I thank all Senators. I thank Senator Higgins, in particular, for her closing words. It is a significant day but it is only the start. What Senator Higgins says is true. We have to start with real action and delivering on the provisions. We have to get it finally approved in the Dáil before enactment but it requires an obligation on all of us. We start from a good place because we have, in our political system, worked collaboratively on this for a number of years. It sets the foundation for us, as a country, to sta…

I cannot give the Deputy the final cost today. It is a live project and, as he mentioned, there have been significant cost increases and changed contractual arrangements throughout the process. There is a wider issue with significant cost inflation in the construction sector. As we all recognise, there is a problem with the planning, development, costing and delivery of major public construction projects. I am afraid to say that the children's hospital is a critical example of that. This does not just relate to Jam…

Cabinet subcommittees have been meeting regularly to assess just this project because of concern about the contractual difficulties there. We have been paying it all our attention and we have every intention to get it built and keep the costs down. However, if I were to give false promises in terms of what the exact final cost would be, I would be guilty of the same things Deputy Doherty is accusing others of. There is a wider issue in our wider debate about construction, in housing, transport, water and a range of…

We have to, first and foremost, get them through the planning system. In terms of the cost overruns on this and the other main public infrastructure projects we have, the greatest factor in terms of cost inflation is the long lead times it takes to deliver projects. We all need to focus on improving that, especially in the planning system.

I agree with the Taoiseach yesterday that what we will see in the Housing for All strategy, which will be published shortly, is a change in how we do leasing arrangements and a recognition this is not the approach we want to take as we develop a new Housing for All strategy. It will change. There are 2,450 units projected in this year's target and a direct build target of 9,500 units. A percentage of the leased units would be in mortgage to rent and repair and lease schemes, of which approximately one third of thos…

For clarity, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, said in the Dáil on 19 May that multiple purchases of property are undertaken by bodies specifically for the purpose of providing social and affordable housing and it is not intended to apply the higher stamp duty rate to those instances. I do not disagree with the Deputy on her underlying point. We need to change the approach. The massive ramping up of the investment we are about to make in social housing is not best provided if it is done in an arrangement wh…

I thank the Deputy. It is significant. We are about to change how we approach climate in land use in a way that I believe will see farmers benefitting from our emissions reduction targets. The critical thing in the policy approach we are taking is that we want income to go up as emissions go down. Bringing down emissions involves not only reducing the source of the emissions, be it biogenic methane, nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide coming from our activities, but also looking at sinks such as being able to store car…

I have to await the Report Stage tomorrow in the Seanad, but I do not expect other amendments on this complex issue. Even explaining the science of sinks, sources and different accounting mechanisms is an evolving and complex process in its own right. However, the amendments we have introduced and the further amendment tomorrow help. As I said during the Dáil debate, the Bill recognises that we are going to be using sources and sinks and that we will pay farmers. To answer briefly the two other questions the Deputy…

I thank the Deputy. I understand that communities in the area, particularly Gaeltacht communities, have been very concerned. I understand it is at a very early stage of the planning application process. It is critical the communities are listened to and involved and there is real engagement. Nothing is certain in the planning system. An Bord Pleanála is an independent agency. We will have to judge any application on its merits. Earlier this week, I was pleased to launch further updated initiatives on how we are loo…

The negotiations are not with any developer. That is not the key consideration. It is with regard to agreement on sound standards and other distance parameters and standards, and looking to best international comparison on that, that there has been difficulty in getting final agreement within Departments. In the first auction system we introduced last year, we saw the first seven community energy projects getting approved. In the next auction system, we will also see a number of community projects and real support …

The Deputy knows as well, in turn, that our interests are with the local authorities and approved housing bodies in delivering social housing. The Deputy knows this is the interest of every party in the House. I cannot accept this type of definitive split that people on one side of the House are in favour of vulture funds, cuckoo developers or others, and the rest of us are all in favour of social housing and approved housing bodies. We all have this similar interest in mind. It is the same in respect of the partic…

We all share that objective.

The main way we prevent it from happening is by working with the Land Development Agency, particularly on public lands or lands the State has an ability to influence. We go into the market. That is why I keep coming back to cost rental as a fundamental strategic change in what we are doing here, in that we go into the market and start providing affordable rent and affordable purchase in a way that brings market prices down. That is what we are doing in government. We are implementing the Land Development Agency Bil…

We have to change the market. That is how I think we can do it.

I want to clarify this because it is important. We have been talking about this issue in the Dáil for four or five years, as I recall. Our party was the first to introduce a motion on cost rental, three or four years ago, on which we got cross-party support. There was a reference in that motion to the Vienna model because Vienna and Austria have shown a really good example of how this can work. It takes time but, over the long term, the housing becomes an asset that can be used as collateral to get more public hous…

-----and we think it could work here.

We need a just transition and I do not believe that transition can be done on the basis that climate change and the switch away from fossil fuels gives companies permission not to work in a way that is within the spirit and law in terms of social partnership and looking after workers' rights in this country. I do not accept or agree with that. We have to rely on the institutions of the State, including the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court and other mechanisms, where there is any question arising in …

That is what we are doing.

I will pass on the Deputy's suggestion to the Minister for Health. There has not, to date, been a prioritisation given to any category of workers other than front-line health workers, including staff in nursing homes, who obviously had to be prioritised because there was an immediate threat to the lives of their patients if they were not vaccinated. Other than that, the prioritisation has been on the basis of age, which was appropriate. I am very glad that we now have an opportunity for younger people to get vaccin…

We have had extensive discussions on this issue in a range of forums. I agree with the Deputy that the bypass of Tipperary town is exactly the sort of project that should be prioritised. I am encouraged that in the recent public consultation looking at the broader options for the upgrade of the N24 route, as I understand it, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, listened to the views expressed and did not rule out an immediate prioritisation of the bypass of Tipperary town as an example of what could be done. The …