Castletown House and Gaza
The Taoiseach said talks were ongoing to resolve the Castletown House access issue with the landowner. He also said President von der Leyen's remarks on Gaza had become more balanced, noted the increase in EU aid, and Deputy McGrath and Deputy Healy-Rae interjected briefly.
With regard to the first question on Castletown House and grounds, I am aware of the situation and I have spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Donovan, about it. Conversations are ongoing with the landowner. We are keen to resolve that if we can, but it is a negotiation.
I will say once again that I think President von der Leyen's remarks in more recent days have been more balanced and nuanced and have recognised the humanitarian crisis that is under way. The trebling of EU aid for Gaza is significant. The decision by one commissioner to suspend it did not last for long. She is also working very hard on trying to secure a humanitarian corridor into Gaza. We will talk about all those things this afternoon.
On home help, I will clarify that the HSE still has authorisation to hire more home help workers. It has not reached its number of home help workers yet. It is still free to recruit up to the approved number, but finding people has been the real problem.
To Deputy Wynne's questions, I set out earlier the really phenomenal increase in investment in healthcare that has occurred in recent years. That will continue with the biggest ever budget for next year and 2,000 extra staff-----
Comment on this
There needs to be an investigation into where it is going.