We expect the Chair to act independently.

Hear, hear.

It has been a necessity.

As I hope the Minister of State would agree, the Derelict Sites Act 1990 is in very bad need of reform. The provisions of the Act are very worthy in theory but experience has shown that it is rarely used to good effect by local authorities. Derelict properties and, separately, housing that is vacant for some time needs to be the focus with regard to turning around properties in town and city centres and bringing them back into use for housing purposes. Are there plans to reform the Act to improve its utility for th…

I thank the Minister of State. I have some comments. Can he say when the review will be complete? This is really urgent. There is a mismatch between the register and the directory. There is no doubt about that. Nobody can say that the Derelict Sites Act is working. We know from looking around us in our own home areas that dereliction is creating significant social and economic scars in our town centres. Looking at the figures, my own home town of Drogheda accounts for approximately 1% of all vacant homes in the ent…

There is much talk of carrots but very little talk of sticks. We have waited far too long for a vacant sites tax and some form of "use it or lose it" levy that would be applied to derelict sites. I said earlier that the dereliction we see all around us shames us. It has significant societal, social and economic impacts. The derelict sites that are available to us present a great opportunity for renovation, refurbishment and being brought into use for housing. We speak a lot about developing new sites and even infil…

We have seen the threshold of €3 million MyGovID users being met and surpassed. According to the EU digital services index, Ireland does very well on digital services. I am keen to understand the next steps the Government has in mind on the provision of more and better digital services for citizens. We know the digitalisation of public services is a key element of the national recovery and resilience plan and the Civil Service renewal plan. In my view, a national conversation needs to take place in terms of the nex…

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply but there really needs to be a public conversation about the development of what I might describe as world-class or best-in-class digital services for Irish citizens. I am not sure Irish citizens are fully acquainted with the level of digital services that the Government and the State more generally provide with regard to access to a whole panoply of public services. The Minister of State would agree that it is absolutely ridiculous for people to be asked to…

That is real public service reform in the true sense. It would be worthwhile for decisions on the services to be provided to not always come from the centre. What do I mean by that? I mean that the general public ought to be broadly consulted to identify their priorities with regard to access to digital services. A significant resource to prioritise digital services was obtained from the European Union through the national recovery and resilience plan process. That is a good thing. That will modernise our public se…

Deputy Naughten has just arrived and I am happy to cede to him.

I would welcome an update on the nine reform commitments under the national recovery and resilience plan. I know that, in essence, there were three overarching themes in the plan, namely, climate action, digital transition and employment. All three are critical to sustainable development for our country, including economic development and allowing us to meet our decarbonisation targets. I am particularly interested in getting from the Minister an update on priority projects for 2022.

What are the Minister's priorities for 2022? Where does he want to see real progress? He has said that there will be milestones along the way and they have to be reported and monitored by the European Commission. What are the priority projects for 2022? How does the Minister see progress evolving this year? The timeframe for the delivery of these projects is tight. My understanding is that there is a requirement under the regulations governing this process to complete the relevant programmes by 2026. One of the com…

I am also interested in getting an update from the Minister on progress in respect of the shared Government data centre and what that will involve. It is a key public sector reform initiative which is absolutely required. When does the Minister expect that particular project under this programme to be completed? I note there is also reference in the plan to digital transformation for Irish SMEs. We know that SMEs employ the vast bulk of Irish workers and they are a neglected sector of our economy. They need to be p…

I do not intend to take the 20 minutes available to me.

This is it.

Sometimes you do not know when you take off where you will land. That is the case, I think, with most Members of this House, and that is meant with all due respect. Deputy Gould is absolutely right about the preventative maintenance budgets of our local authorities. If we do not address that issue, we store up more trouble, ensuring that maintenance, building control and so on become bigger issues in the future. While those issues are not directly pertinent to the legislation before us, they are relevant in the ove…

Mr. Mark Paul broke the story in The Irish Times yesterday that a company called MML Holdings, which owns O'Flaherty Holdings, received €1.8 million in taxpayer funded wage subsidies in 2020. It made profits of nearly €10 million last year but here is the rub. It also paid out a dividend of almost exactly the same amount as subsidy to Hailstone Holdings, an offshore company in the Isle of Man tax haven. This is some coincidence. These related companies ultimately flog Mercedes cars to well-heeled people across the …

I agree but the type of behaviour I outlined from corporate entities, which is on the record - and I believe there may be more revelations in coming days - should have been made unlawful in the first place as has been the case in Austria and some other countries against which we like to compare ourselves. No conditionality whatsoever was attached to the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. I can understand that this scheme, in particular, was introduced in a rush. It was an urgent scheme and a good one to keep peop…

I wish the Ceann Comhairle and his family a happy Christmas. His innate patience entitles him to a very good present from Santa Claus this year. I will ask about the vaccination roll-out programme. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, in responding to me last week when I asked him to consider establishing a community vaccination and testing centre in Drogheda, seemed to agree with me but it seems the HSE, naturally, does not think the town of Drogheda, the largest town in the country, should have a vaccination ce…

The Deputy makes a valid point. As the Minister is aware, I have been raising the issue of the moneys that were allocated to the stay and spend scheme and that have not been spent this year for a variety of reasons. The scheme itself was not a bad idea but because of the conditions that pertained for much of this year, it was simply not possible for it to operate in the way that it ought to have. I understand a recommendation was made in the Seanad yesterday to that effect. It is something the Minister might consid…