I am glad to get the opportunity to raise this problem at the Topical Issue forum today. I hope the Minister will take it seriously. I do not want to be laughed at like I was last week when I asked a question here. This is serious business for anyone who does not have a home and is trying to find a property to rent. In many instances, they can be hit with a traumatic event that they were never ready for. Since the Residential Tenancies Bill was mooted last year along with the idea that people would have to rent out…

I ask again about the tenant in situ scheme. The Minister of State said money has been allocated to it. Will he talk to Kerry County Council to see what is wrong and why it cannot operate the tenant in situ scheme? Elected members in Kerry have been asking the local authority to buy land banks to build local authority houses in small villages, such as Scotia's Glen, Gneeveguilla, Firies, Curragh, Currans and all these places. I hear the council is slow to buy these land banks because it will be hit with the residen…

The short-term places are not what I am talking about at all. It is the houses that are vacant and have nobody in them-----

We are glad to have this debate because it is vital. Many Irish farmers do not really understand the implications of this or how it spreads. We have been told it is caused by midges but I do not think any midges would survive coming from the North to Wexford. How did that happen? Simple questions like that need to be explained. If there is evidence of how it happened or may have spread, the Minister could provide a link to the country because we would like to know that. Farmers around me have asked me questions. Ar…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. I did not think my slot was coming up so soon. It is very tough for young couples now who are trying to purchase, build or hold onto a home. When it comes to building homes in Kerry, there are a lot of people who would build their home if they could get planning permission, but they cannot because of the strict rules with urban-generated pressure. Locals are being denied planning permission without ever coming out of a town. The urban-generated pressure rule was brought in…

I thank the Minister of State for being very hands-on and for coming to Kerry again recently. Back in 2018, he gave us funding to clear the Flesk river. For ten years before that, we were constantly being told that it would make no difference to clear the river, that it would only make 10 mm of a difference. The highest flood that has been there in the last eight years did not come within 8 ft of the road level and it used to be 3 ft on top of the road before that. They wanted to raise the road and do everything el…

I am glad there are rumours that the Government is going to dilute the short-term letting in the Bill and to increase the population of towns so that it will apply to towns with populations of over 20,000. However, I believe anybody who has been doing Airbnb for more than seven years is entitled to planning permission because they already have it. There are people who have been doing this for 20 years and more. Whatever the Government is bringing forward should allow the people who have been doing Airbnb to continu…

The other thing I want to say to the Taoiseach is that this is very urgent.

It has to be dealt with urgently-----

-----in order to let the people continue what they are doing for this season otherwise they will lose this season.

First, I want to make it crystal clear that I myself only own one house and I am not in the rental business or never have been. I want to make that absolutely clear. I only own one house. I am very concerned about the six-year rule. I believe we are attempting to interfere with people's constitutional and democratic rights. People work very hard, early in the morning and late at night, to build or buy these homes and they have a constitutional right to determine how long they want to rent their house out for to ten…

All the farmers from around the country are very welcome here tonight. I know they have all been very anxious and upset for the past number of weeks. What has happened is not fair. We know that the same standards do not apply in Brazil as apply here. I myself and my young fellas are farmers and we know what inspections are like. We worry about the TB test and the Bord Bia inspections, and then you can have an inspection out of the blue. We know what it means to be on the right side and to have everything in the rig…

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion, which is very important. We all know that people with a disability have the greatest need to be looked after. I honestly believe that people with a disability who are living on their own should be looked after more than anyone else because they face all the costs of keeping the house and trying to keep themselves warm. We all know that since Bord na Móna closed down, the cost of electricity has gone up day by day. The regulator is not doing his job. Dif…

I am glad to have an opportunity to ask the Minister of State to prioritise a number of projects in Kerry. The N72 leaves Killarney, going from Ballydowny to the Golden Nugget, and then goes around the Ring of Kerry from the Gap across to Grenagh. It is otherwise known as the Killalee project. These two sections of road are in a desperate state. The road from the Golden Nugget to the Gap Cross has been completed and a fortune has been spent but we are in a worse scenario now because the road has been narrowed and i…

I am glad to talk on this very important Bill this evening. I thank the Minister, Deputy Jim O’Callaghan, for taking this issue by the scruff of the neck because, since he came into office and took over this role, he has already put people on the plane back to the countries that they came from if they were not entitled to be here. That has not been done in the last number of years with previous Ministers, and I am grateful to him for doing that. We have to differentiate between the people who are coming here. There…

I am very concerned about this departure, this loan of €90 billion and that we are going to be tied into it. There are important questions here. We are here at the behest of the people who elected us to account for their welfare and ensure taxpayers' money is properly spent. We are accountable for it. I have not been told how much Ireland is committing. How much of the €90 billion are we borrowing? I did not see any speech written out by the Minister. It is hard to take it in as someone is talking but there was no …

I will repeat the question I asked earlier. How much of the €90 billion are we committing to?

There is no answer. How are we expected to vote for something like that?

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this very important issue. I am glad Sinn Féin has brought it forward here this evening. Every one of us has known a lot of people who committed suicide. It is very sad when you lose very fine people that way. We would all love to do a whole lot more for them. We need to do more because the national survey from the Office of the Inspector of Mental Health Services has found that international best practice is not available in most emergency departments in Ireland. I ca…

In recent days, sika deer have been declared an alien, invasive species and must be culled. I have been highlighting the damage these deer do for more than 25 years. Every day, they cause carnage on roads. Many people have been killed, injured or maimed and cars have been damaged and broken and are no longer any good. Farmers are adversely affected. Sika deer are spreading TB, damaging and devouring crops and breaking fences. Farmers are being robbed daily by these deer. When will this Government - and the Minister…