Excuse me. I ask that the remark be withdrawn. I did not state-----

-----what the Senator said.

Sorry, a Leas-Chathaoirligh-----

I am asking the Senator to withdraw the comment because I did not make the statement she said I made on the floor of this House.

I am being misrepresented by the Senator.

I would never-----

Sorry, a Leas-Chathaoirligh-----

Sorry, I would never misrepresent a Member of this House. I believe I am being misrepresented in this House.

It is wholly unfair of the Senator to do such a thing.

I respectfully ask her to withdraw the comment.

Absolutely shameful.

I pay tribute to my colleague, Senator Carrigy, for his moving contribution. It gives us a real sense of the challenges that are faced by families in deciding whether to try to cope at home or put a loved one into a nursing home that provides great care. I commend my colleague. I welcome my fellow Waterfordian, the Minister of State, to the House. I compliment her on bringing forward this very important legislation, which will have a significant and positive impact on those families who have farm and business asset…

I thank the Cathaoirleach very much. I use my time on the Order of Business this morning to welcome the pathway which has been created to reopen indoor hospitality. I do so with reservations. As a 34-year-old who is receiving his Johnson & Johnson vaccine today, I have reservations about younger people, in particular, and those who are unvaccinated not having the same ability to access hospitality venues. We need to roll out the use of antigen testing to give people that option. When faced with the option of keepin…

Much of the debate has focused on sections 14 and 15 of the Bill and it has turned into a housing discussion so I felt it necessary to comment on the Bill. I echo much of what Senator Mullen said. We are in a housing crisis and, in such a crisis, one must use every tool at one's disposal to tackle the problem. My party and the Government is all about delivery over ideology. We believe we can deliver houses by any mechanism possible, be that councils, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency, public-priv…

I thank the Minister. I acknowledge Senator Warfield, who tabled the initial amendment. In acknowledging that there was broad acceptance from the entire House, it is important to note that we particularly wanted to include the sector in question in the legislation. It is appropriate that the Minister has added the additional mechanisms on "minimum requirements in relation to governance, previous experience, financial management" because, ultimately, when it comes to the approved housing bodies, the councils and com…

The Minister rightly points out that, though technical, it is a very significant amendment to allow the cost rental sector to be accessed by local authorities. I have spoken to him before about an idea I put to him on the use of the repair and lease scheme and how it could be combined with the cost rental scheme. On the double, it would remove dereliction from our cities, towns and villages and provide them not only as social homes but provide an option whereby they would also be provided as cost rental. We do not …

I might touch briefly on the regulations that will be published in the coming weeks. I have received many queries about the cost-rental units that the Minister launched last week in Fingal and the €53,000 figure, which I understand is the net figure as opposed to gross. It is important that this be clarified and he might do so. In the context of ramping up the cost-rental equity loan that was launched to deliver those aid schemes this year, it is important that we also examine other schemes that were not successful…

This is a welcome move. It was well flagged in the Minister's Second Stage speech here that it was going to be brought forward as an amendment in the Dáil. I have a slight concern that it may increase the price of houses in the remaining 80% of the development, but I accept that it is one of the quickest mechanisms for the delivery of affordable housing by attaching a 10% affordable housing requirement within a development in addition to the 10% social housing requirement. The fact that it also includes the cost re…

I had not intended coming in but I have to. We had people saying in the earlier debate that we cannot have leasing. Now we are told we cannot have public private partnerships. We do not want to vote for an LDA which will be tasked with providing public housing on public land. I have said time and again we have to use every mechanism at our disposal, be it the councils, the approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency, public private partnerships, leases or private builders to solve the housing crisis. We co…

That is absolutely nothing to do with delivery of-----