There were a couple of other questions.

One thing among others that people in the South and the North share is fuel poverty. The Taoiseach did not have a chance to respond in the last round of questions but I hope he will this time. Fuel poverty in the North is 22%. It is only 13% in England. The ESRI estimates one in six in the South suffers from fuel poverty. A RED C poll last year found that 19% of people turn the heat off because of fears of not having enough money to meet other bills and the cost of food. We share, North and South, a failure of gove…

I still did not get an answer. That is two different rounds where I did not get an answer.

On price caps.

Vladimir Putin is a thug and autocrat who has done very nasty things recently to working people in Kazakhstan, has waged a bloody war in Chechnya and is now flexing his muscles in Ukraine, so of course we should condemn what Russia is doing, but why is there no condemnation from a country that is supposed to be neutral of a clear agenda by NATO to expand eastwards and escalate military tensions with Russia? Why does the Government correctly condemn Russian military exercises in Irish waters but allow the US militar…

No.

Why no criticism of NATO?

Is NATO not expanding eastwards when it is not static?

The murder of Ashling Murphy was an absolutely unspeakable and horrific act. I can only imagine the grief the family must be feeling. I pass on my deepest sympathies to her family, her friends and her community. Against that background of an utterly unspeakable senseless murder and tragedy, it has been very heartening to see the amazing response of people throughout the country, coming out on vigils and insisting we must address the reasons our society continues to produce this phenomenon of violence against and mu…

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire and Sinn Féin for introducing this motion on the leaving certificate. People Before Profit is happy to support it. The very least we can insist upon in the particular situation of Covid-19 is that the voices of leaving certificate school students, as clearly expressed by them and their representative organisations, should be heard. They want a choice with a hybrid exam. They have been through enough and they need that clarity soon. They want the Minister to listen to their voice. We are h…

Talk about being found out. Fianna Fáil is in combative mood tonight. Here is a Fianna Fáil hoax, that it got rid of strategic housing developments, SHDs, before Christmas. As we warned, there was a flood of SHD applications for build-to-rent developments by greedy developers trying to get in on the gold rush in our area as soon as that legislation went through. The Minster said it would not happen. Among other things, as well as a whole load of unwanted private development, it is going to cause major staff problem…

Since the Minister of State said the Government had abolished SHDs, there have been seven new applications for SHDs just on the Dún Laoghaire side of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. That is because the Government essentially allowed an extension for these build-to-rent developer-led developments. Ironically, some of the Government's local representatives are now running around saying that they are terrible developments. The only reason the applications were allowed to be made was because the Government voted down our amend…

It does not have the staff and the money being provided is going into general funds, not into creating new posts.

SHDs were a scandal. They did nothing to address the housing crisis. They delivered overpriced rents to make money for developers. Since the announcement that this process would go, though, we had seven applications in December. There is murder in Sallynoggin over a nine-story construction. It is a working-class area where there are only two-storey houses but this will be a nine-storey building on a tiny site. It is developer led. In another case, there was planning permission for an SHD of 150 apartments but the d…

The Government said that it was getting rid of SHDs.

The €1,000 bonus for front-line healthcare workers is richly deserved, while the additional bank holiday is something that will be welcomed widely. These gains will be somewhat hollow, however, if the cost of living and the rate of inflation continue at the current level. In effect, that will mean that workers, pensioners and social welfare recipients are in fact seeing real income cuts. What does the Minister intend to do to ensure that workers do not lose out because of the rise in inflation?

Given the day that is in it, I will refer to the pandemic bonus. As well as the richly-deserved €1,000 for front-line healthcare workers, carers and those working with disability should benefit. I shout out particularly for retail workers in supermarkets. They put themselves at very serious risk and literally kept us alive during the pandemic. The Minister should consider them. On the wider issue, workers are only getting 1% pay increases annually under a deal negotiated before inflation started to rise. Inflation …

I will just say that the Dunnes Stores workers have shown the way. They are traditionally low-paid workers who kept us going at the front line. They put in a pay claim and got 10%. That is what they deserve. Especially after Covid, retail workers and lower paid workers should be getting pay increases in that order. The Government should actively try to facilitate that. Last night the Parliamentary Budget Office pointed out to us the State contributory pension - I presume it is the same for the non-contributory pens…

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Bríd Smith, who has been delayed in hospital. The question concerns the Iveagh Market in the Liberties. It is an absolute scandal that the building has been sat on by a developer. It is derelict and could collapse. It is an historical heritage site and the local community wants it to be re-established as a market, which could really revitalise the Liberties area. The community and Dublin City Council have been frustrated at every hand's turn by the greed of a developer,…

I understand the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is centrally responsible for this area, but this is a heritage site. It is an absolute scandal that this beautiful building is now on the brink of collapse, instead of having been refurbished, revitalised or redeveloped as a market for the people. That was originally what this building was intended to be when it was given to the people of the area by the Guinness family. The greed of a developer has frustrated efforts to get this vital heritage s…