Programme for Government Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central The Minister has received about €100 million in additional money specifically to deal with the issues affecting families in emergency accommodation who require housing that the Deputy has referenced. The Minister is working on that. To respond to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, yes, there is a delay. I am pursuing that with the Minister of State responsible for post offices, the Minister for Transport and the Minister for public expenditure. There is an issue that needs to be sorted fairly quickly. Both Ministers tell me there is not an issue but there clearly is. My understanding is that the increase is not an issue but there might be something else relating to the Labour Court. That should be progressed. Deputy Whitmore asked about public transport. I will raise what is happening there with the NTA. Deputy Malcolm Byrne has also been raising the matter of transport between Dublin and Wicklow with me. There are issues here for CIÉ and the NTA. A lot of people travel that route. Commuter travel is one of the biggest issues facing the Deputy's constituents. We need to review our plans to make sure we can accommodate additional numbers on public transport. Deputy Rory Hearne raised the issue of the housing crisis. We have the LDA. We are committed to providing 72,000 social houses. We are building more social houses now than at any time since the 1970s. We are doing this through local authorities and approved housing bodies. Last year may end up having been a record year for social housing. I am not sure we should stop doing what we are doing. Perhaps that is not what the Deputy is suggesting but he is saying we should establish a State construction company. That would take a while. It could slow down the construction of social housing. It is not a panacea. I am not clear whether we are in the realm of direct labour any more. Would that work? It did not work in the past. We are now delivering about 12,000. Last year, about 8,500 were directly built by approved housing bodies and local authorities. We need to get up to 10,000. If we can get higher than that on a progressive basis, we will. I am not sure we need a State construction company, on top of what we already have, to deliver social housing. I will look at the Deputy's document but it seems to me that we now need to get on with the agencies we have and get the thing done. I think I dealt with Deputy Quaide's point on flooding schemes. It is a cause of worry and anxiety. We need more interim measures. I will talk to the Minister of State, Kevin Moran, in respect of Mogeely, Killeagh, Whitegate, Rathcormac and the other villages Deputy Quaide mentioned. The interim measures are key. The wider scheme is complex given the nature of what is happening in that area and all of the issues the scheme needs to address. I will talk to the Minister of State in respect of that. Deputy Cleere asked about Gaelscoil Osraí and the vocational college in Kilkenny. I will meet with the community there. Deputy Cleere, Deputy John McGuinness and others have raised this matter before. I will be meeting with the Minister for education on this. I am familiar with the colleges. I have visited the community college and the Gaelscoil. I am anxious to deal with these issues for the school communities involved. I do not have an issue with meeting with the school community if the Deputy wants to arrange that. Deputy McGuinness raised the issue of pobail Ghaeltachta agus an méid tithíochta atá á thógáil againn sna ceantair sin. Chuireamar articles éagsúla san Acht pleanála ionas go mbeimid in ann déileáil go speisialta leis na Gaeltachtaí ó thaobh cúrsaí tithíochta de. Tá an infheistíocht ann anois. Tá muidne sa Rialtas sásta gach aon rud is féidir linn a dhéanamh chun níos mó tithe a thógáil sna Gaeltachtaí. Má tá scéimeanna faoi leith i gceist ag an Teachta, ba chóir dó iad a chur in iúl dúinn. Bheinn sásta iad siúd a chur os comhair an Aire agus cinneadh dearfach a dhéanamh faoin gceist sin. Is ceist thábhachtach í. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-04