Hear, hear.

The Labour Party would like to support the proposal made by Deputy O'Reilly. I also wish to raise the issue of pandemic unemployment payments to those who are self-employed and those who are in receipt of employee wages and self-employed wages, who are now going to be put on a lower schedule of payment. We can only resolve this issue if the Dáil is sitting. We cannot have a six-week recess for those who are in receipt of this payment. It would be very simple for us to return here on Tuesday to have questions on thi…

I appreciate the Minister being here. It feels as if we are in the worst nightclub ever, spending this time together. Perhaps there should be some type of mechanism for us to interact over the month of August. I appreciate that we cannot recall the Dáil but we should find an imaginative way for Opposition Deputies and the Minister or her officials to engage in the weeks before the reopening because this issue is so important. I strongly hope that this plan works. We all need it to work and we need the Minister to b…

I very much appreciate the Minister's presence here this evening. She has had a long day of engagement with Deputies and Senators on a wide range of issues over the course of this day. It is now past 2 a.m. and she is still here. I appreciate that. I made a comment about a Cabinet colleague of hers not affording us the same respect, but she is here and it is greatly appreciated. For those who are interested in the topic that we are going to discuss, it shows the seriousness with which she takes the issue. The campa…

That is very positive. I appreciate the Minister's response. I think the parents of children who are attending the school or intend to attend the school will be very satisfied with that response. A permanent site option for the new 16-classroom school has been identified. We are not talking about a temporary site but a permanent one and it is in the school planning area. It is quite a wide area and it spans what would border Fairview all the way down to the Kilbarrack Road, which is quite a large catchment area. I …

The Labour Party will be opposing the Bill and submitting a number of amendments. We feel that this Bill has limited protections for those impacted by Covid-19. It seems strange, when a measure introduced in March has been seen to work to keep people out of homelessness, that we would change the provisions that were made. Homelessness and housing have dogged political debate for years now. They are one of the greatest crises we have had to grapple with as a nation. Measures have finally been taken that have seen a …

Our grandparents' generation, particularly our grandmothers, used to say that education was no burden. Some 80 or 90 years ago, a child might well have come to the kitchen table at age 12, 13 or 14 to tell of an offer of a job in a factory or on the docks, which was a chance to leave school and go into employment. The mothers of those families - our grandmothers - would say that education is no burden. Not only is it not a burden, but is also the great liberator which saves families from poverty and young people fr…

I want to ask the Minister about the strategic housing development Act brought in by the previous Government and if he is conducting a review of that Act. I understand that Act and its provisions are to continue until mid-2022. It is controversial legislation. It overrides local authorities and their planning processes and has led to much upset and controversy in local communities. I want to get a sense from the Minister of the plan of the Government to renew the terms of the Act.

I am glad to hear the Minister say that because he was quite vocal in his constituency on this matter. Fianna Fáil representatives in my constituency were very concerned about this legislation on the basis that it was not doing what it was designed to do because a number of planning cases ended up in the High Court and it was overriding the powers of the local authority. When something overrides a local authority, it overrides the democratically constituted development plan of the city. As people know, councillors …

It is crucially important for local democracy that people elect their local councillors and that those councillors oversee the development plan, the running of the city and zonings. The latter are there for particular reasons, namely, to protect open spaces and build communities which can thrive into the future and which people can live in and enjoy. Councillors and council planners are there to oversee a city, county or area that works. The legislation to which I refer is particularly destructive in that regard. I…

Will the Minister set out his views on shared housing, which is another controversial scheme initiated by the previous Government? Is there a review of that scheme under way, particularly in light of the fact that Covid-19 means that such accommodation will be completely inappropriate into the future?

In many aspects of Irish life, Covid-19 has ripped off the plaster. If it has particularly exposed any one issue in Irish society, it has been in regard to housing and how people are living. If we ask people to stay at home as a national call, then we have to be mindful of how people live. If they are living in overcrowded accommodation, if three generations are living in the one house, if people do not have access to a back garden, then all of the things for which people have been criticised for campaigning on ove…

We do not want to have death by review. What is the timescale for the completion of the review? All the while, planning applications are being submitted and permission is being granted, which leads to a bigger problem. If the review and Government action are swift, we will avoid the construction of a significant number of co-living accommodation units with which we would then have to contend. In light of the possibility of a second wave or having to deal with Covid for several years, it would be absolutely irrespon…

For the information of the House, I tabled these questions in conjunction with Senator Moynihan, the Labour Party spokesperson on housing. I ask the Minister to provide details of the land transferred to the Land Development Agency, LDA, for the development of residential units; and the projects it is considering for development, including details of the partners involved, the number of expected units, the stage of the process and the target completion dates.

I thank the Minister for his detailed reply. I appreciate that he will circulate the tabular information. I refer to the potential for different housing models. I made reference to this issue while speaking to the Sinn Féin motion on affordable housing. I acknowledge that the Minster spoke about affordable purchase previously. We previously discussed the idea of a rent-to-buy scheme and the Minister stated he would look into it. There is potential within the LDA model for that type of scheme to be pursued. We previ…

Can we weave that sort of model into the LDA legislation or should it be provided for in stand-alone legislation that allows for various models to be pursued? It is a model that worked in the past. It will deal with a particular issue. As I previously mentioned, throughout the country there are several generations living in the same house. Part of the problem is the lost generation of people in their 20s or 30s who are living at home. They cannot afford to rent because they are saving to get onto the property ladde…

I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for bringing the motion to the floor of the House. It gives us all an opportunity to speak on this issue and for the Government to respond. Like many parties, the Labour Party has met with the Debenhams workers. Senator Sherlock and I met with some of these courageous workers and their representatives in Mandate trade union today. It is important for Irish society, and what is sometimes called "middle Ireland", to understand the magnitude of a decision which a worker makes to…

I ask that time be made available today or tomorrow for statements to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley. I wrote to the Ceann Comhairle on Friday on foot of an exchange I had with the Minister on Thursday when I asked her a very straight question about the leaving certificate results. The Minister refused to answer the question and then sent out a press release some two hours later. That was disrespectful to the Dáil and to the Ceann Comhairle. I ask that the Minister for Education and Skills be m…

Many of my comments on this will repeat what I have said on the microfinance Bill and the Private Members' motion on workers' rights last week. The Labour Party will support this Bill. We appreciate the necessity for it and where the Minister is coming from in bringing it to the House. We agree with some of the comments made by previous speakers, particularly on the lifting of the portfolio cap. The Minister of State's opening remarks placed a heavy emphasis on the July stimulus package. The Labour Party published …

I have a number of comments to make. I wish the various Ministers well and hope to work with them. I feel very strongly about access to education and educational disadvantage and I congratulate the Minister on announcing a new free book scheme. A pilot scheme was included in the budget last year, proposed in the programme for Government, and has now been delivered upon. A total of 102 schools will avail of a free book scheme in September, and that is the kind of initiative on which the Labour Party wants to work wi…