The cost of building a new house is somewhere around €400,000 for a young couple or whomever. One third of the actual building cost comprises VAT, other taxes and levies. Will the Government consider doing anything about that? Would it be possible to increase the first-time buyers grant if people were incentivised to build smaller houses, like we used to do in the 1970s and 1980s. I refer to any house under 1,350 sq. ft in area built at that time. I am not saying that we should base the bar around there, but maybe …

The waiving of the levy is gone now.

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this Bill. It relates to an important topic. People talk a good deal about local property tax, especially those who can ill-afford to pay it and who are often in trouble. It gives those people who are living hand to mouth and who barely have enough to cover the cost of everything, from putting food on the table to keeping their heat or whatever going, great trouble. This measure will facilitate the crowd with the expensive houses worth more than €1 million. The value o…

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about housing again. This is a crisis. Everyone recognises that it is a crisis. I am not one bit happy that landlords or homeowners are being blamed for what is happening in the rental sector. Every side seems to be pointing at people who own houses and are trying to rent them out. I point out that I do have no house only my own. There are many vacant houses. I have asked the Government before to halve the tax or do something with it, such as 50% tax for someone who gets €1,…

I am glad to have the opportunity to talk about housing again tonight. Since I came up here in 2016, we have been talking about it constantly. Every man and woman who has sat here in the Dáil has talked about housing but little has changed. I want to speak about vacant properties. I spoke about this last year, the year before and recently but the story is the same. There are vacant houses and properties all around the countryside. They are all around Kerry - on streets in villages and towns and in the countryside. …

We need to do more. We have talked enough and the Government needs to act now, please.

I am here as well.

I thank Deputy Gould and Sinn Féin for tabling this very important motion. There is no shadow of a doubt that houses in the local authorities are taking too long to turn around. There was one house in Killarney I fought tooth and nail over. From the day it first came up here, it took over five years to get that house in Marian Terrace turned around. There was vermin and everything else gone into it. I was shocked the other day to hear the Taoiseach say a house should only take four or five days to turn around. He i…

He is ambitious but I do not think he will bring it down to that. He is a good man and he is trying his best but it will not happen if we are here until-----

Today, I respectfully call for a new vision for Kenmare Harbour. What we needs is a practical, modest development, including a new pier, a safe slipway, a few berths for boats, proper facilities for the rowing club, a carpark for campervans and toilet and showering facilities to cater for tourists. This would create local jobs, support tourism by keeping people coming to the town all year round and boost the economy for the whole area, including shops, cafés, bed and breakfasts, small businesses and hotels. Most of…

At the football.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I remind him and the Ministers that small piers locally, including in Kilmakilloge, Coornagillagh and Blackwater, have been crying out for maintenance funding for safety projects and other things for the past several years. Returning to Kenmare, the local authority must work in conjunction with the Department of the marine and the OPW. The local authority has acquired a lot of the land at the back of the pier. This needs to be explored. We all need to work together. I am disappo…

----- that provide excellent food and all that goes with it. People are treated very well in those places.

Indeed, they catered for the more than 4,000 cyclists who used the Beara cycleway last Saturday.

They were well able to do so.

Kenmare needs a bit more for the off-times.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle very much. I am sorry for going over time.

Yes. Last weekend.

I promise here myself-----

-----that if the Taoiseach comes down to open it, I will-----