I fully support the move here and this refinement of EU law is very welcome. This is a transnational crime, and particularly with Europe in a time of war, it is really important we are sensitive to the way in which difference, vulnerabilities and hostilities can be blown out of all proportion. That said, the criminal bar is very high and we must often look elsewhere for the drivers of what eventually emerges as hate speech and appalling hate crimes. Not unlike the discussion we have had recently on gender-based vio…

The Minister recently published targets for social housing in each of the local authorities, which was useful. I am interested to hear what the targets are for affordable purchase in each of the local authorities and by the LDA and when he will trigger the regulations that will allow such projects, some of which already are coming on stream, to have clear guidelines in respect of their allocation.

I commend the Minister and Minister of State on the progress being made. I note that the LDA has presented projections that would see just 25% of the homes it will build available for affordable purchase, the balance being for cost rental. That seems very low given the demand for affordable-purchase housing. What is the projected number of houses for the 56 ha of land the LDA holds in Dublin? Some 29 ha of the 56 ha is on the north side. What sort of affordable-purchase housing can be expected from the LDA?

I commend the work going on but would have to raise a question mark over the 25% allocation for affordable purchase. I am not clear on why that is the case. The impression I get is that there is a far higher appetite for affordable purchase than suggested by the allocation. How is it proposed to accelerate the throughput from local authorities on the affordable-purchase side? We have seen many obstacles placed in the way of local authorities. Some of these have been internal. How can we accelerate the mixed develop…

My few comments will follow on from those of Deputy Leddin without my having planned it. Huge opportunities will arise for rural Ireland and especially our towns and villages if we embrace wholeheartedly the infrastructures of the future. There is a danger that the way we think about rural Ireland is about looking backwards at some of the infrastructure that served us well in the past. However, the infrastructure of the future is the national broadband plan with its highways of fast communications; renewable energy…

More flexible use of this infrastructure could release enormous potential in our communities, as Deputy Stanton has said. I can say, as a former Minister for Education who issued those guidelines, they simply have not delivered as we expected. The Department of Education now has to go further. I suggest three things that should be done. First, the education and training boards, which are entirely within the State remit, should develop a best practice model of opening up their premises to flexible use in all sorts o…

Parents are tearing their hair out for childcare facilities. I have a specific case in my area in Sutton where a school is expanding, and a childcare facility is being displaced. The Minister of State should speak to his colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, as well as the Minister for Education and advance the three proposals I made. Private patronage models served us well in the past, but community needs have moved on and we now have to develop a campu…

I am sure the Taoiseach, as a former Minister for Education, will agree that efforts to open school facilities for wider community use have not succeeded. I hope he will also agree that we should take immediate action to tap into this potential. I recommend three specific things to the Taoiseach. First, the education and training boards, ETBs, should deliver a best-practice model. Second, all school patrons should be asked to develop a policy to accommodate the wider community, and that should be a factor that is c…

Is that a "Yes"?

I am grateful to have an opportunity to speak on this. I welcome the citizens' assemblies on these two very important topics. It is one of the innovations that Ireland has successfully introduced into policymaking. I do not need to remind the House of its path-breaking role in helping constitutional change to occur in this country and introducing climate legislation that puts us very much to the forefront in how we have changed legislation to create a framework for addressing the climate. I hope we do the same in t…

Much as I respect my fellow county man, Deputy O'Rourke, there is a strong smell of cynicism when I hear Sinn Féin saying that this measure fails the equity test. It meets the equity test on two very strong standards. It provides free retrofitting for all the families who live in local authority homes, the low paid at work, carers, people on disability allowance with young children, people on jobseeker's allowance with young children and people on the fuel scheme. This is very targeted at people who are at risk of …

The Tánaiste has often acknowledged the heavy burden that older people have borne during the Covid crisis. We saw the acute crisis in nursing homes, with many vulnerable people and many deaths there. Today, we read that one in five directors of nursing homes plans to quit. We have seen necessary care postponed for older people and isolation hollowing out their lives. Is it now time to rebalance our policy towards older people to put greater emphasis on being able to live independently? I welcome the new carers' pol…

First of all, I welcome the focus on consumers this week. The Government is right to look both at short-term and, vitally, long-term solutions to this problem. One of the areas in which we have been very negligent is that we have not confronted the rip-off that many larger companies carry out on consumers by making it difficult for them to find best value. It is typically the older and less tech-savvy people who are the vulnerable ones being exploited by companies through these practices. Many of those companies ar…

I welcome the Minister of State's positive response. As politicians, we sometimes recognise things that need to change but our good intentions get caught up in the tangled affairs of bringing new legislation forward. I would like to see some of these small and simple changes prioritised and pressure put on the drafting of legislation to bring forward amendments. Those amendments need to commence preparation today if a Bill is to be passed in the House over the next four or five months. That is the reality. I ask th…

This is very welcome legislation. We need to strike a balance between very powerful enterprises now emerging in the world of big data, artificial intelligence and ICT and the consumer because that balance has shifted dramatically. Markets have changed. The way individuals interface with them has changed dramatically. The capacity to have a personal interaction with those who provide services is dramatically changed. I think it is becoming a subject of increasing concern among people. The Minister of State will have…

I know this is a very short debate. There is no doubt that this pandemic has been an absolute watershed in our lives. Deputy O'Dowd mentioned some of the ways in which it has set us back on our heels. This is the time to start to take stock of what we have learned from this. One of the positives is the extraordinary way in which our export companies have helped us through this. We have had the highest ever creation of jobs by Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Authority. It is our robust economic man…

It is important that we have to go back to the outdated leaving certificate this year. While I accept it is very hard to deliver a fair system when one does not have a consistently applied source to standardise teachers' assessment results, we must learn from this experience and embed within the two years of the senior cycle credible projects in order that continuous assessment can occur within the leaving certificate and we can have a hybrid system in 2023 and beyond. Reform of the leaving certificate started in 2…

I am sure that the Taoiseach will welcome both the publication of the Bill on the right to remote working and the launch of an app that highlights 177 co-working hubs across the country, with 236 meeting rooms. Will the public service take a lead in adopting flexible protocols for the use of that right to remote working and for integrating with those regional hubs in order that we get a good uptake of the new opportunities across the country to work remotely? The public service could take a lead in shaping the poli…

I welcome this debate. People have been alarmed by the death of Ashling Murphy. The serious realisation that violence against women is an endemic and serious problem in this country has dawned on us all. For most men, we react with anger, guilt and confusion to this because there is a chilling realisation that at the heart of the violence women are suffering is an attempt by men to abuse power. The statistics are alarming. Ten women in Ireland die violently every year. Sexual assault has increased by 60% in the pas…

There are approximately 70,000 vacant homes which could be the target of public policy. Remarkably, 12.5% of those homes in Waterford have been put back into use. In most counties, the figure is around 1%. Good practice in local authorities makes a difference. Can the Minister give momentum to that? Will he extend, for example, the repair and leasing scheme to cost-rental homes, in other words, affordable homes, as well as social homes? That is a real target of public policy now and we should allow those schemes to…