I think the Minister will find that with Laois not too much money comes back to the Department. It tends to get used. I agree with him about using it well. It is a 10% contribution where there are five residents or landowners or fewer and 15% where there are more than six. The funding for Laois is actually €469,000. It was €470,000 last year and nine schemes are approved locally for this year but there are more than 80 on the waiting list. Some are more urgent than others. The Minister will appreciate that, as will…

In his reply the Minister said some local authorities may not use it. There may be indications throughout the year that some local authorities are not going to use it. I understand there is not an endless pot of funding and it is not down to the Department of community and rural affairs solely but in relation to this scheme, it is. I ask that where there is a surplus of funding or unused funding that the funding be reviewed. I am with the Minister in relation to spending it well and getting a good return for it. Th…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — Irish Neutrality has been central to the sovereignty and independence of the State, that it was first enunciated by Theobald Wolfe Tone and upheld by successive generations; — despite being a small country, our neutrality has enabled Ireland to play a positive role in international affairs; — the Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1960 encompassed neutrality and the requirement known as the "Triple Lock" which means that deployment of Defence Force overseas requires the author…

No disrespect to you-----

-----but the Minister for Defence should be here. There is legislation planned to go before the Dáil to abolish the triple lock and, we contend, to abolish neutrality. The fact the Minister is not here is an absolute disgrace. It shows total disrespect for the Parliament.

That is okay. The whole issue of Irish neutrality has been central to our sovereignty as a State. As a member of the national defence and security committee, I am more concerned about what is happening now then I was in the past. Despite being a small country, our neutrality has enabled Ireland to play a positive role in international affairs from the 1950s and 1960s to the present day. The Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1960 encompassed neutrality and the requirement known as the triple lock, which means the Defe…

Hear, hear.

The US.

I acknowledge the work of Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon and in other missions overseas, particularly those serving in Lebanon currently given the actions of the terrorist Israeli State. I also acknowledge the work of volunteers who have campaigned and continue to campaign to uphold neutrality. I thank all those from the Opposition benches who spoke on it this morning. I note that not one Fianna Fáil Deputy has darkened the door to come in and to defend what is being proposed here. That is interesting and speaks for…

The report yesterday on rents shocked a lot of people. I predicted, as did others, that this would happen but the scale of it has really shocked me. In County Laois a four-bedroom house has gone up 12.5% year on year, a three-bedroom one by 10% and a two-bedroom house, which is the type most in demand in the county, has gone up by 34%. That is in one year. Notices to quit are up and house prices are up. It is now €530,000 for a bog-standard house in Portlaoise in one estate. I am telling the Taoiseach that the Gove…

-----to please revisit this. There need to be some controls put in to protect tenants.

The fact that it takes a nurse's pay to pay a month's rent-----

-----shows there is something wrong.

I appeal to the Taoiseach to do something.

And more affordable housing.

I raise again with the Taoiseach the three public dental schemes. He will recall me raising them with him on Leaders' Questions last year. The three schemes - the dental treatment services scheme, the dental treatment benefit scheme and the school dental scheme - are in chaos and are not functioning. The situation with the school dental scheme in County Laois, for example, is worse now than it was last year when I raised it with the Taoiseach. It is like the Dark Ages. Current figures from the HSE show that there a…

The Taoiseach does not have the specifics for County Laois, but I have given them to him. Most of the statistics I gave him are only a week old. The three public schemes are in crisis. I did not get to raise the boy with special needs I mentioned to the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and previous Ministers. After six years of waiting in severe pain with periodontal disease, severe inflammation and bone loss, he has to be treated under anaesthetic in hospitals. I have raised this a number of times…

Will the Taoiseach now employ more HSE dentists to fill the gaps?

There has to be more public dentists to fill those gaps. That is the message I want to get out.

In support of the motion, I have to say the laissez-faire policies the Government is pursuing has led to this. If the Minister of State has read history, which I am sure he has, in the 1840s, mass evictions and mass starvation was pioneered by Sir Charles Trevelyan, a British autocrat. This time, it is being pioneered by the Minister of State's party, Fianna Fáil----