This Government wants to give hope to young people and people who want to get an affordable home. It is the single biggest focus of the Government in everything we do. It is about building hope around delivering more home ownership, delivering an increased supply of social homes and ensuring that we bring affordability to all of our interventions. That is why all of the reforms that we have introduced are about trying to increase supply, something that Deputy McDonald does not acknowledge in all of her contribution…

-----again promoting local objectives and NIMBYism over the greater good. That is Sinn Féin's policy, namely, opposition on the ground and attacking Government at a national level. It is just not good enough. It is not serious politics. We need supply-side interventions which drive tens of thousands more homes and completions across the board and matching the record level of support in terms of social housing delivery with affordability support which bridge the gap for young people. That is what is working. That is…

Sinn Féin policy is a complete and utter failure. It is a dishonest policy position when it comes to improving housing supply. It is populist waffle. In Dublin Central, Sinn Féin opposes housing project after housing project, day in, day out, which young people could be living in. That is the issue.

We must have an honest conversation about how we improve supply across the housing system. For the Deputy to oppose housing every day and every week in her own constituency and then to lecture the Government on not doing enough shows a complete contradiction in Sinn Féin policy.

We see populism and NIMBYism on the ground and then waffle and rhetoric in here. You need to get real, Deputy McDonald, in terms of honesty around housing policy. We need to provide supply-side alternatives.

Supply, by way of the affordability interventions the Government is making, will improve affordability, which is something you continually oppose.

The Deputy's party has a complete contradiction in housing policy and it gives no hope for young people.

We will have fewer homes being built if we follow its model.

The Minister for justice has introduced an 8% increase in criminal legal aid fees payable to solicitors in the Circuit Court and higher courts from 1 July 2026. This represents total restoration of the criminal legal aid fees under the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI. As the Deputy described, the Minister has also introduced a fee of €520 for District Court criminal cases under the criminal legal aid scheme. This figure represents the current fee paid for five appearances in the District …

The Deputy set out the need for reform but did not say anything about how she would reform it.

The Department of justice advanced a review. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has been informed by it and has taken the respective reforms and progressed them. There is a distinction between how the criminal legal aid system has been working with comparative cases and those who are not on criminal legal aid of five days to three. He is providing for a weighted payment of five and providing the FEMPI restoration accordingly. We all want to see a system that works and is victim focused - that is absolutely the case …

I thank Deputy Bacik. I reject the Deputy's characterisation, which I think is unfair. If she thinks of the scale of public service growth in this country in the past five-to-six years, which this Government took positive action on, we have an additional 70,000 public servants working across health, education, disability services and many other areas of public service, which matter to all of us across our constituencies and we want to continue to build a public service that works and provides better inputs for the …

I am not going to negotiate a pay agreement with the Deputy in here. That is not going to work for anybody. What I would say is that our record stands clear. Since 2019, a teacher and a nurse starting their careers in the public service will have seen an increase of 26.9% and 31%, respectively. A clerical officer in the Civil Service will have seen an increase of 32.8%. That reflects a Government that cares about public servants and public services, and it stands through to today and to a new agreement, which we wa…

I will repeat what I have said. We have been clear and consistent in our position. We are willing and ready to engage with staff representatives with a view to reaching a new public service agreement. We want to engage now. We want to see a fair, equitable and sustainable agreement to ensure we reward workers across the public service, many of whom have been recruited over the last five years. The Government considers that reaching an agreement as soon as possible is the best way to provide stability and certainty …

We are seeing strong levels of recruitment right across the public service this year, which is a very different story from what the Deputy has described.

We had the conclusion of the pay agreement with a 1% increase over the last number of weeks. Usually, when there is a conclusion, we engage in exploratory discussions. Typically, in the past, that happened in the December-January period. Obviously, the pay agreement that concluded finished at the end of June. We want to engage in good faith and in a constructive way to ensure we have an agreement we can afford in budget 2027 that supports workers right across the public service. The Government has a strong track re…

I thank the Deputy. I share her significant concerns around e-scooters. We have seen the shocking evidence coming from Temple Street and the traumatic brain injuries that have resulted from their use. I have been informed by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, that a review of regulations is under way, particularly around helmets and high-visibility clothing, with a view to addressing the concerns that have been documented around head injuries and other serious injuries. The Minister is considering a range of proposals i…

We have to be a bit more balanced than what the Deputy has reflected in the debate on data centres.

They are a central part of Ireland's economic and digital future and a key part of our value proposition for foreign direct investment and associated employment. In 2024, an estimated €104 billion in gross value added was enabled by data centre-dependent sectors. Approximately 170,000 people work in Ireland's ICT sector and 19,000 jobs are directly in data centre operations. The Government is committed to working with key stakeholders to identify and support new approaches to integrating large-scale demand sustaina…

What would the Deputy say to the 19,000 jobs that are reliant on them? Where would she find them?