An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-16 ============================================================ Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel This morning's news coverage is dominated by calls from medical professionals for a ban on e-scooters. This follows calls for bans on social media. The Government has moved to ban vapes. We are actively engaged as a country in banning a lot of things at the moment and there is very good reasoning behind a lot of these proposals. However, we have an obligation to examine the deeper causes of the behaviour and understand and attempt to understand the causes of the behaviour. That is something we did at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use. Our report included a recommendation for an Irish primary prevention system, particularly for adolescents. I would appreciate it if we could have a debate early in the autumn term on that proposal for an Irish primary prevention system for our adolescents. It would help inform policy, not just in the drugs space but in all areas of mental health, physical health and our social well-being. I draw the House's attention to the publication this morning of the Government's latest progress report on housing - Delivering Homes, Building Communities. This report details progress that has been made up to the end of this month. While we are all very conscious of the number of people who are still being accommodated in emergency accommodation and that number remains stubbornly high - we all understand the reasons for that - it is important we engage in the debate on housing in an informed way. We must examine the progress that is being made. There was a record supply delivery in 2025 of more than 36,000 homes. In this year so far, over 7,800 homes have been completed. That is just in the first quarter and it is up 33%. More than 46,000 new homes have commenced. There is a lot of activity in terms of supply. Affordability is a huge issue for a lot of people but, in the last year, more than 20,000 first-time home purchasers acquired their own home. Close to €1 billion has been allocated by the Government for more than 7,900 affordable homes. Progress is being made. It is important that we do not lose sight of that progress. Regarding the reusing of vacant properties, more than 13,000 vacant refurbishment grants have been paid out already and more than 3,400 additional homes are in the process of being converted from commercial spaces into residential homes. Nobody thinks the job is done. We all appreciate that there is continuing pressure and demand for increased supply and affordability, but I encourage every Member of the House to examine the report and to engage in the debate in a constructive way. --- 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/seanad/2026-07-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-16