We are only highlighting the baseless election claims on it.

What is very clear is that Trump does not care about working people in the US. He does not care about working people in Europe or anywhere. What he is doing to the world economy and the US economy is sending it into freefall. As my colleague said, Trump's new world order will require a shift in our economy and our economic model. This will result in a shift globally. The question is how do we respond. How can we sustain employment? How can we support business? Importantly, how can we support workers? If we look at …

You would want to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the parents of children with additional needs who spoke to us last week. They broke down telling their stories of the failure of the State to provide them with appropriate school places and services. I am supporting parents in my constituency whose children are locked out of education. In area CHO 9 more than 3,000 children are waiting for an initial contact from children's disability services. We are organising a public meeting on that this Thursday. What …

The Minister's responses to Sinn Féin on bringing forward this motion were a bit glib and petty. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. It is important that we are very clear on the issue. I am disappointed to hear the Government is not supporting the motion. It is understandable that people are extremely concerned about the potential return of water charges. I remember the massive devastation that happened to people in communities due to the Minister's party's policies ten or so years ago, at the time …

The housing crisis situation is an emergency and I ask the Minister to take this motion on board. I thank its proposers for tabling it. There are many ideas in it that we in the Social Democrats have put forward. It was ten years ago, when I was involved with trade union groups and housing campaigns, that we called on Fine Gael, which was in government at the time, to declare the housing crisis an emergency. Every year since, homelessness has risen, except of course during a Covid year, and we have seen house price…

It is very clear that this Government is taking us away from the cherished neutrality we have had as a country and as a republic. Our neutrality is something that is core to what it means to be Irish today. It is not a passive thing but something that needs to be chosen and protected. What the Government is doing is shattering that neutrality. Arguably, it is making this decision without a proper discussion of its significance. We have brought forward this motion today because the people have the right to have a sa…

There is nothing stopping the Minister of State sharing the time with them.

Figures for house prices came out yesterday. We are now seeing astronomical house prices and the highest rate of increase in inflation for eight years. The median price of a home is now €420,000. What nurse, garda or bus driver can afford these house prices? What is the Government doing by way of an emergency reaction to the housing crisis, particularly in the area of affordable housing delivery? It has not met its own affordable housing targets. We have a significant budget surplus available. What is the Governmen…

They say there are delays.

No, it is the institutional funds.

They did not vote for Michael Lowry.

We did not see Micheal Lowry in the manifesto.

Come on.

In terms of the planning applications, we have seen a significant fall in applications. The figures are down over 21% annually, and apartments even further. What are the Minister's plans to address this? In particular, does it not show that the Minister's housing policy and Housing for All as a policy has not worked, that new measures are required and, in fact, that the reliance on institutional investors to deliver homes and apartments is an unreliable approach?

I do not see the radical reset in the Minister's response that the Housing Commission called for and the Minister himself agreed was needed. We know the definition of insanity is continuing the same policy or same approach and expecting a different outcome. On the question about the planning and apartments, there is over-reliance on institutional investors. Institutional investors invest on the basis of their profit viability projections. If they think that there is not sufficient profit there, they do not invest. …

The Minister is repeating the same tropes that the Taoiseach repeats that we have had no alternatives. If the Minister looked at our election manifesto, he is correct that we talked about using private investment but it is the particular type of private investment. The Taoiseach is also spinning this by saying we are against private investment. We are not against private investment in housing. What we are against is shaping the entire housing system around the profitability demands of institutional funds and instit…

This question relates to the tenant in situ scheme, which we discussed last night. Will the Minister reconsider the framing and limitations he is putting on the scheme? While it is welcome that he is committing to continuing with the scheme, this will not actually involve a continuation of the scheme that has been in place because the new limitations will change the nature of it.

While I appreciate that the Minister is committing to continuing the scheme, will he provide the evidence to back up why he is targeting it? Why is it not being provided on a general basis in order to give local authorities the flexibility and funding to respond to whatever household is facing eviction or homelessness? Why does it have to be only families? Why is the Minister saying-----

I know, but prioritisation means local authorities will have to decide. Local authorities will have a certain budget and will be able to purchase properties and keep some people in their homes, but not others. We are in this system of prioritisation rather than a general ability to apply the scheme. That means restricting some local authorities in their ability to do it.

It is not true that the tenant in situ scheme is being continued as it was. There has been a change to it. In the context of the removal of the funding for refurbishment, will the Minister reconsider this and, in the context of the circular that is to be issued, allocate local authorities funding for refurbishment under the scheme?