----- through income tax reductions-----

-----through strong social protection-----

We are part of no war machine.

I do not believe there is any need for the High Court case. It will only ramp up costs on all sides. No affected young person is being excluded from the scheme. A small number of cases have not been excluded but are being progressed through the further file review. These would have been patients who had previously received open disclosure letters through previous ad hoc independent reviews. It has always been the intention that they would be included in the compensation scheme and they have been prioritised in the …

We did not wait for cases or anything. We just brought in a non-adversarial compensatory framework which, I think, has been the better way to do things.

Deep down the unions and their leadership know there will be a meaningful discussion on pay. They know that. There is no need for this strike action. It is causing unnecessary disruption. There is no need for it, in my view. After a long interval in opposition, I came back into government in 2020 and we have had pay agreements. We entered into pay agreements in good faith and we had good negotiations. I participate in the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, on an ongoing basis. The unions know my attitude and tha…

I am not one for games or all sorts of industrial relations, IR, mechanisms and processes. I will be straight with the Deputy: that is a nonsense statement. There will be a substantial provision in the budget and the Estimates next week for public service pay. How can anybody credibly say we are not prepared to discuss pay? Come on. Everybody knows that is not true. Let us have a bit of common sense here. There will be a public service pay offer. It is well known. We are open to negotiations. In any pay agreement, …

I thank the Deputy. He is on a very good topic.

The Minister, Deputy Foley, in particular, is a very strong supporter of family resource centres and last year, she secured funding for the establishment of ten new family resource centres. I agree with the Deputy that family resource centres play a very significant role in communities across the country. I am a strong advocate for them and I know the Minister is as well. I hope she will be successful in securing some funding for them in the budget.

Is the Deputy talking about VAT?

The bottom line is we have given back about €1.3 billion. Not given back, I am sorry, that is-----

We did not. That is the point.

No, that is a false comparison.

We did not, in any shape or form, have anything equivalent to €1.3 billion. The figure for increased VAT returns and so on is much lower.

No.

I will try to arrange, through the Minister for Finance, a meeting between the Deputy and others and finance officials to get the full, transparent presentation of that. I make the point, however, that revenue across government is also required to sustain schools, as the Deputy advocates, and to support farmers and so on.

I agree 100%, which is why-----

That is why we have free hot school meals in every single school at primary level.

My understanding is that the domino scheme at Cork University Maternity Hospital remains operational and available both to women currently using the service and new patients who meet the eligibility criteria. Care is delivered through three pathways, namely, the supported care pathway, the assisted care pathway and the specialised care pathway for high-risk pregnancies led by a named consultant obstetrician. To cut to the chase, the HSE has advised that from 12 October, changes to staffing arrangements within the s…

Securing the provision of a post-mortem examination service for the coronial death investigation function has proved challenging. The Ministers for justice and Health have engaged on the issue. The short-term solution in operation at University Hospital Waterford is one in which locum pathologists provide coroner services three days per week. This is obviously necessary to minimise any impact on bereaved family members who would otherwise experience lengthy wait times for the release of remains. Officials from the …