Answer the question.

I sat in the housing committee with the Minister of State last year when the planning Bill was pushed through. We warned at the time of the consequences when the Government rushes through complex and serious legislation. Here we are now, 12 months on, trying to fix the errors. Why is there always a rush when dealing with complex legislation? Instead of learning from the mistakes of the past, the Government is pushing this legislation through with no committee oversight or pre-legislative scrutiny. Once again, the G…

In recent years, I have had the privilege to work with Pat Coyle and the Care Champions, a group that came into existence because of what happened to their loved ones during the Covid pandemic and how badly they were treated. Their stories are heartbreaking. I have witnessed the guilt and the hurt they feel because of the way their loved ones were treated. They feel their loved ones were abandoned. Care Champions and Pat Coyle have tried to engage with the Government in a constructive manner. They are not about poi…

So, in September.

Students are coming back in September, not next year.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I appreciate him letting me speak. The results of this report are no surprise to parents or anyone involved with special education in Cork city. This Government and previous Governments have failed children with additional needs. Schools like Scoil Íosagáin in Farranree are crying out for additional autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes. Rathcormac National School is crying out for special needs classes, having been passed. I hear from parents whose children now must go into m…

The people do not trust the Government to honour the patriot dead, the men and women and their families. Those families must be remembered. The volunteers and heroes died but their families had to live on through the pain and suffering. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have disrespected those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. The Minister comes in here and talks about turning it into a retail space. My God, man. It is the heart and soul of the Irish people and of this country. Does the Government not understa…

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Eoin Ó Broin. Will the Minister provide an update on the review of section 10 funding for homelessness service providers and the changes he intends to make to this funding stream in light of the near financial collapse of an organisation in 2023?

The Peter McVerry Trust almost went bankrupt in the summer of 2023. The core issue was the use of capital funding to cross-subsidise the day-to-day running costs of the organisation. It ran up a liability of almost €20 million. There have been two independent regulator reports on the issues. It is totally unacceptable that the provision of homelessness services has been privatised and commercialised out. Why is 100% of the funding not given? Why is it 90%? Why is it that homelessness service providers must outbid e…

I asked the Minister a couple of questions and he answered none of them. Why is 100% of the funding not being given to homelessness service providers? Why are they put into a bidding war with each other in trying to provide homelessness services for people? Was there any oversight of what was happening? There had to be a €15 million bailout of the Peter McVerry Trust, a trust that was set up to support homeless people. Government policy over the years has been to farm these services out and to do a Pontius Pilate a…

I wish to ask the Minister about the derelict sites levies that have been levied, collected and owed; the number of sites subject to a CPO in the previous 12 months; the number of sites for which a levy was applied; and the number of sites on the register on 31 December 2024, by local authority.

The Minister of State and I sat on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for four years. There are local authorities that will not put sites on the derelict sites register; some local authorities will not impose the levy, which is the law; and other local authorities will not collect the levy. Millions of euro are owed on derelict sites on the register but there are more sites that have not been put on it. This Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government has allowed local authorities to …

The facts are the facts. There are derelict sites in every town, village and city in this State. Between them, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government for between ten and 14 years. These are the facts. I am not making this up. If the Minister of State wants to walk down the street with me, I will walk down with the three Ministers and a couple of Members of the Opposition and we will show him the dereliction. The Minister of State should not come in here and say he is doing this and he is doing that. Ther…

It is not happening.

The Minister stated the Government has delivered 3,600 units. That sums up its delivery. There were no cost-rental units in 2020. There were 65 in 2021, 684 in 2022, 869 in 2023 and 2,027 last year. That is still below the Government's targets. The Government has never delivered and has in fact missed every target it has set over the past four or five years. On top of that, in respect of so-called affordable cost rental properties, in O'Devaney Gardens tenants are paying from €1,490 to €1,900. In Donabate, they are…

The Minister referred to people on moderate incomes and viability. There are people who cannot get on the social housing list because they earn too much, but they are not earning enough to qualify for cost rental because the rent is more than one third of their income. Individuals, couples and families are trapped in the middle. They are earning too much for social housing and not enough for cost-rental or affordable housing. What is the Government going to do about that? How will it help those people? The Governme…

There was no vote taken.

I will correct the Minister-----

If I said something like that the Minister would-----

I had solutions two weeks ago.