Hear, hear.

I thank the Minister for her considered response. We need to get rid of voluntary contributions and move to generic school uniforms. This is something that has been done in the UK. It is much more cost-effective and efficient because the average cost of sending a child to primary school in this country is now €1,794 and the average cost of sending a child to secondary school is €2,928. With our ever-increasing digital world, apparently everything is online and it is somewhat impossible to be a member of society and…

It is inflationary.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the staff for being so accommodating this parliamentary term.

I raise the issue of the community access support team, CAST, in Limerick, which has prevented 133 detentions under section 12 of the Mental Health Act and reduced the number emergency department presentations. It has responded to over 1,000 incidents. There is evidence for this and the University of Limerick published a report last week. It has been extraordinarily successful. It needs a dedicated core budget. It has been transformative in normalising a non-criminalising response to mental health. Will the Governm…

Hear, hear.

Do not worry. We need to have a debate this week before the House rises about the imminent report on Aughinish Alumina. There are up to 2,000 direct and indirect jobs at stake in Limerick. We cannot have a situation where the State is inadvertently complicit in the export of alumina to Russia. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Hear, hear.

It is absolutely reprehensible that planning permission has been granted for apartments on the site of the former mother and baby home at Bessborough. We have 19 mothers and 859 infants associated with Bessborough still missing. Now 140 apartments are going to be built on a mass grave. We need statements on this next week. The Labour Party has sought that. I have gone through the report myself. It is disgusting. Its language is callous. It minimises the horror and the suffering of the poor people who were incarcera…

I move amendment No. 1 to Seanad amendment No. 2: To delete paragraph (d), and substitute the following: "(d) without prejudice to section 43B(b), cooperation with one or more other law enforcement agencies in relation to the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences, being cooperation that is carried out— (i) pursuant to the Europol Act 2012, or (ii) pursuant to an international agreement or arrangement designated by the Minister by order for the purposes of this paragraph.". This Bi…

I thank the Minister of State for her response and welcome her to her new job. This is our first exchange on these issues. We are not instinctively opposed in totality to what the Government is trying to do here. We support the spirit of what it is trying to do. The issue that we have is as follows. The Seanad wording refers to criminal offences generally but it does not refer in a defined and narrower way to "arrestable offences", which is the term used elsewhere in the Bill. When the Minister of State referred in…

Yes.

Yes, there was a motion to instruct yesterday.

Theoretically, I have no issue with this Bill or with the basic principle of codifying circulars around access to emergency accommodation and social housing eligibility. I do, however, have a big issue with the Minister using the motion to instruct. This is the second time this has happened in a year. I am only in this House a short time. The Minister has effectively tacked a whole new Bill onto a tenuously related Bill that we discussed already on Second Stage and Committee Stage. Far-reaching and significant amen…

I thank the Minister for his response. I am none the wiser from his response either as to why the arbitrary eight to eight time was chosen. It seems sort of strange to have a situation where in winter, you could have empty emergency accommodation beds and people outside in the cold because of this arbitrary eight to eight rule. I do not understand why this is being codified in legislation in the way it has been done. The Minister will store up problems for himself. He made a very bold comment when he said this Bill…

We in the Labour Party support the need for more flexibility when it comes to exempted developments. What I do not support is the whole idea of allowing landlords to rent out "Cummins cabins", effectively, without any protection for tenants. The fact of the matter is renters will have no Part 4 protection or rent controls. They could be subject to summary eviction. Due to the fact these dwellings will not come under the RTB Act and will not require planning, it will be hard to identify where they are and to make su…

I move amendment No. 14: In page 11, after line 38, to insert the following: “(13) Nothing in this section shall be construed as— (a) restricting or qualifying any right conferred on a person by the Treaties of the European Union or by the Regulations of 2015, or (b) requiring a housing authority to act in a manner incompatible with the State’s obligations under the Convention within the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.”.

I move amendment No. 16: In page 12, after line 39, to insert the following: “(i) the determination was otherwise unreasonable having regard to all the circumstances of the household’s application.”.

I move amendment No. 18: In page 13, to delete lines 25 to 35 and substitute the following: “(9) On receipt by a housing authority of a social housing appeal made in accordance with this section, the chief executive of the authority shall request the Minister to nominate a person to decide the appeal (in this section referred to as an ‘appeals officer’). (10) The Minister shall, for the purposes of subsection (9), establish and maintain a panel of persons eligible for nomination as appeals officers, being persons— …

I move amendment No. 22: In page 14, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “Equality impact assessment 10. (1) The Minister shall, before making an order under section 1(4) bringing section 8 into operation, cause to be carried out an equality impact assessment of the residency requirements imposed by section 20A of the Act of 2009 (as inserted by section 8 ). (2) An equality impact assessment under this section shall assess the likely effect of the residency requirements referred to in subsection (1) o…