The Senator referred to the local democracy task force. I absolutely agree that its findings and recommendations have to be taken seriously. Local government is important, but it is not perfect. The Senator represents councillors and talks to them on a daily basis. He will know that there is often frustration about reserved functions and that councillors sometimes feel helpless. I felt I could get more done in the council than I can get done here, but that is a different matter.

We will have a review of the Oireachtas as well while we are at it. The Senator is 100% right. It will be interesting to see those findings. I assume that the findings and learnings about how the position of democratically elected Mayor of Limerick is working out will be worked in. It will be interesting to see what direction is taken.

Fáiltím roimh an deis plé a dhéanamh ar sholáthar tithíochta i gceantair Ghaeltachta. Ní chuirfidh an Rialtas in aghaidh an rúin seo maidir leis an ngá práinneach le tithíocht agus le pleananna an Rialtais an soláthar tithíochta a mhéadú go suntasach ar fud na tíre, lena n-áirítear ceantair Ghaeltachta. Le comhaontú an Tí, leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh le mo ráiteas i mBéarIa. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy Browne, has discussed in detail the suite of actions in the Government's housing action plan, Delivering Homes,…

I am delighted to be joined by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. The Minister, Deputy Browne, cannot be here for the opening section of these statements because he is at a subcommittee meeting and otherwise engaged. He will be here, however, to give concluding statements. He will be kept up to date as to the comments made during the statements from right across the House. I welcome the opportunity to come before the House to speak on this most important issue of homelessness and the work being …

It is a pleasure to be in the Seanad. I am representing the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, who unfortunately is not able to attend today. I have had a very good briefing from officials. I watched some of the Second Stage debate when the Minister, Deputy Burke, brought the Bill to this House. I understand there was some really good engagement on that occasion. This short Bill is very much a response to the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in 2020. I appreciate the amendments, and I appreciate that Sen…

Senator McDowell quite rightly outlined that the Government has not implemented the ruling of the ECJ. That is exactly the purpose of this legislation. That is why we are introducing it. We need to transpose the European legislation. I am not sure where this figure of 25% remuneration comes from. It is mentioned as a likely split. We are specifically stating there should be fair and equitable remuneration and we are saying that is a 50:50 split. That is actually specifically referenced in the Bill. Therefore, I can…

There is a bit of detail in the proposed amendments. I acknowledge Paul Noonan in the Gallery. It is probably of no consolation whatsoever to him but "Alphabet Soup" by Bell X1 got me through my college days. They are an incredibly talented band. Senator Black is absolutely right that we are so rich with the number of talented artists we have in this country. Unfortunately, I cannot accept any of these amendments. I will speak to amendments Nos. 2 to 5, inclusive, together. While I appreciate their intention, I can…

I thank the Deputy. Fair play to him for advocating, especially on behalf of those who are coming in to him in desperation and looking for a house to rent. I understand the frustration. We all have it in our constituencies. I will try to outline what the Government is trying to do to free up rental accommodation. Ireland's new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, is a wide-ranging action plan focused on housing supply and targeting homelessness. The plan contains a suite of actions that will increa…

I also welcome the school pupils. Is the school in west Cork? It is in Westmeath. I am from west Cork so it is the centre of everything, but Westmeath is a lovely county as well. I welcome the pupils to the Seanad. I thank Senator Kennelly for raising this issue. Before I read the statement, I hear that one of the reasons the Senator thinks the tenant in situ scheme is not being used regularly in Kerry is that the cost of renovation is not included and the local authority, when it is pricing or valuing a house, has…

The proposal on modular homes or small units in back gardens or on the premises of existing homes will come forward shortly. It is really important. It will be an exemption for a certain size of dwelling to allow young people in particular, who want to start off with a home, to build with an exemption so they do not have to go through the arduous planning process. As a west Cork TD, I completely agree with the Deputy about the challenges young people are facing in getting planning permission to build on their land.…

One of the challenges we need to address is that if a house is valued at €350,000, for example, and needs refurbishment and repair, what seems to be happening - and this is what we could look at - is the council may only come up with a figure of €300,000 because it is keeping €50,000 in reserve for the refurbishment. That has proven to be a challenge. If we could somehow get around that, more property owners might come on board the tenant in situ acquisitions. It is certainly an issue I have come across. The Senato…

You are talking about lack of rental accommodation though.

I thank the Senators for their contributions. I get that the crux of the amendment is to seek a report within three months but, as the amendment is presented here today, that is simply impossible because what the amendment does is delete the lines within the legislation that enable me to move the provisions of the Bill, yet at the same time the Senators are asking us to produce a report within three months. It does not make any sense. It cannot happen. The amendment proposes to delete the lines that would allow me …

I have not because it is not true.

I thank Senators for their contributions. It was stated that we are listening to the investors and that this is what is driving the legislation. That is absolutely not the case. The motivation behind this legislation is to support the types of people and situations Senators have been describing, namely the women in emergency accommodation and the pensioners in private rented accommodation. That is exactly what we are trying to do here. We are introducing security of tenure and a nationwide rent pressure zone, which…

Existing tenancies cannot reset to market rent. How could I go back to my constituents in Cork South-West and say that their rents are going to increase? Existing tenancies cannot reset to market rent. This only applies to first-time tenancies from 1 March.

There is absolutely no indication that this will happen. I do not know where the Senator is getting that from. I will certainly not be going back to my constituents in Cork South-West with that type of scaremongering. Senators spoke about the legislation being rushed through, hammered through and so on. We knew this was coming last summer, and even prior to that. We knew of the date of 1 March at that time. This has not been just thought up and rushed through the Dáil. There was pre-legislative scrutiny in respect …

-----by driving up the supply of apartments and other units. It is all about supply. Of course there are other factors. We have to introduce affordable housing schemes and we are. We have to introduce social housing. We are building record amounts of social housing. That is all part of it. There is no one silver bullet to fix the housing crisis; there are many elements to this. Senators also mentioned affordability. There is quite a lot of work being done on that issue. The Government's new plan, Delivering Homes, …

I appreciate the comments from Senators but I feel that this Bill is being completely mis-characterised. As I said at the outset, the types of people the Senators are describing, including those facing homelessness, those in emergency accommodation and those who are afraid of extortionate rent hikes, are exactly the people we are trying to protect and cater for. If you listen to what the Bill actually does, I am surprised that it is being characterised like that and I am surprised that the Opposition is not support…

I say to Senator Andrews that there has been sufficient analysis of the rental market over the past two years to inform this legislation. There is absolutely no doubt about that whatsoever. Not only that, there has been engagement with the housing and homelessness NGOs, including Threshold, Focus Ireland, the Simon Communities, etc. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. As I said, the Housing Agency and the Housing Commission are often quoted in this House, and we should listen to them. I ask everyone to go and …