On behalf of the Regional Group, I wish Teresa Doolan the best of luck in the Department of Justice. When I became a Deputy 11 years ago, Noel Murphy was the first person to introduce me to the Dáil. I would like to wish him and Liam the best of luck. The Government announced that a new national energy upgrade scheme will offer increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical deep retrofit to a B2 home energy standard. He said the target is to retrofit 500,000 homes to a B2 home energy standard by 2030.…

I raise an important issue in respect of the support available to Irish people and families who opened their homes to many Ukrainian refugees who came here as a result of the terrible actions of the Russians. As the Taoiseach knows, the Irish people have never been shy when it comes to supporting those most in need. When the call for support came, Irish people answered in their thousands. In many cases, they even travelled to airports to collect Ukrainian refugees who fled. Over the past weeks, I have had many call…

I said it before that we cannot put a price on a family atmosphere. These families are not looking for profit, they are simply looking for support for the extra costs that they have incurred. While I appreciate the Taoiseach’s reply, he never once mentioned the people. These people went up to Dublin Airport, they collected these families and they took them back in good faith. Now they realise that there is a serious cost there. Many of these families have children and family of their own. With ESB bills, electricit…

Ireland is doing very well with Ukraine. I ask the Taoiseach please not to put a dampener on it.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute and I thank my colleagues in the Regional Group for tabling this motion before the House. Over the past number of years, I have lost count of the amount of times I have raised the issue of vacant homes in my constituency of Louth. You can walk through any residential area in Dundalk and be sure to see vacant homes. It is clear that this is a problem in every county. In tabling this motion, we in the Regional Group want to highlight the problem while also offering real solutio…

I welcome the opportunity to speak today. The upcoming European Council meeting is probably one of the most important in our lifetime. Not in the recent past have we faced such terrible aggression and challenging circumstances as those we are currently facing. Putin and his army are causing life-changing damage to Ukraine and its people. What we are witnessing right now is beyond what words can adequately describe. The killing and maiming of innocent men, women and children is beyond cruel. It is a terrible indictm…

I welcome the opportunity to speak today. In general, the Government's financial response to the challenges caused by Covid-19 has been fair and mostly adequate. I think it is fair to say that the response has been timely and that the sectors most affected have been supported. All this, however, is coming at a huge financial cost, and it is one that will take generations to repay. The bottom line is that these measures were needed at the time and we effectively had no choice. Unfortunately, many businesses did not …

In the programme for Government many promises were made on tackling the housing crisis. I acknowledge that some progress has been made, but we are still a long way behind, even on the Government's own targets. I have consistently raised the issue of vacant housing in many urban areas around the country. Towns such as Dundalk and Drogheda have far too many vacant houses. These vacant houses have the potential to make a real impact on the housing crisis if only the Government would put in place the necessary funding …

I raise the issue of the ever-increasing cost of living that the Irish people are enduring. We are now, thankfully, starting to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and society and workplaces are reopening. The past two years have been very tough for everybody. Many people lost their jobs. Others saw their businesses close. Many also lost friends and family members to the dreadful pandemic. Now, just as we are starting to emerge from lockdown, the people are faced with new challenges. The cost of living, as the Taoise…

I welcome the €200 payment towards energy bills but there is no incentive for providers to cut their costs. That is what is annoying me and it is why I use the word "profiteering". Every time we open the newspapers, we see that the banks and companies like the ESB are making many millions in profits. Some businesses are even saying they are making profits of 40% or 50%. We need these businesses to help us and we must find some kind of incentive in this regard. I repeat that many people will really welcome the €200.…

Since I was first elected to this House, one of the issues that I have constantly raised is that of town centre regeneration, in particular the regeneration of centres in towns like Dundalk and Drogheda. Anybody travelling through any town in Ireland today is sure to find a vast number of vacant properties. Indeed, the main street in my home town of Dundalk, Clanbrassil Street, has vacant shop units and, overhead, many vacant living spaces. Everyone knows that we are in the middle of a housing crisis. Time and agai…

I welcome the opportunity to speak today. I welcome the Ukrainian ambassador, H.E. Larysa Gerasko, and her colleagues here this evening. I offer my full support to the Ukrainian people at this extremely difficult and worrying time. Unfortunately, the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated rapidly over the past days. The action of Russia and its President Putin is causing great concern, not only to the citizens in Ukraine but to all of us in the EU. I have spoken with many Ukrainian nationals who reside in my constit…

As we appear to be exiting the Covid pandemic, our next challenge as a society is the rising cost of living. Everyone is aware that the cost of day-to-day living is now rising at an unprecedented level. Whether it is the cost of our grocery shops, the cost of light and heat in our homes or our transport costs, everything is on its way up. From my experience, and from dealing with my constituents in Louth, the dramatic rise in heating and energy costs is most alarming. Many of those I have spoken to have experienced…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and I thank my fellow members of the Regional Group for bringing this motion. As has already been stated, those in households that are in the challenging position of requiring transport methods that need to be adapted for disability purposes spend, on average, €9,027 on items relating to that disability. These items include, but are not limited to, disability-specific items and unique versions of products specially adapted for use by people with disability chal…

Yes, with Deputy Tóibín.

I will be finished before then.

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak. First, I thank the Deputies for bring this motion to the House. I welcome that we can discuss the housing crisis once more and why we are in this position. In my home town of Dundalk, rental costs for a standard three-bed home are anywhere between €1,200 and €1,600 per month. At my Monday and Friday clinics, the queues of people trying to find property outside the door are unreal. To service a mortgage on that same property would be substantially less.

I am sorry. I have the wrong debate then.

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak. I thank the Deputies for bring this motion before the House. I welcome the fact that we can discuss the housing crisis once more and discuss why we are in this position. In my home town of Dundalk, the rental cost for a standard three-bedroom house is anywhere between €1,200 and €1,600 per month. To service a mortgage on that same property would be substantially less, but the fact of the matter is that the people paying rent of between €1,200 and €1,600 per month are, i…

I have raised the issue of planning on many occasions, in particular as it relates to young families who want to build in their local parishes. The number of young people who are being refused planning permission in the local area where they were born and raised is unreal. These people are, in effect, being prohibited from living in their own area. This is diminishing the areas concerned. Let us imagine rural areas with no young families. I know of a family that has been living in an area for more than 30 years. Th…