Having heard the number of announcements the Minister has made over the past year without any changes happening, it concerns me when he has not even made an announcement in respect of this. That says to me that there is not an appreciation yet of the urgency here. There is a real crisis right now in accessing civil legal aid. That means there is a crisis in access to justice. The income limits, incredibly, have not changed since 2006. We are told by everybody involved that the fee structure means we do not have eno…

For all the recommendations and the fact we need a whole overview of the civil legal aid scheme, two things need to be addressed, namely, income thresholds and fees. I do not believe that even the income thresholds suggested in the majority report are going to be sufficient to provide for access to the justice that I think the Minister will agree is integral. We need to get those two things sorted very quickly. While there has been no movement on that side, there is potentially a lot of additional pressure coming. …

The Minister and Department seem to have at last recognised that the accommodation recognition scheme paid in respect of Ukrainian accommodation has had and is having an impact on the private rental market and what I consider the undisputed fact that landlords are using the scheme to avoid tenancy obligations. Will the Minister outline when he intends to bring forward proposed changes to the accommodation recognition scheme?

I will agree with the Minister on one point - the accommodation recognition payment was a goodwill gesture for people who opened up their homes to Ukrainians fleeing war. It is very laudable and supported by everybody, I think, in this House. It was then extended and since then the impact of the ARP scheme on the rental market is seen in communities across the State. The Minister and the Government have refused to accept amendments Sinn Féin has brought forward that would limit the scheme to avoid the damage being …

It was blatantly obvious this was going to have an impact on the private rental market, and it is blatantly obvious that it is having an impact on the private rental market.

When will changes actually be brought forward, rather than just these cloudy timelines the Minister has been providing?

Here we go again. The Minister finally announced that there would be a recognition of the potential impact on the rental market months ago and he is still talking about himself and the Minister for housing bringing something forward at some unspecified time. What is really infuriating for so many people is the Government has yet to recognise that this scheme is deeply unfair. It provides a non-means-tested housing support to one group of people in need of housing that is not available to others. There is a situatio…

It was for hosts in their own homes at that stage.

Hear, hear.

College fees are up.

Are fees up or down?

Are fees up or down? Are they more or less than last year? They are more.

Are fees up or down?

Hear, hear.

Despite the Government telling us for years that there was no need for a special school in County Monaghan, a sustained and dignified campaign by families of children with disabilities, which we in Sinn Féin were very proud to support, led to the announcement in the run-up to the last election that an interim special school would open. I am very pleased to say that that school has now opened but it was already clear beforehand – it has since crystallised - that additional capacity would be needed. Today, I am appea…

I thank the Minister of State. It is disappointing that we are back here again debating the extensions of these provisions. The motion seeks to extend the provision for the consumption of alcohol in relevant outdoor spaces, as provided for in the miscellaneous provisions Act 2021. As the Minister of State said, the current arrangements are due to expire at the end of this month and the motion would extend them for a period of six months. I want to be very clear. Sinn Féin supports the extension of the provisions bu…

I am very pleased that Deputy Doherty has put down this amendment because it will give those Deputies whom I hear in my constituency and right across the constituencies, particularly rural ones, regularly talking about the unfairness of carbon tax and the lunacy of increasing the price of petrol, diesel and home heating oil at a time when people are at the pin of their collar. My fundamental difficulty with carbon tax is that it does not work. It does not bring people to alternatives because for many of them, the a…

I will rephrase it. He is going to say, in the same way many representatives in this House say, that, in fact, the money from the carbon tax is used to support farmers under environmental schemes.

What is not said is that the Government agreed at an EU level to a multi-annual financial framework that actually fleeced farmers. Whatever funding is reimbursed through the carbon tax, and I contend it is very little, does not make up for the shortfall. We do not have a good rural environment protection scheme, REPS, like we had in the past. We have an agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, that farmers find very difficult to enter and, if they do get in, find it very difficult to receive payments. The Tána…

They got nothing in tax, energy credits or any other supports. They got nothing. Members opposite voted for a budget that gave them nothing. Worse than that, they are about to vote to make their cost of driving to work even more expensive. I commend Deputy Doherty on tabling this amendment. I absolutely look forward to the people of Ireland seeing how their Teachtaí Dála vote. They are the messengers of the people but the question is whether they have actually heard the message from the people that they cannot take…