Developers are on the loose again.

Many if not most organisations advocating for people with disabilities were extremely disappointed with the budget. One of the demands they all rallied behind was that there should be a cost-of-disability premium to bring minimum payments for people with disabilities up to €350 per week, as we deemed appropriate during Covid, and that people with disability should get at least that in recognition of the huge costs of living with disability. I was at a briefing with Inclusion Ireland where some shocking facts were r…

Last week in the House, we discussed the issue of disconnections for users of prepay meters. On Friday, after holding my weekly clinic, I went to meet senior citizens who live in council accommodation. While I was meeting these elderly residents, an emergency occurred. They informed me of a man who had just got out of hospital, having spent five or six months there following multiple strokes, and who needed a nebuliser to allow him to continue breathing and so on. He had been released from hospital earlier in the w…

We are in an absolutely dire state with homelessness and evictions. We have record levels of people in emergency accommodation and a massive spike in people being evicted through no fault of their own because of the sale of properties by landlords. I note that even Fianna Fáil backbenchers, somewhat belatedly, are now calling for what we have been calling for some time, which is a ban on evictions at least on an emergency basis to stop more people going into homelessness. Will the Government implement such a ban? W…

Buy the houses.

Mine is not.

This is a good news story without a shadow of a doubt. It secures the future of the National Symphony Orchestra. For a period, its future existence was imperilled. It is positive that it is being put on a statutory framework after the transfer earlier this year and that it is being matched with additional money to reinforce that and try to bring it up to full strength. I commend the Minister on that. The NCH is a very good home for the NSO and the choirs, the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, RTÉ Cór na nÓg and RTÉ Cór Linn.…

Obviously, Martin Hayes is brilliant. The NCH has worked to overcome that perception and is very committed to doing so and to showcasing not just classical music but also contemporary music and projecting itself outwards. In this case the NCO and choir are projecting outwards that they exist, and that they and the concert hall are there for everybody. However, we need resources to do that. They should be given those resources to develop their audience and to ensure that as well as the classical repertoire, we are a…

I thank the Independent Group for tabling this important motion. People Before Profit strongly agrees with the introduction of free and frequent public transport and has campaigned for it for a number of years. We have budgeted for it in all of our budget submissions in recent years. Despite the Government's claim that it is committed to trying to address the climate crisis and reduce car use, it is resisting introducing what is an obvious measure, that being, making public transport free and frequent. Public trans…

As I raised with the Taoiseach last week, and I want to raise it again because I do not believe I received an accurate answer from him, keeping warm and having heating over the winter is a health issue. Anybody who is on illness benefit, enhanced illness benefit, occupational injuries benefit, maternity benefit or disability benefit, however, does not receive the fuel allowance. Recipients will not, therefore, get the €400 payment, the double payment or the Christmas bonus. What is the Taoiseach going to do for tho…

Why are they not getting the ones that others are getting?

The Taoiseach mentioned shared island activity around the issue of arts. Later today, the Committee on Budgetary Oversight will, at my request, meet representatives of actors and other performers - the Equity union - and representatives of film crews. Something they will point out is that the pay and conditions of performers and crew in this State are far worse than they are in the North and Britain because film producers here, who are in receipt of a great deal of public money, are essentially pursuing a race to t…

The Government's refusal to raise the income thresholds for social housing or social housing supports means that thousands of people affected by the housing crisis are being denied any assistance. Here is an example communicated to me yesterday. Leaving out the name, the message stated the woman concerned, her husband and her two children were homeless in Nenagh. It went on to say the family had been told by the council that the woman earned too much to receive any help, with the result that these people are now st…

We have been hearing that for five years.

The person's income was over the threshold. No social housing support whatsoever-----

On behalf of people who are studying to be psychologists, I have raised with the Taoiseach on numerous occasions the fact that educational and counselling psychologists who were doing doctorates did not get funding for very expensive courses. In the budget, the Government extended the funding to counselling psychologists but not to educational psychologists, which is madness when one considers the huge waiting lists for assessments of special needs in the area of education and for services and supports. That needs …

I have an email in front of me from an accidental landlord who has a tenant in receipt of the housing assistance payment, HAP. The person has to sell the property but does not want to evict the tenant. The landlord asked Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council if it would it buy the place at a reasonable price of approximately of €295,000. The council said it would not do so if a tenant is residing in the property. This is a social housing supported HAP tenant. For four years I have been highlighting a similar case i…

The Taoiseach says “can” and “should”.

I want the Taoiseach to tell them to stop people being made homeless.

Send a memo to them.