There is an implication that we could not do it without them. When this country was effectively a Third World country, we were able to build public housing. It can and should be done.

Mandatory quarantining cannot stop Omicron, yet that is the only reason mandatory quarantining is being considered. What is the point? What is the endgame of putting a large amount of resources and money into putting a draconian measure into place? Although we did not agree with the Minister's version of mandatory quarantining, we called for mandatory quarantining when the population was not vaccinated and it was believed that vaccination could produce the possibility of the disease's elimination. We believed it wa…

Not all.

Equality of treatment.

It really directly follows on from that and goes back to the point I made earlier in asking what the point is here. My understanding is that the Minister does not envisage introducing mandatory hotel quarantine for UK arrivals, or at least, that is the signal we got. What we were talking about is states like South Africa, where there have been restrictions placed on travel. I think they are pointless, as does the WHO. The restrictions are punishing the people who helped us to identify Omicron, which may not even ha…

Vótáil.

I am glad the Government is not opposing our Bill on ventilation and the need for clean air in workplaces, but we need more than that. We need critical urgency in taking on this issue and legislating for a proper level of ventilation, air filtration and clean air standards. There are two ways to respond to a pandemic. It is understandable when we are facing a new situation that there are many knee-jerk responses, we do not quite know what we are dealing with, and emergency measures taken at short notice are inevita…

The Taoiseach mentioned that under the framework for well-being, particular groups were being looked at, and that NESC produced a report on building a new relationship between voluntary organisations and the State, including disability groups in that sector. I will repeat a point that I have made previously to the Taoiseach. In the area of disability, we are failing at many levels. Covid has highlighted further the deficit in supports and services for people with disabilities. I will cite two examples, but the issu…

It certainly does.

We will get there.

There has been a lot of talk from the Government about recognising the work of essential workers during the pandemic, that things will be different and that, for those workers who carried us through the pandemic, there will be payback. One group of workers that have not been talked about enough, but who were absolutely essential and worked throughout the pandemic, are private security workers working in our hospitals, on the buses and the Luas, and in the courts, supermarkets, the ESB, Google, nightclubs, hotels - …

It is the Minister of State, Deputy English.

At the risk of blowing our own trumpet on this issue, we have always said that whether it was inflation, rent freezes or anything else proposed by Government or Opposition parties, it would not work because rents were already too high. We need to set rents. The obvious gap relates to any new property. The Government said we will solve the problem by increasing supply, but any cap or freeze is meaningless because landlords can set whatever rents they like for any new properties. We need to set rents at affordable le…

It is very slow.

I move amendment No. 10: In page 29, to delete lines 20 to 28 and substitute the following: "(2) Not later than 1 month following enactment (of this legislation), the Minister shall commence and carry out a review of the existing NMPF to— (a) review its compliance with the MSP Directive, (b) provide for interim protections for the marine environment, and (c) in respect of the inclusion of relevant projects in the existing NMPF— (i) to specifically review the compatibility of the inclusion of the relevant projects i…

This amendment is not in any way an attempt to diss the work that has been put in by officials to the marine planning framework or around this Bill. It is a serious piece of legislative work. However, there is a concern and the Minister of State and his officials know what that concern is. I asked one of the officials yesterday whether we are behind the curve on marine protected areas. He had to say "Yes" and that the situation we are in is not ideal. That is a blunt admission of the problem we face. Only a tiny am…

Yes.

I move amendment No. 11: In page 29, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “(3) Within 2 months following enactment the Minister shall implement a process to provide for interim protection in the marine environment of the existing NMPF to ensure the designation of marine protected areas in accordance with Article 13(4) of Directive 2008/56/EC is not compromised and notwithstanding anything elsewhere in this Act no Maritime Area Consent or Development Consent shall be granted until that process is comple…

That is the point. If there is an acceptance, which there certainly seems to be from some of the officials we met yesterday, that we are behind the curve in protecting areas and it is likely to be some time before they are protected, then there is a problem with these legacy projects, which will result in large numbers of giant wind turbines placed very close to the shore along the east coast and other coastal areas that will have significant impacts on fisher, and potentially on marine environment biology, biodive…

Yes. I do not accept the Minister of State's response to our amendment and he has not addressed the substantial point, even if he does not agree technically with the amendment. He has not addressed the substantial point. It seems there is agreement that there will be an interregnum in which we will not have done what we should for marine protected areas with respect to these relevant projects. What is the answer to the question? What happens if we discover later that they should have been designated as protected ar…