The Deputy should sit on the other side of the House.

It seems that the Government and its lackeys on this side of the House-----

-----are simply going to use any opportunity to shout down members of the Opposition who are making serious points about housing. The Taoiseach is letting himself down.

The Taoiseach is letting himself down.

Instead of engaging seriously with the Opposition on our constructive proposals for housing, the Taoiseach simply engages in name calling and suggests we are misrepresenting things. I ask the Taoiseach to listen back to his housing Minister who was on the radio just now. He said that tax breaks were on the table.

That is an absolute statement of fact.

It is beneath the Taoiseach to say "ag insint bréag" about members of the Opposition and to accuse us of misrepresenting. The Taoiseach is in government. It is his job to fix the housing crisis.

We in opposition offered the opportunity for a debate last week but the Taoiseach and housing Minister did not show up. Barely anyone from the Government showed up.

We have another opportunity this week. The Opposition is providing opportunities-----

-----to debate and address the housing crisis but the Government is not engaging seriously.

We in the Labour Party have been showing up for years.

I express my sympathy to the family and friends of Quham Babatunde, the man who was so tragically killed in a knife attack on South Anne Street early on Saturday morning. Indeed, I express my sympathies and thoughts to those victims of violent crime that evening and in a previous incident in Stoneybatter, also in the city centre of Dublin. These shocking crimes illustrate for many a concern about safety on our city streets and a concern about the need for a more visible Garda presence on the streets. I know the jus…

-----a more attractive career prospect and to improve pay and conditions for trainee gardaí?

I spoke earlier about the awful incidents of knife crime, particularly on South Anne Street, and expressed my sympathies to the family of Quham Babatunde. I do so again, as I do to all those victims of South Anne Street and Stoneybatter. Clearly we need to see the positive aspects in the report of the Dublin city centre task force implemented, particularly where the report called for 1,000 extra gardaí. We need a commitment from the Government that recruitment will be ramped up within An Garda Síochána. We need to …

As the US Administration moves to the authoritarian right I think all in this House agree that it is vitally important that we strengthen solidarity across Europe and that we strengthen our links with Britain and between Britain and the EU. Given our unique bilateral relationship with Britain and the fact that we now have a Labour Prime Minister in Britian, we will all agree it is especially important that Ireland strengthens those links with Britian. The Taoiseach said that on 27 January, in his phone call with Ke…

We welcome the commitment to investing on an all-island basis and the additional funding to the shared island fund. There are two areas that I would ask to be included. As the Taoiseach did not mention them when he was listing the priorities, I want to ensure they are clearly up on the agenda. The all-island strategic rail review report was published last year and contains really important proposals, including a proposed railway line from Portadown to Derry, with a spur to Letterkenny. Investment in rail is one key…

Yes.

The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, has had a string of bad luck with ministerial issues. It is a sort of reverse Midas touch. In his previous role, he had to deal with bike shelter and security hut overspends by the OPW. Now, weeks into his new job, we find out about this extraordinary and alarming spend of nearly €7 million on a failed IT project at the Arts Council. This enormous waste of public money raises serious questions about governance and oversight of that body. It raises serious questions about what oversig…

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I am glad he has acknowledged there are clearly questions for the Department as well as the Arts Council. I listened to the Minister expressing his anger and disappointment on the radio this morning, but we need more than just expressions of anger and disappointment from the line Minister. We need greater clarity on when he became aware of this. I am conscious he is only recently in the job. As I stated, however, this Government contains many Ministers who were also Ministers …

I reiterate my call for a Dáil debate on this.