I want to ask about families who have had their mortgages sold to vulture funds. This has caused an incredible amount of stress and anxiety to people all over the country. These people are supposed to have the same rights as anyone else under the code of conduct on mortgage arrears, but this has not been the real lived experience of many people. What is the Government doing to ensure these mortgage holders’ rights are protected?

I am not sure that the Tánaiste understands the extent of the problem. I thank him for the answer he has given. The code of conduct on mortgage arrears is not being enforced. People go through absolute hell when their mortgage is sold on. The Tánaiste asked for an example and I will give him one. I spoke recently to a person who had their mortgage sold through the State-engineered Project Glas, despite the fact that according to Central Bank rules her mortgage was actually sustainable – it was in positive equity. I…

The person who contacted me recently told me of how the cumulative impact has been devastating. She has lived for over a decade under constant stress and uncertainty with profound effects on her mental health and physical health, her family life and her ability to live with dignity in later life. She is now facing the risk of imminent homelessness. She has tried to go through the regulatory process. She has been on to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman and so on. Having worked in an area related to this …

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, still has investments in companies operating in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Over €6 million of our money remained invested in six companies identified on the UN database at the end of 2024. This is an arm of our State actively profiting from companies working on illegally occupied land. Will the Tánaiste ensure that the ISIF fully divests from companies operating in illegally occupied Palestinian territories?

The issue here is that there should not be a single cent of Irish public money invested in companies operating illegally in the occupied territories of Palestine. I do not believe there is any public support for our money being used in that way. What is clearly needed is an absolutely full divestment by the ISIF - which invests public money - from companies operating in the occupied territories. I am calling for full divestment. Will the Tánaiste also call for that? Will he call for a full divestment by the ISIF fr…

I am not clear whether the Tánaiste is actually justifying the current situation. Is he justifying it or making excuses for it? Not a single cent of our money should be invested in companies operating in illegally occupied territories in Palestine. The Tánaiste knows this and I know this. The public do not want their money invested there. I am making an easy ask to the Tánaiste. I am not asking him to direct the strategic investment fund. I understand that, because of its independence, he cannot do so. However, he …

"Who will care for our daughter when we are no longer able to do so? Nobody is able to answer that question." These are the words of Tony Murray, a 71-year-old man from Dublin who is at his wits' end looking for answers. Tony and his wife Susan are full-time carers for their 42-year-old daughter, Aoife, who has an intellectual disability. They are just one of the thousands of families where elderly parents are working as full-time carers well into their 70s, 80s and even 90s. Adults with intellectual disabilities d…

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. The disability capacity review in 2021 identified a very urgent need to substantially increase the amount of appropriate housing for adults with intellectual disabilities. What precisely has been done on foot of that review in 2021? The State is literally waiting for the advocates for people with intellectual disabilities to die before anything happens so not only do they lose their parent, carer and person who is looking after them, they also lose the person who has been advo…

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the unacceptable delay in paying agreed pension increases to retired workers of An Post and CIÉ. A 7% increase for An Post pensioners was agreed back in September. The Minister was asked to approve this increase from 23 October, yet pensioners are still waiting while the Minister stalls and delays. It has been almost 18 years since CIÉ pensioners have received any sort of increase in their pension. An agreement was finally reached last May between the unions and CIÉ. However, the …

The housing completion figures announced earlier show that we are thousands of homes short of the target the Tánaiste set. The number of homes is almost 5,000 short of the 41,000 that he promised to deliver. Of course, the Government is trying to run away from that target now. The housing Minister has decided that annual targets are a distraction. A distraction from what? This is the number of new homes that the Tánaiste said are needed and that he promised to deliver. The 41,000 target is there, in black and white…

Just over a year ago, the Tánaiste promised voters 41,000 homes in his party's election manifesto. Just weeks before the election, the Government promised the delivery of 41,000 homes in 2025. The Government failed to meet the target it set for itself by almost 5,000 homes, and the Tánaiste is dressing up this failure as some sort of success. The Government is presiding over a situation where rents are at record levels, where the numbers of adults living in their childhood bedrooms are at record levels and where ho…

You are going to evade your targets and your promises.

I thank everyone who contributed to the discussion and my colleagues, Deputies Quaide and Hayes, for bringing forward the motion and all the work they did on it. I first want to address the very serious comments made by the Minister, Deputy Calleary, earlier on. He said he did not want a misleading or dangerous message going out that people must choose between food and heating. These comments show how grossly out of touch with reality the Minister is. It is very disturbing that he does not realise what is actually …

If there is any implication of getting onto them to-----

I am glad the Minister clarified that. However, his comments are nonetheless very disturbing. They do not show a knowledge of the realities that are faced by disabled people due to the Government's decision to cut the incomes of disabled people by €1,400 in the budget. That is an absolutely unforgivable decision on any scale and is utterly unnecessary at a time when we have a budget surplus running into billions of euro. It was a cruel and heartless decision. I have a question for every Government Minister and back…

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I express our sympathies to the family of the late Brian O'Shea. He indeed was a gentleman. The Government recognises the significant additional costs disabled people can face in their daily lives. Those are not my words. That is a line that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Dara Calleary, has trotted out repeatedly since he was appointed last year. He said it again this morning, but they are only words and do not mean anything. They will not heat a single disabled person…

There is no misrepresentation. Disabled people's organisations have been saying this. I quoted exactly what Joan Carthy from the Irish Wheelchair Association said in response to the Taoiseach's comments a couple of weeks ago. She said that disabled people are being forced to choose between heating and food. For the Government to label what disabled people are saying as misleading and dangerous is utterly unacceptable. I do not think the Taoiseach should be defending it. He should withdraw it and apologise for it. T…

Yes, you did.

They are €1,400 worse off.

I will make some general points on infrastructure but I want to say at the outset that the Government decision on pausing DART+ South West, which is not in my constituency and is not an issue for most people in my constituency, is incredibly regressive. The project should be going ahead straight away. It is ready to go in terms of planning. The only delay has been caused by the Government. It is in an area where there has been a huge amount of housing development over the last few years and there is a lot more deve…