I cannot call Deputy Heneghan. He is not a member of the Opposition, so he cannot be called.

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

I have been watching some of Sinn Féin's messaging on social media. It is almost a new style; a new approach. There was a beautiful one this morning about Eoin Ó Broin and his legislation on water and how Eoin had signed it. The Deputy opposite does it with a kind of "I wonder where that came from?" It was as if an executive order had been signed by Deputy Ó Broin in terms of water charges. I come in today and see that we are the do-nothing Government. That sounds familiar, but I suppose people have to keep on learning and innovating in terms of political opposition.

We want to establish Oireachtas committees. We are not holding that up in any shape or form. I respectfully suggest that the Deputies opposite agree to the formation of committees and not get in the way of them being formed. Government is getting on with it. We will continue to do what we have to do in respect of decisions.

We have a parliamentary system here. We have a legislative Chamber. We should be passing legislation. We can do it by plenary session if we have to and we will in terms of legislation that will come forward. We will pass it through the House. If Opposition Deputies do not want to form committees and want to be a barrier to the formation of committees, that is their business.

We want to form committees.

However, we will get legislation done here through plenary methods, but we will engage.

Why will the Taoiseach not respect the Ceann Comhairle's decision? Michael Lowry-----

My understanding is that all the Whips agreed the Dáil calendar. I know we have these empty soundbites coming up that since November we have only met so many times. There was a government being formed since November as Deputy Tóibín knows well, but he just ignores it.

That is one month not three months.

To be fair to him, he did not play a meaningful role in the formation of Government. I acknowledge that. He was an observer of what was going on.

Seventeen days even for the Taoiseach that must be a record.

In the modern era, it takes a long time to form a government. It was actually much shorter this time than in 2020 when I think it took five or six months.

Is the Taoiseach looking for a medal?

This time it was much shorter and probably much shorter than most other European Union member states. By the way, I do not like having a prolonged timeline in terms of the formation of Government. Let us be honest with the public that many Deputies were in here in November, December and January trying to put a government together and trying to get the substance of a programme for Government together, and that happened. Let us not denigrate politicians for the sake of an empty electoral soundbite to make the Deputy look good.

I thank the Taoiseach.

In response to Deputy Collins, private nursing homes are not covered by section 39. As he knows there is a separate financial mechanism. The National Treatment Purchase Fund is the mechanism through which private nursing homes get funded. I agree with him that it was a welcome development that the section 39 issue was resolved through the pay talks.

Deputy Gibney raised the issue of the European Council. As we have in previous Councils and in the Foreign Affairs Council, we have always sought to get the strongest language possible in terms of the appalling atrocities in Gaza and the shocking bombings of the last 48 hours leading to so many innocent children, men and women being killed which is an abhorrence. We will do what we can.