I can come back to the Deputy on that particular point. We will take any measures we can to ensure adherence to the employment regulatory order.

I will come back to the Deputy on it.

On the broader housing issue, supply is the only answer. Last year we built more houses than we had targeted to build but we need to build more than that; we need to build over 30,000 houses. Likewise, in Cork, Cork City Council and the approved housing bodies have done well in the provision of social housing, and with affordable housing, which the local authority has engaged with. I mention some of the cost rental schemes, such as on Lancaster Quay, which are well below market rents, but we need more of those cost…

I know.

I know that so I am talking about-----

Supply, supply, supply is the key.

For the last five years there has been a substantial exit from the market of property, which is a problem. That creates the problem of scarcity of housing that is available for rent. I am simply saying that we are examining it but it is not simple and we should not present it as a simple issue.

Significant investment is going into roads and health through the normal capital programmes. We have one of the largest capital programmes in any European Union member state. A lot of issues like that can be accommodated in that context.

The windfall tax will generally go back into the Exchequer, primarily to try to help with the cost-of-living measures we have introduced for everybody in the country. That will be the purpose of the windfall tax but it will not go anywhere near the amount of money we have spent. As I said earlier, we spent about €8 billion since the beginning of 2022, between taxation and expenditure measures.

Many road projects have been submitted to Government. In line with the national development plan we have identified that all of those projects that were on track prior to the formation of the Government would remain on track in terms of investment and supporting those road projects. It is down to our capacity and resources and on that specific project I will come back to the Deputy with a more detailed response.

Offering protection to those seeking it when fleeing war or persecution lies at the very core of the values of every free democracy. It is an expression of humanity and solidarity. It is a European value founded on a deep understanding of migration in our history and the terrible things that happened when borders were so tightly sealed that previously unimaginable tragedies and atrocities occurred. The fact is that Europe and Ireland are, at this very moment, experiencing enormous pressures, overwhelmingly due to p…

Hear, hear.

I move: “That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to present this Bill to the House. The purpose of this relatively short but important Bill is to modernise and reform the current legislative basis for the Civil Defence organisation. There is a requirement to do this as the existing regulatory framework, consisting of enactments dating from 1939 to 2012, no longer provides a comprehensive statutory basis for civil defence matters. I welcome the opportunity afforded by this debate to acknowledge and to…

It was 2,700, I think.

That is fine. I thank all the Deputies who contributed. We have had a good manifestation, from across the House, of the esteem in which the Civil Defence is held by communities, as the Deputies articulated. I thank them for their fulsome tributes to the Civil Defence and look forward to teasing out on Committee Stage the issues they raised, such as funding issues, investment in infrastructure in terms of various headquarters or accommodation issues and the ongoing recognition of the volunteering dimension of the Ci…

I thank the Deputy for his kind comments on my appointment as Minister for Defence and for his heartfelt comments on the very sad passing of Private Seán Rooney. I visited his comrades in Lebanon last week. We can talk about that later. As the Deputy is aware, the Defence Forces are currently excluded from the provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, which transposed the European working time directive into Irish law. However, the Government has committed to amending this Act and bringing both the D…

I have discussed this with my officials in recent days. A final management position on the implementation of the directive will be submitted to me for my consideration and approval. Thereafter, our officials will work with officials in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, who will take forward the appropriate legislative framework. I have asked my officials to expedite this, to make sure the dialogue I referenced earlier can be brought to a conclusion and to get the final management position in so th…

As the newly appointed Minister for Defence, I am fully committed to this and see the importance of it in the context not only of the recruitment, but the retention of personnel within the Defence Forces. It is important that the dialogue with the representative associations bears fruit. We could proceed with legislation oblivious to those engagements with the representative associations but, in dealing with a matter that relates to the organisation of working time in the context of the directive, it is important t…

The military authorities advise that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 31 December 2022 was 7,987. The strength in July 2022 was 8,194; 8,146 in August; 8,103 in September; 8,074 in October and 8,049 in November. We have previously acknowledged, and I do so now, that the current staffing difficulties in the Naval Service are very serious. I received a briefing yesterday from members of military management and met them on their proposed recruitment strategy for 2023. Recruitment was notably lower in 202…

Since my appointment I have reviewed the situation. The first priority is to get back to a strength of 9,500. The situation is not good right now in terms of the Naval Service in particular. The numbers are simply too low. We need a radical look at the entire organisation of the Naval Service in the context of recruitment and retention. It is simply not tenable right now in terms of the issues. We have moved on the pay front and substantial progress has been made. The starting pay for a newly qualified three-star p…