The Government's disastrous approach to housing has meant record rents, record numbers of adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s stuck living in box rooms and childhood bedrooms, record numbers of people living in homeless emergency accommodation and now, shamefully, record numbers of children growing up without a home. At the same time there has never been such an opportunity to solve the housing disaster, with billions available that could be used to build more homes and crucially, many more affordable homes which are …

Recently, I met Sphere 17, which is a youth service in my constituency based in Darndale, Priorswood, Bonnybrook and Kilbarrack. It does tremendous work. I also met some of the young people who use the youth service who spoke about how well they feel supported there in terms of it being a safe place and a place where they are encouraged to reach their full potential. Youth services such as Sphere 17 do invaluable work helping to support our young people in communities around the country. Given the importance of thi…

I have just met families with children who were attending St. Michael's House. Just before they graduated this year, they received a letter telling them there would be no places for them in adult day services. Since then, the families have found out that the HSE knew this was going to be the case for about 12 months beforehand, at least since May 2022. The families were never told. They have never been told why this information was not shared with them. In July, I attended a meeting with the families and the Minist…

This country treats disabled people shamefully. Disabled children and their families must battle from the day they are born. It is outrageous that their biggest battle is often with the State to try to get basic services, like an assessment of need, essential therapies or a school place. More than 17,000 children are now waiting to access children's disability network teams, CDNTs. More than 10,000 of them have been waiting for more than a year, with no intervention and no therapy. This wholesale and pervasive Stat…

Yes.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. The "Benefits Street" programme did demonise welfare recipients and for the Taoiseach to reference it in a discussion on this topic is not appropriate. Does the Tánaiste agree that referencing television programmes that demonise welfare recipients is not an appropriate thing for anyone in the Government to do, including the Taoiseach? There are two specific things the Government should do now to support disabled people. First, it should introduce a weekly cost-of-disability pa…

I thank People Before Profit for its work on tabling this motion. It is very important that this is highlighted. As was just said, there is no excuse for delays or stalling on this issue. It is an urgent area. It is cynical for this to be passed through Second Stage but for it not to be progressed as urgently as it needs to be thereafter. The position of the Social Democrats is that we fully support a reinstatement of a ban on no-fault evictions. This situation in most European countries is that no-fault evictions …

Of all the kites being flown about the budget, tax breaks for landlords is the most outrageous. Never before have rents or homelessness been so high. Never before has the number of adults stuck living in their childhood bedrooms been so high. Home ownership rates are at their lowest level in more than 50 years and the Government's answer to this litany of catastrophe is tax breaks for landlords. According to the most recent Residential Tenancies Board, RTB rent index, the average rent around the country is now a re…

It is the census.

We all know this idea of tax relief for landlords is being pushed by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, whose rationale for his housing plan looks increasingly like a game of pin the tail on the donkey. Random interventions are being stuck in random places while the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government hopes the entire housing system does not collapse. Throwing even more money at landlords is another one of his bad ideas. It is straight from the Fianna Fáil tax breaks for developers handbook. Tax breaks f…

I want to address amendments Nos. 110 onwards. I thank the Minister of State for his contribution and for considering the issues I have raised. I thank him for taking these issues seriously, for the written response he gave to the committee on the proposals and for the effort to introduce amendments to address some of the issues I have raised in respect of section 41 and the need for an equivalent to section 160 of the Planning and Development Act, with clear cost protection in accordance with the Aarhus Convention…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I acknowledge that work has been done and that the concerns raised were listened to and worked on. I raised several issues. I thank the Minister of State for the offer of briefings. Given the legislative process that is ongoing, is the Minister of State still open to addressing those concerns in the remaining part of the process? Progress has been made but there are other issues that still need to be addressed.

Deputy Sherlock may be deputising but he certainly explained those issues very well and quite comprehensively. I will turn in a moment to amendment No. 28 about landscape but first I will speak about amendment No.14. It was said in the Chamber just a few minutes ago that the Government is not engaging with amendments and is not listening. That is not the case. I have often found it to be so in legislation but it certainly is not the case here. The Government has been engaging and listening to the concerns that we h…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. On the battlefields project, I accept he cannot definitively tell me whether the revision of the record of monuments and places will cover all those battlefields. Will that substantial piece of work, the lines on maps that we talked about at length on Committee Stage, just sit there now that it is done or will it inform these revisions? Will it be acted on? I appreciate the Minister of State cannot give me a definitive commitment that every battlefield in that will be…

I support the amendments. The issue of public access to heritage and monuments is extremely important. I raised the matter in depth on Committee Stage. I tabled amendments on it that were designed to ensure the Bill interacts with existing legislation relating to how we can ensure access and existing routes for doing that, such as the powers of local authorities. I suggested there would be a key role for the Minister in being able to ask local authorities to use their existing legislative powers in that regard, spe…

I support these amendments. It is shocking to see the British Museum is full of artefacts that, for the most part, are not British. Most have been stolen from other countries. These amendments are absolutely spot on in that heritage that belongs in different areas should be returned. That goes both ways, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, so I fully support this proposal.

Since this Government took office, it has not come remotely close to meeting its targets on affordable housing. This year, the Government promised to deliver 5,500 affordable homes. In the first half of the year, just 22 cost-rental and 101 affordable purchase homes were completed. The Land Development Agency, LDA, did not complete a single affordable home. More than 500,000 adults are living in their childhood bedrooms. Does the Taoiseach believe the Government will meet its affordable housing targets this year? W…

The programme for Government makes a number of commitments in the areas of climate change and public transport. It is essential that, when there is investment in public transport, it is accessible to everyone. In Baldoyle, where thousands of homes have been built over the last 20 years, people still do not have safe universal access to Clongriffin DART Station. Temporary access, provided 13 years ago, still remains in place. It is simply not fit for purpose. It is not clean or safe and it does not provide universal…

There is a ticking timebomb when it comes to multi-unit developments and their sinking funds. As apartments built during the Celtic tiger era reach 20 years of age, sinking funds will increasingly be needed to fund repairs to leaking roofs and lifts that need to be replaced. When those sinking funds are insufficient, repairs cannot take place and apartment owners may be levied sums they simply cannot afford. Failure to regulate management companies properly, combined with sinking funds being used to fund building d…

Given the cost-of-living crisis we are in, and the very real financial hardship and stress that many students and their families are in, does the Minister think it is appropriate for universities and colleges to increase the cost of student accommodation for this academic year?