The same tactics.

I thank the Deputy. A commitment was included under Housing for All to develop a roadmap to implement minimum building energy rating, BER, standards where feasible for the private rental sector. This work supports the objectives set down in the Government's climate action plan. My Department is committed to improving energy efficiency in the rental market and our work in this area is being informed by researched commissioned from the ESRI. The ESRI research paper, published earlier this year, explores the investmen…

I cannot give the Deputy a date for that. The matter is being kept under active review. We have obviously enhanced the measures to try to improve the BERs relating to our rental stock. The Deputy is right to say that the ESRI has completed valuable work on this matter. It has stated that four in five rented dwellings currently have BERs below B and the estimated cost of upgrading the housing stock in the rental market is between €7 billion and €8 billion in 2023 prices. It is a significant cost. In making any polic…

As the Deputy will know, a significant scheme, namely the home energy upgrade loan scheme, is in place. It was launched last year and is used to provide loans of between €5,000 and €75,000 at levels significantly below prevailing interest rates in order to try to address the scale of the challenge that has been identified in the ESRI report. As stated, four in five rental properties are below a B rating. We are keeping this under review. I do not have a date for the Deputy for this. I stress again that we have to s…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 15, 21, 83, 105 and 112 together. As I said in my previous reply, this Government is committed to tackling the issue of vacancy and dereliction. The vacant homes action plan published in January 2023 sets out a range of measures and actions being pursued to return vacant and derelict properties to use as homes. In March, the Minister, Deputy Browne, and I published the 2025 progress report, which shows the significant progress that is being made. It is available on my Department…

It is the intention that local authorities will still have a significant role to play in the context of the new derelict sites tax by creating the register that Revenue will implement. There has been an issue in collecting the existing levy. That is why we are moving to introduce it as a tax that will be collected by Revenue. We encourage people to use the supports there and if they do not use them, the stick of the derelict property tax is coming.

As the Minister, Deputy Browne, has outlined, there has been a very significant package of measures announced yesterday to accelerate the delivery of housing and this will be built upon further in the housing plan, which will be published in the coming weeks. I would like to take a few moments to talk through a few of the areas within my own delegated functions. These are local government and planning programmes, which combined will receive a total funding increase of €236 million across current and capital for 202…

They are €5,000 in the North.

That is no problem. I certainly welcome our guests, especially if they are from Waterford as guests of the Minister of State.

They are more than welcome to the Chamber. I thank Senator Kyne for outlining the position as he sees it regarding funding for Galway City Council. I know the Senator is a strong advocate for his area and that he will continue to fight for increased funding. It is important for me to clarify at the outset that the characterisation of Galway City Council as a tier 5 local authority refers specifically to the size of the local authority. It does not actually reflect the funding mechanism for the local authority. Dubl…

It is one factor.

The review of the baselines looked at a number of factors and population was just one of them. Other factors included local income, deprivation and achieving national policy priorities. It is important to say that Galway City Council has benefited and will benefit into next year. It will receive an additional €1 million from an increase in the LPT baseline, while €1.1 million of the surplus the local authority generates will be retained by it. The authority will increase its variation as well, as it did for 2025. T…

I thank Senator Ryan for raising this important issue on the boil water notice for the Macroom public water supply in County Cork which has been in place since 12 September. I recognise the inconvenience placed on those who have a boil water notice on their water supply. As the Senator rightly pointed out, the inconvenience for householders and businesses is very significant. I have experienced it in my own constituency in Waterford as well. Uisce Éireann has informed me that this boil water notice was issued as a …

I thank the Senator. If she has a suggestion on what needs to be done between now and summer of next year, I am all ears. She is more than welcome to feed that back to me. That investment is under way and will have a positive impact. We acknowledge the effect it has in the area in terms of those boil water notices. They are put there as a safety precaution by the HSE. Obviously Uisce Éireann has to adhere to them and can only lift boil water notices when approved to do so by the HSE. I am pleased to say there is a …

I thank Senators Conway and Ryan for their question, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health. I also thank Senator Conway for his kind words, which are much appreciated. On the topic at hand, the final report of the review of urgent and emergency care in the mid-west region is due to be submitted to the Minister for Health by HIQA very shortly and published soon thereafter. I will take a moment to explain the sequence of events since May 2024 when the Minister requested a review of urgent and emergen…

I thank both Senators for raising this important matter. I can assure them on the investment flow that has gone into University Hospital Limerick. There is a significant focus. I know the importance of the review informing future investment. I come from Waterford in the south-east region where a hospital serving a population catchment of over 600,000 has had zero trolleys for the last three years because of very clinical bed management and patient flow through that acute hospital. The former CEO of University Hospi…

They are more than £4,500 in the North.

Is Sinn Féin cutting them up there?

Government amendments Nos. 1 and 2 amend section 1 to provide that Part 2 comes into operation on the day immediately following the date of the passing of the Bill. Part 2 amends the Act of 2024 and the amendments will not have effect until the relevant sections of the Act of 2024 that they are amending are commenced. By commencing the amendments now, it means that when an order is made to commence a section of the Act of 2024 that is amended by this Bill, the section, as amended, will be commenced.

I will stick to amendments Nos. 1 and 2. We have had extensive Second Stage debates, both in the Dáil and the Seanad, to make the general points. As I said in my opening remarks, it is a technical amendment to amend the relevant sections of the Act of 2024. Those sections, as amended, will take effect once this is commenced. I will address one point about the translation of the 2024 Act into Irish, which Senator Boyhan raised. That is a matter for the Oireachtas; that is not a matter for my Department.