I thank the Minister for his response and his comments. I agree with his previous comments that there needs to be consensus on this issue. A non-adversarial approach is the way to proceed. There needs to be quick delivery. That is a strong view in the local community. Beyond that we need housing delivered on this site and on others. There is full agreement on that. The Minister has said a number of times that he will look at realistic proposals. I want to tease that out with him. What is his view of what are realis…

Proposals to develop this in the best interests of the local community so there is a decent amount of affordable homes that can be purchased and rented, as well as the social housing element, will require, for example, approval from central government and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to draw down significant funding from the European Investment Bank. Is the Minister open to that? Does he consider that to be a realistic approach?

There is agreement in this House about wanting delivery of homes. Most of us want the same thing. The proposals that were voted down by councillors, including from the Minister's party, would have resulted in about half the site almost certainly going to an institutional investor and some of those homes effectively being rented back to the State under HAP. We know that there is planning permission for 40,000 homes, mainly from the strategic housing development process. These are mainly apartments and are largely go…

I welcome the review and the commitment that has been made to expand Housing First. Will this review examine the changes that have been made in the past year or so in the increased use of private hostel operators who have been contracted to provide accommodation for people who have become homeless? These operators, in the main, do not provide support services with the accommodation. Is this aspect being examined in the review? Some private operators have rules in place, which do not allow chatting and other infring…

I raise the issue of affordable housing for purchase and rent. When will legislation on affordable housing be published? We were promised that it would be published by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage this autumn. Figures published by the Department show that the direct building of housing by local authorities can come in at 50% of the cost of acquiring them from private developers. Given that fact, and the decision by Dublin city councillors this week not to sell the lands on the Oscar Trayn…

I wish to ask the Minister for Defence if the outstanding issues on pay, conditions and union recognition that have affected morale in our Defence Forces and on the retention of key personnel and skills will be resolved.

It is good to hear there is some speed in terms of establishing the commission by the end of this month. Previous reviews have not been acted on. For example, the review into technicians' pay and grading, which was promised as part of the Croke Park agreement 2010-14, has not yet been published. It is long overdue. Will it be published and if so, when? When will the recommendations of the high-level implementation plan, which covers issues like patrol allowance and living conditions, be implemented? It is very impo…

Again, when will the review into technicians' pay and grading be published? It was part of the Croke Park agreement. Will the matter of personnel in post-1994 contracts being aged out because of arbitrary cut-offs be addressed? We do not know what is going to happen with fisheries and Brexit but will the Minister agree that it is vital we have full operational capacity in our Naval Service in that context? We need that full operational capacity now. These issues must be fully addressed within that timeframe.

I thank the Minister and welcome his constructive and collaborative approach to the Bill. I will make a couple of specific suggestions. First, I acknowledge the work that has been done by his Department and all of the other Departments that have been involved in the Bill and the Brexit preparations. That large amount of work is a credit to our public service and is something of which we can all be proud. I also acknowledge the work being done at EU level, including by its negotiators, who have been strong in suppor…

I want to ask specifically about social housing. The programme for Government commits to ensuring that public procurement of social housing is cost-effective and that there are strong value-for-money protections in that regard. Given the report published last week by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage showing that direct build by local authorities is much more cost-effective than turnkey acquisitions or turnkey purchases from the private sector, will the Taoiseach commit now to ending the cost…

Regarding the legislation that will come up later on the ban on evictions, we know from research from Harvard University that there is a direct link between evictions and the spread of Covid-19. We know if we evict people into homelessness and into congregated settings, there is a higher risk of contracting Covid-19. We also know we are out of line with most EU member states in that it is much easier to evict people here than it is in other countries. Would now not be the time to bring us in line with other member …

I strongly agree with Deputy O'Dowd's comments, which were spot on. I ask the Minister to listen to them and to consider this point. The Social Democrats will support the legislation but it does not go anywhere near far enough. The reason it is being introduced is because we are in the middle of a pandemic. The people most affected by and at risk from the pandemic are people who are exposed because of chronic disease, and people who are exposed by chronic disease are also more likely to be on low incomes and are mo…

On that very point, the thing about the Attorney General's advice, which is well written up by good legal scholars, is that the Government is not under obligation to follow his advice. The obligation is to listen to it and consider it but the Government can then make a decision as to what course of action it wants to take. As Deputy Ó Broin has been saying, there is now a growing body of scholarly evidence from eminent legal commentators in Ireland, including in the Trinity College school of law, in this regard. It…

I move amendment No. 3: In page 4, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: "2. (1) An emergency period for the purpose of this section shall be deemed to exist for a period of at least six months after the enactment of this Act.".

I agree with the comment of a number of other Deputies that if a deal is not concluded now, from January there will be a need for one to be concluded. That aspect of this will not go away. There is no question that in the long run we will fail to have a trade agreement in place, with the economic damage that this would cause to the UK, EU and Ireland. There is no question but that it would be much better if a deal was put in place now. It is welcome that a discussion of legal treaty texts is to begin and there are …

It is regrettable that the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, made his contribution and then left straight away. We now have a situation that neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael are present in the Chamber but it is Fine Gael that is the architect of co-living and Fianna Fáil that holds the senior Ministry. It is a pity they have left the Green Party here to defend a policy of which I am not sure it is too supportive, although its members will speak for themselves in time. It is regrettable that we do not have the…

One of the biggest challenges we face as a country is to ensure that people can access housing that is affordable and secure. The peace of mind that comes from having somewhere people can call home, where they are not living in constant fear of the next rent rise or an eviction notice, is invaluable. Having a place that is home allows families to plan ahead and provides the stability and security that enables communities to thrive. The lessons from Covid are clear. We need high-quality housing and sustainable commu…

The programme for Government commits to an affordable housing scheme. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has flagged that this will involve a shared equity scheme, presumably to be announced in the budget on Tuesday. There is a real danger that a shared equity scheme could lead to house price inflation and developers pushing up prices of new build homes. Given that there is a big gap between what the developers say are construction costs and what independent experts say are construction costs, what action will t…

As I have said previously, the Achilles heel of the Northern Ireland protocol is that it relies on the UK to implement it. I said that before the UK effectively broke international law. There is a serious risk that we will have a Brexit without a trade deal. That will potentially mean the loss of some 700,000 jobs across the European Union. It is predicted that in the event of there being no trade deal, approximately 35,000 of those job losses will be in Ireland. This is very serious and we are very exposed in the …

I am sorry; I cannot see from up here.