For the past four and a half years, I have come to the Chamber and submitted questions regarding empty council houses. A reference to the European decision to move to a preventative maintenance programme has always been included in the responses. In the past four years, I have never seen a plan by Cork City Council, Cork County Council or the Government for preventative maintenance. Will the Minister of State raise this issue at the European Council and ask what other countries are doing on this? People are living …

Do not be calling out from the backbenches. Stand up and be counted.

I normally welcome the opportunity to speak on legislation. It is a very important part of our democratic process. However, it is beyond belief that we are here once again reviewing emergency powers that were put in place five decades ago. The emergency was declared over in 1995 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Twenty-six years later the Government announced a review. This review is still dragging on but, in the meantime, national and international human rights organisations are calling for the abolit…

A gentleman came to my clinic last week. He is a lovely man in his early 70s. He is a fine fresh guy. He said he pays €20 a week out of his pension to put towards his electricity bill. At one stage last year he was more than €700 in credit but because the price rises kept coming, the €20 a week is not enough to meet the bills coming in. He has slowly run into arrears which have built up bill after bill. Now he is worried that he will be disconnected. This is an elderly man who worked all his life. He lives alone. H…

To follow on from the previous two speakers, there is a crisis in Cork regarding student accommodation and the affordability of such accommodation. That is why it is so important that the strategy is now delivered. I know the Minister is not long in the job but surely his predecessor had advanced this. It should be at a certain stage now. When will we have sight of it? It is a very important strategy that needs to be delivered on. The Minister made a point about what was done in Spain. Students are now fighting wit…

How much were they?

How much were they?

As my colleague said, it is disappointing we are speaking on a Bill without any pre-legislative scrutiny having been done. This is another example of the Government refusing to engage constructively in the legislative process. We saw this last week when the planning Bill was rushed through the Dáil and guillotined, and we are seeing a similar issue now with the absence of pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government should be producing legislation that can stand up to scrutiny and should not be afraid to have its legis…

The Government has worked day and night to put migration at the heart of politics and debate in recent months. It is a distraction from its failures of the housing crisis, the health crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and the crisis in disability services and supports. A person said to me recently that they feel the Government has made them racist because they are fighting for services for their family and children and this Government is failing them. What happens then is that, unfortunately, vulnerable people are p…

Last Saturday, I buried my aunt Jenny O'Leary. Jenny McCarthy was her maiden name. She had been sick for 12 years and her daughter Linda cared for her. Jenny had a lot of issues but she always wanted to stay at home. Even up to two years ago before she stopped communicating, her daughter kept her at home. Linda had to fight for everything from home help hours to increased home help hours to weekends. Here was a daughter doing everything for her mother that her mother wished for but this State did not support her al…

Last week, I was contacted by a constituent who had received a letter from Cork City Council stating it had no emergency accommodation. All it was short of saying was that there was no room at the inn and people should go out to the stable. The crisis in emergency accommodation and homelessness in Cork is now so bad there is nowhere to put people. I received an email from a husband and wife who have two children aged five and one and have lived in emergency accommodation for 16 months. The mother told me it is soul…

I asked about the homeless. These people are homeless today, not in 16 months' time.

I will not repeat what other Deputies have said. I will speak to the national planning framework and the decision not to bring it before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Deputy Ó Broin made the point that backbenchers can go back to their local radio stations and newspapers and say the situation is all wrong and it is the fault of the big, bad people in An Bord Pleanála and the Office of the Planning Regulator. When I was a member of Cork City Council, a number of Fianna Fáil councillors were calling for the abolition…

That is an outrageous comment.

If you are elected, you are elected.

Ceann Comhairle, I made no such comment.

Every TD in here is equal, whether they are elected on the first count or the tenth count.

The amendments go to the heart of social and affordable and cost-rental targets. To give the Minister of State an insight, in Cork, 32 cost-rental properties came on the market from Cork City Council. Some 900 people or couples applied for them. That is why targets are so important. Do not get me wrong. It probably changed the lives of those who got the 32 properties, but imagine the disappointment for the 868 applicants who did not get them and the heartbreak they felt. This is not just for cost-rental housing but…

Will the Minister provide an update to the House on the TV licence reforms? On 15 February, in response to a question I asked, the Minister said: There is no fear of local and European elections. What I am concerned with is the future of public service media being put on a sure footing. That is my focus, not the politics involved or being fearful of elections.

In response to the controversies that arose in RTÉ since June 2023 the Government established two expert advisory committees to lead independent reviews of the governance and culture in RTÉ and of the contractor fees, human resources and other matters in RTÉ. A commitment was given that these reports would be available in March. March ended 60 days ago. Where are the reports? In January and February, I raised concerns that a decision on these reports would not be out before the local elections because there is a sp…