I thank People Before Profit for introducing the Rent Reduction Bill, which I support. I think many will consider the proposal in the Bill to reduce rents in the private rental sector revolutionary, but a revolutionary approach, a practical and realistic proposal on behalf of renters, is what is required. The right to a secure, affordable place to live, a home, is an essential human right that has been denied to an increasingly large proportion of the population. We have a housing crisis, and none of the measures t…

Last week, during Leaders' Questions to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, I raised the issue of the continuation of notices to quit. The difference now is that the family support unit of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive states that it is at capacity, there are no available hub spaces and hotels and bed and breakfasts have little availability. I gave the Minister the example of a couple being charged €460 for one room. At the weekend the Simon Communities came out with its Locked out of the Market report, wh…

Simon states that there will be record numbers in the next two months, while Members will be away.

Not for these families.

I will be brief. The motion on the confidence in the Government reads that Dáil Éireann reaffirms its confidence in the Government. In the 30 seconds available to me, I will put on the record that I have absolutely no confidence in this Government now and never had confidence in it from day one. I will never have any confidence in any government formation that includes Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. I stand with my constituents who absolutely rejected Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the last general election by not voting …

Recently, both the Minister responsible for housing and the Taoiseach claimed progress was being made in the Government’s so-called Housing for All plan. This claim flies in the face of reality given the actual statistics concerning any area covered by the plan. We have a new homelessness emergency on top of the existing crisis. It is a crisis within a crisis, which was partly abated by the ban on evictions during the Covid-19 lockdown. The number of homeless families grew by 11% in 2021 over 2020. In Dublin last y…

Marciniak.

I welcome this debate on the Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Bill 2022 and that the Government have brought it forward. I also welcome the fact that they are willing to listen to the issues around the service charges and have changed the legislation as it came before the Dáil. It is very important to recognise that this Bill would not be before us if it were not for the brave stance taken by two female migrant workers, Julia Marciniak from Poland and Lenka Laiermanova from the Czech Republic. The…

The number of renters being obliged to leave their homes is staggering. Last year, 3,038 households renting were served a notice to quit, mainly because the landlord was selling. This is the highest number of tenant evictions to take place in a single year since the foundation of the State. The number of families facing eviction has continued unabated into this year. Renters are living in fear and insecurity. They are terrified of losing their home and facing the impossible task of finding somewhere else to rent. A…

These families are facing this crisis now. People are walking into our constituency office, and I am sure every other Deputy is seeing that in his or her constituency office, with notices to quit and all sorts of housing problems. They have been told by the family support and emergency accommodation units that they are at capacity - they do not have anywhere to put them. Either the Government gives a direction to the family support unit to pay whatever the hotels want or demand for accommodation or it suddenly gets…

Buy them.

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for tabling the motion, which is timely. It was part of the pressure that we have seen in the response from the Government in the past hour. A good-quality free education should be a basic essential in a modern society. It is the norm in most advanced countries. However, free primary and secondary education in this country is a myth, as has been said. It is a theoretical concept that does not exist in reality. Adding to the stress of the current cost-of-living crisis for so many families …

The State has failed to provide special needs school places in their local area to every child who needs them. It has also failed to provide the resources to ensure those rights are vindicated properly in schools. More trained staff, sensory rooms, equipment and access therapists are needed. One third of vacancies are in the CDNTs that were set up, we were told, to get over the problems faced in other areas, like the CHOs and so on, and that has failed. We were also told by the NCSE last Tuesday at the Joint Commit…

I welcome all the families and campaigners who are in the Gallery today. It is a shame they have to come in here again after all their years of campaigning. However, there is a need for their presence. I see the Minister of State is nodding. I hope this will spur her on to push for action moreso than long-term strategies. We know what we need. We must fill the children's disability network teams, CDNTs. This was supposed to be the new and positive step forward in moving children out of individual community healthca…

I have not really been involved in this debate, but Mental Health Reform, at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters a couple of weeks ago, asked me to put forward amendments to support Deputies Cairns and Ward from the point of view what they went through on Committee Stage. I really want to support amendments Nos. 2, 36, 37 and 53. I will make an appeal to the Minister. The Mental Health Commission, the Decision Support Service, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, the Centre for …

Amendments Nos. 38 and 53 relate to removing sections 85(7) and 136 to allow an advance healthcare directive and decision supports to be extended to those detained under the Mental Health Act. Leaving these sections in is discriminatory so I expect the Minister will move very quickly and certainly to address those matters. We should not have it brought in under the mental health legislation and leave people waiting another seven years with a lacuna. I defer to the other Deputies on amendment No. 36 and it being dea…

I am sharing time with Deputy McNamara. I thank Sinn Féin for the opportunity to debate this issue again. The issue is one of the most serious facing the people of this country and it is of its time. I find the position of the Government on the cost-of-living crisis quite incredible. People are struggling now. They are struggling to put food on the table, pay their rent or mortgage, run a car or pay an energy bill. They were struggling last week, they are struggling this week and they will struggle next week. In Au…

The number of renters having to leave their homes is staggering. Last year, 3,038 households renting were served a notice to quit, mainly because the landlord was selling. This is the highest number of tenant evictions in a single year since the foundation of the State. Renters are living in fear and insecurity. They are terrified of losing their homes and facing the impossible task of finding somewhere else to rent. A quarter of all children are growing up in an insecure private rental sector. That is 281,000. For…

I thank Deputy Pringle for bringing the Bill to the Chamber today and his staff for pulling it together for presentation to the Dáil. I am very disappointed as we were given the indication that the Government would accept the Bill but it seems we will now have to wait until 2023 for a Second Reading. Surely something like this could be looked at for the Electoral Reform Bill 2022, even at this late stage. Last week the Government could introduce a late amendment that had not been discussed on Committee Stage. It co…

The findings of the HIQA investigation into the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick were extremely shocking and according to HIQA, could put lives at risk. HIQA's verdict was that the emergency department is under-resourced, understaffed and poorly managed. That verdict could be employed for our public health services as a whole. They are all under-resourced, understaffed and poorly managed despite the exorbitant salaries paid at the top of the Department of Health and the HSE. The same verdict cou…