Before calling Deputy McDonald, I welcome to the Gallery the following guests of Deputy Richard O'Donoghue: Marianne, Pat, Clare, Daniel and Jack Tierney from Mountrath, County Laois; Rachel and Ciara Coughlan from Cloyne, County Cork; and Mary Angela Downes and Brigid O'Sullivan from Knockaderry, County Limerick.

As this is the last time I will take to my feet this year, I extend to everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas. Nollaig shona daoibh go léir.

At the start of this year, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael formed the Government on the back of a grubby deal with Michael Lowry and his group of so-called Independents - a grubby deal that was all about keeping power, not about what is good for ordinary people. It was a deal that saw the Government appoint a record number of super-junior Ministers to Cabinet. Of course, the courts will have their say on that matter on Friday. Eleven months on, at the end of the year, we have a do-nothing Government. It is a Government whose first year has been defined by failure, scandal and broken promises. Its failure in housing persists, with devastating consequences for people desperate to put an affordable roof over their head. When it comes to passing legislation, the Government is at nothing. It has passed the fewest number of laws in the first year of any government this century. In 25 years, over six governments, this Government is the worst. It is a go-slow coalition that cannot even get the basics of governance done.

Then there is the cost of living. People are hammered with price increases and rip-off bills but the Government refuses to help. It refused to bring forward a cost-of-living package. It delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that, astonishingly, left working people worse off. It hiked up the price of petrol, diesel, home heating oil, road tolls and the local property tax. The Government allows big energy companies and large supermarket chains to price-gouge and fleece people. It does nothing to stop it. Worse than that, over the past week, we have seen the most mean-spirited, lousy approach in respect of blister packages, which is putting pressure on low-income people, including the elderly. Again, this was done without costing the Government a thought.

Then there is the Government's waste of public money. Millions of euro have been wasted on bike sheds, security huts and empty offices. There is also, of course, a raft of broken election promises, of which there are many. The Government promised to cut student fees but hiked them up. It promised action to get bills and prices down; they go up and up. It promised to give workers a break on their income tax but instead gave those tax breaks to developers, landlords and banks. As soon as the Government got back into power, its promises disappeared like snow off a ditch.

The most damning failure of this do-nothing Government is its failure of the children who are denied assessments of needs and school places, children living in poverty and children living with scoliosis and spina bifida. This will be Gillian and Stephen Morrison Sherratt's first Christmas without Harvey. The unimaginable pain of losing Harvey has been compounded by the fact he was deliberately removed from a waiting list by Children's Health Ireland. That was done without the knowledge or consent of Harvey's parents. Children with scoliosis and spina bifida were promised they would wait no longer than four months for their surgeries. Does the Taoiseach remember that promise? Harvey was just one of the children for whom that promise was broken time and again. Today, 233 children wait for their operations. Every day they wait, the Government fails them, just as it failed Harvey.

Tá faic déanta ag an Rialtas. Le linn na chéad bhliana in oifig, bhí sé gafa i scannal, teipeanna agus gealltanais bhriste. There we have it - the Taoiseach's do-nothing Government's year of failure laid bare. Those failures have big consequences for so many people. Does the Taoiseach accept his Government is the worst-performing government this century?

Ní aontaím in aon chor leis an Teachta. Before I start, I express my gratitude to the Ceann Comhairle and her team and all the staff in the Oireachtas who help us elected representatives to do our job, day in and day out.

Hear, hear.

I refer to the clerks, security staff, cleaners, catering staff and all who quietly go about their business and create what is essentially the community that underpins our nation's democracy. I also thank all the TDs in the House. We may differ on matters - we do not agree on everything - but I believe we are all here for the right reason, which is to advance the interests of the people of this country. I wish everybody a well-earned break with their family and loved ones. I thank my own team and the officials in my Department and wish them a happy and peaceful Christmas. Nollaig shona agus athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir. I wish a happy Christmas to Deputy McDonald as well. I hope she has a very good rest and break.

In relation to the first year of the Government, I would take an opposite view to Deputy McDonald. I generally think she takes the soundbite approach as opposed to dealing with the issues of real substance. The Government came into office at a time of huge geopolitical turbulence, with tariffs, etc. We have navigated the tariff situation skilfully, effectively and with impact. We have reduced the threats to this country significantly as a result of our work within Europe and bilaterally with the US and by influencing the European approach to the discussions with America. That was a significant threat, if the Deputy recalls, at the beginning of the Government's term. We worked with industry, including the medical devices, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and life sciences sectors, to make sure we were on the ball in terms of dealing with the core issues in a very difficult situation.

It was likewise in terms of the security situation facing Europe, with a war in Europe for the first time since the Second World War. We have navigated that. We have worked with principle in terms of dealing with those issues. We also took a principled stance in relation to the shocking genocide in Gaza.

Economically, we are heading to be the fastest growing among the world's most advanced economies this year. We will have 2.8 million people at work. That is 550,000 additional people at work in the Irish economy between 2020 and 2025. We have 2.825 million people at work. It is a record in the labour market. That creates its own challenges but it is a positive. I can remember other decades when people in this country could not get work. We should never take that for granted. I know the Deputy does take it for granted, dismisses it all and keeps coming up with ideas and proposals that would undermine the enterprise economy that is critical.

One of the core Government deliveries this year was infrastructure and proper investment in the productive capacity of our economy and society into the future. Investments in water infrastructure, the energy grid and housing have all been announced in the context of the national development plan. Big projects like MetroLink have been green-lighted and are on their way. The planning has come through. Projects like the Shannon eastern and midlands water plan are big projects. No doubt Deputy McDonald will come at us objecting to some of them but these are very big projects for the future of this country.

In research investment, we have the INSPIRE programme. I have never heard Deputy McDonald mention the word "research" in five or six years. She has never raised it with me, yet research is critical to the future of this country in terms of the jobs of the future, products of the future and ideas for the future.

That is what matters ultimately in terms of a measurement of a government, not the quantum of legislation passed. We passed 32 Bills in 2020. Why? Eleven of them were to do with the emergency arising from the pandemic. I do not accept the analysis Deputy McDonald has put forward. We have a lot of law and regulation in this country. Some would argue we have too much regulation, which has stopped us getting the roads, bridges and railways built.

Let us have balance and perspective here.

I thank the Taoiseach.

As for judging any government, there is a whole range of issues and I will get back to some in the supplementary response.

I thank the Taoiseach.

We are doing more for children now in terms of our investments.

I call Deputy McDonald.

Deputy McDonald did not want us to do targeted measures for child poverty in the budget, but we did it.