It is ironic that the cartoon I have fell on the ground. It was sent to me by a friend of mine and it shows a fuel can saying: Whoever said what goes up must come down wasn't talking about me. It is ironic that everything in the Government's eyes goes up. Why? Because of inflation. Why does the Government love inflation? Because it means more revenue. How much extra revenue has the Government brought in with the inflation on fuel? I believe - and we are talking about energy costs - that four 100 tonne generators ar…

Deputy Thomas Pringle is there as well.

I thank the Acting Chair. I want to talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, about affordable homes and rentals for people in Limerick, as a fellow Limerick man himself. I was at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage a while ago with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. I am going to ask the Minister of State the same question I asked him. Thirty-eight years ago, a sewerage system was promised for Askeaton. It was before the Minister of State's time. It has been promised since then on numerou…

A directive decision of the people of Limerick in May 2019 opted for a directly elected mayor with executive powers. The people of Limerick voted for a directly elected mayor with executive powers. In this Bill we have a diluted version of what they were expecting. If we look at it on the basis of Limerick - people have spoken in the Chamber today about Limerick being the first city to have a directly elected mayor - we will see that of course it has to be Limerick because we are the first in everything. When we go…

It is easy to talk now.

It will not be hard to get rid of you.

A €250,000 mortgage is, in today's terms, a small mortgage. The VAT of 13.5% on €200,000 amounts to €23,788.55. The VAT on the other €50,000 of the mortgage stands at 23%, amounting to €9,349.60. That equates to a total of €33,138 in tax that the Government is taking off a person on their mortgage. If we then look at the contractor who has to build that house, the average tax he or she will pay on that is €10,204, which means that on a €250,000 mortgage, the Government takes in tax €43,342.15. Moreover, in order fo…

Communication is vital if the Minister wants people to come here from Ukraine seeking asylum. The first time fear was sparked was in Bruff when people were told 100 Ukrainian people, whom they were told were women and children, were coming and then 300 arrived. There were 100 asylum seekers who were male coming in there, inside an area where there were women and children. That sparked concerns. I was recently in Feenagh where a park was opened during the week. The community welcomed three Ukrainian families into th…

Who cares that, in 2022, UHL was the most overcrowded hospital in the country? I care, but does the Government care? Since the Government entered power, waiting lists have increased significantly to 830,000 people. Ireland has fewer beds now than we had in 1980 even though we have a larger population. The policy of Sláintecare is to remove the private rights of consultants within the public system and pay them a salary only. This will not work in our hospitals because we do not have consultants who work weekends or…

I thank all the rape crisis centres that deal with these people who are sexually abused, the Garda Síochána and all the other entities that assist. Looking at the statistics from the CSO figures, they show that 53% of women come forward and only 34% of men. Child sexual violence affects one in four children. That is huge. It is beyond belief to me. I see that 8% of people over the age of 65 reported that they had experienced sexual violence as a child and as an adult. I also looked at statistics on the under-report…

It probably has a lot to do with it because it is judge and jury in a lot of cases. People can run off and make up their own minds on different things and highlight people in a different way. They are afraid then to report it because they have already been judged online. That to me is a significant issue. We can see things coming up on social media now, and people saying, "did you hear this, such a person has died, such a person has done something." We hear the following day that it was only a false article. Worldw…

The simple meaning of "divest" is to strip or deprive someone or something of their property or rights. In international law, annexation is the forcible acquisition of one state territory by another state, usually following military occupation of a territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act. I welcome Sinn Féin bringing this to our attention and acknowledge we can do something about this as a nation. Palestine is victim to annexation by Israel, where there are currently 130 illegal settlements, with 700,0…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges that: - despite years of promises and lip service, the Government has consistently failed to effectively tackle the housing crisis, leaving them scrambling to react to a situation that has now spun out of control; - according to Eurostat, Ireland's housing crisis is currently the worst in Europe, with rent prices increasing more than any other European Union country; - the Construction Industry Federation reports that 70,000 homes are currently held up in the planning system …

I will contribute at the outset of this.

I did not acknowledge at the start of the debate that I am a building contractor. I have been building for more than 30 years. I have never done any work for the local authorities or the Department; it is one-off. I put that on the record before I start.

There is no infrastructure.

As an employer in the building skills profession, when I hear about the European Year of Skills 2023 I am delighted and think that the Government may finally be getting this right. Unfortunately, this is again not the case in Ireland. SMEs employ 1.1 million people here. These are companies that employ less than 250 employees. This initiative should be entirely focused on them. Some 270 SMEs in Ireland are experiencing skills shortages, including in the areas of biomedical, chemical, electrical and engineering. The…

The high cost of doing business in Ireland is extremely challenging. We can see that each week in our shopping bills. I selected basic shopping bills from trolleys over seven years and noted that, surprisingly, the basic prices of milk, eggs, bread and butter have increased by 15% and those of vegetables and meat have gone up by 40%. This highlights to me the issues of farmers' inputs, their daily high feed and fuel costs and the high cost of fertiliser. Despite these, they are getting for their produce the same pr…

The rural regeneration and development fund is a “commitment of €1 billion by government to be invested in rural Ireland over the period 2019 to 2027”. Those are the Government's words. The fund was set up to develop infrastructure that may be needed to support town centre housing and commercial development. With what? There is no investment in basic infrastructure for any of this development to happen. This eliminates any hope of increasing the population in our towns and villages - no equality there. Urban areas …

Kilbeheny. Oola.