What can be done, do you think?

many of the parents from this campaign in my constituency and at a major rally that was held out in the Helix in DCU a few weeks ago and we heard all the harrowing stories but you know it's about what can be done from here The recent budget put in place 212 residential places.

Half of those emergency, half of those were planned.

Really we need to move from crisis and into actually better planned residential care.

There's parents in their 70s, in their 80s lying awake at night wondering what's going to happen to their intellectually disabled children when they pass on and they're not there to care for them.

Was it addressed in any way in the budget?

uh well well to the point that there was as i said uh 212 additional units uh residential units and 100 of those are planned it's not enough uh we have we have a lot we have a lot more to do uh that's an acceleration on what was happening previously uh in 2023 i think we did 43 units so it's a five-fold increase but still it's a long way off the mark and we do have a long way to go we have uh we have three budgets left And I and my party colleagues and my colleagues across all parties will be pushing hard to ensure that this is given priority.

The nature of

the funding has been withdrawn.

We need to look where we are.

Today, there was a very constructive and positive, and this is in their own words, meeting between the DG Backhurst and Minister O'Donovan.

The funding to RTE, the £725 million that was allocated to the multi-year funding over three years, was done in three tranches.

Last year's allocation was £240 million.

The final tranche this year was set to be £260 million.

So we know that there were negotiations between Minister Chambers and Minister O'Donovan and these went to the 11th hour.

You have a callous, if I may say, and the people dealing with this in public office, you seem to have a callous disregard for people who are in the independent production sector and RTE employees who coming up to Christmas might fear for their jobs.

And then what happens at voting time? I'm not sure, but it's all a bit messy.

That's farcical, Shay, isn't it? The responsible thing to do when the nation is under duress, such as being out on strike, is for the Dáil to actually sit and to do its job.

And that's what we will do.

And if the opposition, and there's plenty of them here this evening, decide to oppose that...

You know, that's their stance on it.

But the government will take the responsible position.

Should there be

They are trying to arrange a

the funding has been withdrawn.

We need to look where we are.

Today, there was a very constructive and positive, and this is in their own words, meeting between the DG Backhurst and Minister O'Donovan.

The funding to RTE, the £725 million that was allocated to the multi-year funding over three years, was done in three tranches.

Last year's allocation was £240 million.

The final tranche this year was set to be £260 million.

So we know that there were negotiations between Minister Chambers and Minister O'Donovan and these went to the 11th hour.

You have a callous, if I may say, and the people dealing with this in public office, you seem to have a callous disregard for people who are in the independent production sector and RTE employees who coming up to Christmas might fear for their jobs.

outline for us actually what lessons have been learned to ensure that we won't go over budget or time.

Well, when this went to planning permission back in 2022, I think the cost range was 7.16 billion up to 12.25 billion.

We've now got a figure today that is a long way ahead of that.

The median for today's that Cabinet signed off on is an investment of 15.75 billion.

And what's changed is a couple of things.

The spec has changed somewhat.

Construction inflation obviously is there.

go through your constituency?

free movement?

Brexit was 10 years ago.

The world has changed a lot since then.

Now, once we figure out what associate membership is, it could well be extended to the UK as a first step back in or as a move back towards a closer Europe.

But the reality here is in this current world, in this environment, all blocks, all medium powers like Canada, like the EU, we need better and more trading partners.

It's not at the exclusivity of the US.

We can trade with Canada and we can trade with the US, but we can develop new markets.

Is there anything stopping the European Union then from becoming the dominant power globally if it continues to expand like this?

What's gone

wrong? Well, it's double the time over a 10-year period.

And many of the measures have come in with this government, which is only two years in existence.

So those measures are starting to take effect.

And we are starting to see the extended timelines slow down and ultimately expect those to reverse.

Single and one-off housing has not necessarily increased.

But when you look at large housing developments, that's where the issues are arising.

improving, Shaye.

reality though, Shay, has this anything really to do with the legal position? Has it got everything to do though with the fears that many American companies that do work with Ireland or are based in Ireland or trade through Ireland also have significant interests in Israel and that they wouldn't want us to do this and indeed that there have been warnings from the IDA that there are legal issues in relation to continuing to trade between the United States and Ireland if Ireland puts a block on services from Israel?

There's economic concerns.

I won't deny that.

I won't try and get away from that.

At committee, and as you said in the introduction there, I was a member of the committee where we unanimously published a report that had quite a number of recommendations in there, notably to proceed with goods and services.

However, one recommendation that was in there that is worth pointing to is that the committee unanimously agreed, and I know this because I tabled this particular recommendation earlier, that the consequences of proceeding were unknowable from an economic and diplomatic point of view, and that the department should investigate thoroughly a range of scenarios in that respect.

So what that is saying, Matt, is that the entire committee, all members of the committee, all realised that there's a potential economic impact on that.

Isn't this a case of dealing with genocide and leaving aside any economic consequences there might be for us in Ireland? Is this not a time to take a moral and ethical position rather than worrying about how it might impact us economically?