The Opposition is in charge now.

Hear, hear.

That is not true.

It cannot be used on this scheme.

That is not true. They cannot use the first home scheme on these developments. That is factually incorrect. He does not even know what scheme he is talking about.

The Tánaiste was in government at the time.

One hundred per cent affordable.

One hundred per cent affordable.

But we would deliver affordable homes, which is something the Government is not doing.

Hear, hear.

Where are the affordable homes, Tánaiste? Not on Oscar Traynor Road.

You are just embarrassing yourself now, Tánaiste.

Sinn Féin would deliver affordable homes.

Where are the affordable homes? Not on Oscar Traynor Road.

Absolutely. The Government is letting homeowners who want to buy affordable homes down. It is embarrassing.

Apologies that I had to leave the Chamber early yesterday. We thought there was going to be a declaration in the European count in the RDS earlier than it happened.

For personal reasons, I had to be there. Very briefly, because there was a significant discussion of this yesterday, I just want to make a general comment. We had a significant discussion around biodiversity on Committee Stage. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan gave commitments to come back with amendments. He has done that. I give a cautious welcome to the amendments. They are okay but they could have been stronger. Our own amendments to amendments Nos. 220, 232 and 234 in this group are really about trying to …

I am a strong supporter of statutory plans and national planning frameworks. One of the important things about them is that they effectively have the impact of law. We had detailed debates about the statutory nature of the national planning frameworks. It is remarkable that in this legislation the national planning framework is to be approved by the Government and not by the Houses of the Oireachtas, in particular given its statutory weight. We know why that is: the legislation underpinning the existing national pl…

Unfortunately, the Minister did not have time to address the key issues in the two amendments I focused on in my remarks. One has to ask oneself why the Government is afraid of putting the NPF to a vote in the Houses of the Oireachtas. City and county development plans and local area plans are voted on by elected local government members. The NPF is the overarching plan that sits on top of that hierarchy. It should have the democratic imprimatur of this House, first, because it is the right thing to do and, second,…

I move amendment No. 126: In page 65, line 11, after "Framework" to insert "which shall be subject to the approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas".