I too thank Teachta Cian O’Callaghan for bringing forward this Bill. It addresses one of the many imbalances in legislation that tilts housing provision in favour of developers and away from the interests of working families. Part V provision should not be leased. Leasing is bad value for money and families should not be left to the mercy of the market to fulfil their housing need. We have a housing crisis and particularly a rental crisis. This Government is currently asleep at the wheel. A lady contacted me last w…

I have had a number of meetings in recent weeks with groups representing older people, including a round table discussion on the mental health of older people in particular. All the groups raised the issue of funding, not just in regard to the amount available but also the consistency and reliability of funding. The lack of multi-annual funding is a major obstacle to their planning. When will we be in a position to commit multi-annual funding for these groups? The groups also raised the issue of the significant deg…

I am very concerned about older people who live on their own, and there is a big issue with single men, in particular, getting housed. Perhaps something could be done in that regard for elderly men.

There can be no climate justice without social justice. We are not doing enough to ensure a just transition. Current Government policy punishes ordinary workers and their families and rewards big businesses and wind farm developers. This needs to change. I welcome the fact that we have a Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill but it needs to be stronger. It needs to be less aspirational and more legally binding. The climate crisis will not be solved by hopes and dreams. We need targeted action i…

This is a short technical Bill, necessary to allow for the transfer of functions relating to heritage under a number of enactments to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. One aspect of legislation it amends is section 52 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. This provides that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage shall: issue guidelines to planning authorities concerning development objectives— ( a ) for protecting structures, or parts of structures, which are of special a…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, the purpose of which is to rectify constitutional issues in legislation identified by the Supreme Court following a case in 2019. There are a number of Acts which this Bill will affect. The Minister of State has mentioned them, as have my colleagues. It is welcome that this issue is being dealt with but we need to go further. We need to think of the human rights of victims of crime and we need to do more on crime prevention. Garda visibility is a key part of crime pr…

Owing to the time constraints, I will ask my questions together. My office has been inundated with calls from people outlining very hard cases and highlighting the confusion that is coming from the Department of Health. This week we have strict following of vaccination groups. Last week the Minister flew a kite about vaccinating young people. Next week we might have something else; I do not know. People are fed up with the indecision and we need clarity. There is too much confusion and misinformation. The Departmen…

I realise the Minister is against the clock but I have just one more question to ask. Is there anything we can do for the lady in the hospital?

I appreciate the opportunity to speak today on the CRSS and the EWSS. I have had many conversations with business owners over the past year and they all speak with one voice in saying the Department is unsympathetic to the many hard cases that are out there. Even when they are present themselves in large numbers, the Government is slow to make changes to accommodate them. It is slow to accommodate businesses that do not pay rates, slow to accommodate businesses without fixed premises, and slow to accommodate rural-…

In the words of Greta Thunberg, our house is on fire. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we are less than ten years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. The programme for Government commits to ban the registration of new fossil-fuelled cars and light commercial vehicles from 2030 onwards while phasing out diesel and petrol cars from Irish cities in the same period. If we are serious about climate change, why is the groundwork for planning these changes not in the climate action Bi…

The Tánaiste is aware that the Debenhams issue affects its workers in Newbridge. He may not be aware that KPMG recently went in and emptied the lockers of the workers. That is an invasion of their privacy and I want to know what will be done about it. The workers have emailed KPMG to assert their rights and get back their possessions from their lockers but that has not happened. I need an explanation.

I also thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this motion. I am sure the Minister has heard of the expression "beyond the pale", which to this Government means those of us who live outside the Dublin area. To those of us who live beyond the Pale, it is our view that the Government's contempt for us is beyond the pale, which means it is outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour. Project Ireland 2040 was launched with great fanfare but it turned out to mainly consist of a rehashing of previous announ…

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this Bill. I welcome the opportunity to speak on it. The purpose of the Bill is to increase the penalties for those found guilty of an offence under section 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which deals with fraudulent actions. Section 26 states the plaintiff in a personal injuries action who gives evidence that is false or misleading in any material respect and knows it to be false or misleading shall have his or her action dismissed unless such dismissa…

I welcome the chance to speak on this Bill, which is long overdue. However, we should not forget the backdrop which led to the Government's U-turn. In the early days of the pandemic, mothers attended prenatal appointments alone. Many gave birth without the support of their partners. I commend the work of Agnes Graholska and the other parents in the Extend Maternity Leave 2020 campaign. They ran a petition which to date has in excess of 30,000 signatures. They did this despite having newborn babies at home, somehow …

Page 112 of the programme for Government states that the Government will honour Ireland's commitment to recognise the state of Palestine. Last month, Israel issued tenders for 2,500 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has condemned the decision to build new settlement units and said the Israeli Government is racing against time to eliminate any remaining possibility of a two-state solution. All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are…

I thank People Before Profit for tabling this motion. Unfortunately, the Government has proposed a cynical amendment. It has a habit of doing so in respect of proposals it knows are the right things to do but that do not fit with its conservative, right-wing agenda. Covid-19 and public restrictions have imposed significant hardships on our students. Their educational experience has been far from ideal and there has been a negative impact on their mental health and general well-being. We must listen to our students.…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. The origins of the State agency are to be found in the national planning framework, NPF, published in February 2018. Buried in this 182-page document was a commitment to create a national development and regeneration agency. Its focus was to ensure the best use of public lands, including working with local authorities to drive the renewal of strategic areas. It was a noble cause, but what we have instead, is a vehicle for delivering public land into private hands. In…

There should be alarm bells ringing about the shared equity scheme and the effect it will have on house prices and debt levels for borrowers. Senior civil servants in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the ESRI and the Central Bank have all expressed concern at this scheme. The Minister is ignoring the advice and carrying on regardless. This is reckless and bears all the hallmarks of how Fianna Fáil did business when last in government. The Celtic tiger has taught us that if mortgage credit is increas…

I want to ask what the Government is going to do in the constituency of Kildare South. The branches in Monasterevin and Kilcullen are closing and my concern is the elderly there. They cannot commute and do not have the means to do so. They have little hope of getting any banking done following the bank closures.

This Bill is long overdue. It has been nine months since NPHET recommended putting restrictions in place to limit travel into this country, as my colleagues have stated. The Government sat on its hands and did nothing, allowing dangerous variants into the country. The Government must accept Sinn Féin’s amendment to introduce mandatory quarantining for all non-essential travel from all countries, not just an obscure list of mostly African countries. I would like to know what criteria were used to decide on that list…