There is more bad news today for renters as the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, calculator reflects that rent inflation now stands at 4.3%. This is at a time when rents are extortionate and at a time when many younger people will now weigh up their options and decide whether to stay or to go once the Covid restrictions lift. It is a disgrace the Government did not show up for renters. There was nothing in the budget for them. We told the Government when it linked rents to inflation that it was too little too late…

That is disputed.

The Government does not want to.

Rents there are nothing like they are here.

The Government has no answers.

The Taoiseach might inform us as to when those sector-specific guidelines will be agreed and when the concerns and the confusion of those engaged in the night-time economy will be addressed, in order that their minds can be put to rest. I want to also raise with the Taoiseach the Owenacurra Centre in Midleton, County Cork, which closed its short-term respite and mental health day care services throughout the pandemic. In June, families of long-term patients learned that the HSE intends to permanently close the faci…

The families of Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby, and Ciarán Smith, the brave crew killed when Rescue 116 crashed on a rescue mission in 2017, face significant legal bills as a result of the Department of Transport's review of the accident. The review was taken after the helicopter operator, CHC Ireland, challenged the report into the crash. The families hired legal teams because they had a reasonable fear that there would be an effort during the review to assign blame for the accident to the crew members …

An investigation undertaken by Noteworthy.ie during the summer found that in comparison to other countries, the Government here is not spending enough on protecting Ireland's under-threat biodiversity. A 2020 study of biodiversity financing in Ireland raised concern that the key agencies charged with biodiversity protection are underfunded and understaffed to fulfil their remit. I previously raised this matter with the Taoiseach, specifically on the National Biodiversity Data Centre. It is the dedication and expert…

EU leaders are meeting this week at another crucial period for the protocol. It has never been more important that the North has a voice in Europe. On Monday, Assembly Members in the North backed a motion calling for direct dialogue between the Assembly and the European Parliament. Sinn Féin has consistently raised the need for continued representation of the North at an EU level throughout the sorry saga of Brexit and the negotiation process. The people of the North must not be silenced by Brexit; their voices mus…

Before I begin, I offer my condolences to the family and friends of Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Brendan Kennelly, Paddy Moloney and Tony MacMahon, all pillars of Irish arts and culture for so many years. Their deaths are a huge loss to us all, or as Theo Dorgan - the Taoiseach is aware he is another Corkman - so eloquently put it, we are so much poorer for their absence and so much richer for their lives and for their work. Today, the Cabinet has announced plans for further easing of restrictions. Covid is a horrendous vi…

Covid is a terrible virus and sickness, and it is with us to stay. The level of vaccination, at more than 90%, is extremely high. As I said, science has done its job and the medical professionals have done theirs. The Government now needs to do its job. The fact is that the lack of capacity within our health service leaves us vulnerable still. It means there is a panic right across society when infection levels, hospitalisations and ICU admissions rise. That is all down to capacity. I put it to the Taoiseach that t…

I want to know how the Government will address that, how we will get through the winter-----

-----and how hospital capacity will be supplemented.

You are just playing with numbers.

Are you are saying we have enough?

No, it has not. You are playing with the numbers.

Hospital beds are the issue.

I add my voice and that of Sinn Féin in sympathy to the family of David Amess. As his family no doubt grieve a very traumatic and sudden loss, I too hope that the well wishes and regards from this House, but also from right across the world, bring them some small comfort. To his wife Julia, his children and their wider family we send our sincere condolences. The job of public service and public representation is all about people. It is about being up close and sometimes very personal with people and so his loss sen…

One in five families across the State lives in rented accommodation and one quarter of all households in Dublin rent. Renters are working single people and couples, some desperately trying to save for a deposit. They are separated and divorced people, in some instances, who have lost their family home. They are families recovering from mortgage distress. Renters are students forced to choose between sky-high rents and a crippling commute. They are modest-income earners approaching retirement who never had a chance …

Of course, the truth matters. The truth is not alone did Fianna Fáil support Fine Gael in government through confidence and supply but the Taoiseach came into this House and bragged on more than one occasion that he had secured what he described at the time as a housing budget. That was his claim, his brag at the time. Consistency also matters and so does this. I have asked the Taoiseach questions he knows are directed towards those in the private rented sector. I do not doubt that the Government will ratchet up mo…