I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend and extend the Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011 to provide for transparency regarding transactions involving property and for those purposes to expand the register that records residential property sales prices, to establish a land and other non-residential property transaction database and to provide for related matters. As everyone in the House knows, we have a huge housing crisis at the moment with more than 100,000 households in i…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I will start close to where Deputy Nash finished, namely, with the issue of tenancies of indefinite duration. I will certainly support such a measure when the Government brings it in. I was a member of the commission on the private rented residential sector approximately 20 years ago. I did not agree with the commission's decision to include a get-out clause in respect of the very limited improvements and tenancy rights that it recommended. That get-out clause was put in place because landlords lobbied very heavily…

I refer to the sum of €246 million, which can be found in a footnote on page 116 of the expenditure report. That is the amount of capital funding which was supposed to be spent on housing in 2021 but is being carried over to next year. That tells one everything one needs to know about how this Government treats the housing crisis, despite the urgency it requires. Think of what could have been done with that €246 million this year, if it had been spent, for people who are experiencing homelessness, who are sleeping …

The Minister of State knows well that the sites are up and running and he also knows there were exemptions for social housing construction this year.

The fact is that if one looks at the number of affordable homes that were promised for this year in the last budget only eight homes were delivered. It was not the Minister of State's party but Fianna Fáil that promised 10,000 affordable homes per year in its election manifesto. It delivered eight. I appreciate there was a pandemic, but it is not excusable to have that amount of capital funding unspent going into next year. It is not excusable when the sites were open to build social homes, and it does not explain …

Almost 40,000 people have signed an Uplift.ie petition organised by Dr. Rory Hearne that was delivered to the Dáil this week. It calls on the Government to end favourable tax treatment for investment funds and to restrict the sale of new homes to individuals and not-for-profit organisations. Investment funds have driven up rents and house prices in Ireland to unsustainable and unaffordable levels. Rents have almost doubled in the past decade since the Tánaiste took office. House prices have more than doubled during…

I have three specific questions for the Minister relating to people who are experiencing homelessness, the first of which is about safeguarding procedures. Recently it was reported that An Garda Síochána had detailed knowledge of credible allegations of sexual assault against vulnerable people experiencing homelessness. Despite having detailed knowledge of credible allegations since May, An Garda Síochána failed to pass on this information in a timely manner to Inner City Helping Homeless, ICHH, where the alleged p…

I asked the Minister three specific questions. He did not answer any of them so I will put them to him again. Specifically, will the Government introduce legislation to require An Garda Síochána, when it has knowledge of credible allegations of sexual assault, to pass this information on to relevant organisations where alleged perpetrators are working or volunteering? I did not ask about Garda vetting in respect of that or anything else. Will the Government introduce annual targets to reduce homelessness? The 2030 …

I thank my colleague, Deputy Whitmore, for the work she has done on this issue and for bringing forward this motion. Both my colleagues, Deputies Whitmore and Gannon, have already put forward a very strong case for this moratorium. It is with a sense of disbelief that we are bringing this forward and having to make these arguments to a Green Party Minister who should know well why the interests of climate change and the people demand a moratorium be put in place on data centres and is put in place now. I want to fo…

A number of young people experiencing homelessness have come forward and reported that after seeking help from a homelessness organisation, they were subjected to serious sexual assault. This highlights how crucial it is that everyone working with vulnerable people on our streets and in emergency accommodation be Garda vetted. It is also critical that the national quality standards framework for homelessness services be applied to all services and emergency accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and not…

In following up the earlier response on the Stardust issue, it is welcome that the Government is committed to the inquest, that €8 million has been assigned and that legal aid is to be given to the families but the issue is that, while all the other legal teams involved in the inquest have been funded to prepare for the inquest, the legal representatives of the families have not been funded to carry out that important work. The families must be at the heart of this inquest and must be treated equally and fairly, al…

I was just referring to the preparation for the inquest.

It has not been given to the legal teams to be able to prepare.

They have not been able to access it.

They are not being given any funding.

It is not getting to the legal teams.

In the previous election Fianna Fáil promised to build 10,000 affordable homes each year it is in office. These homes are nowhere to be seen. Since the Government has taken office, house prices have increased by more than 10%. In Housing for All the Government commits to giving about €1 billion in subsidies to developers. The Central Bank and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, have both warned against these subsidies, which will push up house prices. Will the Government scrap these subsidies for deve…

I acknowledge the Minister and his officials in the Department put a lot of work into this plan and would have spent a lot of time on it. Let us be clear about what is happening in terms of the comments made earlier by the Minister and in the media. There is an attempt to normalise our housing crisis by saying it is a problem internationally and by pointing to what is going on in other European countries to make it acceptable somehow. This was tried by the previous Government and the now Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, …

It is not but the Minister was heckling me, as he likes to, and I was referring to those comments and bringing them to his attention, which I am correct to do.