What the Deputy is proposing here is that we use receipts that we fear might not be available to us in the future to fund permanent measures. Incidentally-----

-----if we had been implementing the measures proposed by the Deputy in the past-----

-----we would not have this surplus available to us at all.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. The help to buy scheme is a plan to assist first time purchasers with the deposit if they need to buy or build a new house of apartment. It also has as an aim to encourage additional supply of new homes by supporting demand. The Deputy knows what the help to buy scheme is so I will not go into the detail of it. The scheme has supported almost 55,000 individuals or couples. The estimated value of it has been €1.2 billion and the scheme has now been extended until 2030. It is revi…

The issue of the threshold change is a matter that will be considered budget to budget. I caution that any changes could affect the price of a home, particularly at a point when we still have so much we need to do to increase supply. Regarding the important point that the Deputy made about the Housing Finance Agency meeting, I believe that refers to meetings of the board. The Deputy is concerned that, by only meeting once a month, it could be delaying important decisions. I will follow up on that. It is appropriate…

I am familiar with the needs of home buyers on the northside of Dublin, including within the Deputy's constituency. We will give consideration to this issue as part of the work we do for the budget. I emphasise that, at a time in which supply is not being built as fast as the Deputy or I want, we need to be careful that we not make a change to a scheme that could inadvertently add to the cost of homes. We will take the Deputy's points on board and consider the issue he raised. In the context of our exchange, I will…

I thank Deputy McCarthy. The parliamentary question he refers to deals with the funds review and recommendations on the taxation of funds and policies. My predecessor, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, published the Funds Sector 2030 review, which was an important and wide-ranging piece of work. The programme for Government committed to progressing and publishing an implementation plan for consideration in budget 2026 because what we now know is that new technologies, the use of phones in particular, is offering retai…

My aim is that we will be able to do this over multiple budgets and try to make progress on these matters. As the Deputy stated, this is a part of our economy that is growing. There is a case for it growing faster within the EU overall. The sector raised multiple issues over a few years that we considered in a more careful and systemic way in the Funds Sector 2030 review, which the Deputy just acknowledged. There are 42 recommendations within the review and some of them could be quite costly. Few of them are simple…

I do not have too much more to add what the Deputy said. There is a European background to this. There is so much in savings in Ireland and Europe more widely and we need to look at how we can use those savings in a way that helps to invest in our future and fund the big changes we need. The funds sector has a role to play in that. For so long, the way in which many of us saved was to put our money in a bank account or post office account or, as Deputy Gogarty referenced a few moments ago, we used it to buy a home …

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. As I said in response to questions from his colleague, I, and everybody in this Government, is well aware of what higher energy costs mean for all sectors of our society. The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a regulatory regime that comes from within Europe. These markets are commercial and liberalised. They aim to be competitive and they are overseen by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. At the moment, the Government is considering, i…

Am I hearing the sands shifting in Sinn Féin's policy on climate again? The Deputy refers to the Government pushing renewables. Does he not think renewables should be playing a larger role in our energy sector? I would appreciate in the exchange we have if he could clarify that issue. I accept that the cost of energy and the way in which our energy market is structured are causing issues and costs for households and businesses. We are looking at regulatory decisions to see if we can change it in any way. Overall, h…

All the Deputies on the Government benches here today visit homes that use solid fuels. We all represent people in homes that are struggling with the higher cost of energy and who know the cost of living is high. We understand that as well.

What we are aiming to do is display a greater degree of honesty to them than Deputy Daly is. Is it Sinn Féin policy now - I am really struggling to understand this - that it wants a refund of the last two years of the carbon tax increases? Is that its policy?

People will be getting more and more confused by the Sinn Féin policy here today. The Deputy is saying there should not be any more carbon taxes and there should be a refund of what happened in the past while at the same time Sinn Féin Deputies come to the House every day of the week and want more retrofitting, more cycleways and more measures to help with fuel poverty.

The changes we make in carbon tax help pay for that.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 73 together. Deputy Daly just referred to the regional Independents turning up. I just want to refer to how there is not a single member of the Opposition present despite its focus on speaking rights and the operation of the Dáil. Regarding the important issue that has been raised by Deputy Currie, I appreciate its importance. Without the increase in the supply of childcare places, the efforts we have made as regards affordability have not had the effect we want. There is litt…

I will deal with the different issues that have been raised. I take on board the overall point that the Deputy is making regarding the efforts that we have to put in place to fund supply. That is being done in two different ways at the moment. At local authority level, the guidelines for planning authorities in respect of childcare facilities aim to make clear the minimum number of childcare places that should be provided for a certain number of dwellings that may be available in a new community or on a new site th…

I will raise these issues with the Minister, Deputy Foley, but I know she is aware of them already. I will discuss with her the measures we can put in place now to further increase the supply of new homes and the new childcare places that accompany those new homes. We have measures in place now with regard to helping with the recruitment and retention of staff and with the provision of childcare facilities within places of employment. We also have schemes available to help with capital costs to encourage the privat…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 20 together. The primary aim of the help to buy scheme is to encourage additional supply of new houses by supporting demand. It also assists first-time purchasers with the deposit they need to buy or build a new home. The scheme provides a refund of income tax and deposit interest retention tax paid in Ireland over the previous four years, subject to the limits outlined in the legislation. Based on the latest available data from 31 March, it has supported almost 55,000 individ…

The Deputy is raising the strong views of his constituents on this issue. One of the many points of questions like this is for the Deputy to raise issues his constituents want him to raise and for me to do my best to explain why we are doing or not doing what he wants. As I said, the concern I have is that in addition to the difficulties we have with building more homes, we need to ensure that as we build more homes, they are built in a way that is affordable. My considered analysis of this scheme is that any chang…