I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "acknowledges that: — Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland, sets out an ambitious multi-annual programme that seeks to deliver more than 300,000 new homes between 2022 and 2030; — since Housing for All was published in September 2021, almost 120,000 homes have been added to the National Housing Stock, with delivery of 92,500 new homes in the three years from 2022 to 2024, representing a considerable 49 per cen…

Will the Deputy's party be present for every debate in the Dáil? Will the Deputy's party members take their seats for every debate in the Dáil?

Will the Deputy's party be fully present for every debate?

What has been stated here today is factually incorrect. It is factually incorrect and I ask Deputy Coppinger to withdraw that remark.

I thank the Deputy for raising this question and for his advocacy in this area over many years. We all have a similar objective, which is to ensure that we have fair insurance premiums for the citizens of the country. I recognise the concerns felt by many households, community organisations and small businesses across the country about the cost and availability of insurance cover. As the Deputy is aware, neither the Minister for Finance nor the Central Bank of Ireland can intervene in insurance pricing or provision…

I share the Deputy's frustration. This is an area in which I invested a lot of time during the lifetime of the previous Government. Many reforms have been introduced. It is regrettable that the level of savings we envisaged for consumers has not transpired. If we look at the CSO consumer price index of December 2024, we can see that motor insurance is 35.5% lower than it was at its peak in July 2016. It is still too high in many cases. Many reforms have been delivered. There is a commitment in the programme for Gov…

I am asking the serious questions. I have already initiated meetings with all the insurance companies. I have met one already and I will be meeting the remainder of them in the coming weeks. I will forcefully impress upon them our expectation that they do need to pass on savings, based on the reforms that have been initiated. We want to see a further reduction in consumer premiums. Premiums remain high in many cases, but the Deputy fails to acknowledge that in some instances people who were not getting insurance pr…

I will engage with my officials in the Department and review Deputy Doherty's Bill again. Quite honestly, what I am being told by the officials is that there is duplication and that some of the work involved has already been done. We can most certainly look at it again, however. I am happy to engage with Deputy Doherty to see how we can bring down the cost of insurance because we are all singing from the same hymn sheet in respect of this matter.

I compliment Deputy Brabazon and congratulate him on his election and his maiden contribution to the Dáil. I wish him well in the years ahead and assure him that any support or help we can give him in his endeavours to represent the people of Dublin Bay North will be forthcoming. In January 2020, revised Central Bank lending regulations were put into effect on credit union house and business lending only. There is no regulatory limit on personal, unsecured lending which comprises approximately 87% of the credit uni…

I also compliment my predecessor in this role, the former Minister of State, Deputy Fleming as well as Ministers of State, Deputies Richmond and Carroll MacNeill who did a lot of work in the area with the review of the credit unions which are such an important financial institution in all our communities right across this country and provide a great service. Take unsecured personal lending. Some 87% of credit union loans are personal lending but they do have the capacity to offer services in the area of mortgages a…

I have not formally engaged with the credit union yet but it is on the agenda in the coming weeks. However, I have engaged informally. My own credit union had me at its schools table quiz last Thursday night and used the opportunity to talk to me about some of the challenges it is facing. I will be engaging with the credit unions in the coming weeks. The Deputy will be aware that the programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a five-year strategy to set out clearly, in consultation with the credit …

Labour had its chance and ran away.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Listening to Deputy Mattie McGrath most recently and earlier this evening, he failed to acknowledge that this is a much more fragmented Dáil. There are many political parties and each political party will contest the election on its own platform. This outgoing Government is a government of three very distinct and unique individual parties that fought the last election on their own election manifestos and will fight this election on their own election manifesto…

I wish to add my voice regarding support for the SMEs. The power-up grant is somewhat welcome but I think the blanket approach is not supportive enough for the businesses that are most in need. Maybe there was an overconcentration on the 9% rate because that was never going to be achieved, given the position of the three coalition parties' leaders on it. Has the Minister of State had any engagement with the energy regulator with regard to the price gouging that is going on, and the high cost of energy for SMEs? Has…

I thank the Acting Chair for the flexibility. I did not realise we would come back to this question but I welcome the opportunity to hear the Minister’s plans with regard to the additional measures that can be introduced to support our SME sector, which everyone across the Chamber will agree is of critical importance to our economy.

The power up grant and the money that has been made available this year is similar to the amount the IDA is getting to support multinationals in job creation despite the fact that, as the Minister said, two thirds of employment is in the SME sector. If two thirds of employment is in one sector, why is it getting a similar amount of money to multinationals, which are a very important part of our economy but are doing extremely well? We need to rebalance the supports going into the SME sector. I raised the issue of s…

Perhaps the Minister will answer about the sick pay in the next round. As a person who led trade missions, I concur fully with what he said about the importance of FDI. However, we are spending a similar amount on FDI as on supporting SMEs despite there being a greater number of people employed in our SMEs. We need to increase the expenditure there. Will the Minister speak about what his Department is doing with the Department of energy and natural resources to ensure we bring down the cost of energy into companies…

Yes, if the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach does not mind.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for giving me the opportunity. I thank the Members for their flexibility in allowing me to say a few words. I was at a very sad funeral down the country today of a young woman of 46 who died of cancer. She had two small children. I am just getting an opportunity to come back here today. As somebody who sat through 96% or 97% of the committee hearings, I want to put on record that I think the committee did much good work. We worked well together and were respectful of one another.…

I am raising the issue of Bord na Móna employees and pensioners. A number of years ago, as part of the just transition programme, and in recognition that they received no wage increase for approximately 15 years, shares were issued with an option for employees and pensioners to either sell or retain them. Until this year those shares were receiving dividends. This year Bord na Móna unfortunately took the decision to part retain its dividends and said the dividends would be paid over the next five years. That is on …