I commend Deputy Ó Ríordáin on bringing this forward. He has identified a really important area of law and a gap in the current criminal scheme that we need to address. Deputy McNamara raises an important point about the intent offence but that would be built into the substantive offence in any case. I hope we can work with the Minister on this because we want to achieve the necessary change in the law through working collaboratively.

Not only was the debate on lifting the eviction ban withdrawn from the schedule today, furthermore the Taoiseach has not responded to the letter I wrote to him two weeks ago, enclosing proposed legislation that we in Labour put forward, with an evidence base for the lifting of the eviction ban if and when there was a demonstrable drop in homelessness figures over four consecutive months. Clearly, we tabled a motion of no confidence which will be debated tomorrow, along with the Government counter motion. We are sti…

Yes.

We thought the Government might put measures in place.

In the week when so many families are facing a cliff edge of eviction in view of the ban on evictions being lifted on Saturday, we have learned that housing commencements have declined by 20% under the Government. That is 6,000 fewer new homes than at the same time last year. The Government has consistently over-relied on private developers to provide homes. The private market has proven that it cannot and will not deliver the affordable homes our country needs. The Housing Commission has reported that we will need…

I am glad the Taoiseach saw that.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference this weekend, Phil Ni Sheaghdha said the health service is excellent but only for those who can access it and pointed to the trolley crisis, which is now a permanent trolley crisis. A key concern and issue in dealing with this is how the housing crisis is impacting the ability to recruit nurses, midwives, doctors and other medical staff because they have seen so much of their salaries going on rent. Are the Taoiseach, the HSE and the Department of Health considering enabling …

I thank the Taoiseach for responding to my letter in which I sought information on the co-ordination of services for those who have come here from Ukraine fleeing the brutal war being waged by Russia on their country. Further to that letter, can the Taoiseach give me more information on capacity in the education system for those children who have come here from Ukraine? A Labour Party motion addressing education matters will be before the Dáil tomorrow. We are hearing from schools across the country that they are a…

I raise the case of Bernard Phelan, an Irish citizen who has been held hostage in Iran since last October and who has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison. In late February, he was sentenced to three and a half years for providing information to an enemy country, a charge he denies. He was then pardoned on humanitarian grounds, but was brought back and the pardon was revoked. His sentence is now a dreadful length. His family have highlighted his serious health condition. His 97-year-old father Vincent i…

On behalf of the Labour Party, I express our strong support for this Bill and commend Deputy Ó Broin and his colleagues on bringing it forward. It is just the most recent of many attempts by Opposition parties and individuals at a sensible and compassionate approach to the growing housing crisis. It is an attempt by us, across the Opposition benches, to offer Government a constructive way of addressing the impending cliff edge which so many families and renters face, starting from this Saturday, 1 April. Once again…

Tá ceart tithíochta ag gach duine ach is léir nach gcreideann an Rialtas sa cheart seo. Everyone has a right to a home but the vote by Government and some Independent Deputies yesterday evening tells us that your belief in that right is qualified. Although motions are non-binding, yesterday’s vote sent a devastating message to people in housing distress and housing crisis right now. The vote copper-fastened the fear and anxiety for everyone in the country who is renting and who has received a notice to quit in rece…

We are not.

Níl aon phlean ag an Rialtas. It does not have a plan for what will follow for people who are facing homelessness from 1 April. What it presented this week was a series of last minute dot com measures cobbled together, measures which have no hope of meeting the real needs of households facing homelessness from 1 April. None of us is demonising landlords. We are conscious that small landlords are bearing the brunt of Government failure to ensure an adequate supply of homes for people. We are not just calling for an …

It is not enough.

I want to raise yesterday’s devastating news for Waterford, namely the announcement that the Cartamundi plant there will close with the loss of 234 jobs. The factory has been manufacturing board games and cards since 1977, meaning nearly half a century of good, local, unionised jobs. On a recent visit to Waterford with our local councillor Mr. Séamus Ryan, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the union representatives from Cartamundi. The news is really devastating for Waterford. It follows on from confirmation ye…

I want to raise the issue of prospective job losses because this week, news broke of further job cuts from Amazon, with 9,000 jobs on the line internationally, in a second wave of job cuts being announced in addition to the 18,000 announced by Amazon in January that led, as we know, to 70 redundancies in Ireland. Layoffs have already been announced by other companies in the tech sector, such as PayPal, Google, Twitter and so on. We do not yet know how this recent announcement will affect Irish employees, but my tho…

I want to raise a recent publication of which the Taoiseach may be aware, entitled A Dublin Magdalene Laundry - Donnybrook and Church-State Power in Ireland edited by Mark Coen, Katherine O'Donnell and Maeve O'Rourke. This new publication tells the story of Donnybrook Magdalen laundry, which was established in 1837 by the Religious Sisters of Charity. It reveals a significant amount of new information that is of significant political interest and two key questions arise from it. First, does the Taoiseach acknowledg…

I welcome the announcement the Taoiseach made on International Women's Day that the Government will hold a gender equality referendum in November, and I welcome his commitment that the proposals will be published by the end of June. Can the Taoiseach confirm that the proposals for the referendum will be aligned with the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and that the wording that we on the Joint Committee on Gender Equality agreed on a cross-party basis will be under active consideration i…

On Government co-ordination on the decision not to extend the eviction ban, I ask the Taoiseach again if he has been presented with any analysis or reasoning by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage as to the effect that the lifting of the ban will have, not only on rising homeless figures but also on the numbers of landlords and private rental properties available. I am conscious that in response to a question from my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, ten days ago, the Minister for Housing, Local …

On 9 February, six weeks ago now, the Labour Party called for an extension to the eviction ban in our motion. The Government voted it down. It voted down our proposal for a series of constructive measures that would have served to increase the number of homes available to people. Despite positive indications the Government was going to extend the ban in the meantime, at the last minute it has confirmed that it will indeed lift it at the end of next week, in ten days' time. This decision is already causing immense d…