I want to bring up a very important issue that is undermining and corroding my community and communities all over the country. I refer to the issue of antisocial behaviour. I define antisocial behaviour as behaviour that is unfriendly in any way. It can be anything from being rude online to gratuitous random attacks of physical violence. These have been documented in the media but unfortunately far too many people are experiencing them in real life. They are being experienced in our public spaces, on public transpo…

I return to a subject which I have raised previously, which is the proposed multi-billion euro, 19 km, high frequency, high capacity rail link from beyond the airport to the south side of our city, called MetroLink. It has been talked about since 2001. As a project, it will potentially reduce the congestion on city streets, reduce the number of cars and help us all to achieve our carbon action targets. It would come through my own home constituency of Dublin Central, by DCU, Albert College Park, which I have raised…

I thank the Minister for coming in to discuss this very important new housing policy. In election 2020, voters went out to vote and the vast majority of them voted for change. They voted for change on a number of issues but on one issue in particular, namely, housing. The Minister and I heard it, as did members of my party and members in all parties in government, and they understood the change voters were demanding. They wanted a change from the failed housing policies of the previous decade and we will deliver th…

I thank the Minister for coming in to respond to my Commencement matter which concerns the national childcare scheme. This scheme has a stated objective of improving children's outcomes, supporting lifelong learning, making work pay, reducing child poverty and tangibly reducing the cost of quality childcare for thousands of families throughout Ireland. They are very noble objectives and I know the Minister is very passionate about delivering on them. I thank him not just for coming in here today but for meeting me …

I thank the Minister for his response. It is certainly encouraging, especially his personal commitment to the early years childcare sector. I welcome his broader review of the sector. The NCS resulted in a funding cut of more than 30% for it. I know this will be captured in the review and report, and I acknowledge the funding that has been put in place during Covid. It is critical. We need to raise this with the Leader and possibly have her write to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on this issue. We n…

I too offer my condolences to Senator Hoey and her family at the very sad time of the passing of her dad. May he rest in peace. Transport has featured in the contributions of many speakers today but I must return to the subject. Investment in public transportation is of great importance to us as a society and as an economy, and in achieving our climate action targets. We all want to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. I want to talk about two projects in particular: MetroLink and DART+. Between them, more than €5 bi…

I thank the Minister of State for coming in for this debate. I am proud to second this reading of the Bill by Senator Lisa Chambers. I start by paying tribute to Una Ring and Eve McDowell. I had the pleasure of meeting them personally today. I have heard them give such brave testimony in the media. Their courage, strength and generosity are incredible. They have endured terrible ordeals and somehow found the strength not only to cope with that and to move forward personally but to actually give further of themselve…

It is great to be back. Comhghairdeas to Senators Moynihan and Ward. Romance is clearly in the air. I wish them a lifetime of happiness with their life partners. It is great to be back - largely because of the vaccination programme. More than 7 million doses have been administered. We have led the way in Europe, it is a huge success story and I thank everybody involved in the administration of the vaccines. There was a lot of scaremongering and criticism but everybody involved has done a tremendous job in Grangegor…

This issue is close to my heart as a former local authority member. I am proud to have been elected and re-elected to the largest local authority in the country, Dublin City Council. I also speak on behalf of the Fianna Fáil Seanad group. All Fianna Fáil Senators are close to the local authority members and many of them had the honour of being elected to their local authority and representing their local communities. They understand in detail and value enormously the role of local authority members. I thank on thei…

This is an incredibly important issue. I look forward to the Minister's response. I believe he values our local authority members and is doing all he can to give them more powers. It is an incremental process. This is being limited to lands being zoned for housing between not being developed. It will not apply to any other lands. I see that as an improvement. The Fianna Fáil Senators are determined to increase local authority member powers but, in this instance, we must make the priority the provision of housing an…

That is not what he said. The Senator should withdraw that.

Hear, Hear.

Hear, hear.

I offer my condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Seán McCarthy. I also congratulate Deputy Ivana Bacik. I wish her well in her new role. She will be missed in the Seanad, but I am sure she will make an enormous contribution to the Dáil. I am delighted also to co-sponsor the Bill being proposed by Senator Chambers to make harassment a crime. The Bill is worthy of support right across the House and I hope all Senators will support it. As this is probably the last Order of Business before the recess, I want to …

This sounds like a technical amendment, which sounds boring, irrelevant and maybe unimportant, but it is critically important to the work the Minister and the Government are doing around changing housing policy. Affordable cost rental is a brand new model of housing in Ireland that will provide both affordability and security of tenure for renters. That is critically important and nowhere more so than here in Dublin where many people do not qualify for social housing because their income is just above the social ho…

I welcome the amendments. As I said when I was talking about affordable cost rental, the two benefits it will bring to renters are security of tenure and affordability. In order for that to be delivered to every renter in an affordable cost rental, it has to be uniform and standardised and there cannot be local vagaries and variations. This is all about trying to improve the security of people's tenure in their own home. It is a brand new scheme and a new way of providing homes in our country. Those two elements, n…

We support the amendment. We opposed the removal of affordable housing from Part V when it occurred. We are delighted to see that this legislation is going to ensure that in every new development there will be a minimum of 10% social housing and with a potential of up to another 10% affordable housing. It is critically important to support would-be homeowners in securing their home, a home that they can own outright over time, but purchase at an affordable rate. It is appropriate that the Government, on behalf of t…

Now.

It is an important point. When we are talking about housing, we are talking about people's homes. We are also talking about the provision of homes and the State taking a lead in the provision of social and affordable homes for our citizens. We are doing so in the context of a crisis. We are coming out of a decade of undersupply of housing. We are also doing it in the context of Covid, which led to a complete shutdown of construction. Amplifying that problem, much of our population has been displaced outside of the …

I look forward to the Minister's response to this and to a confirmation that neither the LDA nor the Government have any intention of building homes in the Phoenix Park. I wish that the Office of Public Works would renovate some of the vacant homes in the park and make them available to be inhabited. A good number of the park lodges have been lying empty for far too long. As Senator Casey said, local authorities all over the country spend the best part of two years every five years making development plans for thei…