----

I did not interrupt the Deputy. Maybe she should engage with the Minister-----

-----in an informed and evidence-based way. The Minister will be very open with Opposition spokespeople in dealing with this in the context of what is possible and what is not possible. The Government's view is very strongly supportive of reducing significantly, and seeing how far we can go-----

-----in avoiding, the use of counselling notes against victims-----