As the Taoiseach knows, section 39 workers do incredibly important work in home care, disability care, elder care and support services in our communities. Despite their Trojan work, they receive poor levels of pay. There is also the very serious issue of a lack of sustainable funding for this sector with increased costs, such as for auto-enrolment, coming down the line. SIPTU is now balloting its members for strike action. Last week I met with the Irish Wheelchair Association which described the impact that this wo…

It is a new low that the explanation for the absence of the Minister for Housing is that he is aware the debate is going on.

Is this what democracy in the Dáil is reduced to? The senior Minister responsible does not turn up but we are meant to be okay with him being aware the debate is taking place. Is that the situation with this Government? It has happened two weeks in a row for debates on housing motions that the senior Minister-----

We do participate in every debate in the Dáil. The Minister should be here.

The senior Minister should be here.

The Minister of State interrupted me. If the Cathaoirleach is going to intervene, it should not be biased against the Opposition.

I will proceed. The Minister of State said in his response that the Government would not support the motion because the State alone cannot achieve what is needed in housing. We have never said that the State alone needs to achieve what needs to be done in housing.

What we have said is that the private sector on its own is not delivering, that there is a large affordability gap and that there is a greater role for the State and the not-for-profit sectors. If it does not see that and thinks its housing policy is working, that shows how deluded the Government is. It is disingenuous to say that 100% stamp duty on bulk purchase of homes would prevent forward funding. It does not. As the Minister of State must understand, stamp duty on bulk purchases is on purchase transactions. T…

Growing numbers of children and their families across Ireland are being left waiting for assessments of need well in excess of the legal timeframes permitted. According to the Disability Act 2005, an assessment of need must be completed within six months of the date the application is received. I have received new figures from the HSE which show that, at the end of 2024, there were 14,221 children overdue an assessment of need. That is an increase of nearly 60% compared with 2023. That is 60% in just 12 months. As …

A total of 90% of assessments of need are being done outside of the legal timeframe. This is the law. It is not an optional extra for the Taoiseach or the Government. I am not clear from the Taoiseach's answer if the Government is going to meet the legal requirements of the Disability Act. Is it going to take action so that 90% turns to 0% so the Taoiseach and his Government are compliant with the law on this? Is it the intention of the Government not to meet the requirements of the Disability Act? Will the Taoisea…

Since last June, we in the Opposition have been seeking a serious debate on the Housing Commission's proposals and the Government has yet to facilitate that. I hope it does so soon. It is hard to know where to start with the Taoiseach's rapidly unravelling housing plan. The Taoiseach cannot even convince his Fine Gael colleagues that his new approach is a good one. Yesterday, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, publicly slapped down some of the Taoiseach’s proposals. He recalled all the harm that was done by …

If the Taoiseach cannot even win over his colleagues in Fine Gael, he is in big trouble. This is the party that transcribed developer lobby documents and turned them into government policy. Fine Gael was also the first to roll out the red carpet for investment funds and it has consistently failed to close tax loopholes exploited by international investors. However, even Fine Gael Ministers are baulking at the suggestion that enriching developers and funds even further is a solution to the housing disaster. The Taoi…

We have put forward a number of alternatives to tax incentives for private developers to finance the construction of housing and, significantly, the construction of housing that is affordable for people. Am I to take it from the Taoiseach's answer that tax incentives for developers are on the table? Does the Taoiseach accept the view that the section 23 tax incentives that Fianna Fáil brought in led to economic collapse, a banking collapse, a bank bailout, unemployment and emigration and ruined people's lives? Does…

In the context of the Dublin city centre task force, I wish to ask the Taoiseach about motorbike theft. A total of 787 motorbikes were stolen in Dublin in 2023 - a 100% increase on the previous year. This means that for every 100 motorbikes bought, 44 were stolen. It is completely out of control. Will the Government follow the example of London, which launched Operation Venice and introduced a range of measures to clamp down on moped theft? Within a year, moped theft had fallen by 36% and moped-enabled crime had fa…

I start by congratulating Deputy Brabazon both on his election and on his maiden contribution. I know he has been a very hardworking, committed public representative for many years. In 2020, the Minister said that investment funds were engaging in aggressive behaviour to avoid tax. He introduced a range of measures that were supposed to clamp down on this tax avoidance. Since then, these property investors have seen their tax halved despite growing the size of their portfolios by more than €8 billion during the sam…

I will come back to the Minister on the source of that figure. So that I am clear, is the review commissioned by Revenue in 2022 published? The Minister referred to the other reports and reviews that are going on but will he clarify if that review is published? A report published by the Central Bank last year found that 78% of the homes owned by investment funds were bought as existing properties. The report also found that institutional landlords increased monthly rents by about 4.1% more than other landlords. The…

The Minister has been very selective in the years he quoted in relation to taxation. The Minister knows well that the tax decreased. In fact, he said that there was aggressive behaviour to avoid tax. The purpose of the review conducted by Revenue was to look at how those loopholes could be shut down. Has there been any action on foot of that review, the results of which have not been published? Will the Minister be taking action? In 2017, the sector was much smaller and, of course, was paying less tax. This is a se…

Exactly. They have halved.

Can the public trust this Government? More importantly, why should it trust his Government? I ask because people were misled by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael during the election campaign. They were misled on the issue of the number of homes that were delivered last year. The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the former Minister for housing were all adamant that the figure in that regard would be 40,000. It was nowhere near that. The deception does not end there, because there were lies of omission too. At no stage did the Ta…

Influence.