Micheál Martin

The Deputy did the same thing. He said the Minister had questions to answer. The Minister, to be fair-----

There are policies that the Minister is certainly responsible for, but we sometimes also have to accept that people act in good faith. That is what I am saying. We should not rush to judgment against Tusla officials.

I do not know whether there is.

It is drawn to the attention of the authorities when there is an unaccompanied minor. They could be 17, 18, 19 or 20. They could be 15 or 14. I put it to the Deputy that people acted in good faith here and with the best intentions. What happened to that poor young child was horrific and shocking. There is no question about that. All I am simply saying is that the immediate rush to judgment and to …

I did not congratulate. The Deputy used the phrase "congratulated". I never used the word "congratulated".

But why does the Deputy do that? Why-----

If Mick Clifford wrote an article, he did, but it needs to be informed and evidence-based.

I did not. This pejorative language, this attempt to label people, is a problem in the House. The left will condemn the far right and so on but it is not even prepared to allow people to have a discussion in the House on these issues. I think what they are doing is counterproductive, that is all I would say. I think it is counterproductive to shut down debate. I believe debate should be informed a…

When we say these things, that is wrong. I have my values in respect of people and ethnic background.

That is all I am saying. I just think that there is too much of that going on. The Catherine Day report was based on the premise of 3,500 people coming in through the asylum programme on a yearly basis. That went up to 18,000 last year. It is down by close to 40% this year. There are issues around the asylum process. There is no point in saying there are not - there are. We have to have a robust a…

I suggest that the Deputy write to the Minister for justice on that as well in terms of the British context and what is happening there. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the redress scheme. The Minister has indicated that work is under way in respect of that. I will ask the Minister to revert to the Deputy in respect of the survivors of the Stardust fire. A lot of progress was made on a redress sch…

Yes, please, and send a copy to the Minister for justice. I will liaise with the Minister and talk to him in respect of it. Deputy Conor McGuinness spoke about an over-reliance in routine policing and how a garda had not been seen in Portlaw. Visibility is improving. More and more gardaí are being recruited. The numbers applying are up significantly. The issue is now about how to get as many gard…

I propose to take questions Nos. 18 to 36, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on disability has been established to oversee the implementation of the programme for Government commitments in the area of disability, with specific focus on children's disability services as well as disability more generally under the Government's new National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-203…

Which school?

We are about seven minutes over time, is it?

I will try to do what I can as quickly as I can.

No, I am conscious of others. Deputy Dempsey raised the issue of transition from child services to adult services and that there was an absence of early planning for that. She also made the comment that parents were told that therapies would not be available in transition. That is not acceptable and respite should not be withdrawn. In the disability unit that I have established, a key workstream …

I will have that examined. That is something that we can certainly look at. I will talk to the Minister for Social Protection in relation to that.

Sorry. Again, I will talk to the Minister in respect of it. To be fair, this should be done at hospital level. It should be done properly through the clinicians properly engaging with the family and with the parents. There are liaison officers in CHI as well who should be-----

I will make the Minister aware of the case.

There are about ten projects now that you have all mentioned. I am good but-----

Ní aontaím in aon chor leis an Teachta. Tá an-chuid déanta ag an Rialtas seo maidir leis an gcostas maireachtála. Tá i bhfad níos mó déanta againn ná aon rialtas riamh i stair na tíre. Tá an-chuid déanta againn maidir le teaghlaigh ar ioncam íseal sa tír seo go háirithe. Is é an rud agus an cinneadh a rinneamar ná níos mó a thabhairt do dhaoine atá ag fulaingt agus faoi bhrú. I reject completely …

Sinn Féin wanted to give a blank cheque to the energy companies when we had that real energy crisis in the after-----

Yes, you did. You put forward the very same proposal that Liz Truss brought forward in the UK-----

-----which had catastrophic impacts on the UK at the time, and on the Prime Minister of the day too.