First, I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this motion. It has been my honour and privilege to work alongside Deputy Collins, particularly over the last three years. We have relentlessly raised the plight of our fishing communities in this Chamber, in the committees and out there in the wider community. I look forward to working with Deputy Collins over the time ahead. He is very passionate about our fishing communities. We produced a document a number of years ago. At the time I toured pretty …

The Minister does not know how many posters were involved.

Yesterday the Government announced a multi-billion euro scheme for the victims of the cowboys who built defective apartments. The measures, such as 100% redress, victims being fully supported by the Housing Agency, financial assistance for those who already carried out work, remediation works based on up-to-date regulations and whole apartments being done, are all very welcome but there is a significant hurt, as the Tánaiste must be aware. In counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Clare and Limerick, people who live in def…

We need 100% redress for everybody.

It is not there.

I will raise a point of clarification. On Thursday, there will be questions to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The Taoiseach has indicated that the Minister, Deputy McGrath, will now take responsibility for the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO. Will he be here tomorrow? We understand he will be in Davos.

Who is taking questions tomorrow?

So there is no Minister accountable to the Dáil on those questions tomorrow. Is that what the Taoiseach is saying?

This is not a question-and-answer session.

Patience. The Minister has had five minutes and has not answered a single question.

This is unbelievable.

This is an utter embarrassment to democracy. I think the Ceann Comhairle should. This is an utter disgrace.

The Minister had five minutes and did not answer a single question. Does the Ceann Comhairle think he answered one question? Does the Ceann Comhairle seriously think any questions were answered?

It is stand-up now.

As this is an important debate with implications for thousands of families across the State, I fail to understand why there is not even a Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage present to hear what we have to say. I ask the present Minister of State, who is at the Department of Justice, to ensure Ministers read back the transcript of what we are about to say. In particular, my constituency colleague, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, should do so. It is important he hears what…

I have no confidence in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government to tackle the housing crisis. For ten years, from 2011 to 2021, we have had a lost decade in my home county of Donegal. There has been almost zero public housing built on public lands. Instead, the Government forces thousands of families into private rental accommodation and, of course, that takes us to a very significant increase in the cost of rent in Donegal which people just cannot afford. Families are emigrating to Australia and Canada, not becaus…

He is on the radio, if the Minister must know.

I will address the theme that is my responsibility as Sinn Féin's spokesperson on fisheries and the marine, that being, the allocation of quota to the Irish fishing industry from our exclusive economic zone, EEZ, under the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP. There is an ongoing crisis in the fishing industry around our coasts. Since it is almost a perennial crisis, it can sometimes be dismissed or brushed aside. We have an immense resource off our coasts. In the EU, only three member states are island states, those being…

As the Minister knows, I live in the epicentre of the defective block crisis in County Donegal. I live in Buncrana on the Inishowen Peninsula. People's lives have been utterly destroyed. Hardly anybody my age who has built or bought a home or was living in a council home has not been devastated by the crisis. No matter where people live in Ireland, whether in Dublin and north Leinster in regard to the pyrite scheme, in communities in this city and throughout Ireland that have been affected by defects or a lack of o…

A couple of weeks ago-----