You shame your office.

You are shameful, Leo.

We are well aware of that.

More evidence emerges every day of the consequences of the housing emergency happening on the Government’s watch. Earlier this week, Galway Chamber warned how businesses are struggling to keep their doors open while their staff have nowhere to live. Today, a survey of businesses from Dublin Chamber found that a lack of affordable housing is the biggest struggle those businesses face. The housing crisis is hitting people from all sides. Rising mortgage rates are putting huge pressure on people’s finances as they str…

Could I also extend a welcome to the lads from Portlaoise. Fáilte. It is great to see them here. I am glad that the Taoiseach recognises that there has been a succession of hikes in mortgage interest rates. Some people are paying a rate of 8% and there are further hikes in prospect. I am sure the Taoiseach does not contest that. The ECB will meet on Thursday week. For mortgage holders who are now struggling, it is a matter of great fear and anxiety that they are going to see yet another hike. The question then aris…

-----for the tens of thousands of households that are struggling to pay their mortgage?

According to FLAC and to MABS, they now run the risk of arrears-----

-----and real hardship. What is the Taoiseach's answer if he does not like ours?

Actually it is Michael now.

In the autumn.

So Macra is wrong.

The 2016 programme for Government committed to tackling child poverty and preventing family and youth homelessness. Earlier this year, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reported serious concern about the large number of children in Ireland living in poverty, food insecurity and homelessness. The hurt and trauma for homeless children and young people was documented by the Ombudsman for Children in 2012 and repeatedly in the office's annual reports before and after the children's experience of homelessness …

We extend a warm welcome to Shauna and Eve from Ardee Community School. They are in transition year and doing work experience, unfortunately for them, with Deputy Ó Murchú. I am sure they will be well able for him. The coalition parties present themselves as champions of homeownership. However, as NESC has documented, there has been a major shift towards rental and away from homeownership on their watch. Homeownership has fallen significantly and private rental has more than doubled over the past three decades. Thi…

Every sector in the State is calling on the Government to ramp up social and affordable housing targets-----

-----to protect and future-proof our society. Will the Taoiseach finally listen to them?

There are only two questioners on this item.

I can read.

Before rolling out this approach, the first thing that needs to happen is a review of the north-east inner city initiative. I raised this with the Taoiseach's predecessor. I have been asking for a long time that progress be measured to establish what works and what does not work. The approaches that are established to have worked should be extended as other Deputies have suggested. We must bear in mind that the initiative in the inner city does not deal with housing or the deplorable living circumstances of many of…

This month marks - I apologise, I was about to read the Tánaiste's speech back to him. Gabh mo leithscéal. That would have been quite a turn.

In fact, it was the Taoiseach's speech I was about to read; it was not actually the Tánaiste's speech. Some 25 years ago, the signing of the Good Friday Agreement transcended the past and changed the future for us all. After more than three decades of a terrible conflict, the agreement delivered a peace that had looked impossible. It ushered in a new era of hope, opportunity and progress for an entire generation and utterly transformed Ireland for the better. The Good Friday Agreement is a gift from a generation of…