This is an historic day in a Chamber that has seen much history since the Dáil was first convened 100 years ago. While it is the first time the office of Taoiseach is rotating between coalition partners, this arrangement has been entered into for party political interest rather than the national interest. In truth, the changeover will barely be noticed by the people outside this House whom we serve. Without any accompanying fundamental changes in policy or political priorities, this is change for the sake of politi…

-----to the Leinster House complex-----

-----must be revoked.

I hope the Taoiseach will support the Social Democrats in moving an amendment to this effect in the long-promised legislation we are due to get from the Minister, Deputy McGrath. It has also been more than two decades since our ethics legislation was updated. We are told there are plans for this Government to do so. However, there were also plans to strengthen our ethics laws back in 2015 and they, of course, ran into the sand. The Social Democrats will work constructively with the Government if the Taoiseach is se…

The Social Democrats will not oppose this annual piece of legislation as we know it is needed to give legal authorisation to spending for the rest of this year and into next year. As has been the case for the previous two years, it is difficult to draw any sort of meaningful comparison with these figures. While normal life resumed for much of the country in the course of this year, Covid, of course, has not gone away and that is reflected in the figures before us. We saw proof of that last week with the Supplementa…

It is important to note that while there is a lot of focus on the issue of open disclosure, the original, horrific and fatal problems associated with CervicalCheck the last time were to do with poor standards in the labs. That was the fundamental problem. In the past week or two, we read some of the background to that decision taken in 2008 by the then Minister to outsource all of the lab analysis to the US, with no regard to the poor standards that applied. What Dr. Scally came up with in that regard was horrific …

Before the Minister sits down, perhaps he will clarify something. It could be significant.

Given that this is potentially quite significant, I ask the Minister to clarify the area in which he is prepared to consider an amendment.

Informed rather than-----

How long do I have? Misinformation was circulated earlier about-----

Yes, but my amendments were not included in the grouping in the first advisory we got. This had to be corrected well into the debate.

I was not informed that my amendments were being taken.

I do not think that is correct. All this debate and the discussion earlier at the briefing indicate that this is an exceptionally complex matter. It is, literally, one of life and death. It goes to the heart of some significant issues within healthcare, the right to know and the duty of candour. It underlines how inappropriately this has been handled in the sense of being rushed and all these amendments being supplied to us at the last minute, with no briefing and no pre-legislative scrutiny. I have two amendments …

Suspend.

I too will raise BPFI report. We know from the report that rents in Ireland have increased by more than four times the EU average over the past 12 years. Those figures absolutely lay bare the extent of the crisis in this country. Under the Government, the fact is that things are getting worse. Rents, house prices and homelessness are all at record levels and are continuing to exponentially grow. Meanwhile, mortgage approvals have hit their lowest level in the past 17 months. Construction in the three months to Sept…

I did not ask the Minister about local authority voids. That is something entirely different. I asked him about the vacant homes tax and the fact that tens of thousands of homes are lying idle at the moment. They are the most effective way to increase the stock of houses available to our young people, many of whom currently have no choice but to go abroad. Two out of three nurses are planning on emigrating and 61% of our primary schools are understaffed. This is down to the high cost of housing. I asked the Ministe…

That is meaningless. When the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform becomes Minister for Finance in two weeks' time, will he undertake to review the level of this tax-----

-----and introduce a proper vacant homes tax?

That is not a scheme. That is tokenism.

The Government just is not serious.