There are 700 vacant posts.

I ask about investment funds buying up housing. Early this year, 85% of new-build homes in Belcamp Manor were bought up by a fund. The Government's 10% stamp duty on bulk purchases is clearly not working and is not stopping this practice. Earlier this year, the Government voted down a proposal from the Social Democrats for a 100% stamp duty, which would effectively eliminate the bulk purchase of homes. The Minister for Finance has said that he is not going to increase the 10% stamp duty any time soon, yet yesterday…

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Gould for tabling this motion. Before I turn to some of the particulars, at the heart of this is a discussion of what happened to public housing and how it has been allowed to be run down over the years. I will talk about the individual impacts that has on people who rent but part of that running down of public housing and the stock - not investing in, retrofitting or maintaining it - is running down the very idea of public housing. That has been part of an attempt over the years to try…

The Minister spoke about legal obligations on local authorities in this regard. That is relevant but if the funding model for social housing and maintenance is not fixed, we will continue to have this problem. It is scandalous that local authorities which own public housing do not meet the basic standards and legal requirements that any landlord has to meet. Local authorities enforce those standards, in some instances, with regard to private landlords but do not adhere to those standards themselves. While some loca…

I thank my colleague Deputy Shortall for her work in bringing forward this motion. It is very disappointing that the Minister for Health is not here and that the second junior Minister who has just come to join this debate is not connected to the Department in any way. The response the Minister of State has just read out does not address many of the fundamental issues we have listed in the motion. It is simply a statement of what is being done now rather than what the Government is going to do to address the very s…

The Government voted down a land price registry.

The Government voted down our proposals on a land price registry.

I want to talk about the human impact of the failures in housing. A family were in touch with me recently who are going to be evicted on 2 June. They will be evicted into homelessness. They have been looking for a property that would accept their HAP payment and simply cannot get that. A second family were in touch with me in similar circumstances. They have been evicted into homelessness. It is their second time becoming homeless. These are families that have done everything they can to avoid this. In other Europe…

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion and giving us the opportunity to discuss these important issues around housing. There is one question I have asked myself and that I wish to pose here. When the Government states that it thinks its Housing for All plan is working, does it really believe that? Is it that disconnected from what is happening in people's lives or is it just Government messaging or spin at work when it says it believes this policy is working? If the Government does believe this, then it must be …

An image popped up on my social media last night showing two boys in Rafah, their tiny bodies crushed under mountains of debris, the latest victims of Israel's atrocities in Gaza. The world will probably never know their names. We will not know how many siblings they had, what their favourite hobby was, what they wanted to be when they grew up, how scared they were for the past seven months, how many horrors they endured, how many friends and family members they watched die, how many times they and their families h…

We agree with the Tánaiste. We need action because the situation is so appalling. One of the images I saw yesterday was of a small child whose parents have been lost looking after a toddler and a baby. These are appalling situations. People are being massacred in Gaza. Children with hopes and dreams for the future are being left buried under rubble. We urgently need action on this as quickly as possible. Will the Tánaiste call for an emergency meeting of the European Council? Will the Irish Government call for this…

The Tánaiste is not going to call for a meeting of the European Council?

It is at the end of June.

We are in the middle of a housing crisis. We have record rents, record house prices, record numbers of adults living in their childhood bedrooms and record levels of homelessness. Given this, why is the Government incentivising landlords to keep homes empty? A prominent financial adviser has announced that he tells some of his landlord clients to leave rental accommodation vacant for two years because if homes are left empty for two years, rent regulations do not apply. Landlords who do this can jack up their rents…

In terms of the well-being of children, I wish to ask the Taoiseach about Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in Donaghmede. It has highly committed staff who do an excellent job. It was founded in 2001, and 23 years later the students are still being taught in prefabs. This is in stark contrast to many other schools that have opened since and for which permanent school buildings have been provided. Planning permission for new buildings was granted originally in 2017, but seven years later permanent school buildings are still …

I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 1: To insert the following after "which Ireland is now facing": "; and calls on the Government to introduce legislation to allow for the zoning of land for the particular use of providing affordable housing as defined in Parts 2 and 3 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021.". We are in the middle of a housing disaster. We have record levels of rent, record house prices, record levels of adults living in their childhood bedrooms and record levels of homelessness. You would not kno…

The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, rent index makes grim reading for renters and is yet another confirmation of what we already know: rents are out of control and there are no upper limits. Someone looking to rent will have to pay €369 per month more than when the Government took office. Last year, rents in existing tenancies rose by 4.5% in Dublin city, 5% in Cork city, 5.4% in Waterford city, 5.5% in Limerick city and 6.1% in Galway city. These increases are taking place in rent pressure zones, RPZs. In rent p…

Is the Tánaiste going to answer the question?

I asked the Tánaiste two simple questions about the rent regulation law being broken and he did not reply. I ask him to reply to those. The countries in Europe with the largest rental sectors also have strict rent regulation that is enforced and very good security of tenure for renters. In contrast, Ireland has some of the highest rents in Europe, very poor security of tenure for renters and the rent regulation law, limited as it is, is being flouted and not enforced. Will the Tánaiste answer the question on that? …

The figures show it.