I thank the Deputy for raising the matter of housing. First, I state that no county is excluded from the affordability measures and I wish to be very clear with the Deputy on that.

Éist liom, right. No county is excluded. I will be in-----

You are beginning to sound like Sinn Féin there, Danny. Relax. The-----

Nílim cinnte faoi sin, a Phádraig. Ar aon nós, the affordable housing fund is open to every local authority. I am actually in Tipperary tomorrow, and I hope I will see Deputy McGrath there. I will be meeting with the chief executive and the housing team of-----

Go raibh míle. I want to tell the Deputy now-----

-----that the affordable housing fund is open for every local authority to provide schemes to us where we can deliver affordable homes.

That is a fact.

I look forward to this and I will assess myself in a positive way any application that comes forward that makes sense. That is one aspect of how we deal with affordability. The second one, which is open to all 31 local authorities in the Republic of Ireland, is the First Home shared equity scheme. I referred to this earlier and I will launch this scheme on 1 July of this year. This will be a game changer for thousands of young and not-so-young people who heretofore were not able to buy their own home. This will bri…

We are very serious about tackling the housing crisis. We acknowledge it is there and that a big aspect of it is vacancy. That is why we are bringing forward very targeted measures to deal with it. I have been all across the country, including to Waterford with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, where 72 apartments have been built in St. Joseph's House, a converted old school and convent, and are now providing permanent homes for people. I was in Crumlin earlier this week with colleagues, where 103 one-bedroom n…

I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue. I have met with homeowners from Donegal, Mayo and other affected counties on a regular basis and my team continues to engage with them. The Bill to address this issue is in its final stage of preparation and I intend to bring it to the Government very shortly. I asked all parties in the Dáil, including the Deputy's party, to make submissions. I wrote a detailed letter to Sinn Féin asking for Deputies' input into the scheme. Even though the party's housing …

As a constituency colleague of the Deputy, I know Swords very well, as does he. The town has now grown to the size of a city and it is a fantastic community. In both Swords and Balbriggan, there are two very strong campaigns in place for municipal pools. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, recently launched a new initiative in the Donabate area providing for a temporary pop-up pool, as is happening elsewhere. Of course communities want to see permanent facilities in place. I will continue to advoc…

To reiterate, the supports under this proposed scheme go directly to the homeowner or purchaser, not to the builder. It is about activating dormant, inactivated planning permissions. We want to see good, compact urban growth in our five major cities. The difference is we are doing something about it. What I want to see in this space is that we target the delivery of 5,000 apartments for homeowners.

We had a debate on this last week and I went through the number of things the Social Democrats are against, which is pretty much everything.

There have been expressions of interest for the scheme, which is about activating dormant planning permissions, of which there are 80,000 in this country and the majority of which are built to sell. The purpose of the scheme is to support people into home ownership. That support goes directly to the homeowner and can be used in conjunction with the affordability measures, which, by the way, the Social Democrats voted against. The party's Deputies voted against the Affordable Housing Act 2021 and the Land Developmen…

You oppose anything we bring forward, Deputy. That is just the way it is.

I will give a commitment that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine will respond to the Deputy directly on the matter. I know there was a legal case on how the public consultation was conducted. I will relay the Deputy's comments directly to the Minister and ensure he responds promptly to her.

I am very familiar with Dublin Airport, it being in my own constituency. I know many of the people who work there directly and there is no question that they do a very good job. I absolutely condemn the thuggish behaviour that happened in Dublin Airport last night. I commend the Garda resources and airport police who had to respond to it on the work they have done. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has been holding regular and ongoing briefings with the CEO of the DAA and other senior DAA staff. Recrui…

I work directly with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on designs for those with disability and require disability access. I have seen in most local authorities that we are designing for all stages of life in many of our homes. We have asked local authorities, through the housing need and demand assessment, HNDA, process to be able to assess in each of their areas demand among people with special needs and disability, especially around access. We seek that within the HDNA. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbit…

I ask the Deputy to submit details of the case to my Department. As Minister, I am precluded from intervening in an individual case. However, I will ask my Department officials to engage with the local authorities to find out what is happening for this gentleman in question and to do their level best to ensure the accommodation he requires is provided and he can be reunited with his family. If the Deputy can submit the details to my office through my Department, we will revert to her.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. As she is aware, a new funding model, or core funding, was adopted by the Government in December and will be in place from September. The purpose is to support quality provision, to improve pay and conditions for staff and to manage fees. As part of that core funding, about €221 million was provided to the sector. A transition fund is in place between 2 May and 31 August. This will be paid to all participating providers to ensure no increase in parental fees from the September 2…