Will it be 100% redress?

I want to object to the Taoiseach studiously refusing to answer a very straightforward question about a 100% redress scheme. Will he please answer it?

No, you have not, Taoiseach, and that is very worrying.

I have raised with the Taoiseach time out of number the matter of the extortionate rents that workers and families are paying. They hand over an extraordinary proportion of their hard-earned cash to landlords every month. As a result of this, an entire generation is locked out of home ownership. Let us face it: they do not stand a chance of saving for a mortgage deposit while forking out up to €2,000 in rent every month. This was the case long before Covid-19. However, the pandemic has hit generation rent hard. Man…

The Taoiseach says he does not accept my assertions. Which assertions?

Is it my assertion that rents are extortionate or that renters are being ripped off? Is it my assertion that renters are struggling or that a whole generation is living with the fear of not making rent and losing the roofs over their heads? Is it my assertion that a whole generation is effectively locked out of any real prospect of home ownership? Are those the assertions the Taoiseach questions? Those are the facts on the ground. Perhaps the assertion that troubles him is my assertion that the Taoiseach should get…

I have repeatedly drawn the Taoiseach's attention to the rents people are paying. I put it to him today that as we emerge from the pandemic, our people face a cost-of-living crisis. Rents are soaring, people are being ripped off by greedy insurance companies and they now face multiple hikes in energy bills. To add to all of this, the Taoiseach now proposes to increase the tax on people's family homes. His Government, the same Government that allows wealthy investment and property funds to accumulate billions in pro…

Will the Taoiseach explain to us-----

-----why the hard decisions he and his Government take are always at the expense of families and workers? Will he please explain the rationale, as we look to get back on our feet, behind-----

-----increasing the tax on people's family homes? Could we have the justification for this action, this decision, from the Taoiseach, please?

Much of the Government's communications yesterday focused on returning to work and supports for business, but pillar 2 of the recovery plan, as it is called, includes a number of commitments that fall well short of people's lived experiences. It seems that, increasingly, there is a disconnect between Government policy objectives and the outcomes experienced on the ground. No amount of spin, whoever is spinning, can hide the fact that the Government announced yesterday its intention to close the pandemic unemploymen…

Ireland’s national reform programme is to be integrated into the Government’s national recovery and resilience plan. The aim, as I understand it, is to mitigate the economic and social impact of Covid and make our economy and society more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges ahead. On that basis, what provision does the national reform programme intend to make for tackling poverty or committing to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights? Yesterday the Taoiseach was asked …

Last week the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem. During the special sitting of the council, the UN heard how Israeli forces had targeted homes, medical facilities, media centres, Covid-19 testing centres, schools, and a police station. It also heard that there is no evidence that any of these b…

Tens of thousands of people have gone back to work this month and many more will go back in the weeks ahead as restrictions are lifted. This is very good news because people need and want to be back at work. Their enthusiasm to return was demonstrated last year when 400,000 went back to work as restrictions were lifted. Workers do not want to be on the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. They, and indeed all of us, hope such supports will be required and necessary only for the shortest possible time. The reality is…

Be that as it may, the Taoiseach will acknowledge that, come September, there will be workers who will not be returned to work and not be in a position to get back to work. The Taoiseach knows that. The economy will not be operating at full tilt by September. The Taoiseach knows that. Yet, the Government is choosing to cut the supports on which these workers and their families rely. Everybody wants to get back to work as quickly as possible. However, the State and the Government have to make provision for the secti…

The Government will then cut it.

The property developer, Hammerson, has submitted their planning application to develop the area around Moore Street, as the Taoiseach will be aware. Indeed, they released a statement last night, which included a glowing endorsement from the Taoiseach. We now have the disgraceful situation where we have a Government that has not alone surrendered apartment homes in the city of Dublin to private investors and absentee landlords, but a Government that now supports a plan to turn one of the most significant sites in mo…

I invite the Taoiseach to desist from standing with the private developer and actually to pursue the approach as agreed by the Dáil as recently as last March.

All Departments are required to prepare resource-efficiency action plans. In the area of waste, these plans reflect wider changes implemented by previous Governments in terms of how businesses and households manage their waste. Departments must increase the number of facilities for recycling and composting and discontinue the use of single-use plastics throughout the organisation. Households have been separating out their recyclables and compostable waste for some time but the reality is that there is no clarity on…

Of course the neglect and poverty in the inner city of Dublin, as in other inner city and other areas throughout the State, is not accidental. It has happened on the watch of successive Governments and is in fact the consequence of bad policy, as the Taoiseach knows. To create the brighter future to which the Taoiseach referred, it is imperative that we invest in our children and in early education. That is what I wish to raise with the Taoiseach today. Early education providers in Dublin's north inner city have be…