Micheál Martin

A lot of working people, by the way, a lot of public servants, a lot of workers do want facilities in terms of-----

-----cycling to work or active travel. We are not responsible for the detailed-----

Sorry?

I know, but there are so many leaders emerging in Sinn Féin these days-----

Obviously, the presidential announcement that was meant to be never happened, so they should all just take it easy and stand back. Deputy McDonald is here for quite some time yet, it seems, as leader of the party. As regards the issue of the detailed planning for a new national maternity hospital, which will involve a very significant sum of money, I will not decide every single item of that. If …

I am of the view that if particular facilities are being provided for workers, in particular, or for people visiting any public institution, for that matter, value for money should apply and they should not cost outrageous sums. It should be done modestly, and very simple structures should be put in place. It should not have to cost €100,000 to provide a bike shed. Again, I am not into the detail …

No, no.

Workers want facilities. These facilities are not for anybody in here, except the Opposition TDs who did want the bike shed last year.

They wanted a second one as well. They wanted two bike sheds for here. They wrote to the Ceann Comhairle for a bike shed-----

-----and did not come in condemning the costs. I presume the one in the maternity hospital is for workers to facilitate them if they cycle to work. We need to be careful too. Are we saying workers should not have facilities in an active travel context to reduce traffic congestion and allow people to cycle to work?

I can understand the Minister of State, Deputy Moran's annoyance because the bottom line is the Deputy's assertion-----

She talked to me about being a smart alec. Her assertions today were bogus, flawed and not serious. No one is taking that kind of nonsense seriously. She should take heed of what the Minister of State said. Read the e-tender. Yes, we have spent billions of euro on infrastructure. A lot of the projects we spent on have come in on target. Many schools such as Edmund Rice College, Dublin, Gaelscoil S…

I have answered the question. Go and read the e-tender.

With the greatest of respect-----

What I would say to Pearse is: would you go away and design a bike shed for us and give us the costs? We will take it away and see what we do.

For God's sake, cop yourself on.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very serious issue that demands a very profound and comprehensive response. I again express my deepest sympathies to Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison on the very sad passing of their son Harvey. We have to do much better when it comes to healthcare services for our children. I understand the anger and frustrations felt by parents and the children and y…

We need more capacity, both in human resources and physical capacity in terms of ring-fenced surgery and so forth, to enable us to make even further inroads into the waiting lists.

At that stage there would have been newer members on the board. This is important. It is very easy. This is a challenge. The Government has a responsibility to maintain existing services. In the interim, you just cannot announce new initiatives off the top of your head. I signalled very early on the move that has transpired in respect of CHI coming in under the remit of the HSE. In fact, originall…

That may potentially create challenges as well.

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising a very important issue. We value the work of carers. Michael Woods brought in the carer's allowance quite a number of years ago. He was a Fianna Fáil Minister for social protection and at the time it was a novel concept. It was quite innovative. It started at a very low level, but incrementally things have improved significantly. We committed in the programme for …

The Deputy is correct when she says we have choices. Everyone in the House has choices. The estimated cost is around €600 million. We also want to increase domiciliary care allowance and other categories of social protection, which the Minister will bring to the Government in the first instance and then the measures will be announced on budget day. It will all come under an overall amount that wil…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue for a very significant industry in the country. He spoke eloquently about the west Cork experience. As he will know, the Minister of State, Deputy O’Sullivan, has been hounding me on this issue, as has the Minister, Deputy Foley, from the Kerry perspective. All the counties where hospitality is particularly strong in the summer period h…

I understand the issue the Deputy is raising. The costs increased significantly for the sector. I acknowledge that. The data we are getting in is not showing any significant decline in employment, but there could be churn. Some people could be in difficulty while other new businesses are established and opened. We want long-term sustainability for the industry and the hospitality sector. You could…

He agreed yesterday.