Micheál Martin

I know, but that person would be working.

How can we differentiate between-----

I hear the Deputy.

Basically, we are spending about €1 billion annually in general practice to support patients. Some 43% of the population now has access to free GP care and Government investment has significantly increased. There is a strategic review of general practice currently under way, and I presume it will take on board some of the issues the Deputy has raised in terms of growth areas in population and the …

I propose to take Question Nos. 1 to 24, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure met last week on Monday, 18 May. The Cabinet committee works to drive infrastructure delivery and implementation of the national development plan. From the start, we have set out our ambition to deliver a step change in Ireland’s infrastructure. The revised national development plan sets out unpr…

Our economy is strong and our population is growing, and we are building a robust infrastructural backbone to support this. We are seizing the opportunity now to invest for the benefit of current and future generations.

Deputy Geoghegan might communicate with Deputy Hayes on that one.

The Deputy left out the main supporters, the people who made it happen.

Did 21 speak? I thank them all. Deputy McGrath began on Cork BusConnects. I am familiar with it and may have been responsible for some of the delays in terms of the consultation required with residents and communities. The initial preferred routes that the NTA produced created huge anxiety and stress for many families across the board and we all had to intervene to try to get common sense. Then, …

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I presume that the 1,000 housing units are being sold on with a view to development for housing.

I asked that rhetorically.

I cannot help the-----

----- energetic responses from Deputy Boyd Barrett. He is engaged anyway. He is on every word I am saying, which is important, too. I am not being facetious about the matter, but I presume and hope that is the case and I will engage with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to make sure that it will go for housing and that the 1,000 houses will be built because we need those 1,000 houses as well.…

It is happening anyway, but Deputy Hayes said that it was not happening at all and the Deputy Geoghegan said it was. The Taoiseach now believes that it may be happening. It is important. It is a huge housing development, and we obviously need public transport to service it and the Luas would be an outstanding facilitation of that. In response to Deputy Coppinger, I will talk to the Minister. If i…

-----transport, rail. I do not know if the Deputy would be playing golf there, but Adare is doing well, and that is no harm for that region either. In response to the Deputy Conway-Walsh, I was very disappointed that she never mentioned Fianna Fáil.

Fianna Fáil built Knock airport - everybody knows that - with Monsignor Horan, and she could not mention Fianna Fáil. She could not mention Charles Haughey. Monsignor Horan embraced him when he went there to dig the old sod. Everyone said we were stupid, all of the media and the Opposition. They all said that it was nonsense and asked how bad and stupid could we get.

Lo and behold, 40 years later, it is still doing very well and the Deputy could not mention Fianna Fáil.

Deputy O'Rourke asked about Ashbourne and the treatment plant.

We have put huge investment into Uisce Éireann. It is up to Uisce Éireann to get on with it and start delivering. It has no issue with funding now and that is clear. In response to Deputy Cleere, it is an interesting proposal and idea. I will talk to TII. It would be responsible for that, but I hear what he is saying. Car-pooling is something that we are encouraging. We need to give capacity to e…

Yes. I will talk to the Minister to get behind that to get the full details around that IT system and what the issue has been, as well for full accountability in respect of that project. Deputy Whitmore asked about the DART to Wicklow town. She gave a long timeline and then she said at the end that it had gone out for tender. If it has gone out for tender, we are in business, and I think it will …

I have so much to say.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 to 37, inclusive, together. Our programme for Government sets out an ambitious agenda for building our shared island backed by our €2 billion commitment to the shared island fund out to 2035. We are forging ahead with the investment and co-operation agenda across all sectors. In November, the Government made a funding commitment of over €50 million from the sh…

I thank all the Deputies for their commentary. Deputy Brendan Smith raised the studies that have been under way by the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, and the ESRI under shared island. There is a range of studies. Never before in the history of the State have we had such a body of research commissioned and completed on the differences between systems in Northern Ireland, be it the heal…

Whether it falls within the legacy framework or not, that is perhaps the best avenue to pursue it. If we can get the legislation completed in Westminster and here, we will. That is an important aspect of it. Even though it happened in 1976 the trauma goes on for the second generation - the grandchildren, cousins and nieces - and the need for closure continues with each succeeding generation. To D…

I apologise. The response to the Deputy’s question was on the next page and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle was looking at me intently. I could not agree more with the Deputy on the North-South interconnector but there have been a lot of political challenges with it. As I said last week, we all need to pause a bit and say what our priorities are. We need the North-South interconnector in terms of the e…