The Minister mentioned the Luas connection. I do not use the Luas in the morning despite the fact I live in Inchicore. I do not use it at peak times because the carriages are too packed and it is impossible to get into them. People are squashed into them. I rely on the connectivity provided by the bus service. Those three buses services are going to be withdrawn and replaced with one bus per hour. If that bus does not turn up, passengers could be left waiting for two hours. If there is a problem on the Luas line, t…

The NTA refused to meet me and other public representatives.

A lot of people in communities are relying on a service that comes every hour.

For weeks now this Government has been equivocating on whether or not to extend the eviction ban while people who are living on a knife edge are worrying about how they are going to pay the rent and their bills and if they will have a home in the coming months or not. Calls are coming from every sector that deals with housing on the dire need to extend the ban. Threshold has had hundreds of people contacting it with regard to eviction. Fr. Peter McVerry has said that we are facing an avalanche of evictions. The Tao…

The relevant figure is 10,798.

It is the case.

More than 3,000 people could be facing termination notices at the end of March. What has the Government put in place to provide emergency services for many of those people if, for example, the local authority will not buy the house due to structural issues? I was contacted by a family facing eviction. The council stated that it cannot buy the house in question. The family has a severely affected autistic child who could not face being moved around the homelessness system in any way. What measures has the Government…

What about those who are not on a local authority housing list? I ask that the Minister come to the House next week to explain any decision in respect of the eviction ban.

I support the Bill, in line with the Irish League of Credit Unions, as an important first step to achieving a policy framework that allows the credit union movement to strengthen and to grow. I repeat its calls that the Bill needs substantive amendment on Committee Stage to realise the policy and core objectives intended. Credit unions have long been a vital part of people's lives in this country. They offer much-needed services to communities all over the country and have long been a central part of community, rur…

I thank People Before Profit for introducing this Bill, which I support. If the Government does not extend the eviction ban, it will once again prove its lack of political will to take the action needed on the housing crisis. Homelessness is at a record high of 11,632 people. This figure does not count those sleeping rough or housed by non-Government-funded hostels or by Departments other than the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I could give several examples. A man came to my constituency offi…

Shame on you.

I am sorry you are a victim, Taoiseach.

I support amendments Nos. 27 to 30, inclusive. They are very practical amendments to the Bill. The Minister should take them on board. However, I will take the opportunity tonight, because it is probably the last time I will get the opportunity to speak on this, to read two or three accounts from people who sent emails. We have been bombarded with emails in the past couple of weeks. I welcome that. We have received 1,336 emails. Mr. John Campbell, Deputy Pringle's parliamentary assistant, checked it up to midday ye…

I welcome the formation of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use. Can the microphone be turned on? I have co-signed the amendments put forward by Deputy Cairns and me, supported by Senator Ruane. Ireland's drug policy has never achieved what it set out to achieve. There are thousands of convictions each year, the majority of which are around personal use. Young people face the brunt of this and it sees thousands criminalised in their youth and facing serious and permanent obstacles in their futures. There has never b…

I listened to an interview with Dr. Patricia Keilthy, head of policy for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, this morning. The number of calls to the society went up by 20% last year and continues to rise. Calls for help with energy and utility bills went up by 40% and a quarter of the calls received were from first-time callers. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is calling for targeted supports in the spring budget or whatever it will be called. Dr. Keilthy said that many of the supports provided in the budget we…

I concur with what my colleague, Deputy Connolly, has just said, that as a neutral country we should be calling for peace at every step of the way and providing humanitarian support. I wish to make a couple of points in the three minutes available to me. For years, the Opposition has called for changes to the asylum process in this country, including when the Green Party was in opposition. The direct provision system is a national disgrace and a national embarrassment. It was set up to discourage people seeking int…

I am disappointed that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is not here. The issue I tabled relates to the referendum on the public ownership of our water services. I asked when the Minister will bring forward the wording, which he committed to bringing forward early this year. I also asked for the date of the referendum. On 12 October last year I asked about the referendum on the public ownership of our water services as well as the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, framework plan and the Whi…

I am certainly none the wiser. It has been seven years since we introduced the Bill which was supported by Fianna Fáil. We were told it would be early in the new year and now we are being told it will be in the near future. As the Minister of State said, the housing commission is ready to bring out its report. I would have thought the Minister would have been working on the wording and date for the referendum on the public ownership of water at same time so that as soon as the report from the housing commission is …

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this very important Private Members' motion which the Government should take more seriously. The cost of energy is a crisis for many in the country. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, states that 40% of households are now living in fuel poverty. Many are cutting back on heating to afford food or cutting back on food to afford heating. Just as we see the costs of the crisis come out of people's wages, we see the mega-rich and megacorporations make billions in p…

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Doherty for tabling this Private Members' motion. Two reports have come out over the past month about the everyday reality for people in Ireland. One is from Barnardos, on food poverty in Ireland, and one is from Oxfam, on wealth inequality. They reveal two starkly different experiences of living in this country. Just two people in this country have nearly twice as much wealth as the bottom 50%. Since 2020, the richest 1% of people have received 63% of new wealth generated, and the bott…