I would like to push the amendment.

I think I have provided a very good amendment that I might push to a vote.

I move amendment No. 5: In page 8, to delete line 13. My amendment relates to the Land Development Agency, LDA. As members will be aware, Sinn Féin is opposed to the involvement of the agency. We do not accept the need for a new State agency for public housing delivery; rather, and I have mentioned this in the debate on previous amendments, we remain convinced that resourcing local authorities to drive ambitious public housing and regional public housing programmes to meet social and affordable need. It is more dem…

The ideological point, if there is one, is that I am opposed to public land - the people's land and the land that everyone owns regardless of how much money they have - being used for unaffordable housing on the open market, being sold off cheaply and being used for houses that will cost well above what people who already own that land will be able to afford. That is the pattern I am opposed to.

For the purpose of the debate, I wish to reflect on a parliamentary question submitted in August 2020, the response to which indicated that €256.9 million was spent on public private partnerships in 2019. The public private partnership model has been criticised by numerous bodies, including the European Court of Auditors, for not delivering for taxpayers' money, not being efficient and not delivering projects on time and within budget. In my view, the use of public private partnerships has been shown to waste taxpa…

I move amendment No. 10: In page 8, lines 25 and 26, to delete “counteract undue segregation in housing between persons of different social backgrounds” and substitute “promote sustainable mixed income communities”. If there is an amendment on which we might find consensus on today, it is this one. I think I am right in saying that Senator Higgins has a similar amendment. She is indicating she might support mine and I appreciate that. To add clarity to the record I will read from section 6: (4) In performing its fu…

I apologise that I am only returning to the debate now. I welcome the fact that consensus has been found on this amendment.

Senator Buttimer should speak through the Chair.

Senator Buttimer is saying "you".

I welcome this opportunity and commend Senator Craughwell on tabling the motion. I commend all those who work in search and rescue, SAR, services and in the Defence Forces on their bravery and service. The service is literally life-saving. It involves a multi-year, multimillion euro contract. The current contract is worth between €50 million and €60 million per year so it is important that all options be examined. It is important to note that there is an ongoing tender process and that we do not want to interfere w…

The conversation about Seanad reform has slowed. The programme for Government is completely silent on the need for Seanad reform. I am concerned that the conversation has slowed. We have had a Bill from Senator McDowell and others. This is essentially the work of the Seanad reform implementation group that was set up by Deputy Leo Varadkar when he was Taoiseach. I do not want the work of that group, which I was involved in, to go to waste. I encourage all the new Senators to embrace the Seanad reform conversation a…

I wish to move amendments Nos. 1 and 5, if that is in order.

I will come to them. I am quite supportive of Senator Boyhan's comments regarding the need for the Government to take on board the amendments. When dealing with a youth motion, where does one start and where does one stop in the context of what we could have put in and what we left out? Every issue that goes through these Houses is relevant to young people. I will speak later about the importance of lowering the voting age to 16. I want to open my contribution with the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, …

I move amendment No. 5: To insert the following paragraphs after “calls on the Government to:” “- increase investment in youth work services to meet the needs of a growing youth population, noting that funding for youth work is still 8.5% below 2008 levels, and to invest an additional €10 million to assist voluntary youth organisations to support young people, particularly the most vulnerable as we emerge from the pandemic; - amend the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 to end sub-minimum rates of pay for those who hav…

Fine Gael has been in government for a decade and Fianna Fáil has supported it for half of that. We were always told, as we have been tonight, that solving the housing issue was going to take time. Even I believed that for a while. It takes time for anyone to build a house. The crisis has become worse as the years have gone by and a decade later, the housing crisis has become an emergency. People are not able to rent or buy. They will take to the streets in their tens and thousands at the soonest possible time to m…

Last week, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, brought the affordable housing Bill to Cabinet. There are two good proposals in it - an affordable cost rental scheme led by approved housing bodies and a council-run affordable purchase scheme. These two proposals will only be effective if the Government sets ambitious targets and meets those targets with real cash. However, we have seen little cash and ambition from the Minister so far. In budget 2021, just €35 million was…

I second the amendment.

I move amendment No. 2: In page 5, line 24, after “appropriate” to insert “(taken as a whole and not any one individual(’s) result)”. This amendment seeks clarity on whether junior certificate results will be based on results' data from the year group or from the individual student's own results. It should only be the junior certificate data from the year group that is used. There is a significant difference between the two and a clear answer would be welcome from the Minister.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 5, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “(iv) be set out in writing and published by or on behalf of the Commission prior to the issuing of results to each candidate;”. As we learned last year, a lack of clarity before the release of results will leave students questioning and doubting a greater number of results. It makes sense to release as much detail as possible so that students are better placed to interpret their results.

I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, to delete lines 10 to 12. I will be brief because of the time. We want to remove this provision in the Bill, which narrows the grounds on which an appeal can be made. As matters stand, an appeal can only consider the technicalities of how estimated marks are transferred from the school to the State Examinations Commission, SEC. Since the system is relatively new, appeals should have a far wider scope.