Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. It is bad enough that the Government appears to be blind to the solutions but we now know that it is an active contributor to the dysfunction in our housing system. Since 2016, house prices have risen by 30% and rents have increased by 44%. The cost of a home in the first quarter of this year was 7.6% higher than in the same period last year. Behind every one of these increases in rent or house prices are ordinary families and workers struggling to get themselves i…

It will come as no surprise that Sinn Féin welcomes any opportunity for investment for small businesses, and particularly for those in our farming community, who as one would expect, are going through a period of quite considerable anxiety. They face plenty of challenges over the months and years ahead with the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and climate action developments. All these things are going to put increased pressures on them and any opportunity for investment or a line of credit, as this Bill will f…

My experiences of Europe Day have been a bit strange. I must admit that before I was an MEP, I did not even know that such a thing existed. When I was in the European Parliament I often found it bizarre that European institutions treated the day as if it was being marked on every street corner and in every community centre in each member state. MEPs would gather in Strasbourg where the EU flag was flown everywhere, including a massive one unfurled at the centre of the Hemicycle and Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which som…

I am still getting calls, as I am sure other Deputies are, from constituents who are housebound and awaiting vaccination. These are people within older age categories. The questions they ask relate to who contacts them in the first place, when they will be contacted and the process that will be involved. I understand the ambulance service provides the vaccinations. I would like if the Minister could give us a sense as to where testing and tracing will go over the next number of weeks and months. We are all agreed t…

The housing market in this State is dysfunctional and that is not an accident. The outworking of this dysfunction is that the majority of renters do not want to be renters. Most want to purchase their own home and others need the security and fair rent that a council house brings. The motion Deputy Ó Broin has brought before the House calls for a break for those who are renting, a three-year ban on rent increases, the cost of a month's rent to be returned to renters, and for adequate standards for rental properties…

I wish to be associated with the kind regards being sent to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on the birth of her son. This week, we learned from RTÉ that a seven-year-old girl with autism has been informed that she will have to wait until 2026 for an appointment with school-age support services. Such a timeframe is, unfortunately, not unique, although it is atypical for the HSE to be so blunt. I am aware of dozens of families in my constituency whose children are waiting years for assessments of need, autism services,…

When I talk to people in rural communities and I ask them what climate change means to them and what climate action has meant to them, they tell me it means higher taxes, higher costs on products for which they have no alternatives, job losses and greater fear for their livelihoods, particularly in farming families. The climate crisis is real. The need for a climate action Bill is real but so too is the need for this House and for Government to recognise the real concerns and the realities of ordinary workers, fami…

The direct provision systems should be a source of shame to us all, particularly considering the history of people from our country seeking sanctuary from hunger and oppression in other places across the world. The direct provision system has failed utterly those who have sought asylum and also local host communities. I was struck recently in listening to recollections of those who were in mother and baby homes and Magdalen laundries by how similar some of these were to the reports we have received up to today from…

I commend the Independent Group and Deputy Pringle on bringing this motion before the House. The specific proposal within the good agricultural and environmental condition 2, GAEC 2, framework with which this motion has an issue is one which, for the first time in the history of the Common Agricultural Policy, will differentiate agricultural land, calling into question whether carbon-rich soils will qualify into the future as eligible hectares for payment. In the context of European regulations and directives, as h…

Can the Taoiseach inform us whether the Cabinet committee that deals with infrastructure has discussed the issue of the North-South interconnector? The decision by EirGrid to underground the Kildare and Meath high voltage power lines means that the North-South interconnector is the only project in EirGrid's GRID25 plans that it intends to pursue using overhead, pylon supported power lines. The Taoiseach knows, because I am sure his representatives have told him, that there is huge community anger and frustration wi…

I thank the Taoiseach for the update on the activities of the shared island unit. It is important to note on the record of the House that he and his Government failed to take an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to creating an all-Ireland civil debate by ensuring there would be a unionist voice in the Seanad, when he stitched up yet another back-room deal between his party and Fine Gael. There was an opportunity to put a unionist in the Seanad who would contribute to the ongoing debate, but the Taoiseac…

Without rehashing what has been already said, I wish to make the point that the actions of the Department of Health in compiling dossiers and information about children with disabilities was vile and obscene. It is unfortunate - I am being mild in my use of the word "unfortunate" - that there is not a single member of Cabinet here for this debate. I stand corrected, I note the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, is here, but the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Do…

I also thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing this motion before the Dáil. It is opportune that it was tabled for this week because we are talking about the NDP in the context of the motion and in recent days the Government launched yet another report, namely, Our Rural Future. What we had once again this week was another big launch but little vision. The Government's plan contains no new spending, targets or ideas. The lack of detail is astounding and there is virtually nothing new for rural communities in…

The Moore Street district is incredibly important to our revolutionary history, culture and heritage as a nation. It is a place that holds much pride for many across the Thirty-two Counties and many Irish across the globe. Moore Street is where five of the great leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising met for the last time. The district should long have been a national monument. That it was not is in many ways symbolic of the attitude of successive Governments to the ideals of Easter week and the legacy of the great lead…

One of the more bizarre and unfortunate consequences of Brexit has been the impact of Revenue's interpretation of third country rules on second-hand car sales. Due to the size of the market and because we share a right-hand drive system, Britain has been the source of a large proportion of our second-hand vehicles. The new situation means that, bizarrely, a car produced in Britain can enter the Irish market at no extra cost while a car produced in the EU before being traded in Britain incurs a further 10% customs l…

I ask the Government to use the opportunity of the Council meeting to stand up for democracy and human rights. In 2017, the elected representatives of the Catalan people, in line with the pre-election mandate they had received, facilitated a referendum on independence. That referendum, which was held on 1 October 2017, was met with a violent response from Spanish state forces. Voters were physically attacked as they made their way to vote, in what were unprecedented scenes in modern western European history. Despit…

I firmly believe that the proposed North-South interconnector can be undergrounded and that the technology is available internationally in order for that to happen. I would go so far as to say I believe it will happen only if the Government changes tack and instructs EirGrid and SONI to pursue that route. In 2017 a motion was passed in this House calling on the Government to commission an independent report to examine the technical feasibility and the cost of undergrounding the North-South interconnector. Will the …

I hope the Minister does not believe what he is saying because if he does, it means he is completely out of sync with his role and his responsibilities. The Government does have a role. EirGrid itself has been on the record on a number of occasions telling the Government that if Government policy directs it to underground the interconnector, it will be forced to oblige. The Government has never implemented the resolution of this House. Yes, a report was commissioned and carried out in 2017 and published in 2018, bu…

Does the Minister wonder why it is 18 years later and there has not been a single move to erect a single pylon in the intervening period? It is because, crucially, in all the objectives and all the parameters EirGrid set itself, it is missing a crucial component that is at the heart of projects such as the ALEGrO interconnector, a very similar project happening between Belgium and Germany, which has one fundamental difference: it is being undergrounded. The reason it is being undergrounded is that the objective I t…

The solution to the housing crisis is to build houses. That might sound simplistic but it is the essence of what is required. The decisions of previous Fianna Fáil Governments to effectively stop building council houses is essentially the source of the situation that has resulted in the reality wherein most Irish people aged under 30 years watching this debate will probably never own their own home, provided Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remain in power. What Fianna Fáil has pursued is essentially an outsourcing of hou…