The hate, fear and division the far right is peddling and trying to direct against vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees is utterly despicable, all the more so when one thinks that, for generations, hundreds of thousands of Irish people who emigrated, often illegally in the case of the United States, suffered the same kind of racist and horrendous victimisation. No dogs, no blacks, no Irishmen. Tabloid newspapers in Britain, owned by the right wing and the far right, created horrible stereotypes of the Irish being…

Whatever about the debates, no one doubts the continuing severity of the housing and accommodation crisis. In this question, I am relaying a suggestion that came to me and that I believe is worth considering. It is not by any means the panacea to the housing crisis, but might we consider making grants available, particularly to low-and-middle-income families, to do attic conversions and extensions to their homes where they could increase bedroom space and make some contribution towards dealing with the problems of …

The Minister of State told us about a lot of stuff that we already know. It is a new suggestion that we develop a grant scheme, particularly for those who do not have the resources to do it, to build attic conversions and extensions that would create additional bedroom space and so on, in the face of a very severe housing crisis, one aspect of which is very severe overcrowding. It is not just about disability adaptations and so on but creating a new scheme to provide funding for people who would not otherwise have …

A new idea has been suggested, so I ask the Minister of State not to just repeat what the Government is already doing. I know there are SEAI grants for insulation. One of the problems with them is that they are only useful to people who are already fairly well off. The proposal that has come to me, which is a good one, is that we have a grant scheme particularly directed at lower- and middle-income households to do attic conversions and expand their homes to provide extra bedroom space. In the same way we are givin…

There are a couple of issues I wish to raise with the Minister which, again I believe, are practical suggestions. We need a portal where people can get the information about cost-rental and affordable housing. Many people just do not know what is out there, where they go for it, how they apply for it, and all that kind of stuff. A one-stop shop where all of the cost-rental and affordable information would be available would be a good idea. The other matter I wish to raise is that given that some people are in homel…

Argument aside, I do not believe that anybody could doubt that there is a very significant gap between the housing assistance payment, HAP, threshold limits and the actual rent being charged out there. The highest homeless HAP rate in my area is €1,950. The normal highest rate is €1,755. The average rent in my area is now €2,586.

We should not have to rely on HAP. It is €1 billion a year into the pockets of landlords but until we have the level of public and affordable housing necessary, sadly, we are going to end up relying on it. It is not the case that reliance on it, in my area, is going to decline when we consider the housing targets. The delivery plan for my area is 2,318 houses by 2026. There are currently 4,000 households on the list and the council has said that another 2,825 will join the list before 2026. We will have more people…

I want rent controls. The Government is not going to do that. I think the Minister of State should but he has set his face against it. We need public and affordable housing to replace HAP but, in the meantime, there is a problem. In Dún Laoghaire today, three one-bedroom units are available for €1,895, €1,507, and €1,900 per month, respectively. The rents for two-bedroom units are in excess of €2,000, €2,500 and €3,000. The one-bedroom unit maximum homeless HAP rate is €1,350, which is well below the highest priced…

I honestly believe that this security and neutrality forum the Tánaiste is setting up is part of a sustained campaign by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to dismantle Irish neutrality and that this agenda of undermining, eroding and dismantling Ireland's neutrality is a long-standing objective of the two major parties in government.

They are cynically using the utterly horrendous situation in Ukraine and the barbaric invasion by Russia of Ukraine to advance a project within NATO and the European Union of ratcheting up the militarisation of the European Union, developing a European army and moving closer to United States foreign policy in a way that is probably the greatest threat to Ireland's security. Of course, the Tánaiste will shake his head and say that this is not true but we have to look, not simply at people's assertions, but at certai…

I did not interrupt the Tánaiste.

We are clearly co-operating, as we are through PESCO, the battle groups, interoperability with NATO, structured co-operation and, of course, in the context of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, it was confirmed by the then Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, that we have attended three meetings at NATO military bases to discuss the situation in Ukraine. It was very interesting to see the sort of attendees who were present at some of these meetings. As well as the usual suspects of all the major NATO and European …

You want us to join a military alliance headed up by the United States. We co-operate with them daily. That is what PESCO is about-----

-----but you do not draw the distinction. What is Irish neutrality? It is not clearly defined but it is apparent from our history what it was and from the people who set up the Irish Neutrality League, namely, Connolly and Pearse. The First World War was key in motivating the leaders of the 1916 rebellion to instigate that rebellion. They wanted Irish independence and freedom long before that but they believed the outbreak of the First World War made it imperative that there be a rebellion in Dublin against that wa…

That is the truth about neutrality. The Tánaiste talks of security threats but my strongly held view is the best protection Irish troops and this country have is our reputation for being a former colonial country that has opposed war and imperialism and is not part of any of the big imperialist blocs. If we become associated with US, UK or European foreign policy, it will seriously threaten the safety of our troops around the world. I honestly believe that. It will undermine a precious reputation we have built up a…

Yesterday, the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, found in favour of Ms Jane Crowe, former Debenhams worker and shop steward in Henry Street and, by extension, hundreds of other Debenhams workers who were cruelly treated and let down by their employer, Debenhams, and KPMG, the liquidators. The ruling found that the liquidators did not consult the workers properly and did not give them the information they sought. They met the Taoiseach in the corridor when we were screening the new documentary film about their di…

I also wish to raise the shocking and inexcusable events that happened on Sandwith Street over the weekend. Obviously, there is no doubt that we should all unreservedly condemn attacks on homeless and vulnerable asylum seekers. We should be clear - from talking to people in the locality, it is absolutely clear - that politically motivated far-right activists were down in the area actively spreading false rumours, stirring up fears and ratcheting up the aggression and threats against the asylum seekers in the encamp…

I detest racism or anybody who whips it up. To meet desperate people who are homeless on the streets with hatred and fire is appalling and has to be condemned. I am telling the Minister that I spoke to people this morning in the locality who were equally appalled and oppose absolutely what was done. However, they told me there are many vulnerable people in the area. We need to remember there are 800,000 people living in deprivation in the country, many of whom are heavily concentrated in working-class areas like Pe…

I did not give excuses. I said there are no excuses.

Of course not.