What are you doing about it?

I commend Deputy Mairéad Farrell and Sinn Féin on bringing forward the motion, which is important. There is no doubt that the FOI legislation is in need of review. I welcome the Minister's statement and his commitment to ensuring that a review takes place. It is curious that we are talking about a review of freedom of information this week, given all that has happened in recent weeks with the Zappone debacle. An excuse put forward by several Ministers was that we needed to review freedom of information. That was pu…

Earlier, I listened to the Tánaiste's contribution on the Bill. He made the point it is not perfect and he was not claiming it was perfect. I do not think any of us expect perfection in the context of the difficulties of dealing with Covid. To say it is not perfect is quite an understatement. I do not think for a moment that anybody is saying it is easy to legislate in the current circumstances. It is difficult. It is difficult to make decisions on this because it is all about balancing the risk of an unknown quant…

I support the amendment. I raised the question of enforcement with the Minister earlier. This plan is totally unenforceable. I put 12 questions to the Minister on Second Stage about who will do the enforcement, how it will be done and how the weaknesses in what he is proposing in regard to the digital certificate will be addressed. There are serious problems in that regard and the Minister has not answered any of those questions. I have a 13th question for him and it relates to the digital certificate. The certific…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in this important debate. I commend Sinn Féin on the detailed motion it has tabled. Much concern has been expressed about this issue over many years. Clearly, in the past 15 to 18 months, many of the shortcomings in elder care service were brought into tragic and stark relief due to the very high numbers of deaths that took place in our nursing homes. Some of those situations were highlighted in great detail in the recent "RTÉ Investigates" programme. I commend Mr. Barry O…

I draw attention to the fact that yet again Government speakers have failed to show. There was insistence that an extra slot be provided before the Social Democrats slot and we have another occasion when nobody has showed up. Perhaps the roster needs to be reviewed. The Social Democrats are very happy to support the legislation. Our only criticism is that it is coming so late and has taken so long. We have known about this for many years. Many agencies and advocacy groups have drawn attention to the fact that the l…

As others have stated, this is a technical Bill and I am happy to provide support for it. The Bill provides for amendments to the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 to extend the period for receipt of claims by the tribunal and provides that the Minister, by order, can extend it on one further occasion, giving a total extension of one year. There is no issue with that as far as I am concerned. I will support the Bill. It is important though that we pay tribute to the women and families who were so tragically impacted …

The Government has taken shamelessness to a whole new level in proceeding with this brazen amendment. Having promised to stop cuckoo funds snapping up homes, the Government is actively incentivising that and claiming it is doing the opposite. The people relying on the Government to do something about the vulture funds have been abandoned by it. The truth is that the Government promised to put a stamp duty increase on these funds and it is now reversing that by ramming through this amendment. It is disgraceful, dish…

On a point of order-----

Can I move that the question be put to move closure to the debate? People have expressed their view that they wish to take a vote on the amendment. I propose a closure motion that the question be put.

I ask the Taoiseach to respect this House and to respect party leaders who are putting questions to him. I am asking him to give me a straight answer, unlike his last response, to a straight question that I will pose. He has stated that housing is the number one crisis facing people, young people in particular. He said that anything the Government can do in terms of housing, it is going to do. One of the things the Taoiseach promised to do was to deal with cuckoo funds buying up family homes. His Government eventua…

Then answer the question.

Just answer the question.

The Taoiseach knows I am not saying that.

No, I am not.

Just answer the question, please.

Thanks to the excellent work of the Business Post on this issue, we know that one industry source has said that social housing lease deals are like government bonds on steroids. That is what the Taoiseach is facilitating. He has not answered the specific question I asked. He is obfuscating. If his word means anything, he will withdraw the amendment due to be moved tomorrow evening and ensure that first-time buyers have at least a fighting chance of buying a home for themselves. The Taoiseach should do the right thi…

No, the competition-----

The cuckoo funds are competing with them.

Does the Taoiseach get that?