I am simply saying that there are many issues that require proper investigation. The model we need to look at is one of independent public inquiries, rather than these commissions of investigation, which end up as a festival of moneymaking for legal people.

The National Economic and Social Council has regularly referred to the issue of water quality and the need to address the very poor levels of water quality as a result of the discharge in multiple locations across this country of untreated sewage. In my area of Dún Laoghaire alone, untreated sewage goes into Dublin Bay at 11 points. I see the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, issuing figures suggesting things have slightly improved, but a large caveat must accompany those figures because testing only takes plac…

The Taoiseach might look into the ultraviolet plant as well.

I also believe we need statements on what is happening in Jerusalem. The particular spark for this event is the fact the Israeli authorities, prompted by settlers, are seeking to evict 28 families from the Sheikh Jarrah area of Jerusalem. It is worth saying that these people are already double refugees in that they were driven from Haifa and villages and towns throughout Palestine in 1948. Eventually, they found some home in places such as Sheikh Jarrah with the assistance of UN constructed housing. Now illegal set…

Not agreed.

I object to the vote on the national marine planning framework happening at all until there has been proper scrutiny of that framework by the relevant committees. This week, the Government has aroused the ire of people in the context of letting vulture funds run amok in this country and wrecking the housing sector on land. Now, exactly the same thing-----

-----is planned for the offshore by the same types of interests wishing to profit from Ireland's offshore with what are deemed relevant projects. It is not acceptable that this framework would be voted through until we have real and proper scrutiny of some of the investment interests that have grabbed pieces of our offshore and until proper environmental and biodiversity impact assessments are carried out.

It is not agreed.

Can the Taoiseach guarantee-----

It is not agreed.

Late in the day as it is and hollow sounding as it is, will the Taoiseach's claim that housing is now the Government's priority lead to any actual change in the disastrous policy that has led us to the housing crisis we are experiencing? There seems to be a grudging acknowledgement of what an absolute disaster Fine Gael and Labour made by allowing these vulture funds to come in and take over the housing sector. Will the Taoiseach follow through on the growing awareness of what a disaster that was by not allowing th…

They will be looked after well enough.

I also think it is beyond despicable that the Stardust families are not being given legal aid. The Taoiseach should address that as a matter of absolute urgency because the families have been through enough and do not need further obstacles put in the way of their pursuit of justice. I wish to raise a matter I have raised with the Taoiseach a number of times, that is, the plight of people training to be psychologists. We have unacceptable waiting lists in this country for mental health services. Thousands of childr…

Earlier, the Taoiseach said that what defined the European Union was that it is an institution based on the idea of rules-based international co-operation. He argued that the European Union is a bulwark against extremism. Let us test that proposition against the EU's relationship with Israel on the day that Israel is, once again, committing war crimes in Gaza. As we speak, it is launching missiles which have claimed the lives of 28 innocent people in Gaza in the last 24 hours, including ten children. One of the dea…

I thank Sinn Féin for using its Private Members' time to raise this important issue. The Government has learned absolutely nothing from the disastrous mistakes that have led to the current housing crisis. The two mistakes were the disastrous decision to invite in the vulture funds, cuckoo funds and speculators, particularly in 2013 and 2014, and the simultaneous and equally disastrous decision by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government to essentially stop the building of public housing directly by local authorities. …

The Tánaiste is acting as if the rampage and plunder by cuckoo and vulture funds and investment vehicles - these terms are too polite; they should all just be called bloodsuckers - is some sort of isolated incident or inadvertent mistake that the Government is going to rectify. Why does he not admit the truth? When the Tánaiste was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government, the former Minister, Michael Noonan and his officials from the Department of Finance had 65 meetin…

What happened ten years ago is important because some of us stood up in this House at the time and begged the then Government not to sell off the NAMA portfolio but instead to use it for social and affordable housing. Had the then Government listened, we would not have the crisis we face now. I am appealing to the Government not to do the same with the Land Development Agency. The Tánaiste said that €450,000 is at the top end but Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Galway and Cork are not small places. These are the epicentres …

Not on public land.

Not on public land.

They would be generating revenue for the State.