I wish to raise the issue of staffing levels at the children’s hospital. A serious letter has been written by all 12 surgeons at the department of paediatric surgery and urology at Children’s Health Ireland. I believe it has gone to the Minister for Health. In this letter, the surgeons outline bizarrely that the plans for opening the new children’s hospital will see it understaffed from day one. The surgeons believe that they have been ignored and that the recommended workforce of 17 paediatric surgeons has not bee…

Dublin city centre is no longer safe. That is a statement of reality. People who live, work and visit our capital city have been robbed of their sense of safety and this has been the case for some time. Ask anyone who walks through the city centre and they will tell you they do so either with their heads down or looking over their shoulder. Those who live in the inner city could write the book on just how unsafe our streets have become. The everyday climate of danger has taken root, not least because of the lack of…

Aontaím leis an Taoiseach gur olc an scéal é gan dabht. Cén plean atá ag an Rialtas? Tá sé soiléir nach bhfuil an plean ceart aige. Dithering in the face of all this is not a sufficient response from the Government. I could write a lengthy thesis on the underlying causes of crime - the poverty, the lack of investment and the lack of opportunity. We could all do that but we are facing a situation now where in Dublin in particular, but also elsewhere, people simply do not feel safe. The Taoiseach says there is zero t…

Hear, hear.

Nothing is good-----

The Taoiseach was very evasive on the issue of tax reliefs for private developers when he was asked repeatedly here today. Can he be clearer? Can he give the clarity that was given by the Minister, James Browne, that, in fact, those reliefs are being considered? Will the Taoiseach also clarify for me the €450 million that arose from a memo that went to the Cabinet committee on housing? The Government is talking about 3,000 extra homes. That money is to be spread over three years. Will the Taoiseach confirm that tho…

-----on tax reliefs and on those 3,000 homes.

So, tax reliefs. Okay.

But they are captured within existing targets.

If take Moore Street as an emblem and an example of the interest of the State and successive governments in the regeneration of Dublin's north inner city, I can tell the House that it tells a very depressing tale. It tells a tale not just of indifference to those families and communities in the here and now, but also of utter and gross disrespect for the history and the historic nature of the Moore Street quarter. I very much welcome the fact that the GPO will be put to good use and that a cultural hub and quarter …

The coalition the Taoiseach leads was put together on the back of a grubby deal with Deputy Michael Lowry and his group of Independents. Since then, he and Simon Harris, the Tánaiste, have been found out for misleading the public on housing delivery figures during the election campaign. Now, he announces he will remove rent pressure zones in order to encourage private investment in housing. In other words, he will remove the only modest protection afforded to renters under this Government and leave them at the merc…

Let me assure the Taoiseach that I pay the very closest attention to the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of people who live in rental properties. I pay particular attention to those who are literally ripped off month in and month out and really struggle to meet their rent. I pay more attention again to those who have lost their homes because they simply could not make the rent or because they have had the place sold from under them. The Taoiseach announced very clearly an end to rent pressure zones. The Tá…

Nowhere in his pronouncements has there been any concern for renters-----

-----or control of rent. The Government ought to cut rents and freeze them.

It will not do that. Instead it proposes to remove the single protection renters are currently afforded.

On a point of order-----

On a point of order.

There is, actually. The Taoiseach took advantage, perhaps, of the Ceann Comhairle not following.

He accused me. He called me a liar.

Tá mé ag insint na fírinne. He said it trí Ghaeilge and I would like him to remove it from the record.