We will now move on to questions and answers. The Taoiseach or another Minister or Minister of State will take questions and answers for a period not exceeding 20 minutes and the following arrangements will apply. There is no set time for a question or an answer but it is normal for the Chair to ask Members to be concise given the short time period available. Opposition parties and groups will be called in the following order to put a question: Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, Independent and Part…

We have an amendment of a Bill to legislation that has not been enacted. Looking at it, at face value one has to welcome it. Regarding the retrospective suspension of planning permission duration during judicial review, insofar as there are delays caused by judicial reviews, I take this point. However, as others have said, judicial reviews are not the main issue, which I will go into in a minute. The Bill also provides for the extension of the duration of uncommenced housing developments, which the legislation says…

Ba mhaith liom seans cúpla focal a rá anocht. I was in the Green Party back in 2009 when everything was cut to shreds. Back then I fought a little bit of a rearguard battle with some of my colleagues to get education cuts reversed and to stop registration fees being increased. That was when stuff was quite expensive. The cost of living rose post Covid and the registration fees were reduced by approximately €1,000. The question we have to discuss tonight is if we are going to leave it until the budget as per this Go…

Part of Citywest Hotel is now a holding or detention centre for those awaiting deportation. Is there a coherent policy? Are those awaiting deportation at IPAS centres allowed to roam free or are they locked into hotel rooms 24 hours a day? If detainees are held pre-deportation or pending prison transfer, that means the role of the centre is not purely accommodation; it is quasi-detention. Is using an hotel as a detention centre legal? It likely falls outside of the hotel emergency reception exemption and will be co…

I support the motion on housing tabled by my colleagues in the Independent Technical Group. This is probably the 20th or 25th discussion on housing that we have had since the start of the year. I worry that as we are almost 10% through the lifetime of this Dáil, we will end up not getting anything done. We need to focus very quickly on putting in some measures that will actually deliver housing. I mentioned last week the call by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, chairman, Sean O'Driscoll, to get rea…

With the news reports of increasing levels of domestic abuse, the family courts are under more pressure than ever. I and others have raised before the need to get rid of the in camera rule. I am aware the Minister is doing something at the end of the year, but this possibly needs to happen more quickly because we still have cases going on where so-called experts are giving section 32 and section 47 reports. Sometimes their word is taken as gospel even though they are being paid. Judges take it as gospel. There is n…

As others have mentioned, the "RTÉ Investigates" programme highlighted the scandalous lack of proper care standards in two nursing homes. However, if people think such incidents in the modern age are confined to The Residence Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin, they have another thing coming. We have all heard stories and, obviously, if they are not in the public domain, we cannot recount them. However, in this context I believe that HIQA, all related agencies and the system in general have failed families …

It is good that the Minister is in the Chamber. I have raised transport issues a couple of times when he was not here. I presume some were passed on to him, but I will reiterate a couple. A while back, I raised the need to have an intercity stop at either Adamstown or Kishoge train station. I know that would cause a five-minute delay but there is a lot of demand in this rapidly growing area to get a train directly from Adamstown. A lot of people will not get a train that involves making a 40-minute trip to get to H…

We saw recently the implementation of the new legislation on e-scooters. It needs to bed in, but I want to lay down a marker for the end of the year. At the moment, if a scooter weighs a maximum of 25 kg, travels at speeds of less than 20 km/h and has a certain wheel diameter, it is considered a personal transporter and not a vehicle that requires licensing. Anecdotally, however, I have seen situations where these 20 km/h scooters are going at speed on footpaths with impunity, as per our discussion on anti-social b…

The other issue would be the reviewing of insurance if someone crashes into someone else.

This proposal is basically to kick to touch until next March. There is no cohesive Government strategy that I can see. The Government was put in place in January. Almost six months later, we should have a proper, far-reaching plan, but we do not. We have this proposal, which no one can disagree with in the first instance, to extend the rent pressure zones across the country. I commend the Ministers for doing that much but we are not looking at the bigger picture. What type of landlords want to get out of the market…

We are talking about housing and targets. As Opposition Members have stated, the targets are not being reached. Let us not get into the semantics of whether they will be reached, because what will stop them being reached is infrastructure. We have a situation in Clonshaugh where planned housing is going to be delayed due to a lack of water services. In this context, it was interesting to listen to the ESRI chairman, Mr. Sean O'Driscoll, who is a member of the new infrastructure task force. Credit to the Government …

To follow up on transport infrastructure, Mr. O'Driscoll mentioned, for example, the impact in terms of future jobs at Apple because of the road interlink and public transport links. It is a similar thing with Galway in terms of the ring road. As someone with a green background, I acknowledge the need for the ring road but obviously there is a need to put more investment into public transport alternatives in the first instance. This action plan is coming by 1 July, which means the Cabinet will be deciding, I hope b…

Will the funding be multi-annual?

I have been listening to this debate with some interest. There have been various contributions and Deputy Gibney's would be the most similar to mine in this context. In essence, while this proposal has some merit if it were taken in an isolated way, it is basically tinkering around the edges because we do not have a European-style property tax in Ireland. The way to work this out is simply by looking at the budget for South Dublin County Council, my own council. Its budget for 2025 is an estimated €392 million. It …

The residents of Saggart, Citywest, Rathcoole and adjacent areas today got a huge slap in the face. In very arrogant, dismissive behaviour by the Government, it issued a press statement and then the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy went out onto the plinth and said the State was purchasing the Citywest Hotel. This came with no notice to any of the local elected representatives, not least Deputies Shane Moynihan and Emer Higgins on the Government side. On 22 May last, it fir…

Regarding the State's requirement to have a number of large-scale IPAS centres, I see the logic of the State trying to buy somewhere rather than pay rent. I believe, however, that such centres need to be purpose-built rather than trying to call a former hotel a suitable campus. I mentioned this to the Taoiseach before. Obviously, we are a welcoming country and many people are fleeing persecution and need our support. Equally, as I pointed out, there are economic migrants abusing the asylum process and these people …

I wish to focus on one aspect of this motion I support, namely, the reference “to honour Ireland's obligations under the Genocide Convention and to fulfill the duty of the State to use all means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide or reasonably suspected of harbouring specific intent, and work to prevent the genocide.” We have had a two-faced approach. I will acknowledge, as I said to the Tánaiste before in discussions, that Ireland has played a role in holding Israel to accou…

I want to talk about something that is ongoing. It is not specific to today but it has been happening every single day and every single year since this State began, and anecdotally, it appears to be getting worse. I am talking about antisocial behaviour and, in particular, antisocial behaviour by those aged under 18. Young people are invariably good. We had a discussion a while back about the fact that only 2% of young people ever come before An Garda Síochána. However, a lot of our young people are now under threa…

There were 15,813 referrals of 12- to 17-year-olds to the Garda youth diversion programme in 2023. They are the ones who end up getting into the system but I am more concerned about the ones, the hangers-on of the ring leaders, who should not get into the system in the first place. Are there any further plans for consequences? I raised the issue some months ago with the Tánaiste, Deputy Harris, of the need to put in place some sort of ban or restriction on social media for 11- to 13-year-olds because of the Andrew …