Four weeks ago I raised the plight of long-term patients in hospital who are waiting to get home and the fact they are allowed no visitors. I thank the Leader for writing a letter to the Minister for Health. I followed up on the issue with him in the meantime, asking that long-term patients in hospital should be afforded the same visiting rights as those who are in nursing home care. There is no reason they would not be allowed at least one visit a week. I received a very distressed email last night from a relative…

I welcome this Bill and the fact the Minister has brought it forward so quickly in his tenure, despite everything else that was going on. It shows the priority he is giving it. I thank him also for acknowledging the great work of Deputy David Stanton as well. What is extraordinary is that we have to legislate for gender equality where pay is concerned. We should have long since moved past the stage where women must prove their worth and that they are of equal value in the workplace. However, the finding by the EU t…

I congratulate Senator Ruane and the wider Civil Engagement Group on bringing forward the Bill. It demonstrates a level of thoughtfulness and is an intervention that is honourable in itself and honours victims and survivors of sexual abuse who have, shamefully, been subjected to NDAs. That is a most appalling use of an NDA and it perpetuates the abuse in a most egregious manner. I apologise for missing Senator Ruane's contribution because it clashed with an appointment I had. I did not mean any disrespect in not be…

Tomorrow at 9 a.m. in the Convention Centre Dublin.

Amendments Nos. 40 and 67 may be taken together by agreement.

Amendments Nos. 42 and 43 are related and may be discussed together.

Does the Senator wish to speak to the amendment?

Amendments Nos. 44 to 50, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together, by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

As no one else is indicating, I call the Minister of State.

I support the motion. To have a right to housing enshrined in the Constitution is natural and correct. I have reservations about adequacy and housing. We have a lot of work to do in defining those two words and ensuring they are correct. One of the interesting things one encounters when studying constitutional law is that sections of the Constitution are remarkably similar in wording to the constitutions of India and South Africa. In both instances, the interpretation of clauses in those constitutions relating to s…

I really welcome the publication of the economic recovery plan later today. This is a very important development. Having met with various industry groups over the past couple of weeks, it is clear there is a shortage of people coming back into the workplace and in some instances, a reluctance to come back. We really need to recognise and highlight that staff shortage. It is appropriate that we have a tapering of supports, while at the same time having a watching brief over particular industries that will find it di…

I congratulate the Minister on the fine job he is doing and ask him to convey our thanks to all those involved. Approximately two weeks ago I met Fórsa and its representatives spoke about the various categories of employees involved behind the scenes. We are very quick to thank those on the front line but behind the scenes are the administrators and a heap of people who absolutely deserve our thanks. Just when they were on top of vaccines and Covid they got the cyberattack. Extraordinary hard work has gone into thi…

I welcome this legislation. It is well done and it is a welcome item of Private Members' business for this evening. I welcome the decision to act sensibly, compassionately and rightly with respect to disregarding HAP in the calculation of eligibility for legal aid. It is an inappropriate inclusion and should have always been an inappropriate inclusion. It is an important step. However, it is in the context of the review of the entire civil legal aid system that that needs to be done. In the context of the justice p…

This amendment is about dismantling the LDA. The whole purpose of the agency is to streamline the use of State-owned lands into facilitating the provision of housing. That anybody could possibly put forward an argument to inhibit or prevent that is absolutely bananas. It follows the trajectory and pattern of voting against housing schemes in local authorities by Senator Warfield's party. Again and again, the objective is to delay, obstruct and stop the momentum of what is a game changer when it comes to providing h…

It does not stack up.

In a country that values neutrality, it is hard to use battle analogies so I will go with the one I know best, which is that of an election campaign. The advice would always be to leave everything on the field, to do everything possible and when one stands there on the day of the count or the announcement of who has won, one will know one did everything that was possible to win that seat. We are in a fight to ensure that people who need homes have homes, including people from every sector of our society and every t…

I am with Senator Warfield in spirit because the language in the Bill is awkward. I wonder why the phrase "different social backgrounds" makes me so uncomfortable. Perhaps I am uncomfortable because considering that would force me, and all of us, into a place where we recognise that there are different social backgrounds. I looked up "social backgrounds" for the sheer heck of it in preparation for this debate. "Background" is defined in the Collins Dictionary as follows: Your background is the kind of family you ca…

I want to make a clarification. With huge respect, I need to put on the record, lest there be any ambiguity, that under no circumstances am I setting a situation whereby any one demographic in our State is the nirvana to which everybody else should aspire. Over the past year with Covid, we have seen demonstrations of community in every socioeconomic group and every possible profile in our State. We have seen fantastic community cohesion that many of the so-called leafy suburbs could really learn from. People have h…

I support the thrust and principle of Senator Fitzpatrick's amendment. We need to mandate the members of our local authorities to hold their executive to account in the performance of their adherence to the development plan probabilities and possibilities, and in looking at the provision of housing and homes in accordance with this Bill and the Land Development Agency. It is incredibly important. To be honest, I would go further. My favourite line in the amendment is probably the line which states that a review wil…

I thank the Minister of State for his remarks. I want to briefly address the housing need and demand assessment. I downloaded all those documents that have been supplied by the Department. It is a fantastic tool and it will give us an accurate assessment. Having a tracking system that brings us back to how is that being adhered to and how is that being rolled out means we will not have a proliferation of the wrong types of development or developments that do not respond to the community need. It is also a game chan…