We are out of time now but I have four remaining Deputies and I will take 30-second questions from each of them. I call Deputy Niamh Smyth to speak, please.

I want to raise very important strategic infrastructure, not just for the Cavan-Monaghan area but for the whole north-east region as well, which is the east-west link corridor from Dundalk to Sligo. First, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, who was not two weeks in the Department when he met the council officials in Cavan County Council to hear about the woes with regard to roads. I want to raise with the Tánaiste the sincerity within the Department of Transport to get behind this project that is the east-west link corridor. This has been long mooted, for the past 20 years, as a strategic piece of work which has to be done. Some €2 million has been set aside over those 20 years for the design and the preliminary studies. I ask the Tánaiste in his powerful position if he could go into the Department of Transport to see that there is real willingness and money behind delivering this project.

My apologies, Deputy, but I must call Deputy Wynne to speak now.

Budget 2025 contained €2 million for the expansion of neurological services and funding for hospitals in Kerry, Portlaoise, Wexford, Mayo and Letterkenny. Clare and the mid-west region was the first to set up a community neurorehabilitation team in this country and it has been left behind. It has currently 5.6 whole-time equivalent posts when it requires 12. As this involves Article 26 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, I hoped the Tánaiste might provide clarification. I welcome the fact that the Government has acceded to the optional protocol but my understanding is that the Tánaiste and the Minister for Foreign Affairs must sign the instrument and deposit it with the Secretary General of the United Nations and, until such time, it is approval in principle.

Ireland's animal welfare and dog welfare record is appalling. Ireland's record as the puppy farm capital of Europe and of backyard breeding is a shameful legacy of the Government. The Government's ban on XL bully dogs has resulted in dog rescue groups being overwhelmed on so many levels. Given that the term XL is not straightforward, can the Tánaiste state why there is no appeals process?

On the Government's website relating to the ban on XL bully dogs, there is a photo of two dogs that are not XL bully dogs and one dog which would need to be measured to decide if it is or not. Can the Tánaiste have these incorrect photos removed and can he reassure dog lovers that there will be an appeals process put in place?

I want to raise with the Tánaiste the policy of the National Transport Authority, NTA, which, for the past ten years, has been trying to remove the number 11 bus. It was successfully resisted in 2014 but was unfortunately put back on the table again in 2017. Despite multiple changes and the addition of Wadelai Park and Home Farm back on the route, but only on an hourly basis, and then back to a full service but without the cross-city or the local terminus; the reality is that the NTA needs to quit while it is ahead on this bus. BusConnects is a complex project and it involves changes but passengers know how and why they use the service. The Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, and I visited the Broadstone garage recently and we saw the complexity of it. I ask the Department of Transport to talk to the NTA to have it go back to the drawing board on this. It is not working for local people and it is not going to deliver the efficiency the NTA believes it will.

I believe two of those questions are for the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless.