A Cheann Comhairle, the Taoiseach did not respond to the point about the property tax.

Not agreed.

The unit is supposed to assist in giving legislative effect to programme for Government plans. One of the aspects of the programme for Government the Taoiseach has repeatedly stressed is that he would support those sectors that have been impacted particularly harshly by public health measures. One of the sectors that I have mentioned many times is that comprising musicians, live performers, entertainers and so on. It appears that if they benefit from the live performance support scheme, LPSS, and do one or two gigs…

I am very strongly of the view that the vaccination programme is the key to getting us out of this grim pandemic and reopening society. In that context, I believe the legislation the Government is pushing through is damaging and divisive. It is a gift to those who are anti-vaccination. Even civil liberties groups, such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, have warned that it raises profound questions about discrimination and the ethics of demanding medical or health information from people. The council w…

Delay it until people are vaccinated.

The view of People Before Profit, as the Minister knows well, is that the property tax is an unjust, regressive and unfair tax on the family homes of large numbers of working people who have struggled to purchase a home and then have this tax imposed on them. This tax takes no account whatever of their income and their ability to pay. When it was introduced, and contrary to some of the comments made by the Minister about the rationale for the tax, we were told that imposing this tax on the family home would lead to…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “and shall be passed by both houses of the Oireachtas before being signed into law”. Let us be clear that we all want to see genuinely affordable housing being delivered. However, one of the many problems with this Bill is that a whole range of the key issues which would ensure we would finally get some affordable housing are not contained in the Bill itself but are bounced back to the Minister to be done by regulation. Thus, after…

The Minister and the Government know that our big concern and the concern of a lot of people out there is that affordable housing may turn out not to be affordable for the working people who desperately need it. People may not have heard it on the microphones, but across the Chamber just now the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, said that it will be. I have no doubt that the Minister hopes this will be the case, and that he would like it to be the case, but the Minister's wishes and the best intentions in the world…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 7, to delete lines 27 and 28. As we discussed with the last group of amendments, we are happy to have arrangements with not-for-profit organisations. However, our concerns are not just ideological concerns, as the Minister regularly trots out, but concerns based on experience with what the private investors want out of property and housing and what their objectives do to the housing sector and to prices and rents. There is a need to ensure that in the Affordable Housing Bill, of all …

I will try to be as brief as I can. We are not going to get to many of the key amendments to this Bill because we only have three hours to debate. That is a fact caused by the Government's guillotine. It is not necessary. We should have an opportunity to debate these amendments because this legislation is too important. Deputy Mattie McGrath made slightly personalised comments, although I do not take them overly personally, in asking have we ever done this, that or the other. I have built council houses.

In fact, I built council houses in Peckham in London, which I went to see recently, and they are still standing. I was delighted. They were built by Irish building contractors for whom I worked there.

They are still in public ownership. They were built through the model-----

They were built through the model by which houses should be built as against public-private partnership. I am speaking directly to the amendments.

I know that. They are my amendments and I am speaking directly to them.

Those houses in Peckham were built under the model by which the local authority contracts to build a certain number of public houses and then small builders and private builders come in and build them. It is not a public-private partnership. The Government is throwing mud in people's eyes and trying to create a division by suggesting we are trying to exclude the small builder from involvement in public projects. It is dishonest. The Government should stop playing political games because that is not what we are prop…

I too am looking for clarification on this. There may be a slight difference of opinion with my comrades and colleagues in the Opposition on this, or there may not. This is why I want clarification from the Minister. I am very much against anything that is going to reinforce or underpin unaffordable house prices as they exist in the epicentre of the housing crisis at the moment. Any kind of influence the unaffordable market price might have on the actual price of affordable housing that is delivered by the State is…

I can certainly see the logic for why a bit of flexibility is needed in rural areas, but I believe that a bit of flexibility is required in urban areas too, depending on the need to deliver, and notwithstanding the critical importance of not reinforcing or underpinning unaffordable prices. As I said, given a stark choice between a vulture fund buying up houses and a local authority buying them, I would prefer the local authority to buy them rather than us letting vulture funds have them and then having to lease hou…

And to housing spokespersons who are not on the committee, if the Minister would not mind.

I am like an honorary member.

The 4% RPZs were a total failure. I do not doubt that this is an attempt to improve matters and hopefully it will do so somewhat. I want to flag that there should be no rent increases for tenants in the present situation or any time in the foreseeable future, particularly in the areas most affected by completely unaffordable rents. That is where the RPZs are located. Against the background of rents of €2,000, €2,500 and €3,000 per month and even more for pretty basic private rented accommodation, even rent increase…