That is why we have increases in rent of 20%.

If that is the Taoiseach's idea of success-----

-----he is really in trouble, more trouble than even I imagined.

A report commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has again exposed the chronic shortage in refuge places for victims of domestic violence. This is a national crisis. The Istanbul Convention obliges this State to have 498 refuge places; currently there are 140. Nine counties have no refuge place. Between September and December last year, 808 requests for a refuge went unmet. In June, the Taoiseach told the Dáil that he was committed to implementing Istanbul and creating more refuge facilities but that …

There is no answer.

The Taoiseach has reported that he raised the issue of legacy with the British Prime Minister in May and July. Can he confirm that he raised the issue in his exchange with Boris Johnson at last week's conference? Will the Taoiseach elaborate on what contact has been had with the British Prime Minister over the past two weeks in respect of plans that are at an advanced stage, we understand, to introduce amnesty legislation - a Statute of Limitations - in the coming weeks? I know the Government is opposed to the legi…

I raise the absence of school transport for the children of Carrigaline Community Special School. There are 29 children who require school transport but none was planned as the school opened at the end of September, a full month after all other children returned to school. In fact, there are a number of children who are yet to set foot inside the school because they simply cannot get there. The Minister seeks to lay the blame at the door of the education and training board, ETB, and Bus Éireann but the truth is the…

I will return to the matter of the Mercosur deal. Despite recent protestations by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the deal, it is worth reminding ourselves that the Government agreed to the negotiating mandate for that deal, which included beef. Throughout the negotiations Sinn Féin called repeatedly for beef to be taken out of the negotiating mandate but no action was taken by the Government on that. We warned consistently that this deal was incompatible with the EU's climate action commitment. In fact, the outworkin…

Then you have not been listening.

Well I think you are wrong.

Illiterate.

There is nothing wrong with our literacy.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have bent over backwards for cuckoo funds. The catalogue of advantages they have given them include sweetheart tax deals, fast-track planning and reduced apartment design standards. Their support for cuckoo funds pushes ordinary people out of the housing market as they gobble up family homes in bulk and rent those homes back to families at extortionate rents. Public anger came to boiling point earlier this year when a cuckoo fund was set to sweep up the majority of homes in a development i…

Because you do not want to answer my question.

Nobody is against investment and Ireland is open for business. We all know that-----

-----but the Taoiseach's treatment of cuckoo funds and putting their needs over those of ordinary citizens has made an international laughing stock of Ireland. Now the Government is trying to take an entire generation, which is locked out of affordable housing, for fools. There are no fools out there. That is the truth. The Taoiseach had a lot to say, but he did not answer my question so, if I may-----

-----I will attempt to ask it again. Can he confirm the Ministers, Deputies Darragh O'Brien and Donohoe, will meet with and make a presentation to these cuckoo funds? Will that roadshow happen? Did he know about it and did he approve it? Who are his Ministers proposing to meet? What are they offering to these funds to entice them to Ireland? I would like the Taoiseach to answer those questions because those are the important matters that arise when we discover that far from learning any lessons, here we go again, w…

I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.

The Taoiseach is making a show of himself.

The Taoiseach is considerably over time and is not answering questions.