Prices continue to increase.

Twelve years ago, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General identified some of the key risks posed by this deal. A chapter of its report was called “Protecting the State's property interest” and identified several alarming details. These included the existence of "a fixed charge over the entire St. Vincent's Hospital site" and "a floating charge over all of the undertaking, property and assets of SVHG both present and future". The Comptroller and Auditor General’s worrying conclusion was that the St. Vincen…

This State and the religious orders have a shameful track record in their treatment of women and children. It is written into our Constitution, the foundational document of the State, that a woman's place is in the home. Until 1957, a married women became the legal property of her husband. Until the 1970s, a marriage bar forced women to resign from work upon getting married. Marital rape was not made a criminal offence until 1990. We have all heard the apologies from previous Governments over the years. Only a year…

People my age, when they look to the future, feel they have no chance of ever achieving homeownership. As my colleagues have said, this is happening under the Government's watch. The common theme among my friends and co-workers I have had in the past is that they work day in and day out and nothing gets easier. They feel they are completely locked out of homeownership. We are seeing now that the increase in the cost of living is squeezing people more and more in terms of their ability to rent or buy a home. At this…

As we all know, the cost of living has spiralled, people are under severe pressure to make ends meet and many people simply cannot do so as a result of the cost of living crisis. Nevertheless, before this increase in inflation and the war in Ukraine, we had the highest rents in Europe. People were struggling with housing, with paying rent and even with finding accommodation. All of this was known before the increase in inflation and the uncertainty arising from the war in Ukraine. What we needed to see from the Gov…

An chéad cheist maidir leis an national development plan, NDP, and the impact of the cost of inflation on the plan, as well as the projects which might need to go back out for tender and the Minister's views on this.

Tá sé sin suimiúil. Yesterday, the Minister might have seen that the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications heard serious concerns from representative bodies of construction companies. They spoke of the need to reform public works contracts for the construction of transport infrastructure. They said many contractors were having to pull out due to the inflation in the cost of building materials and other issues the Minister outlined. The contracts they enter into are often fixed price. Someone may have ente…

It will be interesting to see those proposals. The Minister is right that, at the end of the day, we have an infrastructural deficit and we want to deliver as many capital projects as we can with the resources that we have. It is unfortunate that inflation has increased so much and that this could impact on delivery. I have a question about the capital project tracker for the NDP. Will the Minister look at that? Will additional information be provided, especially if projects have to go to tender again, which would …

This question relates to the status of the Minister's review of the ethics framework and the work carried out to date on examining the tackling of conflicts of interest.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. That was interesting because, as we know from media reports, there is a crisis facing An Bord Pleanála and it is quite a disturbing state of affairs. We are talking about conflicts of interest. We know that conflicts of interest do not necessarily equate to corruption but, as we saw with the planning tribunal, the presence of conflicts of interest can create the conditions in which corruption could take place. The Minister mentioned the Mahon tribunal. The three main recommendations m…

I look forward to seeing that legislation towards the end of the year. The crises of the day often reflect the significant role we have in the area of ethics, the implementation of the Public Sector Standards Bill and different matters that are important with regard to ethics in public life. I understand from media reports yesterday that Remy Farrell, SC, will carry out a review into the crisis in An Bord Pleanála, which will be known as the Farrell report. Will the report be turned around quickly? I understand the…

We have.

Let us have a unity referendum.

I apologise for being late; I was doing an interview.

Is it that I can speak on the amendments but cannot call a vote? I am to speak generally on the Bill, which will include the amendments-----

I thank the Minister. Sometimes this place is funny-----

-----and sometimes you get a text to say-----

Yes, but the point is that I cannot call a vote on the amendments.

That is fine. That has been clarified. This legislation is an example of Members of the House working really well together. I feel there was a constructive process at each Stage to address an issue that is important to a wide range of people regarding how society functions for them. My colleague Teachta Buckley and I tried to work as constructively as possible with the Government side. Any member of the finance committee would surely attest that we all worked very constructively together during pre-legislative scru…

Agus muid ag plé an rúin seo sa Dáil anocht, tá daoine atá ag suí sa bhaile agus tá orthu an cinneadh a dhéanamh an bhfuil siad in ann an chéad bhille atá ag teacht tríd an doras a íoc. Má íocann an bille sin an mbeidh siad in ann íoc as an tsiopadóireacht atá le déanamh acu an tseachtain seo chugainn chun cinntiú go mbeidh bia ar an mbord agus go mbeidh siad in ann bia agus béilí a réiteach don chlann? Táimid ag seasamh agus ag plé anseo ag am céanna agus atá raic sa Rialtas faoin gcinneadh faoi cé acu a fhéadtar …