During the previous Dáil, I raised the plight of Clonkeen College in Dún Laoghaire on multiple occasions. It is a non-fee paying, publicly funded school run by the Christian Brothers, who have decided to sell off the school playing fields to a private property developer. Since the previous Government would not listen, I ask the current Government to intervene to stop the sale of school pitches that have had heavy amounts of public investment, where there is an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit that depends on tho…

Do something about it then.

Where there is a will there is a way.

I will return to the question I asked the Taoiseach earlier about Clonkeen College and the plan of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust and the Christian Brothers to sell off its playing pitches. He agreed with me that this is wrong and that it will deprive the school, the ASD unit, local community sports organisations and others who use these fields but he said that there was nothing he can do. I would like to point out that this issue was raised multiple times during the term of the previous Government and we had the sa…

The people of Berlin have shown the sort of imagination that both the German Government and successive Irish governments distinctly lack when it comes to dealing with the housing crisis. Fed up with and sick of the lack of tenants' rights and completely extortionate rents, the people of Berlin, driven by a campaign from below, have made exactly the right call, which is to expropriate the big corporate landlords and the big investment funds and to take into public ownership the big portfolios of residential apartmen…

-----to the extent that the state should actually take control. Why do we not follow the lead-----

-----the people in Berlin have given in a referendum?

I wish to raise an urgent matter. This Friday, several hundred patients will lose their GP in the Monkstown Farm area of Dún Laoghaire because there is a rule, of which I was previously unaware, that GPs are compulsorily retired when they reach the age of 72, even if that retirement is against their will, as it is in this case. They wish to continue serving their patients but are no longer allowed to do so. Many of these patients who have mobility problems, chronic illnesses and so on will now have to travel long d…

Apparently, at least six exceptions to this rule have been made around the country, as I found out from the reply to a parliamentary question.

Can the Taoiseach intervene to ensure that hundreds of people do not lose their GP because of this ridiculous and arbitrary rule?

It is just arbitrary.

I asked the Business Committee for this debate, which has once again highlighted the sickening injustice of the way the Government manipulates the speaking arrangements. The people who asked for this debate get six and a half minutes after the contributions of five or six Government speakers and the Minister, who does not want to hang around to hear from the rest of the parties. This party has been ringing alarm bells about the housing crisis since I entered the Dáil in 2011. It makes me sick but it is typical of w…

This is hugely important legislation dealing with the incredibly important issue of the marine resources of the State, as others have pointed out. It is worth setting out again for people who are trying to understand this huge and complicated Bill. I have not fully got my head around all of the detail but I have read quite a bit. Fair play to the civil servants for putting it together. It is a complex piece of work dealing with an incredibly important issue. Ireland has one of the highest land to sea ratios in Euro…

One of the depressing things about the instance of cronyism involving the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, is that it deflects attention at the beginning of the Dáil term from the issues that people expect us to be dealing with and the crises that they expect us to resolve. One of those issues will be highlighted at 5.30 p.m. this evening by the National Homeless and Housing Coalition. They will gather in a demonstration to appeal to this Government to break from the failed policies it has applied; to …

Similarly, around this city, we have private investor-built student accommodation where they are charging €1,000 per month and more for student accommodation. This is, in other words, housing for profit and not for students. It is creating a massive student accommodation crisis. What is the Taoiseach going to do about it?

We will debate the detail of Housing for All another day. I am a member of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, there will not be €4 billion of Government expenditure on Housing for All. There will be about €2.5 billion of direct Exchequer funding and the Government is essentially hoping to get the rest from the private sector. I will leave that for another day. My point is that the reason we have a housing crisis in general, and specifically a student accommodation cr…

Renting hotel rooms to students.

They are all building hotels.

On a point of order, when a Bill is introduced the Minister would normally take us through the relevant sections. Is there a particular reason he has not done that? It is very unusual.

It is very unusual not to go through the details.