Micheál Martin

This Government and the previous Government built more social houses than had been built since the 1970s in the past four years.

That is a fact. Up to 48,000 social housing units were built. Nothing compares with that in the previous 15 or 20 years.

The Deputy just keeps on shouting.

The Deputy keeps coming forward with facile and superficial analysis of the housing crisis.

He sets himself up as a housing expert. He is nothing of the sort.

That is why I would appreciate if he allowed other people to give their perspective. The only reason I raised my eyes was because I thought it was wrong of the Deputy to personalise the issue, demonise an individual who cannot defend himself in this House and make the assertions he has made about someone who has not been nominated to any position by Government. No decision has been taken, but the …

We have built close to-----

The Deputy is an elected representative and he has set himself up-----

I did not say the Deputy was-----

The Deputy is not a construction housing expert. He never has been. He is-----

The Deputy lectures in social policy, and I believe he is a good lecturer in social policy.

That does not make the Deputy a housing expert.

It was good for the electoral pathway.

In terms of social housing, there has been a significant step change. Last year, more than 10,000 social houses were delivered. More than 48,000 social houses have been added to the social housing stock since 2020. We need to do more and we need to build more social houses. The tenant in situ scheme was introduced in 2023. All Deputies have correctly raised that. There was no tenant in situ scheme…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 20, inclusive, together. I travelled to Paris for the AI Action Summit on 10 and 11 February, co-hosted by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi of India. The summit gathered key stakeholders to explore how we can develop artificial intelligence, AI, technologies and uses globally while ensuring that nobody is left behind. It also discussed preserving our…

I thank all the Deputies for contributing to this debate. It is important. The debate illustrates the importance of the Oireachtas committee on AI that will be established. I look forward to further detailed, sensible and balanced consideration of the issue. We can already witness a divide that is too extreme. There are those who see AI as totally negative, others who see positives in it and other…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 to 28, inclusive, together. A Policing Service for our Future is the Government's plan to implement the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The implementation of the plan was overseen by a dedicated programme office in the Department of the Taoiseach and an implementation group on policing reform, chaired by an independent person. Th…

I appreciate that. On the operational issues, those are matters for the Garda Commissioner. I am not in a position to intervene in the operational organisation of An Garda Síochána. The issues have been there for some time. The Minister is in a very difficult position if the Garda Commissioner has not been invited to the conference as well. His predecessor took the same position and I accept that…

I would argue that the gardaí have strenuously denied the allegations that were asserted in this House and issued statements to that effect. The Minister took the allegations very seriously. Of course, it is open for complaints to be made to Fiosrú, which is an independent party that can hear any allegations in respect of An Garda Síochána or members of An Garda Síochána. There are women in An Gar…

Women in An Garda Síochána have every right to be believed as well. I am not making any comment on individuals here but I would just make that point. There was a strong refutation of the allegations that were made in this House in respect of members of An Garda Síochána, who have no right to defend themselves in this House or do not have that facility.

The Deputy asserted that they committed offences, which they would strenuously deny and the context would be strenuously denied. I have to say that. Fiosrú is there to follow that.

First, I thank Deputy McDonald for raising the issue and for reading out Nikita's letter to her, which clearly illustrates the very debilitating impact endometriosis can have on women. It is extremely debilitating, painful and the span of impacts are very wide. Regarding a phased response, this can be at GP, gynaecology or indeed specialist centre level. There has been progress for endometriosis.…

There has been significant progress in this area. That has to be acknowledged. More than 200 new patients were seen in Cork's endometriosis service from May to December last year. About 94% of women on the waiting list in that region are now seen within six months. As I said, more generally we are seeing improvement in terms of the Tallaght centre also. The Government is listening. In terms of the…

It is important to get the framework.

There are a number of issues there and I thank the Deputy for raising them. I fully understand the trauma that the family of Daniel Collins is going through in respect of the delay in getting surgery carried out. I do not want to go into the background of every individual case in terms of complexity of the case and so forth. My understanding is that there has been engagement. The assistant directo…