I appreciate the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, standing in for the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, who is unavoidably absent this evening but I ask that the senior Minister would respond to me directly in the fullness of time on the important points I will raise. She, like the Minister of State, is passionate about rural Ireland and appreciates more than most the huge voluntary and community ethos that underpins our rural communities. I am concerned by a series of unnecessary burdens on the com…

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the official response but he really cut to the chase in his closing comments. I have no issue with the welfare partners portal. Indeed, community employment scheme supervisors recognise it as a top-class piece of kit. The reality, however, is that a serious situation is evolving. There is an eminently sensible situation to the problem, which is that we should not fix what is not broken. The welfare partners portal has worked very well. It does exactly what it says on the tin…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and wish him well in his role. I acknowledge the courtesy, time and effort given to us by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, while he was in the role. Deputy Dillon has big shoes to fill. Is the Minister confident that all the key housing indicators are continuing on a positive trajectory? Will he refer specifically to the continuing challenges in rural Ireland?

It is evident that Housing for All is working. I acknowledge the work of the Minister, Ministers of State and officials in the Department, as well as the hard-working teams in local authorities right across the country. It would be remiss of me not to mention the team in County Longford. In the first six months of this year, the council will successfully tenant 82 new properties and, in addition, complete the regeneration of the 26 units in Colmcille Terrace that were promised by the previous Government. That regen…

It is a truly extraordinary achievement, considering where we have come from, that we are on the cusp of breaching delivery of 34,000 houses this year. If we were to believe some in the Opposition, there is no building going on anywhere in the country. Yet, driving into Dublin, one sees cranes everywhere. In every provincial town in Ireland, there is large-scale house-building under way. In Longford, we are seeing considerable success for first-time buyers, with the provision to them of 305 out of 378 new homes. I …

It is very evident that Housing for All is not a one-trick pony; it is multidimensional and will result in the building of new houses. Through Croí Cónaithe and the repair-and-lease schemes, we will bring derelict properties back into stock. Could the Minister of State comment on the initiatives under way to bring vacant properties back into stock?

I thank the Minister of State. If I am not mistaken, that was his first reply to a parliamentary question. I hope there will be some windfall for Longford as a result. I will send through the representations straight away afterwards. It goes without saying that Croí Cónaithe is one of the genuine successes of the programme for Government. We are seeing its benefits right across the country, notwithstanding the vehement opposition of Opposition parties to it. Looking through the parliamentary questions, one will see…

The figures for Longford are very impressive. We have had 124 applications under the Croí Cónaithe scheme. In addition to that scheme, I would like to see a greater emphasis on the repair-and-lease scheme in rural areas. There is still significant low-hanging fruit if we can revisit that scheme and tweak it, specifically for provincial towns. We are seeing some improvements in this regard, particularly regarding former public houses that are being reconfigured and repurposed as apartments. However, there would be f…

To clarify for Deputy Ó Broin on Croí Cónaithe, if he is familiar with the workings of his scheme and how it assists in his constituency-----

-----the average time is 13 months for the scheme. It would be extraordinary to have any more than four grants issued at this stage because, as the Minister rightly pointed out, there are checks and balances.

I know Deputy Ó Broin is a master of the U-turn and will be doing a U-turn on this scheme.

We need to focus minds and attention on the issue of one-off housing in rural Ireland. Before the lights go out on the current Government, I would like to see some commitment and clarity on our plans and proposals for one-off rural housing. Will the Minister make a statement on this?

I welcome the update on the draft guidelines for rural one-off housing. The landscape has changed significantly for rural housing because we have had fundamental issues with regard to construction costs, material costs and the cost of building in rural Ireland. It might be much more prohibitive to build a house in rural Ireland, particularly a one-off house, than what is in the guidelines. I would welcome if the Minister of State were able to give some indication that he is cognisant of the significant ramping-up o…

I thank the Minister of State. I look forward to the new guidelines. I appreciate there is no ban or cap as such on building in rural Ireland but there is a complicity of issues. Notwithstanding planning regulations, the issue of the cost of building a house in rural Ireland is something we do need to look at and address. Croí Cónaithe exempts people from some of the challenges and they get a grant of approximately €103,000 if they also access the SEAI grant. We need to look at some type of incentive for people who…

I want to discuss a rare and uniquely Irish disease. Hereditary ATTR amyloidosis is a genetic condition. The disease was brought to my attention by a lady who lives in County Longford. There are several manifestations of this amyloidosis worldwide, but it includes a specific Irish variant that originates in north-west County Donegal. The condition is known locally as Donegal Amy. While my constituent's mother is from County Leitrim it shows the condition is not necessarily confined to the Donegal areas. Amyloidosis…

I think we will all agree that it was well worth waiting until 10.15 p.m. for that good news. After that good news I almost feel I should move constituency to Donegal. There is at least 1% of the Donegal population who will probably view that as better news than Jim McGuinness returning as team manager. It is excellent news and I applaud the Minister of State for her work on this to date. The HSE has obviously decided to allow the drug based on a managed access protocol. I know when they started using the current d…

At the outset, I wish to state that the spate of burning buildings nationwide in response to plans to use these buildings for emergency accommodation, or even the mere suggestion or rumours suggesting that they will be used for emergency accommodation, is repulsive and reprehensible. I say this as a TD who grew up in a village where criminals attempted to burn one such building. There is no defence for such an action. These isolated actions on the part of a handful of criminals do not reflect the will, position, ea…

The Tánaiste will be aware that a verdict of medical misadventure was recorded at the inquest into the death of young Bryonny Sainsbury who suffered a catalogue of failures while being treated at Mullingar hospital. At the two-day inquest the family heard harrowing details of how their daughter died. A combination of failures and shortcomings in her care led to a death that was treatable and avoidable. In January 2023, the family was told it would take 125 days to complete an independent review and that the finding…

I welcome the THRIVE programme, which was announced by our colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, earlier this month. It offers regional and rural towns an opportunity to refurbish historic buildings up to a value of €7 million. It is a great opportunity for a town such as Longford to regenerate Connolly Barracks. The local authority is already looking at submitting plans in that regard. Significant money has been spent on regeneration, active travel and other such initiatives but the centres of many o…

I support the Bill, the purpose of which is to amend Article 41.1.1°. The later Bill, which I also support, will delete Article 41.2 and replace it with a new Article 42B. The Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality published its final report in June 2021. It made a total of 45 recommendations across a range of topics. Arising from these deliberations, the Government has proposed amendments to Articles 41.1 and 41.2. The Taoiseach has announced the Government's intention to hold referendums to amend the Constitution …