The new scheme includes a revised application process, which removes the financial barrier to scheme entry; an independent appeals process for applicants; and alternative accommodation and storage costs and immediate repair works to the maximum value of €25,000, which people had asked for. It provides for the expertise of the Housing Agency in assessing applications, the inclusion of RTB-registered rental properties, which had not been included in the older scheme; the inclusion, as I said, of Clare and Limerick in…

First of all, we have locked nobody out of this scheme. Sinn Féin, and Deputy Mac Lochlainn in particular, gave an admittedly cautious welcome to the previous scheme in January 2020.

That scheme compares in no shape or form to the new scheme that this Government introduced.

Our scheme is far more comprehensive and far more expansive. It deals with all of the issues that were all of the issues raised with me when I first met with the group. The policy response has been a very generous one. There has to be an evidence-based approach to it. The Society of Chartered Surveyors was brought in to look at the costs and all of the implications and to make provision. I do not think there is a jurisdiction anywhere in Europe that would have responded in the manner that we have responded as a Gov…

In terms of any new remediation, the retrofitting facility-----

-----is now available, which is additional again in terms of the scheme.

I reject the assertions from Sinn Féin. You have not been on the ball on this for quite a long time. For example, you never replied-----

-----to a written request two months after the working group report was published.

You never replied, for some reason, to give your own detailed position on how this-----

You guys dropped the ball a bit.

Because that would make the situation even worse. Supply is the key. First, I acknowledge that, without question, homelessness and emergency accommodation can be very detrimental to children's health and to people's health in general, but particularly for children. There is no argument there. The response is not one of the norm. Rather, it is one of a multifaceted approach to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first instance, and particularly families, and then exiting families, and children in particular…

I do not dismiss anyone's arguments. I do not dismiss any issue. There should be an acceptance and an acknowledgement that elected representatives in this House, irrespective of party, have the same degree of concern and urgency about the homelessness crisis and housing crisis as the Deputy or anybody else does.

The Housing Commission report, for example-----

-----talks about the reactive policies of the Oireachtas and Governments to the rental market. I would include the policies of the Deputy's party as part of that reactive approach-----

-----which would reduce the amount of rental properties available, which would make the housing-supply problem worse and which would make the homelessness issue worse. We have witnessed over the past while an increased number of people with houses for rent exiting the rental market or pulling out because of the kind of initiatives and proposals that the Deputy has put forward.

We need to expand the rental market, and the supply in the rental market, not depress it-----

-----and we need to do that on a number of fronts.

I thank the Deputy for raising the very serious issue of road safety. We have all been shocked by the recent loss of life on our roads and concerned by the worrying increase in road fatalities. Some 188 road fatalities occurred in 2023. As of 11 July 2024, there have been 101 such fatalities, which is up by approximately 14 on the same period last year. We need a multifaceted response. We had far worse figures in the past. When Noel Dempsey was Minister with responsibility for this area, he set in train a dramatic …

Behaviour is at the centre of this. The Deputy referenced an earlier era, although we sometimes look back with rose-tinted glasses at the seventies and so on. More people were killed on our roads then, when there were far fewer cars, than today, which speaks to that era and its lack of proactive safety measures. That is why what we did in the late nineties and early 2000s in particular, when Noel Dempsey was Minister, had impact. We need to rediscover that. There is a drugs issue. Deputy Chambers, when he was Minis…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue, which has a number of elements. One is the petrol and diesel excise rates and VAT on hospitality is another. The Government is acutely aware of the impacts of energy price inflation and the broader cost-of-living crisis on households and businesses. Perhaps the Deputy did not get an opportunity to dwell on the work that the Government has done. I would argue the Government has acted decisively to lessen the impacts of inflation. That includes €12 billion in supports to date…