On the chartered surveyors, they have come up with a calculation without even seeing the detailed design of the levy. The Finance Bill will work out the detailed design of the levy itself. The Department of Finance’s calculations are much lower than what the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has indicated. Of course, the working out of all of this will be in the context of the Finance Bill.

I thank the Deputy for raising these two important issues. The weakness and distortion in her presentation have to do with her use of the word that the two individual cases she has identified "typify" the Government's response. They do not typify the Government's response at all and she should know that well. By this I mean that the State itself is building and, through the approved social housing bodies, providing thousands and thousands of social homes and affordable homes as an overall proportion of the number o…

Yes.

It is not actually having a hugely distorting impact. The problem is that we are not building enough houses or apartments, full stop. The State-----

I ask the Deputy to look at the figures and be honest about this for once, and not to continually distort the debate about housing. It gets distorted as if the only players were institutional providers. They are not. They are minority players in the overall scheme of things in terms of the construction of houses. The State is the biggest actor, through social housing, affordable housing and a variety of financial mechanisms.

Right across the board, the State is building the houses or contributing to affordability. We are not building enough houses. What I have noticed over the last two years is that the line of attack has been to pick one particular example or illustration and to endeavour to make it the norm in the narrative and presentation of how the housing situation stands. It is not that way at all, however. We need to be building 35,000 to 40,000 houses, in my view, at this stage. The population is going over 5 million, and is i…

The Deputy knows there is a limit on what they can do now. They cannot buy-----

First of all, I would say that the situation is challenging in respect of student accommodation. It is reflective of the wider issues in terms of housing supply and new construction, and also viability issues in terms of land that universities own but are not in a position to develop with developers on the basis of what they believe is a viability gap between the cost of that student accommodation if it was to be built and what students could realistically be prepared to pay. The Minister has met with the president…

When the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, talks about international obligations, he is talking about the need for the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, for example, to procure a lot of hotel accommodation for those fleeing war. We should not juxtapose people fleeing a terrible war with the student accommodation crisis. Many students would support the Government's approach in supporting refugees fleeing a terrible war. We need analysis. I do not believe that this will allow or faci…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. As he will know, the new ACRES is worth about €1.5 billion over five years, the largest ever and 50% higher than the amount for the previous scheme. The riparian scheme remains 2 ha for €3,000. That has not been cut or changed. It is important that clarity is out there. I have just confirmed with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine that there is no change to that. It is a scheme that we want to see rolled out as quickly as possible. As the Deputy knows, about …

What planners?

I am not going to pretend I am the most knowledgeable on these matters but I actually watched a video the other night of a farmer who did just that. He had created bird cover and he said that the impact on the production side was positive and beneficial. We need to keep an open mind about how we use land into the future. We have to broaden our horizons too in some respects. The 20-acre and 30-acre farmers that Deputy Fitzmaurice is talking about could benefit a lot from this. We should look at ways to increase inco…

Sorry? It is a serious matter. We have huge biodiversity loss in the country and we need to protect it. We need to create an income stream too and an incentive for farmers to help us to guard and protect our biodiversity. That is the point I am making. We are very open to trying to help and to being creative and innovative about it because that is the future.

Budget 2023 sees an additional €72.8 million in funding for mental health services in 2023. That will bring our total investment in mental health to more than €1.2 billion. The €14 million to which the Deputy referred is for new developments. There is an additional increase in the overall budget of close to €73 million. It will focus on reducing waiting lists for CAMHS and child psychology services. In particular coming out of Covid, there are significant issues around mental health and the need to do everything we…

The bottom line is that there is no difference in what the Deputy is proposing and the levy. There is a lot of politics going on about it, but in reality it comes down to the industry or the taxpayer. It is time people made up their minds.

I know, but there is no difference in the end.

There is no difference.

Again, the Deputy is putting words in my mouth that are wrong. He should not do that. He is correct; this is a fund selling on to a fund. That is not how it was presented earlier in the debate, but that is exactly what happened. Since the nine houses, or perhaps a larger estate, were bought, the Government has introduced measures such as stamp duty on any fund that buys ten houses or more and, indeed, planning regulations that were brought in by the Minister to restrict the purchase of homes by institutional funds.…

I welcome the Deputy's presentation but, as he knows, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has functions regarding consumer protection as part of its statutory role, including around disconnections and protections for those on prepay meters. As part of the national energy security framework, the CRU announced enhanced consumer protection measures for implementation this winter. There is a range of protections for customers on prepay meters. In addition, if anyone is in any difficulty, we have the so…

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues and I join him in paying tribute to University Hospital Waterford on its efficiency and its being the best model-4 hospital in respect of its emergency department and getting the waiting list down 20%. I will revert to him on the current status of the capital plan with regard to cardiology beds and the second catheterisation lab. We are committed to that, as the Deputy knows, but I will get the detail on how it is progressing. Any loss of private nursing home capacity is …