Appropriation Bill 2025 [Certified Money Bill]: Second Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I welcome this debate this morning as the Oireachtas rises for the Christmas break. I understand there is a constitutional requirement for this Bill as it legislates for the financial resolutions, which include all the Estimates agreed by the Dáil this year, and Sinn Féin will be supporting it. This Bill is important to ensure the funding of the State’s public administration in 2026 and the various services funded by each Department and each agency within these Departments. It also enables the continuation of the State’s social protection programmes which many vulnerable families and individuals rely on. For many years, there was no debate on these Bills. It is welcome and important that we are now debating this particular Bill because there is a serious aspect to it. The spending of these funds will be key to tackling the big issues of the day.
In Dublin Bay South, the lack of access to housing remains the perennial number one issue. For the families I work with, it is a travesty that the Government has missed its own housing targets time after time, particularly in social housing and new build housing overall. This has real-life consequences, not just for the adults trying so hard to provide a safe and decent place for their families to grow up in, but for the countless children who understand and feel the housing stress their parents are under. It is hard to have a normal Christmas in a hotel room, and the Department of housing’s monthly homelessness reports consistently show thousands of children in emergency accommodation and hundreds of families without long-term housing solutions. It is my strong desire that in a united Ireland we will have a new constitution and a right to housing centrally placed within it. Housing should not only be a commodity to be bought and sold, traded and hoarded. If we had a real republic, we would ensure our citizens lived in dignity. Access to housing is a key measure of how the State provides for its people, or not, as is the current case.
I also wish to raise issues relating to the development of the Irish Glass Bottle factory site where there will soon be an influx of thousands of new residents. I very much welcome this, of course. However, it is so shortsighted of the Government to plough on with the development despite the significant infrastructural deficits – no Luas extension, no new sports facilities and no recreation centres. The parks are in darkness after 6 p.m. Traffic volume has also increased. These are safety issues as well as quality of life issues. I urge the Government to address them.
I also raise the situation of tenants of Dublin City Council who have had their rents increased by up to 50% in some cases. This is despite the fact that many tenants are living in damp and unsuitable properties with constant maintenance issues as well as water supply issues. It is not good enough for Dublin City Council to increase rent while it does not ensure that tenants have their maintenance and water needs met. I urge the Government to finally take this issue seriously in the new year.
On a more positive note, I wish the Minister a happy Christmas.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18