Why have they been left out?

They are being left out unfairly.

This is obviously important legislation for many reasons given the huge importance and influence of digital services and social media, and just how much our lives now are caught up with the digital world, information technology, online economic activity and all of that stuff. Particularly important in our thinking on this are the recent horrible events where a small group of malign far-right actors sought to exploit in the most horrible way a terrible incident for their own political purposes and the consequences w…

Yes, a Cheann Comhairle.

We are approaching Christmas. Christmas is normally a time of celebration, rest and peace. For 2.4 million people in Gaza, because of the continued barbaric and savage assault by Israel Christmas for Gazans is going to be a time of fear and death. Against the background of the slaughter Israel is visiting on the people of Gaza the United States of America on Friday took the utterly shameful and inhumane decision to veto a resolution by the UN Security Council just to call for a ceasefire to halt the horror being vi…

I call on all Members of this House, regardless of party and whether in government or opposition, to state clearly they will boycott this shameful event happening in the Phoenix Park in the US ambassador’s residence. It is sick and disgusting that they could talk of celebrating the joys of the season when they are blocking attempts to stop a genocidal massacre that is being visited on the people of Gaza. I also think we need to go further. We should tell the US Government, given its shameful decision to veto the UN…

The Respond announcement about plans for just under 3,000 new cost-rental homes by next September is very welcome. However, a problem was highlighted to me by Jane, who is a single mum with one child. She is working and earns €42,000 net and is, therefore, over the threshold of income for social housing. Her income is not sufficient, however, to allow her to pay the rent according to the guidelines for cost rental. Jimmy, a single dad with two children, who earns €46,000 net, is over the social housing income thres…

My point is that the criteria for the scheme are not aligning.

The Taoiseach needs to look at that. The criteria are not aligning-----

-----for the people for whom the scheme is supposed to be providing.

I want to try to explain the cost-rental scheme to the Taoiseach again. I know it is a bit technical but it is a Government scheme. The point about cost-rental housing is that it is supposed to be for people who are above the social housing income threshold but below €66,000 in net income. However, as well as the income criterion there is an affordability criterion which means the rent must be no more than 35% of a person's income. People have to meet those two criteria. I have two examples, but it involves thousan…

I note that the Taoiseach discussed the dire situation in Gaza at the British-Irish Council. The Scottish Government has, quite rightly, been very critical of the massacre that is going on in Gaza. This is quite different from the British Government which seems to be cheerleading on the massacre of people in Gaza. Did the Taoiseach discuss the plight of citizens or citizens' families who are trapped in Gaza? I would ask the Taoiseach to comment on this. He will be aware there is a big campaign to get Zac Hania back…

Zak Hania.

As the Minister of State knows, as we head into Christmas, there are 13,000 people who are living in emergency accommodation. A particularly terrible aspect of that is the significant rise in family homelessness. More than 1,800 families are living in emergency accommodation, including 4,000 children. Those figures are consistently rising. I want to know what particular measures the Government will take to address family and child homelessness.

The Minister of State has quoted a lot of policies, figures and so on, but the important figure here is the number of people in homelessness, as well as the consistent rise, which has been pretty dramatic over the past months, in family homelessness. It is rising. The Government's policies are not working and, therefore, a number of children are going to go through the trauma of spending Christmas in emergency accommodation, in many cases for the second, third and sometimes fourth year in a row. There is all the me…

Children should not be in emergency accommodation. I pressed for the tenant in situ scheme for years and the Government is doing it and it has made a difference. I have also pressed for the Government to buy social and affordable housing straight from the developers, which the Government is starting to do, and I welcome that. I am telling the Minister of State there are not enough three and four-bedroom properties. No child should be homeless but there should be a time limit for how long a child spends in emergency…

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland's report this morning demonstrates complete market failure and failure of Government policy to deliver affordable housing for the majority of working people in this country. That is what its evidence suggests. The average cost of delivering a three-bedroom house across the country is €397,000 and in Dublin it is €451,000, requiring a combined household income of €127,000. That means 80% of households in this country cannot afford the cost of housing being delivered by the …

It is €360,000.

But €451,000 is what is being delivered. The Minister will probably mention cost rental. A recent example of cost-rental properties near my area is as follows. A two-bedroom property was €1,445 per month and a three-bedroom property was €1,550 per month. In all of these cases, if you have two incomes in the household you might have a chance, although average earnings are €40,000 in this country so for the average house price, even two combined incomes will not be able to afford the cost the market is delivering in …

First, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland is saying the ceilings are inadequate. The maximum you can go to under the local authority home loan is €360,000, well below the price the market is delivering. Therefore it is not available to huge numbers of people. The key point is that the Government's target for the year is for 29,000 houses. That includes only 9,000 social houses and 3,500 affordable houses, and by the way, the Government will not meet those targets.