The issue of the day is housing. On 31 March, the Government will bring an end to its five-month stay on evictions. We vehemently oppose this move, which will be catastrophic for countless numbers of renters who, if they are made homeless, will have nowhere to go. In my home town of Drogheda, which is Ireland's largest and most populous town that has yet to be designated a city, there are four properties to rent on daft.ie today. This Government has done next to nothing to put any contingencies, mitigations or amel…

I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State when I say that it is disappointing that a Minister from the Department of Education could not here to take this matter or the preceding one. There is a Minister from the Department in the building, but clearly she is otherwise occupied. I was made aware early this week that, towards the end of last week, Ardee Educate Together National School received confirmation from the Department of Education that its new school project has been postponed. Last August, local Govern…

I thank the Minister of State very much indeed for his response. It is appreciated, but in some ways we are none the wiser. I do not have a colleague who has not mentioned a school - indeed it is four schools in the constituency of my party leader, Deputy Bacik - that has not been affected. Councillor Fiona Bonfield spoke to me about Newport College in Tipperary, which is an area with which the Minister of State will be familiar given that it is in a neighbouring constituency. The school is overcrowded and requires…

So are these the alternatives?

Are these the alternatives - that outfit or this?

Hear, hear.

This is a very positive Bill. The Deputies in Sinn Féin would be the first to admit that it is also a very modest Bill. This is in no way a criticism. It is modest because it is realistic. It is a short amendment to the existing legislation. It reads "omits the approximate remuneration for a contract of employment". It is very simple and straightforward. I understand there is other legislation before the Seanad this week which seeks to do something very similar. We know there is a very big conversation internationa…

Like Deputy O'Reilly, I probably have my Mam to thank for introducing me to the credit union. In some ways, I have never looked back. I have maintained my old account there, as I am sure many have. At around the same time, I opened an Ulster Bank account and got my Henri Hippo savings device, if I can call it such. I may not have my Mam to thank for that, it may have been the powers of TV marketing. I wonder where we should hand those back to when Ulster Bank retreats from the market in the coming weeks. In any cas…

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in favour of the legislation that is being presented by People Before Profit-Solidarity. I extend my gratitude to that party for taking the time to develop legislation in a meaningful way in an effort to address this long-running challenge. The Opposition's concern about the cliff edge we will experience at the end of March - and that is what it is, however it is dressed up - is clearly illustrated by the fact that not only is People Before Profit-Solidarity presenting thi…

-----assist with the funding of the scheme.

The infrastructure is being funded by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which is funded by the taxpayer. That is an important point to note. The development, although late, is, of course, welcome. The point I am making about the northern port access route is that it will lead to the development of 5,000 additional homes on the north side of Drogheda. Those homes are desperately needed. We all talk about our own direct experience, which is important. My experience is fundamentally about housing. My clinics on a…

Many of us warned from the get-go that there were design difficulties with the TBESS. We did not believe that all of the businesses would end up drawing money down from it. Unfortunately and sadly, that has proven to be the case. I take no pleasure in saying that. Ultimately, the objectives of the scheme were to ensure businesses could continue to operate at an unprecedentedly difficult time and, fundamentally, to save jobs that might be at risk because of the increasing cost challenges placed on enterprise across …

I agree and in that spirit I will limit my remarks to my amendment on the 9% VAT rate on the hospitality sector, which is being extended yet again. This VAT relief was introduced initially for good reason in 2011, when unemployment in this country was in danger of heading towards 20%. It was a very important measure introduced in 2011 to try to encourage a sector that we believed could recover quite quickly from the economic difficulties we were experiencing. The sector added jobs very quickly with the support of t…

We are seeking an update on the roll-out of the pandemic recognition payment to front-line workers who are not directly employed by the HSE. Hardly a day goes by when I do not receive an email or phone call from an agency nurse or a contract security guard who may have worked throughout the pandemic in an acute hospital setting but has yet to receive the payment. I seek a status update on that process and why there are so many delays.

We have been told time and again that payments were imminent. This is beyond frustrating. For a contract security guard working in a hospital, for example, it could amount to almost two weeks' wages. We are only too well aware of the cost-of-living pressures being experienced, especially by those on low pay. This has been a frustrating process from start to finish. It has been about two years since my colleague, Deputy Kelly, first called for a pandemic recognition payment to be paid to those who protected and help…

We should all be more concerned about people who are on the breadline and people who require this money. I understand the position the Minister has on double payments. A large organisation like the HSE, with the best will in the world, can often make overpayments to staff. Those payments are recouped quite quickly and we have all dealt with cases like that in the past. My concern would be getting the money to people in the first instance; that should trump any consideration. We deal all of the time with double paym…

I thank the Social Democrats for this timely motion. As my party colleague and party leader, Deputy Bacik, said, the Labour Party brought a motion to the floor of this House in January 2022, more than 12 months ago, demanding action on what was then a cost-of-living challenge, which very quickly became a cost-of-living crisis. The Minister of State will recall that motion was tabled a month before Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine, when the cost-of-living challenge was clear. The rate of inflation was already on …

I am pleased to second the Labour Party motion. The housing crisis is the single biggest social and, now, economic challenge facing this society. I am on record as having made that very point in recent years in this House, that housing is not alone a social challenge but also a vast economic challenge. I predicted what IBEC has said in recent weeks, that our housing challenge is now a challenge to foreign direct investment. If Ministers or the Government are not necessarily concerned about the length of the housing…

As a rule, I remain somewhat sceptical about the efficacy of mortgage interest relief in delivering real help to the households who need it most, because our experience has been the mortgage interest relief system in the past tended to favour the better-off with bigger mortgages and therefore assets of greater value. However, in light of five ECB rate hikes since last July, there is an argument for a measure like this that is targeted and time-limited. The Irish banks were initially reluctant to pass on these ECB h…

Of course, the commercial value is not the value that Mr. Stone or the Minister would ascribe to the service the Minister describes and what he wants it to be but, rather, what it would cost him on the open market to obtain that particular service. We would prefer if we were here today talking about housing and health, for example, the issues that affect everybody's everyday lives and go to the core of the business we should be doing in this House today and every day. Those are the real issues that matter but this …