I thank the Regional Group and Deputy Naughten for giving us the opportunity to speak about this very important matter. At the outset I will contradict a comment made by Deputy Bríd Smith to the effect that smelly water is running down the streets of Cahersiveen. She can look after her constituency and I will look after the people of Cahersiveen. Irish Water is only obliged to keep current schemes up to standard and nothing compels it to build new schemes. Irish Water has said it does not have the money to do it. W…

The people of east Kerry, Rathmore and Gneevgullia are being asked to go up to Limerick for the jab, which is a two-hour drive. It is the same as if the people of Cashel, Wexford or Cavan and Sligo were told to come up here to Dublin for the vaccine. I appeal to the Government to allow the people of east Kerry, Rathmore and Gneevgullia to go back to Killarney, a 20-minute drive, for their vaccine. It is totally wrong. Elderly people will have to be taken out of their homes to go with the people that need the vaccin…

A total of 50 calls yesterday.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for bringing us to where we are today. At least we will have a cap of three years on the family farm, as there is on all residential properties. I am still not happy with this because I believe the land should not be assessed. It should be the family home, the same as everybody else. Why treat farmers, publicans and shopkeepers differently from everyone else? Why should their business places be assessed? I will give an example. A poor farm could be valued at €500,000. T…

I have heard so much about the cuckoo here. It is a grand thing to hear the cuckoo under Mangerton Mountain or around the Roughty river. It was very wrong to give these funds that name. It is such a lovely bird that comes to our shores every year. It is grand to be listening to the ding-dong about housing that has been going on here over the last four or five years. It is clear that the Government needs to tackle the investment funds and try to level the playing pitch. It was very wrong to see young couples competi…

There are other levies and regulations. Steel is up by 50%. I ask the Government to bring back the tenant purchase scheme. Many people would buy out their house and give back the funds so that they could build another house.

A Cheann Comhairle, I have just one last thing. I ask the Minister to think of giving a small grant to the young couple or the first-time builder, building their own house-----

-----not the kind of rigamarole that the Government has that hardly anyone is qualified for.

I raise with the Taoiseach the issue of the building of a sewerage scheme in Kilcummin, east Kerry, north of and bounding Killarney. The people in Kilcummin have been trying to progress this scheme since 2000. Work was to begin around 2006 or 2007 but the contractor was found not to be able to deliver. Thus, Kerry County Council decided to tender it out again and a new form of tender was demanded by the Department. Kerry County Council was unsure, the contractors were unsure and, anyway, the Department of Finance s…

The Government will have to fund Irish Water properly to develop these schemes because it is a case of live horse and you will get grass. It will not work. Leaving out the roads of Clashnagarrane, Knockataggle and Rahanane, which the village is actually built in, is absolutely ridiculous. The Taoiseach mentioned the Minister, Deputy Foley. I am saying to her that the five Deputies from Kerry need to meet. The municipal members of the Killarney municipal area want to meet the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about …

God damn it, Taoiseach, you are going on for 21 years and the people of Kilcummin are honest, hard-working people and they deserve the scheme.

We need to protect the lakes of Killarney, a Cheann Comhairle.

These houses have been left out.

Deputy Kenny's house is going to be left out.

Former Taoiseach Kenny's house is going to be left out if this continues.

That is the truth. He comes there every summer and he is welcome.

I thank Sinn Féin for allowing us this time to debate this very important motion. I have nothing personal to say to anyone, but there is a hames being made of the building of houses. The Government is paying a regulator to dezone land in Kerry. It is paying a regulator to block one-off houses for people who would build the houses themselves if they could get the planning permission. The Government is giving one developer in each settlement, town or village the monopoly to build houses. If there were a developer on …

I too thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for bringing this Bill before us today and for his persistent representations on behalf of the Debenhams workers. He has done his utmost, his very best, during the past 12 months to highlight their case. Those Debenhams workers have been through the mill and, as was said, they were peaceful and honourable in their protest and all they sought was their rights, to be paid their own money. It is galling to think that this company, which has all those assets and has been selling them and…

Our country is at a crossroads when it comes to objectors. We have An Taisce. There are serial objectors throughout the country. People in places such as Mayo are objecting to developments in Kerry. First, the Government must withdraw funding from An Taisce. Second, the people who are objecting in this fashion should be obliged to pay for their objections. These objectors have inflicted pain, misery and misfortune on poor people in Kerry who just want to build a home for themselves but who have been denied by such …

I am very concerned about certain sections of this Bill. Evicting people and families from their homes is wrong and should be avoided in every way possible. As Deputy Michael Collins said, sometimes it is done early in the morning or late at night. That is very unfair and can have an unsettling effect on families for the rest of their lives if it happens to them when they are young children. I am concerned about the suggestion that private security firms would be allowed carry out these operations and I will not be…