-----the wealth that exists in our society to protect working people-----

-----pensioners, students and the least well-off from the hammering they are getting from the cost-of-living crisis and address the housing disaster?

Tomorrow, the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, will lead thousands of students from various student unions in a march to the gates of Leinster House. The message they want to send to the Taoiseach is that given the huge budget surpluses now available to the Government, it is absolutely unacceptable if some portion is not used to address rampant, endemic student poverty and, in particular, the student housing and accommodation crisis that is leaving thousands of students couch surfing, commuting huge distances and…

Climate action is often very abstract for people because it does not appear to make any difference to their lives. One area where it can make a real and tangible difference, particularly given the energy price hikes and the cost of living, is in the area of retrofitting of people's homes. If we insulate and retrofit people's homes we can save their energy bills to a very large extent. What is increasingly clear, however, when we look at the Government's plan to retrofit 500,000 homes is that in the first three year…

Today, Irish Equity, the union representing actors in this country, submitted a petition to the Government of 3,700 actors. What they are calling for is the implementation of the Report on Section 481 – Film Tax Credit, that was published earlier this year. I asked for the committee of which I am a member to undertake this investigation. It has recommended that while we have to continue, and indeed, increase, investment in film, it has to be tied to the actors, the writers, the performers and the stage crew being r…

This Saturday, I hope we will see thousands of people on the streets at the cost-of-living demonstration, assembling at 1 o'clock at Parnell Square and marching to the Dáil. There will be many people there, including pensioners, trade unionists, students, anti-poverty groups and housing advocacy groups. They will have many different reasons for marching over the cost-of-living and housing crisis. Undoubtedly, one of the most abhorrent aspects of the cost-of-living and housing crisis is child poverty and child homel…

The reason we are holding this debate today is People Before Profit-Solidarity asked the Business Committee to put it on the agenda and asked the Government to facilitate the debate. The reason for this is at the beginning of the school year I received communications concerning this issue. It was obvious, though, that Deputies all across the country and from all parties were receiving similar communications and that we have a major problem. The particular issues brought to my attention started with the Enable Irela…

On Saturday, 7 October, a few days before the budget is announced, the Cost of Living Coalition will hold a national demonstration. Assembling at Parnell Square at 1 p.m., trade unionists, student unions, pensioners' groups, housing groups, anti-poverty activists and many more will march to the Dáil to demand urgent action to deal with the crushing impact of the cost-of-living, housing and homelessness crises. People will join the demonstration for many reasons. I urge anybody who is affected by or angry about the …

The Tánaiste listing the Government's so-called achievements will come as cold comfort to the hundreds of thousands of people who are in arrears. If its measures were so effective, why are 256,000 electricity customers and one in five gas customers in arrears? This is before we head into the winter months. People who are in that situation face a terrifying prospect. If it is all about the war in Ukraine, how does the Tánaiste explain electricity and gas prices here being almost double what they are in the rest of E…

I would if they were like they to used to be, with proper energy prices.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — on 22nd February, 2023, Dáil Éireann agreed the second reading of the Eviction Ban Bill 2022; — in the intervening period, the number of homeless people has risen sharply, with an additional 1,093 people, which includes an additional 398 children, living in emergency homeless accommodation; — there has been a large increase in notices of termination of tenancies in the three months since the Government lifted the eviction ban, with 5,735 notices of termination issued in the …

Which we proposed.

By indicating the Government intends to vote against our motion seeking to reinstate the eviction ban for no-fault evictions, the Government - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party - has essentially said it is okay that thousands more, including families, individuals and children, will end up homeless and in emergency accommodation with all the trauma and suffering that involves. It is particularly disgusting and shameful when it comes to children. The Government is doing that to children, saying it will allow…

Go on.

In February, the Dáil passed the People Before Profit Eviction Ban Bill 2022, which would reinstate an emergency ban on no-fault evictions for the duration of the housing and homelessness emergency. Tomorrow, during our Private Members' time, we will ask that the Dáil expedite that Bill. Whatever the Taoiseach may have said back in February during the debate or since or to justify the decision to lift the ban, the situation has got catastrophically worse. Since then, more than 1,000 extra people have ended up in em…

For years now, at the request of film crews in the Irish film industry, I have been raising the systematic abuse of fixed-term contracts by film production companies in receipt of public money. In practice, they leave workers wide open to blacklisting if they do not toe the line. I have also been raising the campaign of Irish Equity, including the performers, writers, directors and so on, who are campaigning against the use of buyout contracts whereby they are to sign away their rights to future royalties for their…

The programme for Government also speaks about developing the arts and culture sector. I will return to the points I made earlier so that the Taoiseach will fully understand them. I appreciate that he said he would look into them. Sometimes, I think there is a lack of understanding of what goes on in the arts, culture and film sector because of the magic and dazzle of film. However, behind that dazzle, there are two critically important groups. One comprises people like those involved in set construction, the stage…

If we had the forum first it would be helpful.

I have been contacted by somebody in Cork about a new development in the rental sector. A company called HomeHak has apparently taken over a significant part of the rental market in Cork and is spreading beyond that area. People are required to put together CVs that include the name of the tenant, background references, employment history, minimum rent desired, maximum rent, the number of rooms desired, the number of household members, the number of children and a photograph of the potential tenant. The CV is put u…

I raise another egregious example of problems with school transport. Since the end of August, I have been in communication with parents and the association of parents with children who have disabilities and wheelchair users in Sandymount. They were informed a few days before the resumption of classes that instead of the 11 buses needed to get all the children to school, there are only seven. As a result, approximately seven to nine children have not been able to get to school at all since classes recommenced. Many …