Newstalk reported today that 5,000 asylum seekers arrived in Ireland without valid travel documents last year. That is 40% of the total figure. The reply I received to a recent parliamentary question showed that the annual cost of accommodating an asylum seeker is €18,568. The mean wait time for the application to be processed is a year and a half. Thousands of people are waiting two or three years. One person has been waiting 14 years to have their application processed. It is absolutely incredible. However, the t…

People get on flights with travel documents and then they do not have travel documents at the end of the flight.

This is an important motion because it puts the spotlight on the issue of local government funding in this country. There are major problems with that issue in this State. Every county will have its representatives to focus on the issues at play in their own county. I want the Minister of State to focus on this particular issue. County Meath is particularly hammered by a lack of funding for a range of issues. This is because the population of Meath has increased incredibly over recent years but local government fun…

I, too, welcome the Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance to the Gallery today. I commend its members on their hard work and perseverance with regard to the campaigning they have been doing. One quarter of the amendments, many of which are reasonable, have been ruled out of order, which is incredible. Will the Minister accept any amendments tonight?

This legislation is long overdue but it is incredibly flawed, specifically, in how it proportions redress based on the time a person has spent in an institution. That is obvious to anybody who reads this legislation. Who is the Minister to determine that someone who has spent 179 days in an institution is any less deserving of compensation than someone who has spent 181 days in an institution? It is absurd. From speaking to survivors, it is clear to me that much of the abuse occurred when they were farmed out or bo…

I move amendment No. 27: In page 15, line 17, to delete “as soon as practicable” and substitute “within a timeframe of no longer than three months”. Most of the debate until now has been on the radically contentious and extremely controversial aspects of the Bill and the early years of the survivor's life, and for good reason. The first six months of anybody's life are extremely important. I am shocked that the Government discounts the importance of the relationship between mother and child and the physical effect …

The State has much previous form in fighting people to the very end. With the CervicalCheck scandal, the State fought women in court up until the time they died. Many people have felt that in the past, the State has prolonged redress and justice for financial reasons. We see that the Government is wedded to the protection of its financial interests over its moral interests. Many people have died already while waiting for redress. It would be incredible to think we would have an open-ended process. If we need to emp…

Yesterday, the Irish Examiner reported that there has been a massive increase in excess deaths in recent weeks. It reported that in an eight-week period up to 25 January, there were 3,000 excess deaths compared with 2019. EUROSTAT, the CSO, coroners, mortuaries, undertakers and parish priests all report this massive increase in excess deaths. We have been calling for an investigation to find out what is happening. Nothing is forthcoming from the Government. We need to have a debate. These figures are incredible and…

They will not answer.

Most Irish people want to help those who are fleeing from war, violence or hunger around the world. Most Irish people want to be the Good Samaritan, but there is genuine concern with the Government's handling of the migration process. There must be consultation with communities. They have a right to have a say over how their areas will be developed. There must be a community dividend. Many working-class areas are already suffering from a lack of housing, GPs, school places and transport. Bringing large numbers of p…

You would not know from the last two weeks of grudge politics between Fine Gael and Sinn Féin but the crises that are besetting the people of Ireland at the moment have not gone away whatsoever. Some 80% of the people of this State are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. That seems to have been forgotten about by the political establishment. Figures provided to me by the Minister for Finance show that the Government is profiting in terms of VAT from the crisis. Last year, the Government received more in VAT …

This cohort suffered most in the housing crisis and now it is most exposed to the increases in interest rates. What will the Government do to protect these families?

I do not know what question the Minister answered but he did not answer my question. Putin does not set the VAT rates in this State. Putin does not regulate the vulture funds in this State. In those two aspects, he is irrelevant to the conversation. The electricity credit is less than all the increases in all the fuel and energy taxes in the last year. The Government has taken more money out of people's pockets than it has given back with the electricity credit. On mortgages, the vulture funds bought them at bargai…

The regulation of law is set by the Government.

The Government -----

That is because Government does not do regulation

In the 2022 census, 166,000 homes were recorded as vacant, and these did not include holiday homes or those that were temporarily vacant for other reasons. To have so many vacant homes in a time of crisis is shocking. It is similar to having food available in a time of famine. A vacant homes tax was detailed in the most recent budget and was to be levied at 0.3% of the value of the home, which is tiny compared with the increase in the values of homes at the moment, but Revenue indicated it was going to levy it on o…

How much?

It is an important figure.

Public transport is one of the biggest solution opportunities in regard to climate change. In my own county of Meath, the majority of workers today left the county to go to work. That happens in no other local authority area. Most of those workers are forced to use cars. We have had the Government announcement on the Navan to Dublin rail line, which is a welcome announcement, but today we learned that no money at all has been put aside for that project as of yet. The status of that particular project is that it is …