Vladimir Putin is a thug, an autocrat, a despot and a warmonger. His military aggression in Ukraine is completely unacceptable and he should get his troops out. There is no doubt about that and he should be roundly condemned. This is not new for Putin or the Russian state. It has a long history of treating its neighbouring countries as a prison house. In fact, famously, tsarist Russia was the prisonhouse of nations and denied independence and self-determination to those nations. More recently we have seen the Russi…

Not agreed.

Two weeks ago Amnesty International produced a devastating report rightly condemning the state of Israel for the crime of apartheid. I and others have asked the Whip that we would have a debate in this House about that report. I note that the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Carroll MacNeill will hold a briefing with the Israeli ambassador this week. There is no doubt but that the ambassador wants to trash the Amnesty report. That is his entitlement, but this House has a right to discuss this report and its very serious …

Could we have the debate next week?

But if we could have the debate-----

I have genuinely lost count of the number of times I have asked the Government and successive Ministers with responsibility for housing in successive Governments when we are going to get the decision on the review of the social housing income thresholds. Every week, people are coming to me who have been thrown off the housing lists after ten, 12 and even 15 years of waiting. All that time has gone because those people did the terrible thing of getting a job, with the result that their incomes went a bit over the th…

When are we going to get the results of the review? Will all those people thrown off the housing lists over the past couple of years get their time back?

That is the first time that I have heard about the time capsule section. I think that in the time capsule section on my form, I will ask the people who are still here in 100 years whether 100 years of government has managed to sort out the housing crisis. I fear we may well find that it has not. I wonder if the Government will have even managed the review of the social housing income threshold. Indeed, the reason I asked the question is because of the more immediate issue of the housing crisis. When I submitted a q…

So do I.

Supposedly one of the central pillars of the just transition we need to address the climate crisis is the idea that it will be a just transition. I do not know how many times I have heard the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and other Ministers in the Government wax lyrical about how if we seriously address the climate crisis, it can be a win-win situation. This is what it should be. If we address the climate crisis, and the biodiversity crisis I might add in, people could have warmer homes and lower bills. They could have b…

They are right on the last point.

The Minister knows, and it has been discussed at length in this Chamber in recent weeks, that people are being crucified by the rising cost of energy and heat for their homes. Another report was published today, on a survey by Amárach, which shows that people are cutting back on food, meals and essentials because of the rising cost of heating and energy, a basic necessity to keep themselves warm. What tax measures is the Minister willing to consider to address the cost-of-living crisis that people are facing?

I am afraid it is just not enough. Heating and energy bills are set to increase by approximately €800. For many people, it will be more than that if their homes are badly insulated. In most cases, they have little control over that if they are tenants, public or private, or do not have the money to retrofit their homes. Who will make up the gap between the very small measures, such as social welfare increases, including an increase to the fuel allowance for those who get it, or the €200 energy credit and the cost-o…

Between the wars, climate destruction and inequality that capitalism generates, it will not need me to help it collapse. It will be more likely to do it itself. I do want taxes put on those who are doing well from the current inflation crisis. As I pointed out to the Minister, why will he not consider taxes on the excessive profits of energy companies? Energia's profits were up by 46% last year and 45% the year before that. What about the profits of the oil companies or the ESB? Does the Minister think it is okay t…

People Before Profit has always opposed the tax that is imposed on the family home because it is an unjust and regressive form of taxation. We think there is an added case, however, given the role the vulture funds, cuckoo funds, buy-to-rent property investors or whatever name one wants to give them who are now controlling and dominating the housing sector are playing in driving up rents and house prices to unaffordable levels, to have a real property tax - not one on family homes but on these people who are wrecki…

That sounds good but it is just not what is happening on the ground. We are going to have to blow this fantasy out of the water. As I have pointed out on several occasions, zero council houses were built last year in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. We just got the figures. Next year, five will be built. There is a lot of construction going on in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The Minister should drive out there to have a look. There are strategic housing developments, SHDs, going up all over the place. These are private build-to-…

My constituency colleague being sent in to mark me is an interesting new phenomenon. This is a new tactic on the part of Fine Gael. It does not matter.

I have a public office that is visited by people who are homeless and cannot afford stuff; the Deputy does not. I have to deal with------

I have to deal with the families who are being thrown off the housing list.

The rents in the places the Deputy is talking about are €2,200. They are not affordable for the people on the housing list and that is why people are ending up in homeless accommodation. There are 5,000 families on the various housing lists. They have been waiting 15 to 20 years because all the construction workers are building developments for profit. We get a tiny proportion of those at a huge cost but, meanwhile, those construction workers are not down at Shanganagh Castle building on public land the public hous…