I thank my colleagues for bringing forward this motion. I also thank the Irish Cancer Society for all the work it has done advocating on and highlighting this issue. It is welcome that the Government is not tabling a countermotion and will support our motion. However, simply supporting it and not tabling a countermotion is not enough. There must be action on the motion, and I have not heard from the Minister of State that there will be any action. In fact, what I heard from the Minister of State's most recent comme…

I will ask the Taoiseach about the Stardust inquest. The families who lost their loved ones in the Stardust have been waiting almost 41 years for truth and justice. It is completely unacceptable that their grief and trauma has been compounded by uncertainties and delays around the inquest. No venue is confirmed for when the inquest will take place and no arrangements are in place to ensure there will be a jury for it. When will a venue for the inquest be confirmed? Will the Juries Act 1976 be amended to ensure a ju…

For more than a year, I have been raising with the Taoiseach the issue of standards in privately run emergency accommodation for people who are homeless. I have also raised this with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. While these are privately run homeless shelters, they are in receipt of public funds. I want to read a quote from one young woman about what she found when she came back to a hostel recently. She said: All my stuff was robbed, which I was told would be safe and that only staff ha…

I wish to ask about Housing for All and the delivery of affordable purchase homes. According to a report from the Parliamentary Budget Office, homeownership among adults of prime working age has collapsed. Since 2012, house prices have grown by a staggering 77%. During the same period, wages only grew by 23%. On an international scale, housing in Ireland is rated as severely unaffordable. In 2020, Fianna Fáil promised 10,000 affordable homes each year. Yesterday, I asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government a…

How many?

On the very subject of delivery of affordable purchase homes, how many affordable purchase homes were delivered in 2021? What was the target? How many affordable purchase homes will be delivered in 2022? Is the Minister confident that we will meet that target?

The Minister might clarify the following. He said that Ó Cualann delivered affordable purchase homes in 2021. How many of those were occupied in 2021? As the Minister knows, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, home ownership among adults of prime working age has collapsed since 2012. House prices grew by a staggering 77% up to 2020, while during the same period wages only grew by 23%. The Parliamentary Budget Office says that on an international scale, housing affordability in Ireland is rated as severely…

I will ask the Minister for a third time how many affordable purchase homes were actually occupied in 2021. He has not answered that question. He might give me an answer. The Minister knows well why I did not support the Affordable Housing Bill. I do not support the Government's definition of affordability as not being related to incomes but instead being based on market prices. For the record, the Minister's party on Dublin City Council voted against zoning to provide affordable homes. His party, Fine Gael and nea…

They should all be affordable and social.

They are some of the biggest land hoarders in the country.

The Minister has not answered my question.

How many last year?

While I agree with the sentiment of Deputy Lahart on this having to be the final say, it is critical that it is not the final say because the legislation does not go far enough on building control. The other legislation the Minister has committed to for an independent building regulator authority is crucial. The Bill on its own, which is very flawed and I will table amendments to improve it, would not be sufficient. It is a small part of the architecture that is needed and decades overdue in this regard. I agree wi…

I welcome and support the Taoiseach's earlier comments on the need to work together to tackle violence against women and misogyny, in addition to the importance of men listening to women on this issue. I will ask about the lack of places for women and children seeking refuge from violence. While presenting to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice last November, Mary McDermott from Safe Ireland stated: Ireland's domestic violence response infrastructure, and in particular its accommodation infrastructure, is cri…

I want to ask the Taoiseach about an issue of Government co-ordination with regard to what it is doing to tackle vacancy and dereliction. In Ireland right now, more than 9,000 people are homeless and at least 90,000 homes are vacant. That is a conservative estimate as the census put the figure for empty homes at more than 180,000. That figure excludes holiday homes and homes that were empty on the night of the census. It relates to homes that were empty during multiple inspections over three months. In addition, so…

I want to be associated with the Ceann Comhairle's remarks, especially the thanks he has given to all the staff here. I will ask about the latest house price increases. They have increased by 13.5% in the past year and rents have increased by 7%. Almost 9,000 people are living in homeless shelters, including 2,500 children. The Government has failed abysmally to meet any of its housing targets over the past year. In the first nine months of this year, less than one third of the social homes to be delivered were con…

I thank the Simon Communities of Ireland for the work they did in drafting the Bill. I am very happy to have brought it forward, along with the other Opposition parties. It is positive that the Government is not opposing the Bill and that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has said he will look at trying to bring in parts of it as quickly as possible, possibly through Government legislation. He has told us there is no shortage of will when it comes to tackling homelessness. I have no reason to …

I want to ask the Taoiseach about tenants not getting their deposits back from landlords. Tenants who are renting from Period Door Properties are owed more than €200,000. Despite 36 determination orders in their favour, they have not received any of their deposits from the landlord, which has gone into liquidation. Tenants have lost out on about €1,800 each, which they simply cannot afford. As the Taoiseach will know, legislation for a deposit protection scheme was introduced in 2015. Six years later, the deposit p…

I also echo the points made by Deputy Boyd Barrett. I want to ask the Taoiseach about safeguarding and vulnerable adults. I raised this with him previously. I specifically want to ask him about the need for guidelines or legislation to be introduced to require the Garda when it has credible allegations of sexual assault and rape to inform relevant organisations, including where alleged perpetrators work or volunteer, in order to protect and safeguard vulnerable adults. It is not acceptable that when gardaí have kno…

I want to follow up on the previous question I asked. To be fair, the Taoiseach may not have fully understood me. The question was not one about Garda vetting. It is welcome if Garda vetting is being extended and, in particular, that must include staff in privately run emergency accommodation for homeless people, which is essential. With regard to what happened earlier this year to homeless people, the alleged perpetrator there was fully Garda vetted, so this is not an issue of Garda vetting. The issue is that the …