I have a simple question for the Minister of State. Does he think that average rents in Dublin of €2,000 a month are acceptable? Does the Government think it is tenable to have average monthly rents of €2,000 or that areas such as mine have average monthly rents of €2,200? Does the Minister of State think that when the average industrial wage is about €35,000 it is tenable for the average rent in Dublin to require €24,000 or more in after-tax income to pay it? You only have to ask the question for it to be obvious …

Every single day that I walk into my constituency office in Dún Laoghaire, staring me straight in the face, right across the road is living proof of the failure of the Government and successive Governments to deal with the ruthless, vicious landlords to whom Deputy O'Dowd just referred, and to protect tenants from what they are allowed to do under law by successive Governments. That is the multi-unit apartment complex that I have talked about here for four years, namely, St. Helen's Court. It stares me in the face,…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, lines 23 and 24, to delete “, or such other percentage as may be prescribed,”. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 concern large-scale residential developments, LRDs. The Bill is the replacement for the strategic housing development, SHD, legislation and requires that not less than 70% of any large-scale development should be either homes or student accommodation, or homes and student accommodation. It then provides a get-out clause, which suggests it could be any other percentage that may be…

We could do with a replacement for the HSE as well.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 4, line 25, after “development” to insert the following: “with regard to the LRD floor space not used for the purposes of housing, a public consultation shall take place with individuals and community groups which the planning authority shall have due regard to in determinations of the granting of permissions for such floor space”.

We have a similar amendment but we support Deputy Pringle's amendment. I am surprised they are not grouped. Deputy Pringle's is a bit more fleshed out. It relates to the earlier discussion about the non-residential space in these large-scale developments. The point about these developments is that they are large scale and they have big impacts on towns, communities and populations in a way that relatively small-scale developments do not. They need to be viewed differently because they can fundamentally alter the ch…

The Minister is saying he is sort of sympathetic to the issues raised but all we are being offered in the Bill is that, once an opinion has been given following the meeting, the public will be aware of that opinion. Across the board here everybody is saying it would be better to get communities in at the ground floor on these large-scale projects. I could not understand why our amendment is different from Deputy Pringle's.

It is a bit further on. Maybe I am missing something. It is amendment No. 10. Deputy Pringle's is more detailed. I am not saying mine is better. I am trying to figure out the difference, what we are talking about here and what a structured pre-planning consultation with stakeholders, community groups and resident groups would look like. From my experience of listening to people talk, and the Minister is echoing it from his experience, I can offer advice if he wants to do away with the constant antagonism that exist…

We are getting a right tour here.

Of course people should take up their vaccine boosters and of course there is no silver bullet for Covid-19, but I am shocked at the Taoiseach's complacency, inaction and, quite frankly, denial of science when it comes to the issue of air quality and ventilation. That is what it is. We now know that Covid-19 is an airborne disease. It hangs around in the air. In particular, it hangs around in buildings that are of poor quality and in which there are poor levels of ventilation or a lack of filtration of air to ensur…

Of course the vaccine has made an enormous difference. We have actively encouraged people to take it up, as has everybody in this House. However, it is still not enough. It is clearly not enough because we are asking entertainment, music, taxi drivers and all sorts of people to take the hit once again as we head into Christmas and asking people to reduce their social contacts. Maybe that is necessary but the Taoiseach cannot absolve himself of the responsibility to do absolutely everything he possibly can to reduce…

Why hold back?

What of the restaurants, bars and hospitals?

I am saying this could help get us out of this.

I commend the Simon Communities of Ireland on this extremely important Bill. Last week, a man came to my clinic with an eviction date in a couple of weeks. He broke down crying in front of me because he thought he and his family would be out on the street. He was absolutely racked with terror at that possibility. This happens week in, week out. This man had done nothing wrong. He had worked all his life and then had an injury which prevented him from working and impacted on his circumstances. Now he is faced with h…

As mentioned earlier, a social housing development which was going to deliver 34 social houses and eight affordable-to-buy houses in a project between an approved housing body and a local co-operative, facilitated by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, has collapsed because the preferred tenderer has pulled out, citing hyperinflation in the construction sector. These are badly needed social and affordable houses, so this is a pretty devastating blow in a situation where there is a desperate crisis in our area in…

What are we going to do about it though?

Both the US and the EU have urged the generals in Sudan to continue on the path to democracy, particularly in the face of the recent coup by General al-Barhan and Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo, a former leader of the Janjaweed who committed atrocities in Darfur. They have released some of the Government Ministers that they imprisoned but there has been a very significant crackdown on civil society, with protestors killed, large numbers of people wounded and many imprisoned. It is very questionable as to whether the general…

Did the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister discuss the issue of trade union and workers' rights in both Britain and the North? In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher took a hatchet to workers and the trade union movement and brought in very draconian anti-worker and anti-trade union legislation to tie the hands of workers and limit their ability to take effective action to defend their rights. What is perhaps less well known is that the Northern Assembly has the power to repeal the anti-trade union laws Thatcher brought …

I genuinely would like to be able to say I think this Bill will make any difference at all in improving the lot of those who are looking for private rented accommodation, living in such accommodation or facing eviction, or who have been evicted, through no fault of their own, from such accommodation. Tragically, there is really nothing at all in the Bill that will make the slightest bit of difference to the people affected by the absolutely dire crisis we face in private rented accommodation and, more generally, in…