Perhaps the Minister can comment on that later. I would hope something would be provided this year, because students are struggling right here and now. The Minister saw the students queuing for food banks. We live in a republic in 2021. Having students queuing for food banks that run out after an hour is atrocious. When is the review of SUSI going to be published? The Minister knows there are issues within it that must be addressed. For a 30-year-old or a 40-year-old with children of their own, being judged and exc…

I acknowledge and thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this important motion. Like my colleagues, I am gravely concerned by the impact of the rising cost of energy. Fuel poverty has been talked about for years and, sadly, it is becoming more and more common. At the end of 2020, Ireland had the fourth highest electricity prices in the EU and the seventh highest gas prices. How many more people will be forced to turn off the heating on cold nights this winter if prices continue to rise? People are choosing…

Yesterday was a day for bold, transformative decisions. We in the west waited with anticipation for our share of the €650 billion national development plan but there were no individual projects. The Minister for Foreign Affairs mentioned earlier individual projects had been named. County Mayo was not mentioned anywhere in the national development plan. There was no mention of the R312, the N26 or of Mayo University Hospital. There was one mention of the western rail corridor. It is not only me saying this. Fianna F…

Earlier the Taoiseach said he was very committed to regional development, particularly in the west and north west. Towns like Ballyhaunis are leading the way in driving the recovery after the challenging time rural areas have had and indeed after the collapse of the banking system. The excellent work done by the Ballyhaunis Chamber of Commerce, Ballyhaunis Community Council and other voluntary groups and individuals in the town is widely acknowledged. This work makes Ballyhaunis an attractive town to live and work …

As we speak, the independent economic evaluation carried out on behalf of the European Commission into the Cassells report is sitting on the desk of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The Cassells report was completed five years ago and laid out three options to address the chronic underfunding in third level. Earlier, the Taoiseach said third level investment was a key factor in attracting FDI and economic development, and I agree. Since the report, successive governme…

I wish to bring to the Taoiseach's attention the Rebuilding Ireland home loan and the anomaly in the scheme for people who have been divorced or separated or who are with long-term partners. They need to be considered in any reform. Under the current Rebuilding Ireland home loan there are technical exemptions from the first-time buyer clause for people have gone through a separation. However, this information is not being shared properly with people making applications. People are being refused despite actually qua…

I am sharing time with Deputy Gould. I support what my colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, said about 100% redress and the guarantee needed for households who opt for the outer layer option. I commend all the people who gathered to demonstrate in Ballina. I hope these people will get their lives back very soon. This plan will not deliver housing for all. Apart from the many weaknesses and shortcomings highlighted by my colleagues and other Members of the Opposition, the plan has nothing of substance to address the acc…

-----in the short term. This is for all the students who are in hostels, in hotel rooms or who are sleeping on floors as we speak. The Government's housing plan states that universities have developed a significant amount of student accommodation in recent years, another statement that is divorced from reality and shows how out of touch is the Government. Since 2017, the year the student accommodation strategy was published, only 679 on-campus student accommodation places have been added, with the increase in stude…

I listened really intently to what the Tánaiste had to say about student accommodation. I also listened to what the Taoiseach said in recent days. He said he was going to keep a close eye on the matter but that there were limits on what Government could do. That tells me, students and their struggling families that the Tánaiste and the Government are completely out of touch with where things are. The Technological University Dublin report estimated that the cost for students who need accommodation is €14,000 a year…

I thank the Minister of State for being here to address this issue. There are many things that need to be fixed in Ballycroy and County Mayo, including broadband, mobile phone coverage, roads, housing and health. However, one of the things that did not need to be fixed was the name of Ballycroy National Park, which has been changed to Wild Nephin National Park. The people of Ballycroy and its diaspora throughout the world are extremely angry that this decision has been made. Nobody asked for it and nobody was consu…

The Minister of State has not answered any of my questions. He did what I asked him not to do, which was repeat the written answers that Deputy Calleary and I have been given already. We asked who made the decision, when it was made and whether it is going to be overturned or reversed. Nobody has asked for this. If there is nobody capable, within the Department or politically, of marketing, advertising and branding Ballycroy National Park, and the name needs to be changed to Wild Nephin National Park when nobody as…

I welcome that the Government is not opposing the Bill and I commend my colleague, Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, on bringing it forward. Exemptions for developers is the hallmark of successive Governments’ approach to housing. We have seen it when it comes to delays in banning co-living and the stamp duty exemption for long-term leases and apartments. Most recently, we have seen purpose-built student accommodation being given planning permission to be converted into tourist accommodation in the midst of a student housing cr…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, her office and all the staff for their hard work during the year. I agree with the Tánaiste's statement that this is a very fragile moment in the reopening of our society. What is the public health advice that underpins the decision to reopen English-language schools, with in-person classes for 10,000 students? Most of the tutors and people participating in these classes will be under-35 years of age and, as the Tánaiste stated, this group is unvaccinated. I am concerned about the…

I, along with my Sinn Féin colleagues and others, will oppose the Government's plans for a two-tier reopening, particularly as it is unenforceable and unfair. The idea that those who are unable to be given or access vaccines will not be allowed inside, other than to work and serve, is totally unacceptable. Many of the small business owners I have spoken to have loyal customers who frequent their establishments 52 weeks of the year. They are going to have to tell many of those customers that they cannot come in whil…

I am speaking to the amendment but it is becoming more and more obvious as the evening goes on that this legislation is completely unworkable and unjust. I do not care how many Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or Green Party Deputies stand up and try to rationalise it. One speaker from the Government said that it was not too much for them to show their pass at the door and go in and get their seats. It made me think of Rosa Parks because of the segregation that is being done here. To say that people are being treated differe…

These amendments are crucially important. Does the Minister think that anybody would profess to have pyrite or mica were they not almost certain they had it in their homes? People do not make up these stories. They do not want to have pyrite or mica. We have asked for years for them to be exempt from property tax because the properties - I will speak for those in County Mayo - were worth zero. How, therefore, can one have a property tax based on value for those homes? Time and time again we have been refused. The R…

I am sorry, a Cheann Comhairle, but it is all related.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Ó Murchú, for allowing me this time. The Minister of State knows about some of what happened in nursing homes last year. The reality of it has not sunk in properly with Government yet. I mention the pressure nursing homes were under when they were screaming for PPE and oxygen. That was the reality on the ground and patients continued to be transferred from hospitals without testing. The ambiguous guidelines that were provided for nursing homes and hospitals at the time led and added to …

I want to know if the holiday disregard of €4,500 will be applied to the PUP payment to create equity. If students were working as they normally would, they would get the disregard. I want to know before I leave here today if this disregard is going to be applied and that at a minimum €4,500 would be disregarded.

Please take it from me that the exceptional circumstances are not working. People and families who were in the same financial position last year as they are this year are being excluded by SUSI, which is unacceptable. I understand in terms of social welfare, disregards, and uniformity across the board, but we are in a global pandemic. We have made all kinds of exceptions. We have put through emergency legislation and everything else. Why are students being singled out? The Minister is putting money in their pockets…