Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank Senators Moynihan and Warfield for putting forward these amendments. I will talk about cost-rental for a moment because it is important to provide the context. Cost-rental has been a key policy of the Green Party for decades. It is also a key part of this Bill. There are two reasons that cost-rental is important. These amendments align with those reasons. The first reason relates to the quality of life of the person or family in the accommodation. We are really looking to ensure the lowest rent possible is …

These amendments are related. I will go back to my point that cost rental has to do two jobs in our market. One job is about the tenants living in cost rental units. The other job is to calm the market overall. That means we must have supply of houses across all of the different elements of this Bill. From our perspective, we must have supply of cost rental. Everything has to be managed to an extent. We have to think about the long term and how many units per year we can get in order to achieve that second piece of…

I will be brief because many of the points have been covered. I want to return to the issue of calming the market, which I have raised many times. Calming the market means that everybody needs certainty. It does not only apply to the certainty of the tenant but also applies to certainty for those providing the cost rental units because otherwise we will not have such units. I completely understand Senator Cummins' position and I am grateful to him for laying it out so clearly. We need to be clear that we are not go…

I welcome the Minister of State. The Green Party believes access to adequate, secure, affordable and environmentally sound housing is a basic human right. This right should be set out in our Constitution. We call on the Government to move urgently to bring forward a referendum to amend the Constitution to include this right to housing. This is what is stated in Green Party policy and we decided to go into government last year because we want to put it in our Constitution. We believe in stepping up to the mark and p…

I would like to join with the Cathaoirleach in celebrating Denmark day and I thank him for bringing it to our attention. There has been a big announcement today, which for some may seem like a very small announcement, namely that every childcare facility across the country will get €1,000 for outdoor play equipment. The sum of €1,000 for children is massive. This is not just about Covid-19 but the health and well-being of children, who have been let down over the last year. We see from the research that they have b…

The Minister is welcome. It is good to see him in the House. If we think back to a year ago, we did not even know if we would have vaccines. We did not know what kind of state the country and the world would be in so even having vaccinations is the first bit of great news. We can be so much in the middle of it that we can forget that we could have been looking at lockdown forever. We are in such a good position now that we are getting over 300,000 vaccinations done per week. I commend the Minister, the Department a…

It seems that a lot of the amendments are about removing things. They are about removing open market dwellings from the list of affordability and now removing the LDA. The LDA exists so why not use it? This is not even saying we should dismantle the Land Development Agency, which I could understand from the Senator's ideological point of view. It is actually just saying there is a thing out there we could use, but we should not use it. It seems quite bizarre to me. The Senator may know that the 2020 National Econom…

This amendment concerns the LDA, which is actually a vehicle for the State to use to build homes. What the Senator is saying does not stack up.

On the point raised by Senator Casey, I was a councillor, albeit for a short time, and I know there are difficulties with the LDA. That is why we are putting through the Land Development Agency Bill 2021. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advised us to give an enhanced mandate to the agency and that is exactly what we are doing in that Bill. Will the proposers of this amendment not try to amend the relevant Bill instead of seeking, in this amendment to the Bill before us today, to take apart the one t…

I agree with Senator Warfield in principle on the problematic nature of some of the language here. In removing it, however, and putting in "promote sustainable mixed income communities", it would then lack what we might not refer to as social background, but other types of diversity. It is not just income we are talking about. We are talking about creating communities. In my housing estate, we have a community garden and it is the older people in the community who are teaching the younger people, including my own c…

I did not speak to amendment No. 17 earlier and I will come back in on that. In case it was not clear enough, I have an issue with some of the language around this and I would hope that the Minister of State will have a look at that language. The language that Senator Warfield is suggesting does not capture what we need to capture and is missing some of what is there already. Substitution is probably the wrong way to go. It is more a case of looking at all of that language. Amendment No. 12 was discussed earlier. I…

I welcome this amendment. As we have discussed, the Bill makes provision for issues the NESC has been flagging, including cost rental, beefing up the LDA to enable it to deliver its functions effectively, the provision of mixed-tenure housing and ensuring we have diversity within our communities. I have spoken passionately about the 15-minute city, which requires diversity, an intergenerational element and sustainability. I am delighted the Minister has accepted that policy. I agree there is a need for a change of …

I want to make a brief point on whether one puts something into or outside of legislation. It is important sometimes to put things in legislation because it gives people confidence. They would not have to wait on the Government to produce a policy document, which it can ultimately change, and they could see that the Government is accountable in the legislation. That is exactly what the Government is doing with the climate action Bill. It is setting down in legislation that plans will be developed by local authoriti…

I call on Senator Craughwell to respond to the debate.

I join with the Cathaoirelach in celebrating Croatia day today. Some 22,000 Croatians have moved to Ireland since Croatia joined the EU, and they have family beyond it. It is a good day for Ireland to celebrate with Croatians and to speak about the importance of the EU. On a related matter, I was stunned and shocked at the assault on our Union when a flight was diverted. It is piracy in our skies. The statement from the Minister for Foreign Affairs was very strong but I look forward to seeing what steps will be tak…

I thank the Labour Senators for bringing forward this Bill. I have already let them know of my support on this issue. When the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was here previously, I said that I would be supportive. I must disagree with Senator Mullen. I think there is a taboo around women's healthcare. The life of a woman is wonderfully diverse and changes much more than the life of a man and we do not recognise that in our workforce. We do not really take on board the fact that 5…

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank Senator Seery Kearney for sharing her personal experiences. My apologies, again, to Senator O'Loughlin for not calling her earlier.

I call Senator Micheál Carrigy, who is sharing time with Senator John Cummins.