Micheál Martin

I will go back to the Minister. We do not want people to have to flood the system with a load of parliamentary questions about a particular scheme. That information should be provided to Members automatically. I am hearing now of Members using AI for parliamentary questions. If we keep doing that, we will have thousands of questions in here and the system will be paralysed. I know the Deputy is no…

I will talk to the Minister of State. If this modular building is complete, there will be classes. We have allocated an extra €646 million over and above the Estimate of last year to the Department of Education and Youth. A significant amount of that will be allocated to special education for the express purpose of more teachers and special needs assistants. We want every child to have a place in …

It is a no-brainer. I am appalled that there are cigarette butts on the ground outside State institutions. It should not happen. It is just unacceptable. Every individual has responsibilities in that regard but we do, as institutions of the State, have responsibilities to make sure that does not happen. I will ask for a re-examination of that and see what measures can be taken to clamp down on thi…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know he has raised it previously. Uisce Éireann is subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and is accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts but that is more in terms of the broader governance issues. It is also subject to requirements of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and has, I understand, established a ded…

Tá an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta dochreidte. Níl sí macánta faoin cheist seo in aon chor. Níl sí ceart ach an oiread. Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil cúrsaí polaitíochta i gceist aici. Níl sí i ndáiríre in aon chor maidir leis an gceist seo. The Deputy is being very dishonest in her presentation of this issue. She is being deliberately manipulative and is endeavouring to win votes on the back of th…

Sinn Féin does not know which way it is on this issue. That is its problem.

I must say one more time to the Deputy that the pact and the Act the Minister introduced does not, in any shape of form, give up our sovereignty in the area of immigration.

Irish officials will still make-----

Deputy McDonald cannot even give a specific reason or area where we do. She has had four and a half minutes and it has been sound bite after sound bite with no substance behind it. The bottom line is that Irish officials will still make the decisions in terms of applicants. The Garda Síochána will still police our borders. Ireland will still be in control our deportation process.

To be fair to the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, he has brought in and is very focused on a firm, robust migration system with much faster times in terms of administration of the initial phase of the applications and on the appeal phase to get it done much faster. That is what we are doing.

We have also increased the number of deportation orders quite significantly over the past while. The importance of this is that it enables us to return migrants back to countries where they probably originated with their applications.

That is important. That makes sense. Likewise, on the common travel area, it will be here long after any scenarios on the constitutionality of the island or whatever. The Deputy knows that.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. I appreciate her party's support for the Government's position on this and that of the Minister for Health because a lot was at stake here, not just for maternity services but for the entire edifice that should govern public health and the provision of public health into the future in our acute tertiary system. The Government took a d…

I will make my point generally. There is an issue here. We are very clear; we support what the Deputy is saying and, as far as we are concerned, a private model is not sustainable in maternity and, therefore, we want to build and develop hospitals where there is universal access and where, eventually, we will move to public-only consultants. Some have opted out of that, and that is their entitleme…

I did answer the question. I said the money should be refunded. I made that clear in my original reply. The Minister is concerned about the operation of the public-only consultant contract throughout the entirety of the health service and in all hospitals. There is no going back from the position that we negotiated fully, transparently and comprehensively. Over the last five years, there has been …

I made it clear that they should be refunded. The Minister has also sought assurances on that front.

The investment has been substantial in the last five years. In terms of the Deputy's question about Sláintecare, I do not think what she said about the lack of investment was fair. We could continue to invest more and more in health, but anybody looking at the last five years will see an extraordinary uptick and scaling up of investment in the public health service.

I appreciate the Deputy has raised quite a range of issues. I will take Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the Middle East first. Ireland has taken a stand against Israel internationally and that is well recognised internationally and within the European Union. We continue on the humanitarian side to give very substantive contributions to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA – close to €150 million at…

I did not get a chance to deal with every issue but I will come back to the Deputy.

I reject what Francesca Albanese said. I have significant issues with much of what she has said on this issue, in terms of Ireland in particular. We will work with the European Commission in respect of Aughinish. The Deputy said many jobs are at stake and a solution must be found. Let all of us be honest in the House. We will work with the Commission. We are conscious that there are about1,000 pe…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. We have made a lot of progress in the country with regard to wastewater treatment facilities. I am of the view that it should be tertiary and not secondary where possible. I am not aware of the specifics of the actual proposal for the wastewater facility earmarked for Foynes. I will check with Uisce Éireann on this. It may not be a waste of mone…

I also pay tribute to Marion Fossett and the Fossett family for their extraordinary contribution to Irish life. I remember attending Fossett's Circus as a young child. Some might say I learned a few tricks from that experience.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them on this sad day for the family. We thank them for what they do. On the wastewater treatment plant, from what I can see, Uisce Éireann is now engaging in extensive works. The Foynes sewerage scheme will include a new wastewater treatment plant and 3.5 km of new pipelines to convey wastewater to and from the new treatment plant site and an upgraded terminal pu…

I will make the point that, on location, there may be people for or against any given location but someone has to decide on a location from an objective engineering and wider planning perspective. I know of a wastewater treatment plant whose location was decided by one vote but, 30 years later, no one has complained. It did the job and it was the correct decision at the time.

There was a lot of heat around that decision.