The tenant in situ scheme is still an option for local authorities for a variety of reasons, especially when it comes to people who are exiting homelessness. It is very important to say that the scheme has not been scrapped. Again, the Housing Agency report is available on the Housing Agency website. I urge the Senator to view it because the recommendations within have informed this legislation. It certainly was not back-of-the-envelope calculations, which I think is what Members have done to come up with figures l…

Extending RPZs.

We have extended the RPZs in the county to cover areas that never had protection.

Where is the Deputy getting that from?

The Deputy is concocting scenarios now that do not even exist. What is he talking about? He is trying to say that I am smirking or laughing. That is absolutely ridiculous.

Look at the review.

I was not listening.

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. In recent years, the Government has made great inroads into reducing the cost of childcare. That is one of the key measures we have taken. As we know, childcare is still expensive, but we have certainly reduced that. A key issue that remains is the provision of childcare. There are some pockets of Ireland, in regional areas in particular, where options are not available. What we need to do is encourage more people to take on these types of initiatives. In asking…

We need to increase the provision of childcare, especially in rural areas. There may be methods and ways of looking at that. It may not be as straightforward as the Senator has presented it. At the moment, the short-term letting legislation is very topical. If someone has a bed and breakfast with planning permission, it may be subject to rates. It probably is. I refer to the old, traditional bed and breakfasts that the Senator and I would have stayed in - not together, by the way - over the years. By comparison, in…

I thank all of the Senators for their contributions today. I have listened carefully. The Minister, Deputy Browne, and I are no strangers to the impacts of flooding, especially the Minister in the past couple of weeks in his home town. He is living it. He knows the constituents there and he knows how they have been impacted. For me, in west Cork we have had many towns subject to repeated flooding. Thankfully most have their flood relief schemes in place, like my home town of Clonakilty, as well as Skibbereen and Ba…

I noted a lot of interest in many of the comments made. Both the Minister, Deputy Browne, and I were listening in. I noted Deputy O'Reilly's comments when she said with glee that her constituency is Fianna Fáil free. I come from a constituency, Cork South-West, where we do not have a single Sinn Féin councillor, Senator or TD. That is because, thankfully-----

-----the people of Cork South-West can see through its empty politics. That is just an answer back on that one.

Thanks as well-----

-----for the other comments. I listened with interest because what the Deputies have done is highlight the issues. Rents are too high, we do not have enough supply and we have far too much homelessness. This is something we all know. It is something that this Bill is trying to address. We often hear references to the Housing Agency and its recommendations. What the Housing Agency has asked the Government to do is to ensure more protection for renters, which is what this Bill does through designating the entire coun…

I thank Deputy Healy-Rae. I am sure he will be heard loud and clear. There is no fear about that. I thank all Deputies for their contributions. There are clear messages and themes coming across. It is around timelines of delivery of much-needed infrastructure. It is around communication, which is obviously coming across quite clearly. It is also around the fact that so many of our towns and villages remain without adequate wastewater treatment or even water supplies. I was glad to hear that some Deputies mentioned …

I acknowledge the efforts of the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley. I have worked with him over the past number of months meeting fishing sector representatives. I know how many times he has travelled back and forth to Europe to try to establish some sort of coalition and get other countries on board for, at the very least, invoking the Hague preferences. He did what he could. He used his vote in the way he should have to try to ensure that the Hague preferences came through but, as we know, there was a betrayal. Th…

I thank Senators for their contributions. We have been bringing this through all Stages of the Dáil and Seanad and it is striking to hear the testimonies of a lot of the TDs and Senators. Some have lived through this themselves and experienced what it means to have a home built with defective blocks. Some people have family who have been impacted. I cannot but be moved by some of the heartbreaking stories we hear of people's experience, mainly in Donegal but in other counties as well. We are listening and that is w…

I will now address Amendment No. 8, which was tabled by Deputies Ó Broin, Doherty, McGettigan, Conway-Walsh and Mac Lochlainn. I take the points made by the Deputies that there is an urgent need to increase capacity throughout the country. There is also an urgent need to increase affordability in the housing sector and to increase capacity in the private rental sector and the rental sector in general. This is obviously a very acute issue, particularly in Donegal, which is obviously the county most affected by defec…

I was not reading from a script. Deputy Doherty mentioned, in the example he provided, that perhaps a policy instruction came from the Department of justice and that the Department of Finance legislated for it. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is legislating in this instance, and there may be policy discussions. Quite often in the context of housing policies we suggest taxation measures. However, those measures are always legislated for by the Department of Finance. We are here dealing with …

There were accusations of a lack of political leadership and I have to dispute that. Since the Minister took up the position his focus has been on increasing supply and increasing viability. In the ten or so months he has been in the position he has introduced a range of policy measures and legislation to do that. I know this legislation was also a priority. I am sure Sinn Féin could have drafted the Bill in a number of hours but these Bills have to withstand scrutiny so it is not as simple as the Deputy says. The …