No, I was just looking after Deputy Paul Murphy.

I will follow up on the issues raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett about companies that take section 481 tax relief. There have been a considerable number of allegations, especially about workers' rights being overridden and blackballing when people make complaints. We understand that some of this relates to how the film industry works, in the sense that it is project by project, which can allow for picking and choosing and for certain people to control the entire process. People do not have to take my word or that of De…

We need to see Government support for the stakeholder forum proposed by that report, which would deal with and look at all these issues and make sure they are aired properly, so that we can put in place a system that is fit for purpose. We all want to see the film industry blossom but we want to make sure that people are treated as they should be. The programme for Government speaks about building stronger and safer communities. There are two things that will not serve that aim. Much has been said about the rosters…

It seems that Fórsa has achieved a roadmap to job evaluation for its members in local authorities, which could mean the end of the industrial action. That is very positive except for those people who will now have to take calls and emails from me. If we are talking about housing, we know we need to see a complete escalation in respect of modern methods of construction. However, I wish to deal with the issue of housing adaptation grants for older people and those with disabilities. Louth County Council got a small a…

That is all I will need.

It has already been said. What the Government is doing with these increases in October is heaping pain on pain. We can talk about childcare workers, people under pressure who do not have any information about plans to deal with mortgages and rents, the cost of shopping, or the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which does not even want the powers to be able to deal with the madness we are dealing with as regards the energy providers.

The Government has an opportunity to at least mitigate some of the pain. We can at least talk about fossil fuel replacement-----

-----but at this time we do not even know how the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, 3 auction will go. The Government needs to get its act together on that. Let us be real.

People are under severe pressure. The Government can help them out now by making sure there are no increases in the cost of petrol and diesel. People do not have a choice. They need to get in their cars and the Government could help to make that slightly cheaper, slightly easier to deal with in this cost-of-living crisis.

The Minister spoke about putting pressure on local authorities. Sometimes that is required. As Deputy Donnelly said, we need some kind of cross-departmental outlook for this. When we talk about LEADER funding, the town and village renewal scheme or the urban regeneration development fund, URDF, under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and what I would like to see done with vacant properties, on some level, we need a more macro approach to deal with dereliction and vacancies and to facilitate o…

I agree with what has already been said. The fact is that when we talk about cocaine, we are dealing with a cocaine pandemic. The place is absolutely littered with it. Deputy Griffin is correct when he uses the term "normalised". Some young people who are involved in sport prefer to take cocaine than alcohol. Others think cocaine is the means by which they can continue to drink for three days in a slightly more presentable way. We all know the outworkings and what happens. We know that some people will run into ser…

I thank Deputy O'Dowd for being so gracious and allowing me in. We will probably not be as nice over the next while, but so be it. I commend the president, Dr. O'Callaghan, and his team on the piece of work they have done. This is the most positive we have been in relation to DkIT and technological university status. I do not know how many times we have all said that we are starting from a bad place and that there are no dance partners. In fairness, a fair amount was probably said that was not necessarily in the pu…

I have never refused time. I could be very sorry about this.

It was the equivalent of calling Michael J. Fox "chicken" all right. I realise that. The points have been very well laid out by my colleagues. What we are talking about is "too little too late". We have constantly been told about what could and could not be done, but it took until when the European Commission and the European Union were willing to look at windfall taxes. There are examples right across Europe of those that have introduced windfall taxes that kick in at a much lower level of profit, which means a bi…

In fairness, I thank the Social Democrats, including Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. It is hardly shocking that we have a motion that relates to affordable housing, but it is more like a lack of affordable housing. We have unaffordable rents and house prices and the situation is getting worse. We can all bandy about all the percentages we want – good, bad or indifferent – but the fact is that we know what people are looking at when they are looking at www.daft.ie , even in respect of the town of Dundalk. We all bore ourse…

I want to bring up the issue of the new operating model for gardaí. The Louth Garda division is to be added to the Cavan-Monaghan division in December. This area is not workable; it is far too big. We might look at the crime statistics in County Louth, which I think will even take in part of east Meath. In the town of Dundalk we recently had an incident in which three gardaí were injured by a stolen car ramming into them. We obviously had incidents in Drogheda. I do not think I need to explain to anyone the inciden…

We are already hearing it is.

I also asked about the new operational model.

I am sorry.

Most people here are in relative support of the idea of a directly elected mayor for Limerick. A number of my colleagues and others across the House have spoken about the fact that this Bill will require amendment. Everyone who has spoken about how when talking to councillors from their own party, other parties or none, particularly long-serving councillors, they will talk about their lack of power. We know the issue regarding the powers of the executive and the reserve powers of councillors and that this does not …