Is it because this attack could have been racially motivated? Members could give me the respect of letting me finish.

Is it because some people's lives are worth more than others?

A child was murdered in an arson attack in Edenderry.

An entire family was almost murdered in Finglas. Will the Minister meet with Amanda and her family-----

-----and do everything possible to ensure they are moved to appropriate housing and the gardaí find the perpetrators? These are reasonable questions and this is a reasonable ask.

Where is the response?

It is Rory Hearne, thank you.

Just to clarify, I am no relation of the former Taoiseach.

Go raibh míle maith agat. We have tens of thousands of vacant and derelict homes up and down the country. It is one of the biggest scandals and failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. Government after Government has failed to tackle this issue. Buildings up and down the country are rotting, falling apart, dangerous and left vacant while we have thousands of children and families in homelessness. In Finglas in my constituency families are being made homeless while a massive building, the Drake Inn, has be…

I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward the motion. Tá a lán rudaí sa tairiscint that I am go maith with and I think are good. It is important to highlight the issues that have been raised. I am not in agreement with a number of points towards the end of the motion, but broadly it is important. The fundamental questions we need to address are why Uisce Éireann is not working for people, why it is not providing the services and infrastructure that are needed to ensure housing is being delivered and, fundame…

It states very clearly that some of the key structural barriers to delivering infrastructure are Government approval of projects, the time it takes and the funding allocated. It is very clear that the systems the Government has set up are not delivering infrastructure quickly enough. That is the responsibility of the Government. The Minister of State can shake his head, but it is the Government's responsibility. It is a system that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have set up for decades. In terms of Uisce Éireann, there …

The Minister of State can argue it is a stretch but-----

Yes, we are on water infrastructure and this relates directly to it. Why do we not invest sufficiently in our water infrastructure and why do we have these problems? It is not because Uisce Éireann is not doing all that it can because it is doing some work. It is not about needing to get developers in to do the work. The problem is we have a State that does not believe in public services and public utilities and is actually privatising them. I spoke to Irish Water as well and it is still doing public private partne…

The European Union launched, in December, a groundbreaking affordable housing plan with revised state aid rules and new approaches to delivering affordable housing. Will the Taoiseach put affordable housing central on the agenda of the European Union Presidency that Ireland will hold? Will he take action to ensure Ireland draws down funding that is available through the European Union and new approaches? Does he accept that the Irish Government and governments across the European Union have failed a generation of y…

It will do nothing for existing tenants.

Not for existing tenants.

A record 5,274 children are homeless along with their families. It is equivalent to a shocking 222 primary school classes of children. These children will spend Christmas in homelessness without a Christmas tree and without a dinner table that they can sit around with their families on Christmas Day. They will wonder if Santa will even find them. Each week we come in here, we put forward solutions and we feel the Government is ignoring them. Why will the Government not implement a temporary eviction ban to stop tho…

The lettering is from the Proclamation, in which the State committed to cherish all children equally. We are not doing that. I call on the Tánaiste to take emergency action on that.

It is not a flag.

I also wish happy Christmas to all the staff, the Ceann Comhairle and the Ministers. Nollaig Shona. I look forward to continuing our engagement in the new year. I will refer to one case in particular in my constituency but I wish to raise the broader issue affecting people which we are being inundated about. It is the issue of people facing eviction. They are being evicted from the private rental sector. These are families and individuals. A policy brought in after the temporary Covid eviction ban was lifted was th…