I will be super quick. It is not just the cap. It is also the rates. Head 13 is very clear that the Minister cannot review the rates until 12 months after commencement. Even if a property is well below the cap, if the NSAI recommends foundations to be included, if somebody has a 1,000 sq. ft home, for example, they will not be able to enter into the scheme and get full remediation until the Minister revises those rates, which would be at the latter end of next year. The Minister should confirm that to the House bec…

Yesterday, the Cabinet approved the defective concrete block remediation Bill. After months of delay, homeowners affected by pyrite, mica and pyrrhotite have sight of the Government's intentions. Tomorrow, the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage will sit for six hours to scrutinise the general scheme of the Bill. We will hear from homeowners, experts and officials. It is disappointing that the full Bill has not yet been published in advance of that meeting and it is concerning that the Governm…

People living in cracking and crumbling homes are not interested in petty political point scoring. They want us to get the legislation right. Not only have I read the general scheme, but I have had informal briefings from the Minister's officials on the content of the as yet unpublished Bill, so I am as across it as I can be without having read it. Tomorrow, homeowners from Clare, Mayo and Donegal will present to the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. They will set out all of the concer…

The cost of living is pushing households to breaking point. People struggle to put food on the table, to put fuel in their cars and to put a secure roof over their heads. A report published by EUROSTAT today shows that Ireland had the highest prices for consumer goods and services in the European Union last year. Meanwhile, we see the biggest squeeze on incomes in a generation. Speaking on the radio this morning, the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, reiterated that the Government has no plans to intervene before the budg…

They are not agreed. At the meeting of the Business Committee last week, we requested that there would be time set aside this week for statements on the ongoing crisis in An Bord Pleanála. I appreciate that a review is taking place in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Given that every single day there are new and very concerning revelations, however, it is only right that time be set aside this week for that debate. I urge the Government to reconsider the position.

Anything to avoid the question. Your housing crisis, your health crisis, your childcare crisis.

Anything to avoid the question, a Cheann Comhairle. I am being provoked again.

Like they see the housing disaster.

Shameful. Scraping the barrel, Tánaiste. Shame on you.

I must say that these amendments are deeply disappointing. This is legislation of great importance, as we made clear on Second and Committee Stages. There was a very collegial nature in the committee's dealing with this Bill, with strong cross-party consensus to ensure the legislation on the modernisation of our electoral system and our electoral register, and the creation of an electoral commission, was something we all wanted to do. We have collectively produced a very good Bill. The amendments the Minister broug…

The Ceann Comhairle is absolutely right; it is not for Ministers to interpret the law. It is reasonable, however, for the Opposition to ask Government to explain why it is changing certain laws, to clarify the changes it is making, the origins of those changes, who asked for them, when they asked for them, for what purposes and what the consequences would be. That is what Deputy Carthy was doing, and I fully support him in that. I also agree with the Ceann Comhairle that we have a very limited amount of time to do …

I will choose my words very carefully and the Deputy will have an opportunity to respond.

There is-----

It is a political charge-----

If I can finish, I will take the advice of the Ceann Comhairle. I can say without question that every cent that was spent on my last election campaign was fully in accordance with the law, and every cent I have spent in my constituency organisation on ensuring I will get elected in the next general election was spent in a manner fully in accordance with the law. If individual members of Fianna Fáil financially benefited from the lottery licence that was secured in April or May last year, which I believe was secured…

Let me be very clear-----

Let me be very clear. I have no knowledge of Deputy McAuliffe's constituency financing. I am not making any inference about what he has or has not done or what moneys he has or has not benefited from; what I am saying is that if it is the case that €500,000 that Fianna Fáil raised last year under the April–May lottery licence was raised outside the lotteries Act, and therefore illegally, and if any member of his party benefited from that, the public has a right to know. If Deputy McAuliffe has not benefited, he sho…

-----nor the Minister of State has answered any of the fundamental questions we are asking. That is very regrettable because, if they had, the issues might have been put to bed and we could have moved on. Instead, we are having a row about an issue that should not even have come to the floor of the Dáil today. We should have been dealing with the substance of the Bill and the consequential amendments. Any distraction or losing sight of the central purpose of this Bill that has been mentioned by the Government is it…

That is not true. No allegation was made.

I thank the Chairman of our committee, Deputy Matthews, not only for chairing the sessions that led to this report but also because it was, in fact, his proposition to the committee to do a dedicated series of public hearings and to produce this report, not only because it is an important matter for him but also because he knew it was also an issue of significant concern to ourselves. I also acknowledge that it was a very collegiate series of engagements where there was a great deal of cross-party and cross-Governm…