Yes. Why does the Deputy ask?

I thank Members for sharing their views during the course of this wide-ranging debate, which I have found to be helpful and informative. In the short time remaining, I will sum up by responding to some of the concerns which were most commonly raised by Deputies in the debate. Deputies will of course have other opportunities to raise any issues of individual concern or priority with the Minister directly, by way of correspondence or otherwise. As mentioned by my Government colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy No…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am grateful to the Acting Chair and all Deputies for facilitating debate on this urgent legislation in Dáil Éireann this week. I also wish to record my thanks to the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for providing the necessary waiver of pre-legislative scrutiny and to the Chief Whip for enabling the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2022 to be debated on Second Stage…

I thank Deputies for their contributions and the points they have raised, all of which will be taken note of and I will do my best to respond to all concerns. I am sure the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, will fully debate these matters with the Members later this evening on Committee Stage of the Bill. I have listened to colleagues intently in what has been quite a detailed debate. Overall, I am confident the House will agree to pass this Bill today to quickly put in place enhanced protections for tenants immediately up…

I thank Senator Boylan for raising this very important matter. I recognise how vital telecommunications services are to citizens for so many aspects of their daily lives. These include emergency situations during which it is imperative that individuals can contact emergency services by means of telephone and the Internet. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Government are very focused on the need to ensure that telecommunications services for the use of emergency communications are …

The national energy security framework, published in April 2022, sets out the response of the Government to the Ukraine crisis in the context of natural gas, oil and electricity. It provides a single overarching initial response to address Ireland's energy security needs in the context of the war in Ukraine and sets out the Government's action in response to these issues across key themes, which includes ensuring security of energy supply in the near term. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communicatio…

I thank Senator Garvey for her important Commencement matter. There is no doubt but that this issue has caused huge distress to families throughout the country. Before I address the specific issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, I would like to provide an outline of the extent of the school transport service. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the last school year, more than 121,400 children including more than 15,500 c…

I will have to refer it back to the Minister, Deputy Foley, because it is not an area of my responsibility. It is her responsibility obviously to ensure that school transport is running effectively as it has done in previous years. I will refer the matter back to the Minister and have her respond to the points that Senator Garvey has genuinely raised in that regard and I fully accept that.

I thank Senator Malcolm Byrne for raising this important matter and for giving the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, the opportunity to respond with more detail on the status of the €100 million package. I would like to say that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, was delighted to secure the €100 million additional funding this year. It will provide a one-off non-pay inflation support payment to community-based voluntary organisations. These organisations are funded through the HSE to deliver a range of health …

I again thank the Senator for raising this very important matter. There are so many valuable community organisations that rely on departmental funding. Obviously, it would be foolish of me to give a commitment regarding an area for which I have no responsibility, but I will raise the issue with the Minister for Health. As the departmental reply indicates, the Minister expects this to be done within the next month and guarantees that it will be done by the end of the year. Those are his words, not mine.

I thank the Senator for raising this very important issue, which, I appreciate, is very distressing for the families concerned. The Minister for Health is aware that the recruitment and retention of staff across CHO 4 has been very challenging in recent months as considerable organisational and operational changes have been implemented. Indeed, as part of the enhanced community care programme, there are several vacancies across Cork and Kerry, including in west Cork. Cork Kerry Community Healthcare continues to run…

Again, I thank Senator Lombard for raising what is obviously a very serious issue. The Minister for Health is responsible for this area so I will make contact with his office this morning and ask that an update on those 15 vacancies be provided to Senator Lombard. I appreciate that this is a significant issue for the community in west Cork.

I thank Members for their contributions. I thank Senators Malcolm Byrne, Casey and Cassells for bringing forward this Bill and all the Senators who contributed to the debate. While the programme for Government, Our Shared Future, does not make an explicit commitment on the issue of Seanad reform, it is recognised that the issue of the university franchise, which has been outstanding since the seventh amendment to the Constitution in 1979, is among those that should be considered as part of any reform of Seanad Éire…

I acknowledge the life of Stephen, and welcome Caroline and Martin to the Visitors Gallery. I want to also acknowledge Senator Doherty and in particular Senator Seery Kearney for that very moving and emotive contribution in which the Senator outlined a life-changing experience that so many in our society go through in their daily lives. It is poignant to note that October is the month set aside to mark pregnancy and infant loss and it is good that this House is contributing to recognising the unbearable losses suff…

I thank the Senator for his question regarding the application by Limerick City and County Council for a dedicated affordable homes team. In September 2021, the Government published its Housing for All strategy, which sets out plans to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 homes per annum over the next decade. Increasing the supply of affordable housing is a central element of Housing for All, with an ambition to deliver more than 55,000 new affordable and cost-rental homes in the period 2022 to 20…

I must correct the Senator; the Government is on target to meet its social housing numbers this year. We are almost approaching the figure of 9,000 new social units having been added, which will be the key to resolving so many housing issues for our citizens, and we are on course to build in excess of 25,000 homes this year, which will meet our target. That will be critical in implementing the Housing for All strategy. It is important to correct the record on that. The notion that we have only built in excess of 1,…

There are 31 local authorities in the country. The Affordable Housing Act was put through this year and the fund was established. It is key to ensuring we will not be behind in making sure all local authorities have the resources. In many areas it is not about the resources; it is about councils getting good applications in and having their land serviced and ready to go for affordable housing.

Many can go through private developers and we have seen a number of acquisitions from the affordable housing fund in that regard.

I thank the Senator for tabling this matter. I also thank her council colleagues for putting forward such a timely motion, which is very important to ensure that people have access to secure housing. A standard system for assessing applicants for social housing support was introduced in 2011. The income bands and the authority area assigned to each band were based on an assessment of the income needed to provide for a household's basic needs, plus a comparative analysis of the local rental cost of housing accommoda…

I thank Senator Chambers for raising this matter. I will raise it with the Minister. When speaking last night in the debate on RTÉ1, the Minister committed to having the review before the end of the year. I will communicate this to him and to the Housing Agency, which is under the aegis of the Department, to speed up that review. I really do appreciate that so many citizens are caught in a trap of not being able to access housing and government supports, which are so vital for them to sustain a tenancy. This is ver…