I acknowledge the presence of my colleague, an Teachta Robert O'Donoghue. Along with our constituency colleague, Deputy Boland, we have been working with a number of groups in our area to try to secure long-term housing solutions for persons with disabilities. This morning, I want to focus specifically on one service. It is an organisation known as Remember Us. I will not try to tell the Minister of State what my view of Remember Us is but I will tell him in her own words what the founder, Nora Roban says. When she…

That response was fairly disappointing, and I am saying that with as much respect as I can muster. The Minister of State stated, “From 2020 to 2025, 955 new residential places were provided to people with disabilities, which has undoubtedly had an impact in Dublin Fingal West.” It would have been nicer if he had got the figures and told me how many places relate to that constituency, if any. The question that was put was about community-based housing. It was not necessarily about residential care. There is a loomin…

No, that is fair.

I thank the Deputies for introducing the Bill this morning and for giving us a chance to discuss a topic which I have discussed in this Chamber many times before. When I was thinking about the legislation as I was walking over here, I was reminded that the first case I took as a shop steward was for teleworking as we called it. It moved on to be e-working and now we call it remote and flexible working. The attitude of employers, as demonstrated by the Fine Gael Minister of State here this morning, was always the ex…

What about five?

Of course they are well used to appealing.

I want to express my thanks to an Teachta Doherty for proposing this Private Members' motion and for all the work he has done in this space. While the Minister and his best buds in Fine Gael were rolling out the red carpet, at least there were people on the Opposition benches shouting "Stop". I feel so sorry for young people. I genuinely worry for them that they are starting to lose hope, and all the while, they are literally being gaslit by this Government. The Government has made it very comfortable for these inv…

There he goes blaming the Opposition again.

Give them answers, then.

I want to thank my colleague, Teachta Eoin Ó Broin, for his work on this legislation. It is very much required simply because of the length of time that families are left on social housing waiting lists. In my area, it is 14 years. That is hard to believe, is it not? They are left for so long that they are forced to move to counties and places outside of their original area. What happens then is that their kids join clubs and they join schools. It is more acute when we are looking at families who have children with…

It is a bit regrettable that we did not have a copy of the Minister's speech when we started but I am sure that can be addressed for future debates. I am pleased to see this legislation. I understand it was first proposed by Senator Higgins and the Civil Engagement Group in the Seanad. I thank them for their work on this very important issue. I also thank the Deputies who brought the Bill forward for debate in the Dáil. This legislation builds on work done by my colleague Deputy Mairéad Farrell who, in 2021, introd…

Let us not do anything.

I commend Deputies Carthy and Devine on this important amendment. It is welcome that the Government is not opposing this. The Minister and I both know that sometimes that does not mean the Government is supporting it either. I would like to see it supported. I welcome the visitors in the Gallery. Tá sé mícheart rogha duine éigin a thógáil agus é a athrú gan cead an duine. Níl sé ceart nó cóir é sin a dhéanamh do dhuine. It is regrettable that intimate image abuse is increasing. The harm is increasing. The scope is …

This is a fairly straightforward question with which he will be familiar. I am seeking to understand and to get some information from the Minister of State in relation to those non-capital grants. We understand the capital grants and the schemes but I ask about the actual level of funding that is available to cover those costs, such as energy, insurance, staffing, etc. This relates to the stream of funding that will go beyond the capital grants.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The purpose of the question was to try to isolate those specific funding streams separate from grants that will contribute towards the physical running. The Minister of State is right that they are in the main run by volunteer boards. However, they are employers as well. It makes things very tricky. There have been welcome increases in the minimum wage. That has a knock-on consequence for other people who are working. Costs like energy in particular are rising. What w…

Can I be a bit a cheeky and hijack my own time for a moment to remind the Minister of State that he promised me he would visit Foróige in Balbriggan? I will follow up with him again after this. I understand the Minister of State is listening and hears what is being said. What I am trying to find out is how that is going to manifest itself in terms of money so that the community centres can be sure they are going to be in a position to be able to pay their energy bills. The fear many of them have is that they are no…

I thought I had done that but I will do it.

The people in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West wait for up to 14 years in most cases on the Fingal County Council housing list. Some of them are left waiting in overcrowded accommodation, some of them in emergency accommodation, some of them paying eye-wateringly high rents. When a person has a medical condition or a disability, this is often made worse by their housing situation, as I am sure the Tánaiste can appreciate, so they can apply for assessment for medical priority. It takes an awful lot to fill out …

I thank the Tánaiste.

The people I represent in Dublin Fingal West are already paying huge rents, with an average cost of close to €2,500 per month. A person on an ordinary wage is at nothing and has no hope of being able to rent. I am genuinely struggling to understand the logic of this Bill. The Minister has said openly that it will cause the cost of renting to increase. Any reasonable person would agree that rents in this State are too high. Perhaps the Minister disagrees but I would contend they are far too high as it is. This legis…