I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." The purpose of this Bill is to give effect to the decision by the Government to increase the maximum number of Ministers of State from 20 to 23. As the House will be aware, the number has remained unchanged for the last 18 years, since 2007, when Minister of State numbers increased from 17 to 20. The Bill will also allow for the existing allowance for Ministers of State attending Cabinet meetings to be extended to four Ministers of State. At the moment, a maximum o…

I thank the Deputies for their contributions and reiterate our intention to ensure the work of the new Ministers of State achieves the whole-of-government approach we are trying to implement and which is reflected in the programme for Government. This will be achieved by many of the Ministers of State presiding over cross-departmental structures and teams, as in the case of the fisheries and marine portfolios which are assigned to various Departments, for example, the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine…

I will come back on some of the points raised. First, relating to the section, it is obviously being opposed. As I said previously, the purpose of the Bill is to allow for the appointment of 23 Ministers of State. The importance of Ministers of State is not something new. It was already acknowledged in 1924 with the Ministers and Secretaries Act that first provided for the appointment by the Executive Council of a maximum of seven Parliamentary Secretaries to act as junior Ministers. The number of Ministers of Stat…

I thank the Deputy. We are all encountering many constituents in Dublin and across the country who are facing difficulties with rent rises and accessing affordable homes. That is why housing policy is the single biggest issue for the Government and why we want to take further action in the area of housing. I assure the House that the Government is absolutely committed to delivering more homes for people, either to rent or own, quickly. We are advancing further policy options on how we can do just that. I want to be…

Let me absolutely clear. We want to protect renters across our country. We also want to increase the number of rental homes that are available for people who want to rent. Central to that proposition is increasing the number of homes built across our country. The unfortunate reality is that the Deputy's housing policy would result in a complete failure of housing supply if it was progressed.

The people have had their say on that. The Deputy's party's approach is not credible. It would abolish all the supports for first-time buyers, put back the work of the Land Development Agency for years and devise a new pseudo-form of home ownership, where someone would own their house-----

-----but not the land it was built on. Let me absolutely clear to the Deputy.

It is important that a new Government with a new mandate assesses housing policy in order that we can increase the supply of both homes that are available to rent and to buy across our country. It is in this way that the Government will take action over the coming months.

I thank the Deputy for her question. To set out the context on housing supply, it has significantly increased since 2020, with 130,000 new homes delivered in that period. Everyone on the Government benches and across the House was disappointed with the final numbers for 2024, which were less than what we expected. However, it is not true to say that we missed our Housing for All targets. The overall net position over a period of three years shows 29,000, 32,000 and 30,300 units delivered, a combined total that exce…

If the Deputy was really interested in effecting Labour Party policy, she would have stayed longer in the government formation talks.

I knew from all the engagement we had, she was more interested in posturing over there than she was in playing a constructive role in government. We were open to their proposals.

She wanted to set up a State construction company, which would take years. It would take years. Let me be clear: our central objective, in any review of housing policy, will be to increase supply and to unlock and address all of the levers of supply which are open to Government to ensure we can drive affordability for young people and to address the severe housing shortage that is there. We will not deliver on housing unless we have a significant uplift of supply across our economy. That means the role of the State…

I thank the Deputy for the question. What I said in reply to the other Deputies is that any incoming Government should examine all of the policy options that will achieve the central objective - where I think there is consensus on in this House - how do we increase the overall supply to meet the targets that have been set over a series of years. We are open to constructive feedback and engagement on that. What we have said, as a Government, is that the Minister for housing with others - the Minister for Finance, my…

As I said previously, my central point on commencement notices is that we have a strong pipeline in place for supply with commencement notices issuing of 60,000 new homes. Feedback suggests that there is unquestionably significantly more work on site than before, aided by the Government's development levy and water connection waivers, and it is not just a matter of if but a matter of when these commencement notices will translate to real supply. There will be some supply this year and next year but I am talking abo…

We will be strengthening the role of the State to increase housing supply and trying to complement that-----

-----by having housing policies that accelerate private investment as well.

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. In response to Deputy O'Reilly's point, it is an internal matter for the Fine Gael Party-----

-----and it is not appropriate for me to make any further comment on it.

Deputy Nash will be aware we have set aside 88 minutes to discuss the Bill on Second Stage and then a further 30 minutes.

As the Deputy outlined, it is very clear what the legislation sets out to do. We have Ministers of State in the marine area and in other areas such as older people and migration who are going to be appointed and who want to get down to work. That is the context in which we are bringing this Bill through and trying to accelerate the timeline around it. In response to Deputy Gibney, the Tánaiste responded to her party last Thursday on the ongoing drafting that the Government is undertaking on bringing forward a Bill …