-----that the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, has engaged with the Central Bank in that space.

The Deputy should provide his costings and publish them.

I also pay my deepest sympathies to Niamh Bhreathnach’s family, colleagues in the Labour Party and friends. I had the pleasure of meeting her on a couple of occasions. She was a fine person who leaves a strong legacy in education and will be sorely missed. I thank the Deputy for her kind remarks on the attendance from Government. There will be an appropriate time to pay tributes to an outstanding Minister for Education. I ask the Deputy to please pass on the Government’s deepest sympathies to the family and to coll…

I have found the Labour Party to be constructive in many areas of the debate on housing. I welcome that and it contrasts greatly with some other parties on the Opposition benches.

We have to acknowledge progress and we have to build the capacity to provide the homes we need. We set a target last year of 24,600 and exceeded it by over 5,000. We have a target this year of 29,000 and intend to exceed that too. We are doing that by investing €4.5 billion in Exchequer moneys this year. I would compare that with the last time we had a Labour Party Minister with responsibility for housing in 2015, when €400 million was invested in housing-----

It is €4.5 billion now-----

-----and we are building social homes.

With regard to building public homes on public land, we capitalised the Land Development Agency, LDA. We passed the legislation to get that done. We have broken ground on the largest public site in decades at Shanganagh Castle. That is happening but we cannot turn this around in one year. We have made good progress in the first year of Housing for All, however. We intend to build on that this year and we will do so.

I thank Deputy Shanahan for his comments. Specifically in relation to the North Quays project, I had the pleasure of visiting the city of Waterford on a number of occasions. The overall Exchequer commitment to Waterford on that project alone is approximately €170 million. Overall, it is approximately €200 million when the contribution from Waterford City and County Council is taken into account. I agree with the Deputy and share his words of commendation to Mr. Michael Walsh and his team in Waterford. It is an extr…

The Deputy used the example of the North Quays project. We gave a commitment to Waterford that precedes this Government. The Deputy mentioned how this goes back to the former Minister, Martin Cullen. We have delivered on that, however. The most significant investment in the region is through the urban regeneration and development fund. People can see the colour of our money in that space and that we made good on our commitments. As I said, the Minister, Deputy Harris, met the chair of the university last week and d…

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for the question. The Deputy is very passionate about this issue, and rightly so. There are many towns and villages across the State that do not have sufficient wastewater treatment capacity or even wastewater treatment plants. The Deputy will be aware that last year I announced in addition to the €6 billion capital budget Irish Water has - it has a multiannual plan so it can plan into the future and deliver those projects - an additional scheme for unsewered villages and I expect to make …

I have given the Deputy a number of examples of investment, and not just in Limerick city but also across the county. In Castletroy for example where we have approved-----

It is Limerick City and County Council. The city will drive the region too. We are committed to the county of Limerick as well.

I have given the Deputy a number of real examples of what we are doing there. I have also said that I will be making announcements on the rural towns and villages sewerage scheme before Easter this year. They include schemes in Limerick. These are being assessed right now by the Environmental Protection Agency, by my Department and by Uisce Éireann. This provides additionality that is outside of Irish Water's own capital programme. For the first time, Uisce Éireann did need to see that they had the security of a mu…

I know the hotel. I have been in Monaghan many times over the past number of years. If the Deputy provides the details to us we can certainly look into it for him. I am not sure of the background but I will say that where workers are due pay they should be paid. This is very clear. If threats of layoffs that have been made, the State agencies will get involved to support workers. Thankfully, we have an economy where there are many vacancies. I am not sure of the specifics in the context of the Nuremore Hotel and Co…

I thank Deputy Bacik. There is no question but that some of the profits we have seen published recently by energy companies, including Shell and BP, are eye-watering. The Taoiseach responded yesterday and it is a matter that will be discussed at European level also. As a State, we have brought in very targeted measures to help households such as the energy tax credit. There is one further payment due to help people through the winter. We were correct in our approach to ensure those supports were targeted as part of…

I thank the Deputy for his question. First, that would be a matter for the appropriation accounts. We spent more money and had a bigger budget than we have ever had in housing in 2022. There were some constraints on delivery, which I believe the Deputy might accept, in respect of the supply chain difficulties and some projects are running into this year. We said very publicly that we will use our full 10% carryover, which we are doing. We have reallocated moneys within the fund to bring forward things like the land…

------30,000 new homes have been built in this State. The Land Development Agency-----

-----delivered homes for the first time in 2022.

I thank Deputy Canney for his question. The review of the housing adaptation grant is nearing completion and will come to me very shortly. Amendments are required to it and it needs to keep pace with the increased costs we have seen. A review of it has not been carried out in many years. It is a very effective grant and helps many people stay in their homes, where they want to and should stay. We are looking at extending the works which can be included in the housing adaptation grant. We work closely with the Depar…