I will continue with the theme of the hypocrisy and double standards of some European leaders and our own Government. I will touch on the issue of fisheries and what happened at the December Agriculture and Fisheries Council and Mercosur, in particular, the utter failure of Micheál Martin to stand up for Ireland's interests, speak truth to power and confront the hypocrisy at the heart of the European Commission. Let us start with fisheries. Muireann Kavanagh, a 14-year-old girl based on Arranmore Island off the coa…

Where is climate change, climate justice, the green economy and all the other areas where we play by the rules? There are double standards when it comes to doing trade and commerce. I endorse everything Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett said. It is utter hypocrisy. The world rules of engagement, be they on human rights, basic decency or trade and commerce, mean nothing because the leadership of the European Commission is utterly incapable of doing what is right by people across Europe and the world.

We obviously had the chance at the committee yesterday to go through what a disaster this outcome is and how it cannot stand. The Common Fisheries Policy has been deeply unfair to Ireland's fishing and coastal communities throughout the years. What happened with Brexit has rightly been described as a betrayal of those communities. It was a power grab and I will deal with some of the companies at the heart of this soon. What happened at the Fisheries Council now has to be the final insult. There has to be a complete…

Hear, hear.

What caused that to happen?

What have you done, as Taoiseach of our country, since last Friday?

You have not done a thing.

There has been not a word from you.

I support the request by Deputy Collins, which has been made at the Business Committee as well for a number of weeks. It is extraordinary that there is no time to debate Mercosur. It is a massive issue and decision time is coming up. We do not know the Government's position. Perhaps the Taoiseach could clarify that, or at least pass a message to the Chief Whip to do so.

The Taoiseach did not answer the earlier questions about the Fisheries Council outcome. It is a disastrous outcome. The Taoiseach must know about the big five, the massive Dutch corporations that have bought up fish quotas across the European Union. They have 240 vessels. Approximately one in six of the fish caught under all the countries of Europe are under these corporations. They clearly have more power than our country. How can it be that for our State and our waters, which have suffered so much, the Hague pref…

Backed by these corporations.

There are nine families living in Elm Park, Buncrana, County Donegal, who have been traumatised twice. First, they live in homes that were granted planning permission even though they were to be built on a flood-plain. There was nearly loss of life during the devastating floods of August 2017. Second, the homes are defective block homes. Clearance has been given to have all the homes demolished. Along with other public representatives from Donegal, I have been working on this with the Ministers of State, Kevin Boxe…

The Minister has inherited responsibility for dealing with this deep scandal and crisis. Even if he does not accept our amendments, I ask him to please listen and reflect on everything we will tell him because they are absolute facts from the ground. I can speak with authority about Donegal and other colleagues can speak about their counties. I know for a fact that some of the Minister's colleagues are telling him the scheme is working. As I have said to other people, that is their view. They are telling the Minist…

What we have in Donegal in terms of housing is a perfect storm. We have the same issues as everywhere else around the State. There was a period of ten or 11 years where virtually no social housing was built in Donegal. Therefore, the private rental sector took on that role through the rental accommodation scheme and the housing assistance payment. We are now playing catch up. All of those private rental properties were taken up by that failure in that period from 2010 to 2021, which was an 11-year period. I will gi…

I want to deal with the fact that over a year ago we learned that the then Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was going to move on the report from the SCSI and increase the cap by 10%. Immediately, there was an issue that the early movers, namely that those who were already going through the scheme, were going to be left behind. It was made clear that this would apply retrospectively. However, it would require amendments to the legislation. I have to observe, following the exchange between Deputy Doherty and the Minister of…

What I said is very relevant in that a response has been given to Deputy Doherty that clearly contradicts the understanding he was given by the Minister for Finance. One arm does not know what the other arm is doing. In terms of officials, I will just say we had officials come before Oireachtas committees telling us we had 100% redress and they were strongly and robustly told they should not say that and should not insult our people. Then we have parliamentary questions repeating those phrases. It is a two-way proc…

I wish to speak in support of these amendments from Deputy Ward. There is no doubt that we need greater oversight of the entire process. I spoke earlier on this issue, and I want to touch on it again. Sadly, we have an utterly deficient standard, IS 465. Basically, we have been diagnosed with the wrong cancer. Mica was not the main contributory factor to the crumbling of homes in Donegal. What has clearly emerged from international peer-reviewed research science, which it is pretty clear the NSAI now accepts, is th…

This is one of the amendments that was announced after we finally got our hands on the legislation. There was the heads of Bill as presented to the committee on housing and then there were these amendments that were added on. Here is the problem. We have a scheme that tells people they should knock down half of a semi-detached block. We have a scheme that tells you that you should pick out a terraced house out of a row but I will particularly focus on semi-detached units. It really is a minefield for builders. They…

I will not get into whether Deputy Gallagher is more in tune with the voters of Donegal than Deputy McConalogue.

I will not do it but I will let the people have their say in due course on those matters.