I have one final point. No matter how you apply any levy, and regardless of what the Deputy says about profits, nothing stops it from ending up on the very people he is saying would suffer.

The Deputy knows that too. He must know that.

He must know that is the truth.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae raised the concrete levy. There was a debate on that matter last week on a Private Members' Bill. The Minister for Finance will publish the finance Bill on Thursday. That will contain proposals regarding the concrete levy, its application, timelines and so on.

There will be a comprehensive debate on the finance Bill next week. It will give Deputy Healy-Rae and others ample opportunity to discuss that issue and to make their points. There were legitimate points on this all round. The Government is doing an awful lot for first-time buyers. That is evidenced by the fact that, this year, we have had more first-time buyers buying homes than in any year since 2008. Much has been done through the help-to-buy scheme, the first home scheme and other initiatives to help first-time…

Sorry, I am not finished. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the eviction ban. That legislation will be published. The day after the Bill is enacted, anyone facing eviction-----

Would Deputy Boyd Barrett listen? We have to enact the Bill as quickly as possible. People will be protected from that date - the day after the Bill is enacted - onwards.

Sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. This is an important point. This is the Order of Business and we are ordering debates and so on. There will be a debate on the eviction Bill when it is published.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The winter moratorium on disconnections for all domestic customers for non-payment has been extended to three months, from 1 December 2022 to 28 February 2023. Furthermore, the moratorium on disconnections of registered vulnerable customers for non-payment has been extended to six months, from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has decided to suspend the €200 gas meter exchange site works charge associated with a customer mo…

As I have said before, I accept it is a pressing issue. On 29 July, the Minister received the report of the working group to examine defects in housing constructed between 1991 and 2013. That was a programme for Government commitment. It outlined the scale of the issues, with up to 100,000 apartments impacted. It has a potential overall total remediation cost ranging from approximately €1.56 billion to €2.5 billion. The Minister, in consultation with Government colleagues, will develop options with a view to provid…

I have been with Deputy McAuliffe on a number of visits recently where addiction is treated as a health and holistic issue, and not as a criminal issue.

I do not accept the basic premise that all people who are addicted are treated as criminals. I wish to put that on the record.

I did not interrupt anybody. I have met people who have been addicted and who have come through very good programmes provided with assistance from the State. It must also be said that there are community organisations working on the ground in many communities throughout the country. It is not as if everyone is out to criminalise all those who are addicted to drugs, alcohol or anything else. Addiction is a terrible thing for which the addicted person needs help.

Please accept our bona fides in that regard. As I have said, we have to get through the Dublin Citizens' Assembly and the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which are commitments. We will do this as soon as they are complete. I would like to think that early in the new year, we will have the citizens' assembly on drugs.

I find it difficult to comprehend in the sense that most employers I meet at the moment are trying to make the situations and conditions attractive to employees. All employers are saying they are finding it difficult to recruit people. Therefore, having an imposition on employees going to work is a difficult one to comprehend. In the first instance, that is an issue between the shopping centre and its employees and the unions that represent them. I presume there are unions in most shopping centres. There are unions…

These are issues that should be resolved through the normal partnership arrangements that take place.

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important issue. That report outlines the group’s key findings with regard to the complex challenges affecting the recruitment and retention of care workers. Those recommendations will be progressed immediately via a dedicated implementation group which deals with pay and pensions for home support workers, healthcare assistants and private and voluntary organisations. The total number of people waiting for home support had reduced from more than 9,000 at the start of 2020 to 5,…

I thank the Deputy for raising that matter. I wish that gentleman the very best also. There is a flooding scheme in terms of supports that can be applied for and made available. I will talk to the Minister in respect of the issues that the Deputy raised.

I will speak to the Minister on that issue. I would point out that health spending generally has gone up by more than 20%.

I am not so sure it is a funding issue but I will have the matter looked into and raise it with the Minister, given that it has been raised by the Deputy.