The Senator will not be on the electoral commission, do not worry.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House for what I feel is a very important Commencement matter, which is the eligibility of students for the SUSI grant if they take on additional work during the summer period. As he will be aware, many students rely heavily on the SUSI grant to assist them in getting through college. I commend him on the changes that he has brought forward, which mean that from September all student grants will increase by €200 and the non-adjacent rate will reduce to 30 km, meaning that many…

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply and for taking this proposal, seeing the benefits of it and, as he stated at the outset, seeing it for what it is - a common-sense proposal that will benefit students and employers and help to assist in addressing the staff shortages we have in the economy at present. I welcome that the Minister stated he will make this change but I stress again the importance of an early decision on this. We are now in the summer, and notwithstanding that it has no impact on the nex…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Fine Gael supports the Consumer Credit (Amendment) Bill 2022. As has been outlined already, the main proposal is to introduce an interest cap on moneylending loans which will protect low-income households who avail of moneylender loans. I too represent many working class communities and have done so since 2009 when I became a councillor in Waterford. I know personally of the devastation moneylending can impact on so many families. However, this is an important step to m…

That is the first time that has happened.

I welcome this amendment from the Government. It is an important change. The previous iteration would have excluded anything in the past, whereas we are now capturing that in the previous ten years. People may have been convicted under the Building Control Act in the previous ten years and it is right and proper for the public to know that. That is why we are introducing this in the first place. It is only right that we are able to go back ten years. I am sure the provision can be kept under review in future.

I welcome these proposed changes to the fair deal scheme. I understand and appreciate the concerns in some quarters that these provisions encourage the movement of people into nursing homes. We need to look at them in the reverse and see the benefit of these homes, which are vacant in the case where a family member is already in a nursing home, being brought back into productive use for housing purposes. I believe that the legislation does not go far enough with the 40% level. There is probably an acknowledgement o…

I welcome these amendments being brought forward to strengthen the legislation that has already been passed by this House to place the affordable purchase scheme and the shared equity scheme on a statutory footing. Will the Minister comment on the date for the commencement of the shared equity scheme? We are hoping that it will be in place for July. Will he confirm that is the case? In my area in County Waterford, 119 homes have been approved by the Minister under the affordable purchase scheme on three sites in Wa…

I genuinely think the Senator has made serious allegations in suggesting An Bord Pleanála would, in some way, not do its duty to adjudicate on planning applications on their merits. We either have faith in our planning system and the independence of An Bord Pleanála to do its job or we do not. I have faith. I am not happy with the delays in An Bord Pleanála and think one would have to be bonkers to want to take a route such as the one suggested, given the lengthy delays, which we are trying to address. The Senator …

One of the best value-for-money examples the State has is the roll-out of the disabled person's grant and housing adaptation grants, which are administered through local authorities. There are mobility aid grants of up to €6,000, housing aid for the elderly grants of up to €8,000 and housing adaptation grants of up to €30,000. There are discrepancies, however, between what can be allocated to local authority-owned stock and privately-owned stock. In light of inflation, we need to increase the funding envelope avail…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I support amendment No. 1 tabled by Senator Fitzpatrick. I have also been the victim of those mysterious reappearing posters that manifest throughout the country. It is certainly not confined to Dublin. I am sure it is reflected in practice throughout the entire country. I do not have a strong view on this one way or the other. I see the merits and demerits of what is proposed. Anyone involved in electoral politics will speak about the hassle of getting posters together…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House again. I am not sure who requested this debate. It is an important debate but I do not believe the Senator who requested it is in the House, which is a shame. If Senators request debates, they should be in the House when those debates take place in order to contribute. While this discussion on local authorities and the investigation that was carried by RTÉ is important, it cannot cloud the fact that local authorities right across this country do excellent work on a daily…

Next Tuesday at 2.30 p.m.

I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, for coming to the House to address this very important Commencement matter dealing with the exceptional costs and materials inflation which has occurred within the construction sector and its impact on public works contracts, particularly social and affordable housing projects. It has been well documented that as economies reopened in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, significant inflation coupled with sh…

I welcome the students to the House. I thank the Minister of State for his reply. If he could correspond with me in respect of the rationale, I would appreciate that. The inflation co-operation agreement announced yesterday is a significant and very welcome move by the Government to address this issue, which has been raised by the sector for a considerable period. I welcome the fact it is to be backdated to the start of January this year, given there has been a significant level of inflation within the sector over …

Let me continue on the theme of higher education, as raised by my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne. I wish to mark and acknowledge the occasion yesterday in the south east when the Minister visited the campuses of the new South East Technological University, SETU. The sense of positivity and optimism among the staff and students was palpable. There are many people who have worked for decades and campaigned tirelessly for a university in Waterford and for the south-east region. Thankfully, it came to fruition over t…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, to the House. I thank him and his officials for bringing forward this short but important and complex legislation. It is important in the context of regularising and, in the case of unauthorised development, remediating developments such as quarries that may have cropped up over the course of a significant period of time without planning permission. This legislation was given quite an airing at the Oireachtas joint committee late last year. I thank the Minister of Stat…

I move: That Seanad Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft: Planning and Development Act 2000 (Exempted Development) (Number 2) Regulations 2022, a copy of which has been laid in draft form before Seanad Éireann on 23rd March, 2022.”

I welcome the Minister of State, who is here in place of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke. These are very important regulations as continue to grapple with the pandemic, though the severity of it is less. It is an important and prudent move by Government to ensure we can continue to provide testing and vaccination centres to the public. As the Minister of State rightly indicated, they should not be far away from people's localities and homes. The Covid legislation lapses at the end of the month and it is i…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is a significant and lengthy Bill that runs to 65 sections, as he referenced. That is why he has not managed to get through all of his speech thus far. The Bill and its provisions are contained in the Housing for All policy document produced by the Government. It is an important measure to put the register on a statutory footing. Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill was carried out by the previous joint committee back in 2017. I was not a member of the committee at t…