When the Taoiseach was asked earlier about the €18.5 million shortfall for Dublin City Council homeless services he sidestepped the question and offered no clarity. Perhaps he will take a second opportunity to do so. When will the Minister, Deputy Kelly, make clear these moneys will be provided to Dublin City Council? I am aware the Lord Mayor of the city, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, has written to the Minister seeking a meeting with him. When will he do her the courtesy of responding? More to the point, does the Taoiseach propose to live up to the rhetoric-----

Sorry Deputy, you cannot raise that on the Order of Business.

-----and dewy-eyed emotion he demonstrated following the death of Jonathan Corrie when he was out on the streets of Dublin and met some of the rough sleepers in the city? The homelessness issue is now at crisis level-----

Hear, hear.

-----and well the Taoiseach knows it, and an €18.5 million shortfall-----

Sorry Deputy, please. That has been dealt with already.

-----for Dublin City Council is not acceptable. I tried to have this matter raised as a Topical Issue two days in a row but the Ceann Comhairle knocked me back.

Excuse me, I have not knocked you back.

It is a critical issue for this city.

Many other Deputies have also applied. There were 34 today.

I know, including-----

So please, I will consider it.

-----rather opaque issues. Will the Taoiseach respond please?

I do not know what he is responding to as he has already dealt with the issue.

I will respond. I have already said I need to see the basis for the figure of €18.5 million. We had some very detailed straight discussions about this at Cabinet sub-committee meetings with people from Dublin City Council and the various agencies. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, made unprecedented moves to deal with the homelessness issue.

The Taoiseach is having a lot of meetings and discussions.

As a consequence of some success there others began to travel to Dublin from different locations.

Are you serious?

He is unfortunately. That is the crisis.

Is the Taoiseach actually that out of touch with the crisis in this city?

I think the Taoiseach has dealt with that.

No less a person than the previous Lord Mayor of Dublin, with whom I walked many of the streets-----

Please, Taoiseach, stop.

-----pointed this out to me on many occasions-----

Walking the streets in the rain, well that did not amount to much.

Sorry, Taoiseach, we cannot continue this discussion on the Order of Business.

You cut the budget by €18.5 million.

It is all bluster.

I am not talking about Butch Moore if you want to get smart about it. I need to know the basis for the figure-----

It came out on Monday night. What have you been doing since then?

It needed Cabinet approval.

This is not Deputy Martin's question; it is Deputy McDonald's question.

I asked it earlier.

It is not in order on the Order of Business. The Taoiseach has not heard me. We have dealt with this issue.

The Taoiseach is elaborating on the non-answer.