House prices have never been so high. The number of people who are homeless has never been so high. Young people living at home in their late 20s and into their early 30s are talking about emigrating to find somewhere affordable to live and be able to move out of home, and increasing numbers of them are doing so. In the most recent election, Fianna Fáil promised 10,000 affordable homes each year. Last year, zero affordable purchase homes were delivered by the Government. This year, the Government has promised more …

The Government is not delivering on it.

At the outset, with reference to the 2016 report that was ordered by the then Minister, Deputy Kelly, I wish to state that some of the recommendations in that report, if implemented, would be a disaster. If that is not clear to people after recent events, I do not know when it will be clear. One of those recommendations was that some decisions would be made, in some cases, by a sole or one board member. For any party or Deputy to think that those sort of recommendations should be implemented is highly questionable.…

I am disappointed with two aspects of the Minister of State's opening remarks on this legislation. One is relatively minor and it concerns saying that the majority of the joint committee's recommendations are reflected in this Bill. We only made three recommendations, which I think was quite modest of us. Out of those three recommendations, one has been adopted. Therefore, that is by no means a majority. It is welcome that the legislation includes our recommendation that the chief executive and chair of Uisce Éirea…

In recent weeks we have seen queues of hundreds of people, renters, who have been going for viewings. We have had reports of a student being asked for intimate photographs from a landlord. We have had students who cannot find anywhere to live who are sleeping rough. We have had a homeless woman who is sleeping in her car on a beach and having to wash in the sea as she has nowhere else to wash. Our rents are among the highest in Europe. House prices have surpassed the Celtic tiger peak, according to data released by…

My question was about the Government missing its own targets.

First, there are media reports this morning that one of the amendments is being withdrawn. Is that the case? Are any of the amendments being withdrawn? Perhaps the Minister of State will let us know in his concluding remarks.

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Can the Minister of State let us know if any of the amendments are being withdrawn?

I thank the Minister of State for clarifying that. I would have thought that the courtesy that should have been given to the Dáil is that we should have been told that in the opening statement rather than relying on media reports. That is just the latest in how this has been very poorly handled by the Government. I oppose and object to the approach by the Government in the strongest possible terms. As Deputy Ó Broin said, we were told at the briefing on Monday, which took place after the deadline for submitting any…

The Social Democrats will support this Bill going on to Committee Stage. Any issues with it, technical or otherwise, can of course be engaged with then. While we would take a somewhat different approach in respect of solutions in this regard, we very much support the direction, intent and principle of this legislation. There is a real lack of urgency from the Government on this issue. It seems to stem from a lack of a fundamental awareness of what is happening right now. We are probably within days of reaching a re…

I very much agree with Deputy Ó Broin. Withdrawal is the responsible thing to do here. It is worth saying that these issues were discussed at the committee. Legislation to address these issues around online political activity was sought but to bring these amendments in now without any level of scrutiny, given the seriousness of the issues and the requirement that they be scrutinised, is the wrong approach. They should be withdrawn and draft amendments should go to the committee to be scrutinised. We should also be …

This is not any way to handle legislation. What has happened here is that the Government has rolled what is effectively seven different Bills into one. Only one of these, the original part on substitute consent, has received any scrutiny. It alone requires significant discussion and scrutiny on this Stage. Parts of what the Government has brought forward at the last minute are non-controversial, such as on valuations. The part on short-term lets is welcome but very much needs scrutiny and there is no question about…

I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 4: In the second line of subsection (1B), proposed to be inserted by section 2(a), after "fine" to insert "or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both, or on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both". In relation to my amendments and the class A fines proposed here, the maximum fine in Barcelona for a platform that advertises an illegal short-term let is €600,000. Is it the case that under this leg…

First, companies that do short-term lets like Airbnb make hundreds of millions of euro in profit. That is why places like Barcelona that take this seriously subject them to fines of approximately €600,000 for breaches. The Minister of State thinks a fine of €5,000 is somehow going to cut it but it is not. On RPZs, I urge the Minister of State to look at this because it needs to be dealt with urgently. Deputy Ó Broin is right that when these rules were first written, it was probably envisaged that we would not have …

I move amendment No. 2 to amendment No. 4: In the second line of the definition of “relevant property”, proposed to be inserted by section 2(c), to delete “and is located in a rent pressure zone”.

Amendment No. 12 is about measures to allow flexibility for emerging technologies to be extended to large-scale residential developments. I have a real difficulty understanding the rationale behind the amendment in the context of large-scale residential developments. They are not like wind farms which can have a delay between the granting of planning permission and the commencement of the development. We all hope when a large number of houses are granted planning permission that the developer goes ahead with buildi…

If this is about attenuation ponds and solar panels, why is the Bill not restricted to those areas? Why are there no protections or safeguards in the Bill for that? The Bill is wide open and the way it is written means it could apply to anything at all in a large-scale residential development. If that is the case, why are there no restrictions or safeguards?

The Government is seeking to ram through amendments to the planning Bill this week that will severely curtail and restrict the ability of people to hold An Bord Pleanála to account. That is what the Government is doing this week. If these changes go through, they will severely restrict and curtail the ability of people to hold An Bord Pleanála to account. These changes amount effectively to a get out of jail free card for An Bord Pleanála if it is found to have broken processes or indeed broken the law in making pl…

Why not wait for that to make changes to the law?

I am happy to support this motion from the Raise the Roof coalition. It is useful that a coalition of unions, civil society and housing and homeless organisations has come together as part of this campaign. I agree with the previous Deputy that, as we all know, this is an incredibly serious issue that is having a profound and detrimental effect on people across Ireland. It requires from us, in terms of the debate and discussion we have, that we treat it with seriousness and that we do not engage in a war of words a…