This is the Dáil.

The Deputy is wasting his time there.

I was not slagging the Deputy, I was slagging the party.

The Government has shown utter disrespect for democracy this week by barrelling through a deluge of legislation that was guillotined without proper scrutiny. It is a cynical tactic. It shows contempt both for this House and for the people. Some of us have protested very strongly at the Business Committee about this. Unfortunately, however, the Business Committee is not a democracy and the Government does what it likes. The Government has shown further contempt for this House and, far more importantly, for hundreds …

I did not mean any offence to him. I am annoyed the senior Ministers will not hear the spokespeople from the different groups.

It is a bad practice.

It makes it worse.

The Deputy has just walked in; I have been here for two hours.

This is incredibly sharp practice on the part of the Government. It makes a mockery of any sort of proper oversight of legislation. We had a briefing on Monday from officials on these 48 pages of amendments. These are substantial amendments in the areas of planning that will affect the rights of people to access justice through judicial reviews and will affect what is, broadly, a good objective as regards short-term lettings but, as others have said, the objective and the actual translation into legislation may not…

No, but in a more broad sense the Government is laughing.

The Government is trying to make fools of people as it does every year at this time as we head towards the summer recess. It barrels through a deluge of legislation, and guillotines it to get through and smuggles in matters that, if they were scrutinised properly, could be of serious import and concern to people. We will not have the chance, and the public will have no chance whatsoever, to have any look-in on these issues or to express any opinion on them because they will be done and dusted before they get sight …

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. The Title of the Bill should make clear what we are trying to achieve here. For the vast majority of people who are impacted by the current housing crisis, the need for a Bill that will reduce the extortionate, frankly obscene and completely unaffordable rent levels is more than patently obvious, and this Bill attempts to do that. It seeks to bring rents back to levels that will be affordable for ordinary working people be…

Not shouting; projecting.

We have an absolutely dire rental and housing crisis. For a Bill that we table to try to address these extortionate rents we get sent the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage, electoral reform, local government and planning. The Minister with responsibility for housing does not even bother to come in. I find that really sickening. Yet again, I do not get an answer, although I am not surprised, on why the Government broke its promise to tell us what is happening with the review of the social housing in…

We are not. I have one minute and 30 seconds. The Government says it is not possible to do anything about all of this and yet, Berlin did it. Berlin brought in rent-cap legislation in 2020 to do precisely what we are looking to do, which is not to allow rents go above levels that are affordable. It was brought in throughout Germany in 2020. In Paris, it was brought in in 2018. If there is a tense situation, we can introduce extraordinary rent controls, but the Government will not do it. We have declared an emergenc…

The St. Margaret's service in Blackrock, which caters for people with intellectual disabilities - people with very complex needs - and their families, has made an urgent request for the publication of the action plan for the disability capacity review. The review was published in July 2021. The Department of Health said the action plan would be completed by December 2021 and there is no sign of it. It is asking very particularly that this be done as a matter of urgency so the needs and the residential and home supp…

The action plan was due in December.

I would have suspected what Deputy Murphy has outlined in any case, but it confirms something for me. One thing the US has done is try to secure access for US Palestinian citizens to the West Bank and Gaza, and vice versa , something that is made extremely difficult by the State of Israel. The Israelis want to be part of the US visa waivers scheme. In essence, there is a bit of a quid pro quo going on. Israelis are entitled to be part of a visa waivers scheme to enter the European Union but, simultaneously, they ma…

It is not a fact.

Did he organise the coups on his own?