Could you give me another minute, a Cheann Comhairle?

I understood that I had seven and a half minutes.

The same blockage is caused on the national roads. People cannot get in or out on the national roads. What is the story with the granny flats? It is nine months now since the Minister mentioned that. Is there some hold-up on that? Can it be sorted out once and for all and put before us here? We do not have any affordable housing scheme in Kerry? What is going to happen with the new idea we have for treatment plants on unserviced land?

Will they be exempt from being zoned? Can it be decided by a planning application? Thank you very much, a Cheann Comhairle. I am sorry, I misunderstood the times.

I am glad to get this opportunity. I am delighted that the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, is taking the questions today. As he knows himself, we have not always agreed about everything, but he takes the question and he comes back and gives an answer. I hope that, on top of all the other times I have asked these same questions, something will happen now. We have a clause in Kerry known as the rural areas under significant urban influence, which I understand was to prevent applicants coming out from towns or other urban…

Just let me finish this, please. Could we say that these do not need to be zoned and only need to be decided by a planning application?

Many of these places where the Government says developers could build a treatment plant-----

-----are not even zoned for housing, so this will hold all that up again.

When does the Government propose to exempt planning permission for the granny flats-----

Kenmare has been starved of private housing schemes for almost 20 years, first because we did not have an adequate treatment plant - some €40 million has been spent on that and it is fully operational - and now because we are told that the water supply is not adequate. I have raised this here before, including in recent weeks, and I want to know what the answer is. I ask again that the Government liaise with Uisce Éireann and ensure that the two current planning applications for up to 170 houses that are now in lim…

I am asking as well for a new grant of €20,000, on top of whatever is there before, for houses built under that size.

There is merit in that. I ask for forbearance, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Kerry County Council is now building no rural cottages. It is building hardly any houses at all. It was doing great work. People got houses built on their lands-----

-----and when they got on their feet, they bought out the houses. That is not happening at all now.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

The regulator is stopping it.

Employers all over the country are struggling with increased rate costs, pension auto-enrolment costs, and increased wage costs. Employees and people on social welfare are struggling with the cost of living, including energy and electricity costs. Everyone is struggling with the costs of the road and the price of petrol and diesel. At the same time, the Government was able last week to devote another €125 million to Mr. Zelenskyy and Ukraine. This was on top of the almost €6 billion that we have spent over the last…

Every day since Bord na Móna was closed, the cost of electricity has gone up. There is no account whatsoever of a regulator keeping any track of what is going on. No one is saying "boo" to all these electricity companies. They are competing with one another to put up the price of electricity and no one is watching. The other thing is carbon tax. When carbon tax was brought in, the cost of fuel - petrol and diesel - was €1.15 per litre. It was to discourage people from using petrol and diesel. God help us, the price…

Sit down-----

The Government's plan to lock people who are renting houses into six-year tenancies is not going to work in Kerry. People get on to me every day because landlords are refusing to continue leasing properties to them. Trying to force people into six-year tenancies is not going to work. The plan the Government has to force Airbnb properties into long-term letting is not going to work either. That is how people have been getting their livelihoods up until now. The only ones who are getting planning permission for one-o…