So the Tánaiste finds his behaviour acceptable. Is that what the Tánaiste is saying?

We want to get people into homes.

Following the budget, both the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Taoiseach pledged that a mix of carrot and stick measures would be used to deliver housing and specifically in tackling vacancy and dereliction. However, we have yet to see a single real stick in the Government's housing policy. Any suggestion that a tax of 0.3% on vacant homes constitutes either punishment or persuasion is frankly absurd. After six years of promises, and years of urging by the Social Democrats and others, the Government final…

Twelve years.

Am I important too?

There is no danger of that. I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I very much welcome the Bill, which the Social Democrats will be supporting fully. It is an important move in the context of access to healthcare. Cost is a significant barrier to people accessing healthcare and it is very welcome that these charges, which can total €800 per year, are being removed. I have stated many times in the House that there is no justification for charging people for getting treatment when they are sick. There is no rationale whatsoeve…

I have said it before and I will say it again: the cost-of-living package represented by this legislation is completely inadequate. It is a further indication of this Government being out of touch with the real lives of so many people across the country. Up and down the country, so many workers and families are struggling to keep their heads just above water and this package is insufficient to ease that burden. I honestly do not know which is more difficult to accept - that the Government genuinely believes this pa…

I start by thanking the Rural Independent Group for tabling this motion, which the Social Democrats is happy to support. There is no doubt that cash usage declined rapidly in the last decade, particularly during Covid. We now live in a country that has a very sophisticated electronic payments system and, therefore, a declining need for cash. This rapid change is borne out in the Central Bank data. Since 2015, the use of debit cards has almost tripled, increasing by 284%, while the number of ATM transactions has alm…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this long-awaited legislation which the Social Democrats will support. I thank the Minister for providing the Opposition with a Bill briefing on Tuesday. It was very much appreciated. I always find it very interesting to listen to debates and commentary around credit unions, particularly from Government Deputies. Like them, I have high regard for the credit union movement. These trusted, not-for-profit institutions are an integral part of our society. They represent the very be…

That is an understatement.

I move amendment No. 2: In page 6, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: “(b) in subsection (4), the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (a): “(aa) where any of the communications concerned were made on behalf of a client, details of payments received or fees charged,”,”. First, there are issues about Members who want to contribute to a debate and contribute to legislation and who may not be a member of the relevant committee. This is especially the case for those of us who represent sm…

That particular one was ruled out of order. However, I am speaking especially to amendment No. 2. I am proposing in amendment No. 2 that there would be a further amendment to section 12 of the principal Act. A requirement should be contained in the legislation, especially where a lobbyist is operating in the political arena, to declare fees that are earned or payments that are made. I raise the issue of former Members of this House because of the whole grey area that surrounds that. If lobbyists were required to pr…

I welcome the Ceann Comhairle's confirmation about that. My preference would have been to do it through legislation but I am pleased to hear the Minister's views on this, about which he has been very clear, and the Ceann Comhairle's intention to address it at a meeting of the commission. Ex-Members are quite different from other lobbyists. We need to tighten up on lobbyists generally in regard to access to the Houses, with better recording requirements and so on, but that ex-Members have free access and free rein a…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 10, in line 23, after “(c).” to insert the following: “(14) That within three years of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall produce a report which evaluates the impact of administrative sanctions and the Commission’s capacity to impose this regime.”.”. This amendment seeks to assure ourselves that this section will be meaningful. I raised it on Committee Stage. The amendment to section 22 makes breaches of the cooling off provision and the anti-avoidance clause relevant contra…

This has to be seen in the context of the attitude of successive Governments to SIPO and its seeking of more powers and resources over the past 20 years, in addition to the ignoring of its appeals. Particularly in the ethics area, SIPO's requests for additional powers and resources are completely ignored by the Government year after year. On ethics legislation, there was a draft Bill in 2015 that ran into the sand. We are still waiting for some serious action on ethics. The track record on this is not good. That ha…

To put the figure in context, the Minister used an example on the question of fees and payments and said somebody could be earning €100,000. If the payment is €100,000 to a PR company and there is a penalty of €25,000, that puts it into perspective. We have seen in the past that although people were not supposed to be engaging in lobbying, the cooling-off period was completely ignored. Let us not do things by half measure; let us do this properly. It is not particularly onerous for the Department to carry out a rev…

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I welcome this timely motion from Sinn Féin, which we support strongly. I pay tribute to the staff of the NAS and Dublin Fire Brigade for the essential work they do, which is a matter of life and death. That work is made significantly more difficult, however, due to the severe shortage of staff, vehicles and infrastructure generally. At last week's meeting of the Joint Committee on Health, the scale of the crisis in ambulance services was laid bare. The gap between demand and capa…

The cost-of-living package the Cabinet agreed earlier is wholly inadequate. It goes nowhere near meeting the desperate needs of the many workers and families who are really struggling to keep their heads above water. Once again, the Government's entire focus is on once-off measures. People need to know how they will pay their soaring bills not just this week or next week, but next month and in the months that follow. Ever increasing numbers of people throughout the country are now living in fear. They are living in…

The reason the Taoiseach is announcing these measures today is because the Government did not do enough in the budget. Is that not the reality? This package is evidence of that. Instead of learning from its mistakes, the Government is repeating them. Can I quote the Children's Rights Alliance? It has said repeatedly that the increase to the qualified child payment is a crucial intervention to tackle child poverty. At the time of the most recent budget, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul pointed out that, "Growing u…

That was a €2 increase.