Has there been a response to, or a decision made on, the letter sent to the Minister’s Department by An Taisce about a proposed housing development? People may have read about this development, particularly online. It is the housing development located close to what is known as Cú Chulainn’s Castle in Dundalk. An Taisce laid out its fears about ensuring that this national monument is looked after. It spoke about particular legislation that could be employed in this regard. I am interested to hear what the Minister …

I thank the Minister for his answer. One of the requests from An Taisce suggested that an archaeological investigation and test would be carried out before the application was granted permission. The application has since been granted permission, albeit with some changes by Louth County Council. I understand that it is now with An Coimisiún Pleanála and that a number of observations have been submitted. There will be people who fall in a number of places on this issue. We know the importance of this site. We are ta…

I am not taking away from the work that has been carried out from an archaeological due diligence point of view. A number of people are worried about this. I have already made the argument that there has been a failure to look after Cú Chulainn’s Castle in general. Work needs to be done in that regard, whatever the outworkings of this case. I understand that the zone of 5.2 ha is slightly greater now following the changes Louth County Council introduced, but people are still worried. They talk of both the area and …

I commend the community of Garvaghy Road on their courage and resilience against what we hope is one of the last pangs of Orange supremacism and triumphalism. Political unionism really needs to take a look at itself. Is this the road it wants to go down? None of the rest of us want to see that. I would include in that many within the unionist community and even probably many within the Orange Order. We think of the realities of this march. We have seen and heard from the families of Michael McGoldrick, Robert Hamil…

It was found to be farcical. I ask that the Tánaiste would continue his engagement with the British Government.

I am always afraid about a new Administration. At times, I am not always sure that they understand the entire history.

I have commended the Tánaiste before on his roadmap for Irish unity.

I believe we need to keep that work going. I would ask about that and also about how the Tánaiste can put that into action in government because that is necessary and I do not think enough has been done.

I thank the Minister of State for being here. It will not be the first time we have had this discussion. It is a very difficult discussion to deal with. We all know that in Ireland we have a history of it being far too easy to get an involuntary admission to mental health services. The problem is that, on some level, the pendulum has swung too far the other way. There can be difficulties at times. I am talking people who are obviously sick. While they may not be, from the Garda's point of view, an imminent danger t…

I understand what the Minister of State is saying in relation to the lead-in that is required for the new Mental Health Act. However, even in the short term, is it the case that we need guidelines, whether they are being given to local authorities or GPs at times? We could all have an argument about what is immediate or serious harm and whether someone is going to seriously deteriorate. I would argue on the cases I have cited that there has at times been a deterioration that is very obvious, but people are afraid. …

It is about getting the person to that point.

People have to get them to the psychiatrist.

Many have said it before; we all accept that Government is not responsible for what has happened with the war in Iran. Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are responsible and we are all suffering as a result. However, let us be absolutely clear. There are things the Government can do. It did reduce the cost of petrol and diesel when it was forced to. We all know an insufficient amount was done in relation to that. How do we know that? We know that because we can look at the forecourts at the minute. We are looking …

-----costs of up to €300 a month. Some of that is fuel. We need help on that as well. Some of that is heating.

We need to get serious. Regarding the cost of disability payment that the Government took away, we need to ensure that is delivered. We have a lot of people under pressure, and the Government could help a lot of them now.

On some level, this is a technical Bill, but because it deals with assessment of need, the Minister will understand that there is a huge level of trepidation and worry out there about the delivery of a service that has seen abject failure over many years. We know that the reason this is being tackled is because, at last count at the end of June, we had 23,282 children on the waiting list for an assessment of need. That was 1,286 in Louth. That is a phenomenal amount of families. We all know that even those who have…

As I follow my two colleagues, the Minister will have got the idea that we have a particular problem with section 8, and why would we not? Anyone who had needed State services in the last while knows that, in order to access them, particularly online, a public services card is required. We need to just knock the idea that it is voluntary on its head straight away. We know there are huge issues. For want of a better term, how the State came upon something like 70% of the biometric information and data was illegal. I…

Táimid críochnaithe le hobair an lae uilig. Caithfidh mé rud éigin beag a rá. It was great to see Louth GAA and Louth LGFA in the Oireachtas. I could not let this occasion go without thanking them for the great results across the board that we have had. I thank Sean McLean and his team for delivering what is going to be a top-class stadium. I just hope that Gavin Devlin and his team can go ahead and we can learn from Mayo, get some of that magic and just go a little bit further next time. Go raibh maith agaibh. An …

I ask for an update on assessments of need. There are now over 23,000 on the waiting list. This is not working for anybody, particularly families who are awaiting services and therapies. Since August, the autism assessment service has been up and running and the disability amendment Bill has been brought to Cabinet. I ask for an update on how this is going and how we can improve the circumstances for the children and families who need therapy.

I suppose that information is the information that is available, even from the press release yesterday. I would like the Minister of State to get into some detail on what is being proposed in the legislation because we are talking about statutory guidelines that will standardise the assessment of need processes and procedures State-wide. The statutory guidelines will be used by the HSE to ensure consistency in how assessments are carried out across the State. I would like know how exactly this is going to happen be…