I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case:

Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss the need to bring the Ring of Kerry road up to an acceptable standard.

Deputy Máire Devine - To discuss the industrial action being undertaken by Irish nurses and their unions.

Deputy Alan Kelly - To discuss the need for a new taxi or hackney licence in rural Ireland.

Deputy Marie Sherlock - To discuss the exclusion of mainstream classes in Holy Child preschool on Seán MacDermott Street, Dublin 1, from special educational needs support.

Deputy Aidan Farrelly - To discuss issues relating to water supply in north Kildare.

Deputy Pearse Doherty - To discuss the future of Raphoe community playgroup, County Donegal.

Deputy Michael Murphy - To discuss the challenge of attracting young people and new entrants into farming.

Deputy Pádraig Rice - To discuss the redevelopment of Cork city library.

Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - To discuss the provision of special education places in Cork.

Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discuss the introduction of a youth culture card.

Deputy Séamus McGrath - To discuss driver licence reciprocal arrangements.

Deputy Ryan O'Meara - To discuss the continuation and expansion of the counselling in primary schools pilot, CPS-P.

Deputy Paul Lawless - To discuss the waste water treatment plant in Newport, County Mayo.

Deputy Cathy Bennett - To discuss the impact of inadequate service levels in Cavan and Monaghan hospitals.

Deputy Aindrias Moynihan - To discuss difficulties getting home support packages for people in Cork.

Deputy Joanna Byrne - To discuss dangerous and unsafe working conditions in the ambulance station in Drogheda.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman - To discuss the need for modular accommodation for Danu Community Special School.

Deputy Catherine Connolly - To discuss the ongoing delays in the provision of an ambulance base at Recess, County Galway.

Deputies Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and Thomas Gould - To discuss the current shortage of school places, particularly for children with additional needs.

Deputy Joe Cooney - To discuss the delivery of stand-alone, modular or temporary wastewater treatment systems for residential developments.

Deputies David Cullinane and Conor D McGuinness - To discuss funding requirements for the Waterford Airport extension.

Deputy Rory Hearne - To discuss the construction of new school buildings for Clonturk Community College, Whitehall, Dublin 9.

Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss the lack of affordable childcare facilities in Dublin Central.

Deputy Colm Burke - To discuss the programme of works for the water supply system on the north side of Cork city.

Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss the ban on the use of mid-urethral mesh slings in treatment for urinary incontinence in women.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú· - To discuss the care of children with autism who also have mental health issues.

Deputy Cathal Crowe - To discuss the capacity of the national ambulance service in County Clare.

Deputy Pa Daly - To discuss the delay in the opening of the community hospital in Killarney.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett - To discuss the need to review income limits for social and affordable housing.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan - To discuss organised crime in Limerick city.

Deputy Jen Cummins - To discuss the importance of the school completion programme.

Deputy Brian Brennan - To discuss the Government's reaction plan to major international incidents such as the recent earthquake in Myanmar.

Deputy Donna McGettigan - To discuss the exclusion of various categories of persons from the official homeless figures.

Deputy Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin - To discuss the need to bring rural roads up to an acceptable standard.

Deputy Mattie McGrath - To discuss the use of rural hotels for IPAS accommodation.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger - To discuss the recent protest by Mothers against Genocide.

Deputies Naoise Ó Muirí, Cian O'Callaghan, Denise Mitchell, Barry Heneghan and Tom Brabazon - To discuss accommodating a new special school on the Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School site.

The matters raised by Deputies Naoise Ó Muirí, Cian O'Callaghan, Denise Mitchell, Barry Heneghan and Tom Brabazon; Aidan Farrelly; Mattie McGrath; Cathal Crowe; and Ruairí Ó Murchú have been selected for discussion.

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

— a housing emergency exists in the State; and

— housing is a human right as enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

further notes that:

— 15,286 homeless people, including 4,603 children, were in emergency accommodation in January 2025;

— the typical listed house price across the country is €346,080, 11.6 per cent higher than a year ago and 35 per cent higher than at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Dublin figure is €460,726, up 12.2 per cent on last year;

— the number of second-hand houses available to buy at 9,300 is 17 per cent lower year-on-year, and the lowest recorded since January 2007;

— average rent nationally is €1,956, 43 per cent higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and in Dublin the figure is as high as €2,722;

— on 1st February, 2025, fewer than 2,300 homes were available to rent, down 25 per cent on one year previously, and this compares to approximately 20,000 short-term lets on Airbnb at the same time;

— 143,824 households are on social housing waiting lists, Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) and rent supplements;

— payments of €3.3 billion were made between 2019 and 2025, to landlords in respect of HAPs;

— there was a failure to meet housing completion targets for 2024, down 6.7 per cent on 2023;

— research by The Housing Commission shows a potential requirement of 81,000 new homes per year to 2050, dependent on population and household size;

— between 2012 and 2022, the share of young adults living in their childhood bedroom in Ireland rose by 21 per cent, to reach 59 per cent; and

— a large cohort of families are locked out of home ownership, due to earning in excess of the low local authority housing limit, but not enough to secure a mortgage;

furthermore, notes that The Housing Commission:

— estimates a housing deficit of 235,000 dwellings;

— asserts that "only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work"; and

— further asserts that "it is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action";

further again, notes that Bunreacht na hÉireann – the Irish Constitution, provides for such emergency action in Article 43.2.2° - Private Property, stating that "The State, accordingly, may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good."; and

calls on the Government to:

— enact in law a "Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest" Act, declaring a housing emergency; and

— include the following provisions in the Act:

— the emergency will continue for five years after the passing into law of the Act, and at the expiry of this period the Government will bring a review before both Houses of the Oireachtas;

— create a state housing infrastructure investment fund/bond to unlock the €160 billion in Irish household savings to invest in social, affordable and cost rental housing;

— no further increases in rent during the period of the housing emergency;

— regulate short-term lets, by publishing and advancing the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill without delay;

— fund local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to implement a tenant in-situ scheme, with a minimum purchase target of 2,500 homes per year;

— ban institutional purchase of houses and apartments, other than by local authorities and AHBs;

— significantly fund local authorities to purchase, by agreement or by compulsory purchase, vacant properties, for repair and letting to approved housing applicants;

— implement the recommendations of the Report of the Committee on the Price of Building Land, the "Kenny Report";

— institute a 100 per cent redress scheme for all those affected by defective concrete products, and apartment and duplex defects, and ensure the Government follows the scientific data in this area; and

— a massive construction programme of social and affordable housing on public land.

A housing emergency exists in this State and every TD in this Dáil, whether in government or in opposition, knows that well because every day they are contacted by families who are homeless, threatened with homelessness or facing homelessness in one way or another and they can do little or nothing about it. There are huge frustrations among TDs about this. Housing is a human right and thousands of families are being denied that right by this Government. They are being denied a roof over their heads. The evidence for that is all-pervasive. It is everywhere to be seen. For instance, currently more than 15,000 people are homeless in emergency accommodation, including 4,603 children. House prices have risen in the past year on average by 11.6% and by 12.2% in Dublin. The cost of a second-hand house has also increased and the number of second-hand houses available to buy is 17% lower year-on-year. Average rent nationally is exorbitant at €1,956 per month and it is even higher than that in Dublin where it is at €2,722.

Between housing assistance payments, HAP, housing waiting lists, local authority waiting lists, rent supplement and so on, approximately 140,000 families are on waiting lists. We pay approximately €500 million per year to landlords. That is €3.3 billion since 2019. There is the failure to meet housing targets. Last year, that figure was down by 6.7% on the 2023 figure and between 2012 and 2022 the number of young adults living in their childhood bedrooms increased by 21% to 59%. A huge cohort of families is completely locked out of the housing market. Their income is slightly higher than the local authority income limit for the housing waiting list but is not enough for a mortgage. This is the independent evidence that there is a serious problem, indeed an emergency, in housing. That independent evidence has been confirmed by the Government's Housing Commission report published last July, which states there was a deficit of 235,000 dwellings and asserted that only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work. Interestingly, it goes on to say that it is critical that this housing deficit be addressed through emergency action. Emergency action is available. It is provided for in Article 43.2 of Bunreacht na hÉireann. That emergency action has a precedent. It is called financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, and was in place in the years 2011 to 2016.

Emergency action is available, has a precedent and is provided for in Bunreacht na hÉireann, so what would it look like? It would mean a declaration in law of a housing emergency. The provisions would include - this list is not exhaustive - for instance, the creation of a government infrastructure investment fund or bond to unlock some of the huge personal savings available.

There is approximately €160 billion in household savings and that would allow huge funds to commence a massive programme of construction of social, affordable and cost-rental homes.

Emergency action would also mean no further rent increases for the duration of the emergency. It would mean a ban on no-fault evictions because evictions are the primary driver for homelessness. It would mean that there would be regulation of short-term lets. It would mean a huge expansion of the tenant in situ scheme for local authorities and approved housing bodies.

The latest tenant in situ scheme, announced and notified to local authorities on Monday, is particularly restrictive. It will reduce the number of houses purchased by local authorities and it will drive further families into homelessness. That scheme needs to be significantly increased and a significant target of homes needs to be purchased under that scheme. Local authorities also need to be significantly funded to purchase, either by agreement or by compulsory purchase, vacant houses for repair and letting to approved applicants.

Crucially, we need - finally - the implementation of the Kenny report on the price of building land. I recall, way back in the early 1970s, as a young clerical officer in then South Tipperary County Council, where all the county managers of the day were enthused by this report and saw it as a significant effort in dealing with the cost of building land. That report needs to be implemented urgently.

There are other issues, including the question of 100% redress for those affected by defective concrete products and apartment and duplex defects. I believe that a declaration of a housing emergency in law would mean that the emergency that we undoubtedly have could be tackled on an emergency basis. I believe that every Deputy knows that emergency action is, in fact, the only way in which this housing crisis can even begin to be dealt with. I ask all TDs, and particularly Government backbenchers, who deal with this issue on a daily basis and who know the frustration caused and the effects homelessness and the insecurity of tenure has on families and individuals, to support this motion. It is, in my view and, I think, in the view of quite a substantial number of people inside and outside this Dáil that this is the only action that will make a start to the solution of this difficult problem that is undermining the very fabric of society. I commend the motion to the House.

People Before Profit strongly support this motion. We thank Deputy Healy, not only for bringing forward this motion today but for years of pushing the necessity of legally recognising the housing emergency as an emergency and the necessity for radical action.

The motion contains the kind of emergency measures that the Government should have been implementing ten years ago. I was first elected in 2014. That year, there was a similar motion which called for recognition of a housing emergency. It was rejected by the Fine Gael-Labour Government. At the time, when we were rightly saying it was an emergency, 3,607 homeless were people living in emergency accommodation. Ten years later, the housing crisis has escalated so much that there is more than four times that many people trapped in that terrible situation. This morning more than 4,600 children in one of the richest countries in the world woke up in emergency accommodation.

For most of the past ten years, the Government parties have insisted that housing is its top priority. I do not know how they managed to keep a straight face through most of that but actions speak louder than words. Two years ago this week, the Government lifted the eviction ban. We predicted what would happen, and it did. There was a massive increase in homelessness from 9,825 in March 2023 to 15,378 at the end of February - a jump of 57%. The truth is that the whole time the priority has been to increase property prices so that landlords, landowners, developers, vulture funds and banks can keep making profits.

I am not sure that the Government is even pretending that the housing crisis is a top priority anymore. Ten years ago, the then Government had a target of ending long-term homelessness by 2016. Then it was ending the use of hotels for homeless people by July 2016. There is no target for ending homelessness now. In fact, it is the reverse; the Government seems absolutely content to watch the homeless figures go up, month after month. The only time it gets concerned about them is when an election is coming and then it lies about the numbers and it delays putting them out.

The latest example of the Government's could-not-care-less attitude is its reckless suspension of the tenant in situ scheme. The effect in my constituency and right across the country has been to take away the only thing standing between families and homelessness. There are families already in this process for many months. The average waiting time is a year. They had agreements with their landlord. They had been told they were finally to get their forever home; now they have had that cruelly snatched away from them by the Government. In one case I am dealing with, the person has been going through this never-ending process for 18 months but now everything is paused. She is facing into homelessness for no other reason than the Government is dragging its feet, presumably in an effort to cut the cost of the scheme. We know that the new budget will buy a lot fewer homes than the old one and that the point of the restrictions and prioritisation being imposed is to make sure that fewer people get it. The Government must reinstate this scheme immediately and increase the budget to the level needed to provide for everyone who needs to access it. That is what it would do if it was serious about addressing this crisis.

Of course, the Government has no problem handing out ever bigger wads of cash to landlords and to operators of private emergency accommodation. That is what the threats to abolish the rent pressure zones are about - removing any and all limits to rates of profit in the housing market so that rents and prices can skyrocket even further. The Currency reported last week that, in 2023, the Government paid private property owners €140 million for emergency accommodation. A typical example is €1 million a year for tenement-style accommodation on Gardiner Street in Dublin where the State is paying through the nose to warehouse more than 1,000 people in a giant slum. One of the slumlords listed, Joe Somerville, who was paid more than €1 million a year by the State for emergency homeless accommodation in 2022 and 2023, has a history of illegally evicting tenants in order to turn their homes into emergency accommodation. It is not an isolated example. The owner of TramCo in Rathmines has been attempting to do the same - illegally evict long-standing tenants to turn the building into homeless accommodation. This has been thankfully stopped for now by action by the tenants supported by the Community Action Tenants Union, CATU. That is the kind of grassroots action in a mass movement that we need to beat this Government.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Seamus Healy, for bringing forward this important motion on housing emergency measures in the public interest. I acknowledge the inclusion in this motion of the defective concrete crisis, which many Opposition parties have disappointingly failed to include in their previous housing motions.

Support from all parties and independent TDs across every constituency is required in respect of the defective concrete block crisis. At least 16 counties have been impacted so far, but it is very likely that more will discover that defective concrete blocks were used in the construction of buildings. Families across the country have for years been living in homes that are literally falling apart. Homes built on foot of trust, hard work and sacrifice have turned into prisons of anxiety and despair. It is time we come together to tackle this humanitarian crisis and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. To do so, the Government must listen to those who have been impacted, namely, the people who have experienced this crisis at first hand. They truly understand and know how to tackle it. Their voices have been ignored and their solutions rejected for far too long.

Impacted homeowners tell us that the existing scheme has been a complete failure. Families are being forced to rebuild on top of Weetabix blocks. Engineers with decades of expertise have warned of the failures but have been ignored. We have been told too many times that the scheme is evolving. If that were the case, there would be no need to keep going the way we are going. We have had two different versions of the scheme, both of which have failed. Once again, the Government does not listen. It has ignored more than 80 amendments from homeowners that would have transformed the scheme. It has rejected pre-legislative scrutiny on legislation designed to speed up the scheme and then left said legislation for nearly 18 months before implementing it.

We are stuck with a scheme that does not work. We warned the Government three years ago that this would be the case. There are many examples of how the scheme is unworkable. Take the example of two semi-detached houses located adjacent to each other. One family gets to have their house remediated because it has the funds to do so. They go into debt. The other family does not have the money and are left in the house as it crumbles. The first family rebuilds their house. The houses are put back together but the foundations underneath are contaminated. It is ridiculous. The exclusion of foundations from remediation is unforgivable. Naming the scheme the defective concrete blocks scheme is purposely insulting to impacted homeowners, many of whose houses and foundations are crumbling underneath their feet.

The Government has chosen to ignore this critical structural element when it comes to defective homes. This is leaving families at serious risk. Their mental health goes down the drain. Homeowners are forever trapped in uncertainty. They are not able to sell their homes because there are still defective materials inside after they have been remediated, not rebuilt. This has been going on for years. The scheme must be reviewed as soon as possible. Delays have consequences, and to continue to ignore the affected families will have consequences.

I agree with this motion in the context of the call to Government to carry out a massive construction programme of social and affordable housing on public land. The lack of real social and affordable housing in Donegal, coupled with the crisis relating to defective concrete, means that many families in the county have nowhere to go. There is a complete lack of alternative accommodation for families who are rebuilding their homes because there is nowhere for them to go. There are no houses available to rent. Families are left to live in dangerous houses and face severe hardship while dealing with this crisis. There is no end in sight for them. It was a slap in the face to impacted homeowners in Donegal and across the country to hear the Minister say last week that if the housing crisis was solved in Dublin, it would be solved for the whole country.

There is now a defective concrete crisis in 28 counties, all of which I have visited. If we do not tackle this and get proper procedures in place with 100% redress, we will not be able to solve this crisis and it will get worse, as we told the Government three years ago. We warned that this would happen. We were not listened to. Now we have the IS 465 register dropping. The Minister has met families who own defective apartments. I ask him to meet the people of Donegal who are affected and give them the answers they need.

I remind Members that people should not be named in the House.

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"acknowledges that:

— Housing for All sets out an ambitious multi-annual programme that seeks to deliver more than 300,000 new homes between 2022 and 2030;

— more than 133,000 new build homes were delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024, exceeding the Housing for All target for the period by some 5,500 or so new homes, and a 49 per cent increase on the quantum delivered in the previous three-year period;

— there have been record levels of delivery for both social and affordable homes via the various delivery partners involved; and

— Government measures, such as the development levy waiver and water connection refund have been a catalyst for increased construction activity in the last 12 months, establishing a robust medium-term pipeline and supporting significantly accelerated supply of new housing in the coming years;

recognises that:

— the measures introduced under Housing for All have helped establish a solid platform to 'scale-up' delivery further in the short-term and secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us meet fully unmet and emerging demand;

— the Government's revised housing targets, informed by expert, peer-reviewed research by the Economic and Social Research Institute, and targeting a minimum of 300,000 or so new homes over the next six years, are an ambitious and credible pathway to achieving these objectives;

— the measures committed to in the Programme for Government - Securing Ireland's Future, including a new housing plan building on the successes of Housing for All, will help us meet the enormous challenge of delivering 60,000 or more new homes per year by 2030; and

— the Government's new national housing plan will incorporate pragmatic actions to boost housing activity in the short-term, coupled with strategic deliverables to drive comprehensive systemic change and subsequent increase in supply into the long-term;

notes that:

— Housing for All contains a suite of actions that have, and continue to, increase the provision of housing by accelerating supply and increasing the affordability of homes;

— the increase in new homes, as well as measures such as the First Home Scheme, the Help to Buy scheme, the Local Authority Home Loan, the relaxation of social housing income eligibility limits, and the introduction of the Rent Tax Credit, are all helping to support younger people achieve autonomy in the housing market;

— the latest Central Statistics Office data on market purchases of homes by non-households, including institutional investors, show the State was the largest non-household purchaser of homes in 2023, acquiring almost half of the 12,000 or so homes bought by such purchasers;

— the owner-occupier guarantee introduced by Government in May 2021, has succeeded in preventing the inappropriate purchase of homes to a single purchaser, securing those homes for purchase by homeowners, with planning permission granted for some 55,600 homes with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser between May 2021 and November 2024; and

— defective concrete blocks is a complex issue, which the Government is addressing by allocating a significant amount of money to affected homeowners, to enable them to rebuild their homes and get on with their lives, while changes were included to the scheme late in 2024 to take account of the most recent research undertaken; and

affirms Government efforts to:

— increase supply and improve the availability, choice and affordability of homes;

— build on the significant number of social and affordable homes provided in 2024, expanding the State's investment available for the delivery of social, affordable and cost rental homes in 2025, supplemented by the Land Development Agency investment, and the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) lending, which will bring the overall capital provision to almost €6.8 billion;

— support individuals and families who may be struggling to purchase a home, by bridging the gap between their financial resources and the price of the home, through a range of schemes including the Help to Buy, First Home Scheme, Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme and the Local Authority Home Loan;

— consider the best means for regulating the private rental sector, including any recalibration of the current Rent Pressure Zones that may be required, which will seek to strike the most appropriate balance between protecting affordability for tenants on the one hand, while increasing the supply of new rental homes through new private investment and construction on the other;

— boost supply of private rental homes by introducing new regulatory controls for short-term lets, by progressing the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill;

— address homelessness through additional measures included in the Programme for Government, including to develop a cross-Government prevention framework, reforming the legislative framework, the continuation and expansion of the Housing First scheme, and a commitment to focus social housing allocations to exit families experiencing homelessness;

— sustain Tenant in-Situ Scheme acquisitions into 2025, as a clear indication of Government's commitment to preventing homelessness for Housing Assistance Payment and the Rental Accommodation Scheme tenants, who have been served a 'no fault' Notice of Termination;

— support a targeted second-hand social housing acquisitions programme, which responds to the needs of the most vulnerable by increasing the 2025 budget for the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme, from the €60 million available under Housing for All, to €325 million;

— support local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to acquire and re-develop vacant and derelict buildings and sites, from single properties to more extensive buildings or blocks for social housing, through the Social Housing Investment Programme and the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund;

— support the full time Vacant Homes Officers in all 31 local authorities to actively pursue all avenues to bring vacant properties back into use;

— introduce new regulatory controls for short-term lets, by progressing the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill;

— establish a land price register, for which work is committed to in the Programme for Government and already underway;

— continue to develop Land Zoning Value Sharing proposals to allow the State to secure a proportion of the increased value of land associated with zoning decisions, with communities benefitting as a result;

— prioritise infrastructure development as a critical means for increasing housing supply, noting the Government's commitment including, for example, investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann;

— establish a new strategic housing activation office, to coordinate homebuilding and investment in the servicing of zoned lands;

— expand the capacity of the construction sector, as another key measure to scale up delivery to the levels necessary by 2030;

— diversify sources of investment, noting the level of investment required in the long-term cannot be solely the responsibility of the State, and it will also require a very significant level of private investment, including appropriate institutional capital investment, which is essential for the delivery of critically needed private rental homes;

— work with domestic lenders to ensure that the banking sector is appropriately using its lending capacity to support the development of new housing;

— develop new financing sources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, with support from Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI), the HFA and domestic banks, as well as State support of equity investment; and

— deliver on the far-ranging commitments in the Programme for Government, and informed by the Housing Commission's proposals for the long-term reform of the housing system, accepting this is an appropriate response to the current housing challenges which Ireland is now facing."

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Government's countermotion and to outline the progress made to date by this Government and that which preceded it under Housing for All. I will set out what we are doing to build on the successes of that plan and our ongoing commitment to meet the significant housing challenges facing us as a nation.

Housing is a cross-society challenge that has a real impact on people's lives. I reassert the Government's commitment to addressing the housing crisis by implementing Housing for All and the suite of measures outlined in the programme for Government. We want to make it very clear that we do not underestimate the scale of the challenge and that is why we are considering every lever at out disposal. We are looking at immediate, short-term, pragmatic actions to increase supply, as well as longer term initiatives that will help sustain and build on this over the coming decade. It is important to acknowledge that we are not starting from scratch. We are building on the progress already made since the launch of Housing for All three and a half years ago.

Housing for All sets out a comprehensive and ambitious multi-annual programme to accelerate and significantly increase the delivery of new homes. This ambition is reflected in the record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding of almost €6.8 billion now available and a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need.

Last year's dip in delivery was very disappointing, but supply continues to grow in the longer term. More that 133,000 new-build homes were delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024, up almost 50% on the three previous years. Building new homes remains a key priority for the Government. To this end, we have committed to delivering some 300,000 new homes by 2030, rising to 60,000 homes per year by the end of that period. Scaling up to 60,000 homes per year and building further on this thereafter will be an enormous challenge. We will rise to this challenge by utilising all the means available to us. We will do this by, among other things, prioritising investment in infrastructure development. For example, we will draw on the Housing Commission's proposals and establish a new strategic housing activation office to co-ordinate home building and investment in the service of zoned lands and to remove barriers that stifle supply.

The commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024 is a key priority for the Government. The Act will bring greater clarity and certainty. The revised national planning framework will provide local authorities with scope to zone the amount of land required to meet housing needs in areas of highest demand. The motion calls for the creation of a State housing infrastructure investment fund or bond to unlock housing savings. We are examining all options to secure the public and private financing required to deliver on our targets. We continue to engage with domestic lenders and we continue to explore development of new financing resources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, with the support of Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, the Housing Finance Agency, HFI, as well as State-supported equity investment.

The motion also calls for a ban on institutional purchases of houses and apartments, other than by local authorities and AHBs. The nature and the scale of homes being bought by non-household purchasers is often misinformed. The reality is illustrated by latest CSO data on market purchases of homes by non-households, including institutional investors, is that the State was the largest non-household purchaser of homes in 2023. It acquired almost half of the 12,000 or so homes bought by such purchasers. Furthermore, the owner-occupier guarantee introduced by the Government in May 2021 has succeeded in preventing the inappropriate purchase of homes by a single purchaser and securing those homes for purchase by homeowners.

Between May 2021 and November 2024, planning permission was granted for some 55,600 homes with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by or multiple sales to a single purchaser of those homes. Affordability is a key focus of Housing for All, which introduced many measures to support access to affordable housing and assist those aspiring to buy their own home to do so. It includes the help to buy scheme, the local authority affordable purchase schemes, the local authority home loan and the first home shared equity scheme. Unprecedented State investment under Housing for All has supported record levels of delivery of both social and affordable homes via the various delivery partners involved.

We continue to deliver the first affordable homes in a generation and we are going from strength to strength with affordable housing supports provided in 2024 likely to significantly exceed 2023's outturn. Notably, since July 2020, almost 42,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock. We also have a strong pipeline, with more than 28,000 homes at all stages of design and build. The Government will continue to roll out the largest social housing programme in the history of the State. The programme for Government contains a commitment to expanding on this significantly. It will target some 12,000 homes per year on average over the Government's term. Allied with support for approximately 15,000 starter homes, this reflects our commitment to resolving the housing crisis.

In the rental market, we have committed to continuing support for renters and landlords, including measures to protect renters and landlords from abusive practices through enhanced enforcement powers for the Residential Tenancies Board. We will consider the best means for regulating the private rental sector, including any recalibration of the existing rent pressure zones that may be required. We will seek to strike the most appropriate balance between protecting affordability for tenants on the one hand, while increasing the supply of new rental homes for new private investment and construction on the other.

Tenant in situ acquisitions are recognised as a key measure in the prevention of homelessness and as such I reassert the Government's commitment to the continuation of a more focused and targeted programme to ensure it benefits those most in need. To this end I have requested local authorities focus on the following priority categories, namely, tenant in situ acquisitions, older persons or persons with a disability, exits from homeless services and buy or new acquisitions which tackle vacancy. Prioritising vulnerable households for support under the second-hand acquisitions programme is important but it does not mean excluding others. It will be a matter for local authorities to respond to local needs.

To conclude, this Government is dedicated to ensuring the continued success of Housing for All and implementing the far-ranging commitments of the programme for Government. In its countermotion, the Government highlights the substantial progress made to date and how it will built on this progress. We have achieved much since Housing for All was published and will continue to work tirelessly over the terms of this Government to increase supply, address the affordability challenges and fix the housing system for our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

It is obvious the Government does not want to solve the housing crisis. It has dropped the pretence. It has no targets, it is curtailing the tenant in situ scheme, it has always resisted rent controls and its homelessness figures continue to rise. It does absolutely nothing about it. It does not want to stop the flow into homelessness. It is planning to remove even the minimal rent controls. It does not want to solve the housing crisis. The truth about the Government's housing policy was revealed in the White House in the exchange between Donald Trump and Micheál Martin. When Trump said that the housing crisis in this country was a sign of success, the Taoiseach said it was a good answer and he had not thought of that one. Why does Trump think it is a success? He is a property speculator, a billionaire and a landlord. He makes money when house prices and rents are high, when there is a shortage of housing and when there is poor quality housing. That is how they make money. That is how the rich in this country make money. That is how the property investors make money. They have no interest in solving the housing crisis. In fact, they have an interest in making sure we do not solve the housing crisis because if there was an adequate supply of affordable housing, built on a not-for-profit basis, they could not make profit. That is the simple truth and that is why the Government resists every measure to address the housing crisis. It is there to represent the landlords, the property speculators, the developers, the Trumps of this world and their Irish equivalents. That is what the Government is, that is what it is doing and that was revealed in the White House. You could even see it from the lack of energy in the Minister's speech. He reads off the script. The Government does not flipping care anymore. We are dropping the pretence that we are trying to solve this. This relates to defective and poor quality buildings. It is profitable for the people who build houses to cut corners. They do not put in fire breaks, do not put in proper materials, and do not check the houses in case they turn out to be defective because it would cut into their profits. It is greed, greed, greed. That is what the Government represents and ordinary people are suffering.

It also relates to another issue I would like to raise again about the thresholds. If someone is on a working family payment, and is working, that can take them over the threshold for social housing. Thousands and thousands of working people who go out, work hard and pay their taxes are taken off the housing lists after ten or 15 years waiting when they are on a working family payment or just because they get a pay rise or they do a bit of over time. It is gone and they have no chance whatsoever. They are trapped in homelessness or in squalid conditions with multiple generations living in poor quality housing. I have raised this again and again. It also affects the attitude in councils because they want people to live in squalid conditions because they want to say they, "Oh we cannot make it easy for you to have a decent house". I have been fighting cases in Sallynoggin and in Shankill now where people are living in housing of crappy quality because the Government does not believe housing that is secure, affordable and decent is a right. It is a right but the profit-hungry developers which the Government represents make money from it so it does not want to do anything.

I commend Deputy Healy on bringing this motion seeking to make housing an emergency. I am gobsmacked. Here we are again looking at a sole face over on the backbenches. Not only is housing not an emergency for the Government, it is not even a priority. The Minister did not even use his full time. He had three minutes left. None of the backbenchers who have been talking about wanting to speak even bothered their barnies coming in and taking up the time the Minister did not care about. Two-thirds of under 35s living with their parents in the back bedroom, the back garden, which is the Government's latest measure, or abroad, which is where most of them are, are absolutely disgusted at the election result and the fact that we are here again with a Government that simply does not care.

We have a school in our area, the Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 area, that has begged parents to provide spare rooms for teachers. It cannot employ teachers because of the housing crisis. I have had letters from school students in the area as well. We have one in three vacancies in the CDNT area because people cannot afford to live here, which is adding to the waiting lists here on autism awareness day. I bring this to the Minister's attention and ask him what action he has taken about this. In Fingal County Council, one of the biggest councils in the country, and the Blanchardstown area - Blanchardstown being the fifth biggest population area in the country - there is a massive land bank sitting idle that the council has said could provide 7,000 homes. Meanwhile, young people in their bedrooms or who are emigrating are sitting looking at this. There was an article in The Irish Times yesterday that stated Fingal County Council will seek €200 million from central government to try to develop this land bank. It is waiting for a fund to be set up so it can do this. What an absolute joke. The idea of a State company would have prioritised these huge land banks to provide affordable and social housing. I am not a fan of cost rental at all. It is a scam where the rent is so high it is not affordable. However, I refer to social and affordable housing. When I went back onto the council I pushed this and Fingal County Council has it as a long-term policy to develop it. This should be developed in the short term - in the lifetime of this Government. I am demanding that the Minister makes this a priority. He should be identifying land banks such as this, bringing in the local authorities and asking them what they need to get this started. That is the only way the housing crisis will be resolved.

The other scam is Government citing figures that the private sector is building. Journalists should not even be giving this any credence. They are not Government houses; they are private homes most of which are completely and utterly unaffordable. The only figures should be public housing. That should be the Minister's focus. Will he bring in Fingal County Council and ask it what it needs in this regard?

Gabhaim buíochas le mo chomhghleacaí an Teachta Healy. I was elected in 2016 and since then, with all my colleagues here, we have begged, implored and appealed to the Government to declare a housing emergency to recognise that we have crisis but it has utterly failed to do that. Once again, it keeps turning language on its head, even in relation to social housing, as it called HAP provision social housing. I am here to support this motion. The Housing Commission report has been quoted many times. It is really worth quoting because the Housing Commission had 200 meetings and developed 83 recommendations. I want to highlight three alone that we rarely hear from the Government. The report said we should base our housing policy on an assessment of the housing required for a well-functioning society. We cannot have a well-functioning society if tenants are going from emergency to emergency to emergency accommodation. Another prominent finding was the negative impacts of housing crises on overall quality of life in Ireland. Some 74% of respondents indicated that their housing situation negatively affected their quality of life. Another really important recommendation for me was that "account must be taken in housing policy of the full economic and social costs associated with not meeting Ireland’s housing requirements." Of course, the easiest cost to identify is the money we are putting straight into landlord's pockets and calling it social housing under HAP, under long-term leasing and under RAS.

Then we have a situation in Galway where we have entities working on their own. There is lots of land at Ceannt Station where an entity is doing entirely its own thing. Do you know what the docks area is going to develop? Not social housing and not public housing but premium housing on public land held in trust by the harbour company for the people of Galway.

They are going to get the highest price on their site to develop premium housing. This is in a city where we have a catastrophic housing crisis.

The Simon Community produces a report every quarter to say there are no houses available, even under the discretionary scheme where the money goes higher under HAP. No houses are available. I am again waiting for the Simon Community's first quarterly report for this year. We all have people coming to our offices who have been waiting between 16 and 20 years for houses. Homeless services in Galway city are at capacity. The Government is simply ignoring the Housing Commission, which was set up at its request and which held all of those meetings. The commission made 83 recommendations and indicated that we need a radical reset of housing policy. Anybody with a bit of sense would say we have failed. Put your hands up. We all agree. The system has failed, but the Government persists in rewarding developers and rewarding private, for-profit businesses on every level - in direct provision and in housing.

In respect of homeless services, a figure was cited earlier by one of my colleagues. Surely at some stage the Government is going to recognise the cost of not doing something, as the commission has pointed out. That cost is going to be astronomical, both psychologically and financially.

I thank Deputy Healy and his colleagues for tabling this important motion and allowing us to have a crucial debate. Sinn Féin will be fully supporting the motion. While we may have some differences on elements of the detail relating to the policy proposals, we fully support the intention behind all of them.

Last Friday, the latest homeless figures were published. As the Minister knows, a record number of people are living in emergency accommodation funded by his Department. The figure is 15,378, some 4,653 of whom are children. The Minister also knows that this does not reflect the true level of homelessness. It does not include women and children in Tusla-funded domestic violence shelters. It does not include men and women in religious institution-funded homeless shelters that are not in receipt of State funding. It does not include rough sleepers. It does not include any of those people with refugee status, with subsidiary protection or with leave to remain who are trapped in direct provision and are essentially using it as homeless emergency accommodation. The real figure is now in excess of 20,000.

What is really important about the motion is the call for the Government to have an emergency response. Not only are we not getting that, the Government is doing things to make the situation worse. On Monday, the Minister made a number of very important announcements. He announced the capital allocations for social housing acquisitions, including the tenant in situ scheme. That represents an actual cut on the money that was spent by local authorities on acquisitions, including for tenants in situ, last year. When we finally get the figures from the Minister by way of parliamentary questions, we will be able to definitively prove that. Dublin City Council is already telling its elected members that the total acquisitions allocation the Department has given them for this year is €22 million less than last year. That is the local authority with the highest levels of homelessness.

I agree with colleagues on the new restrictions the Minister has introduced by way of the relevant circular. He uses the phrase "focused and targeted", which means that fewer people will get it. In particular, the removal of refurbishment costs, the two-year rule and the retrospective application of the new rules to many applications pending since last year will mean people who would otherwise have got access to this vital homelessness prevention support will not now get it. I have already been contacted by two households. The first is that of a young woman in Dublin city with three children who cares for her father. Her tenancy with her landlord has been in place for less than two years. She has been told by Dublin City Council that she is no longer eligible. In the second case, I received a very distressing email yesterday from a pensioner couple in Cork who are very advanced with their tenant purchase application but who, because refurbishment costs are excluded and their sale was not closed, have been notified by Cork County Council that the application can no longer proceed. A young woman with three children and two elderly pensioners in their 70s are at risk of homelessness as a consequence of the Minister's decision.

What is also very concerning is that the funding is going to run out. There are hundreds of pending applications across the State from last year, 70 in my own local authority, over 70 in Dublin city and 100 or more in Limerick city and county. If the Minister provided less funding for this year, after the overhang is gone and even if notices of termination and eviction notices dip slightly, the money will run out before the end of the year and more people will become homeless.

I am also very concerned about the Minister's capital funding announcements in respect of social housing. I welcome every extra cent provided by the Government for social and affordable housing. I welcome every additional social or affordable home funded by the State. However, when the Revised Estimates were published in December, there was a €540 million shortfall between capital allocation for social and affordable housing this year and the outturn for last year. The Minister has closed some of that gap but he has not provided clarity on whether he is going to close all of it and significantly increase the funding. When I listened to him on "Morning Ireland", he talked about figures of €3.6 billion and €3.8 billion. He was being deliberately disingenuous. That is not capital spending for social and affordable housing, as the Minister knows from his programme heads. It is the totality of capital spending in his Department for social, affordable and private housing as well as for grants, upgrades and improvements. I want to know the total additional spend for social and affordable housing by programme subhead for this year. Will the Minister publish that information and put the issue to bed once and for all?

I strongly support the inclusion of measures relating to defective blocks in this motion. There are two urgent actions the Minister needs to take now. He needs to amend the underpinning legislation for the defective blocks scheme to allow people who are getting tenders from their builders to avail of the most up-to-date SCSI costings rather than those that obtained at the time of the grant application. He also needs to get the finger out on emergency fire safety funding to deal with apartments with Celtic tiger-era defects. It is two years and three months since the Cabinet agreed that scheme. It is a year and three months since the scheme opened. As the Minister knows, because he has met the affected families in Parkwest, not a single cent has been spent. We needed an emergency response. That is not what we have got so far from the Minister over the past 11 weeks.

We need to treat the housing emergency in the same way we treated Covid. The whole of Government needs to get behind this, as does the Opposition, to come up with solutions. I do not want to see 4,653 children in emergency accommodation. I asked the Minister's predecessor how many children must become homeless before the Government finally accepts its policies are wrong. I will ask the current Minister the same question. How many children need to become homeless before you will put your hand up and say "We cannot fix it"? Someone needs to take responsibility.

I deal with families every day. I held a clinic on Monday. Of the 21 people I met, 17 had housing and four were homeless. This is on the watch of the parties opposite. Fine Gael has been in power for 14 years and Fianna Fáil for ten. It is getting worse every month. I and some other Deputies and Senators met with the Construction Industry Federation in Cork last week. The figures it supplied us with are unbelievable. In Ballincollig, the figure for what was supposed to be delivered for 2028 was 3,947. Does the Minister know how many planning permissions have gone in? Only 125. In Blarney, they have planning permissions in for only 10% of the figure that is to be achieved by 2028. I had a question to the Minister last week about the situation with thousands of local authority houses boarded up across the State. Will he not just give the local authorities the resources and funding necessary to get these out? I have advocated that there would be a team in place in every local authority area to retrofit these houses and allocate them straight away. We have 19 houses in Cork that have been empty for more than three years. It is a shame.

When the Minister's predecessor entered office, there was a debate about whether there was a housing crisis. Ultimately, he accepted that there was a housing crisis. In truth, we have had a housing crisis and a housing emergency for seven or eight years, maybe longer, but we have never had an emergency response. The Minister may protest about that, but, as a society, we have had emergency responses in respect of a number of policy areas in recent years - in many instances, these were warranted - but nothing similar has happened in terms of housing. The Government's approach has been to hope that business as usual will resolve the housing crisis. There has been no radical shift and no significant emergency response.

The only conclusion I can draw is that in its heart of hearts, the Government believes that the housing crisis is exaggerated or is not as severe as people in the House are saying it is. The facts speak for themselves. We have record numbers of people homeless.

What kind of situation is it that - I am not even sure I blame the media – the record is broken every month and it is hardly a major story? It has become so normalised to break the record for homelessness that it barely registers in the public’s imagination. That is the extent to which the Government and the previous Government have succeeded in normalising homelessness. In my opinion, there has never been the emergency response that is needed. It needs to begin now.

I will briefly make a point on affordable accommodation, so-called affordable schemes and some of the schemes we have seen come down the track. A scheme was outlined by Cork City Council in recent weeks. While I welcome any progress in terms of a roof over people’s heads, for the people who are frozen out of social housing and cannot get an adequate mortgage, there really is still no option for them. We are talking about minimum house prices of-----

I ask Deputy Ó Laoghaire to conclude.

I thought it was two and a half minutes. I will finish on this point. We are talking about minimum house prices of between €310,000 and €326,000 and maximum prices of €365,000. For people who are on a single income of €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 and do not qualify for social housing, it is still out of reach for those people.

It should come as no surprise that Sinn Féin supports the principle behind this Private Members’ motion, as many of the policy proposals are in line with Sinn Féin’s housing policy. Of course, correction is needed. The Government’s overall housing policy has not worked to date and will not work in the future. To think otherwise is to ignore the facts. While the Minister, Deputy Browne, gave his opinion that the Government’s housing policies are working, opinions are simply not the facts. The housing lists are growing in county and city councils throughout the State. Homelessness is growing. The generation of children raised in emergency accommodation or living long term in hotel rooms is growing. Those are the facts. There has been a 35% increase in those needing emergency accommodation in my home county of Louth in just one year. That is a fact. It gives me no pleasure to say any of this. For the common good, I want every Government housing and homelessness policy to be effective for every single person on the housing list, for every one of the hidden homeless, for every family in a homeless hub, and for all of those in emergency accommodation. I want the policies to work, but they do not and will not. To think they will work is to ignore the facts.

The Housing Commission has urged the Government to adopt its proposals for more new homes. We and the other Opposition parties have put forward our proposals to deliver more homes and to put a roof over every citizen’s head. The Government amendment to this Private Members’ motion is more of the same lines repeated, denying facts and again not addressing the issue. The Government needs to course-correct on its housing and homeless policies now. It needs to enact an emergency response that this Private Members' motion is calling for, not for the Opposition or for those of us who are advocating for this, rather for the more than 15,000 homeless people, of whom nearly 5,000 are children, for the tens of thousands of people languishing on local authority housing waiting lists and for the young generation who is locked out of home ownership in this country.

We are in the midst of a housing crisis that is worsening month by month. It is the actions of this Government, its refusal to listen to experts and its insistence that the market will provide that has accelerated this crisis so rapidly. All we see from this Government is its head in the sand as it refuses to admit the market has failed.

These actions have failed rural Ireland so severely on housing. I look across my home county of Kilkenny where the Government’s failure to invest in modern, fit-for-purpose water and sewage facilities has ensured that large banks of land prime for building are left unusable. Bennettsbridge is the next town to see service upgrades but these works are not planned to start until 2029. Until these works are completed, communities in south Kilkenny, like my own village of Knocktopher as well as Ballyhale and Mullinavat, will see no developments being built. This is having a devastating impact on communities. It is pulling the social cohesion of rural Ireland apart. So often I meet young families and couples who are eager to raise a family in the communities in which they were reared where their parents, uncles, aunts and cousins live, that is, their support network, but the only option they are left with is to travel far from that community. As a result of the actions of the Government, we are left watching rural Ireland decline and more of our children and communities emigrate while an ageing population is left struggling for resources and care.

The knock-on effects of the failure to invest in housing across rural communities are having a crippling impact. Schools, sports teams, local shops and pubs are all left struggling. Investing in housing and infrastructure is not just about units or bricks and mortar but about insuring sustainability across rural Ireland and supporting communities that have contributed so richly to our economy and culture.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank Deputy Seamus Healy and his colleagues for bringing forward this motion. I have been in the Dáil for nine years and have been listening to speeches from housing Ministers in that time. I listened to the Minister’s speech today and, unfortunately, I do not think he was even interested in delivering it. He did not seem to believe in what he was saying. We are in a housing emergency but the Minister and the Government will not actually admit it.

I wish to raise two issues in the short time I have, the first of which relates to homeless services in my own city of Limerick. Every single night of the week – and we are into the second year of this now – homeless services are full. We are short of spaces and people are being turned away every single night. All the hostels are full. I had to ring the out of hours number for emergency accommodation the other night due to a house fire of a local authority tenant. She was made homeless due to an accidental house fire. I was told they had no access to funding outside of office hours. How ridiculous was that? The council then came back to me and said it had to wait for a fire report before it could house the person. The house was actually burnt down. I saw it myself; it was actually burnt to the ground. That is an easy demonstration of how chaotic and how under-resourced it is. While the staff who work there do their best, they cannot do it without the resources. The Government has not given the resources. As we speak, and in the context of the figures the Government recently gave us, there are 500 adults and 224 children in Limerick city in emergency accommodation.

The second issue I wish to raise with the Minister, which I raised with him before, is the issue of local authority voids. For people who do not know what they are, they are local authority houses that are boarded up. It is not fair on people who are waiting on housing lists to see those boarded up for a number of years. It is very unfair to people living next door to them because they often become, as I said before, magnets for antisocial behaviour, litter dumping and all sorts of stuff.

In response to a parliamentary question given to me last week, the Minister said, “Under the voids programme, there is no upper cap that can be spent on an individual dwelling [and here is the crux that comes] providing the overall average per dwelling of €11,000 is maintained.” That means local authorities do not have money to do it. The Minister is well aware of that. I am asking him to change that. He also committed to review that. The sooner he does so, the better.

By every single metric and by every single part of the housing strategy, this Government has failed. It has failed because of its over-reliance on private developers and investments funds that undermine its ability to deliver genuinely affordable housing at scale. It is clear as can be stated that we need much more State-led investment. When will the Government admit that the private market has zero interest in solving the housing crisis and providing genuine affordable housing? It is only about profit for it. We simply cannot continue into the future with the huge transfer of money into the hands of private landlords. Approximately €1 billion per year is spent on HAP. The current rates are so wide off the private market rents that it is now virtually impossible to rent whatever little properties are available on HAP.

I spoke last week on the fears of people in private rented accommodation with regard to rent pressure zones. People are absolutely terrified that controls are going to be removed without some form of protection. What is needed is an assurance that those people, who are one pay cheque away from homelessness, will not be joining the 15,000 people and 4,500 children in homeless accommodation and that the Government will put the people’s interests before market interests.

I will say, however, and it was raised earlier, that the Minister has a chance to change the narrative in the context of his tenure as Minister. Fingal County Council has provided a pathway to thousands of homes along the N3 where there is a train station, the M50 and a massive piece of land. It is looking for help, support and investment. The Minister can give a commitment today to Fingal County Council to show that he will be a different housing Minister from previous housing Ministers. If he does not, however, then he will just be another Minister in a long line of housing Ministers who have left people in homelessness, left people unable to pay for an affordable house, and left the thousands and thousands of people who have left this country unable to ever return.

Is léir do gach duine go bhfuil éigeandáil tithíochta ann. Caithfidh mé súil ar ghné amháin toisc go bhfuil roinnt de m’am imithe. If the Government regarded this as a housing emergency, it would be funding regeneration projects to the hilt to make sure that those public sites would have public, social and affordable housing.

We now have a situation where the Dublin City Council CEO has said he is putting a three-year pause on regeneration projects in this city because of a lack of central government funding. I cannot figure out where the housing emergency is, or where it sits in the Minister's brain, if the Government cannot even fund those projects, which involve public land with social and affordable houses on it.

One hundred and twenty adults in County Waterford are officially recorded as homeless, according to the latest figures published by the Department. There are 109 children in emergency accommodation across the wider south-east region. The Minister and I both know that is just the tip of the iceberg. A whole generation has been locked out of home ownership and it seems is fated to a lifetime of paying exorbitant rents or leaving Ireland altogether to live, work and raise their families abroad. Not only is this housing catastrophe and emergency having huge personal impacts on people and their families and sounding the death knell of many a rural community, it is affecting the ability of public services to recruit and retain personnel and impacting our economic competitiveness.

We will no doubt hear an awful lot from the Minister's side of the House about economic competitiveness over the coming days, but what is the Government's response to the housing emergency? There has been a cut of more than €100 million for new-build social and affordable this year, and delay after delay when it comes to progressing social, affordable and cost rental projects, including much-needed affordable housing in Ardmore, a mixed development in Dungarvan, and a very small but significant and important housing scheme at An Sean Phobal in Gaeltacht na nDéise, which was put through the Department's streamlined, fast-track approval process almost four years ago. There has yet to be any movement on that. Tá ár gceantracha Ghaeltacha i gcruachás de dheasca na géarchéime seo. Tá easpa tola, easpa tuisceana agus easpa ghnímh i gceist. Beart de réir briathar atá de dhíth orainn anois.

We need a change of direction and we need to truly recognise this as the emergency it is for our country and society.

Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an ngrúpa neamhspleách agus an Teachta Healy as ucht an rún seo a chur faoi bhráid na Dála inniu. Molaim agus molann Páirtí an Lucht Oibre an rún seo. Tá a fhios ag chuile dhuine sa Teach seo go bhfuil an chruachás agus an ghéarchéim ag éirí níos measa, agus caithfidh an Rialtas rud éigin difriúil a dhéanamh.

I support the general thrust of the motion. I thank the Independent and Parties Technical Group for bringing it forward. In my short time as a TD, this is the fourth time that a motion in this vein has been tabled. I would love if this time we could see some genuine engagement from the Government other than the standard countermotion that states everything is going okay and we should just continue in the way we have been. Last Friday, we heard the figure of 15,378 people who were now homeless. This includes 500 people in my city of Limerick, among them 224 children. My local authority has more than 107 tenant in situ cases on hold. It tells me that, given the changes to the scheme, it will be lucky to be able to do 20 to 25 this year.

I wrote to the Minister last Friday setting out a number of practical measures that could and should be implemented in order to try to meaningfully address this. The first measure, which I implore the Government to take on board, is to pass the homeless families Bill that Jan O'Sullivan introduced in 2017. There was talk last year that this Bill was going to be included in the Government's miscellaneous housing Bill. It never made the Bill, but it is an important and practical measure. I have begun the steps of restoring this Bill to the Order Paper, which was supported by Fianna Fáil when it was in opposition. Under the current legislation governing local authorities, children have no official rights. The existing legislation is 35 years old. It reflects a different world, one where homelessness was something that only affected single, adult men. The Bill is a simple measure that would mean local authorities would have to assess the needs of children in homeless families as part of their decision-making. It would require local authorities to assess the suitability of alternative accommodation when a homeless family declines an offer of emergency accommodation because it is not suitable. It is designed to ensure that emergency accommodation meets the best interests of children, looking at issues such as access to schools, the need for child support workers, homework, play areas, appointments, etc. Some local authorities are quite good in this regard but others are not. We need consistency across the board. This Bill has already passed Committee Stage. I sincerely ask the Government to work with us on a cross-party basis to get it passed.

Another important provision in this motion that I clearly support is the need to enact the recommendations of the Kenny report in respect of law. The Kenny report has been lying on a shelf for 52 years now. The Labour Party introduced legislation in 2021 to enact its recommendations. We know land is at the centre of the housing crisis. Many of the problems we face at present could have been avoided had this report been implemented. The report's recommendation that local authorities be given the power to compulsorily purchase land at its existing use value plus a 25% gratuity is very clear. This would immediately end the ability of land hoarders and speculators to make enormous profits at the expense of first-time buyers.

I also agree on the need for a massive investment programme for social and affordable housing on public land. The Government is putting record investment into housing but never before has a Government invested so much and, by any objective, got such a poor return. The borrowing capacity of local authorities throughout the country is only €118 million. The Housing Commission report is very clear in its recommendation that 20% of our housing stock should be social and cost rental. Currently, approximately 9% of our housing stock is social and cost rental. I ask the Government to take on this recommendation.

I also urge the Minister to introduce a new social housing Act as a matter of urgency. I raised this as a parliamentary question and received a reply indicating that the Department was assessing the report of the Housing Commission. That was published almost 12 months ago. There is a clear need to specify and protect the social housing sector and remove any threat of privatisation.

I support the need to create a State housing infrastructure investment fund to unlock the €160 billion in Irish household savings to invest in social and affordable housing. This is something the Labour Party supports. It was in our manifesto. We propose to do this through the development of a housing solidarity bond operated via a State savings bond with an attractive interest rate to redirect private investment from vulture funds towards housing developments.

I urge the Government to take action on short-term lets before 2026. Under the previous Government, a Bill to introduce controls over the sector, including the establishment of a register, was proposed, but was delayed and revised and never made it to the floor of the Dáil. It now needs approval from this Government to proceed with full drafting. I ask for this to be hurried.

On rent controls, we know that rent pressure zones have been a failure by any objective measure. They are a blunt instrument and are frequently flouted because rents go up by more than the rate at which they are supposed to under the legislation. I urge the Government not to introduce a halfway house, whereby rents can just recalibrate between tenancies. While RPZs have been very ham-fisted, they are the only bit of protection renters have in the private rented market at the moment. My concern is that if we go by a model whereby rent can recalibrate between tenancies, it will increase the termination of tenancies in order to increase rental income.

We will end in a worse situation than we are in at present.

I raised the issue of the fall-off in apartment construction with the Minister in the Dáil two weeks ago. Dublin is the second most expensive city after Zurich. Belfast, which is approximately 140 km away and uses similar supply chains, is the second cheapest city. We need to examine how people are able to deliver apartments in Northern Ireland, which is on this island and only two hours up the road, at a much lower cost. Until we address the issue of apartment viability, we will not be able to be able to meaningfully address the housing crisis.

I know the Minister was in Limerick last Friday. I urge the Government to scale up the ambition of the Land Development Agency, particularly in terms of the Colbert Quarter, which is a brownfield site. We know there are difficulties in activating brownfield sites but this one has the capacity to deliver 2,800 homes. That site has category three long term development viability, which means nothing will happen with it in the short and medium terms. That site is key to solving the housing crisis in Limerick because so much land there is being transferred to the Land Development Agency. We need to see that land serviced and activated because of rents and house prices in Limerick. Rents there increased by 19.7% last year. The housing crisis is trending worse in Limerick than in the rest of the country because we are not building enough housing, be it social and affordable or private housing.

The housing crisis situation is an emergency and I ask the Minister to take this motion on board. I thank its proposers for tabling it. There are many ideas in it that we in the Social Democrats have put forward.

It was ten years ago, when I was involved with trade union groups and housing campaigns, that we called on Fine Gael, which was in government at the time, to declare the housing crisis an emergency. Every year since, homelessness has risen, except of course during a Covid year, and we have seen house prices and rents rise to record levels. Why have this and the previous Governments never treated the housing crisis as an emergency?

I understand that the Minister is new and is bringing his own experience and perspective, but I am concerned that I do not see any major change in direction or any major reset of policy, which the Housing Commission called for. I do not see any emergency action in response.

The problem is that the housing crisis has become normalised. The level of homelessness we see has become normalised. The generation stuck as adults infantilised in their childhood bedrooms has become normalised. We have a generation who have lost hope of ever having homes of their own. They have lost hope in a future of being independent or of starting a family. We see people delay getting married and having children, sometimes to the point at which their dream becomes impossible. People have contacted me to tell me that. They are deeply upset and traumatised by the loss of their dreams of having children because they could not get homes of their own.

The Minister is new, but he has to accept that this situation is completely intolerable, unacceptable and an emergency. I challenge his claim that we all need to agree on the continued success of Housing for All. If this is success, I would hate to see what failure looks like. I do not think the Minister should just repeat words the civil servants are putting to him. The Minister needs to challenge the Department of housing and say that this is not good enough, where we are at is not acceptable and we are not making an emergency response. We saw an emergency response during Covid when the private health system was brought into the public sector and told that we needed to put everything at our disposal into solving this emergency. We do not do that currently. The Minister has not brought in the entire private sector and asked what we are doing, where is the housing being delivered, where are the hotels being built, where is our construction capacity and how we can ensure it is actually delivering homes. Why are we building aparthotels when we need homes to be built? We have capacity in this country but it is not being put to use building affordable housing.

I will also highlight one of the policy narratives being developed. I have been analysing this policy for many years, that of global real estate investors and institutional investors. They were brought in by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the past ten years to buy up, fund and build rental housing. A core policy of Rebuilding Ireland and Housing for All has been to bring in institutional investment. Department of housing representatives attended the global real estate event in France recently, again. The Taoiseach said earlier this year, very clearly, that we needed to look at rent caps and rent pressure zones in order to make investment in rental housing viable. We know it was code for what the investor funds and institutional investors had been pushing for, which is getting rid of rent caps. The Minister has also spoken about tax breaks and about how we need tax incentives and tax breaks to make investment in apartments viable. The collapse in apartment development is because institutional investors have decided it is not sufficiently profitable to invest here. This is not just the case in Ireland, but also in the US, Germany and the UK. Build to rent as an investment has become less profitable because of rising interest rates. It is not about our rent regulation system, but the wider macroeconomic situation. When institutional investors are such an unstable, unreliable source of financing for housing, why does it seem that the Government will remove the very rent caps that are protecting renters to try to incentivise more of this investment? Why is the Minister speaking about tax breaks for institutional investors? Why are we not taking a different approach?

I discussed the potential impact of the removal of rent caps on RTÉ radio last week when I said it was clear that, if the rent caps were lifted, it would lead to a wave of evictions, rent rises and, inevitably, higher rates of poverty and homelessness among renters. The representative from the landlords' organisation, the IPOA, said in response: "I suspect poverty and homelessness would increase" as a result. Does the Minister agree with that response? Does he accept poverty and homelessness will rise if the rent caps are removed?

I am not sure if the Minister is familiar with the term "regulatory capture". It is a concept in public policy that refers to the excessive influence of special interests on regulators' operations and decisions. The result is that, instead of regulators serving the public interest, they serve the special interests. To me, it is very clear that, in housing policy, the Government and the Department of housing have been suffering from a classic case of regulatory capture by different property and financial interests for a long time. From the Celtic tiger boom, to the crash, to institutional investors, it is a clear case that housing policy has been driven by what will make housing sufficiently profitable for the market, developers and investor funds rather than what is the way to deliver affordable housing for the people.

There are many ways to deliver affordable housing.

We set out in our manifesto a way to deliver 15,000 additional genuinely affordable homes. The Minister said we were doing all we could. Why is he limiting what the Government can invest in housing? There are billions of euro of a surplus. Why are we not putting that into local authorities and not-for-profit housing bodies to deliver more affordable homes?

Why will the Government not treat housing as a human right? Why has it done a U-turn on Fianna Fáil's commitment to deliver a referendum to guarantee a right to housing? In 2021, Fianna Fáil brought forward a motion in the Seanad to amend the Constitution to ensure that every citizen had the right to housing. It was noted at the time by the Fianna Fáil housing spokesperson, Mary Fitzpatrick, that the right to housing was about the State making a permanent commitment to every citizen that he or she would have access to a secure and affordable home. In May 2022, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, said it was important to hold this referendum, as it would underpin people's housing rights. In May 2024, he announced that an interdepartmental group would be set up to consider plans to hold referendum on the right to housing. Why has the Government moved away from treating housing as a human right? There was not one mention of housing being a human right in the programme for Government. There has been no response to the Housing Commission's very clear recommendation that a constitutional amendment should be brought forward to enshrine housing as a human right. Why is the Government not moving on that referendum? We need to treat housing as a human right. Part of the reason we are in this crisis is because housing is treated as an investment asset, as a commodity, rather than a home and a human right, which is what it should be. It should be underpinning all our policies and approaches.

I wish the Minister well in his position and I look forward to working with him. I have been in construction all my life and I want to give the Minister a bit of advice and to ask him for his help. Why can we not extend the fee waiver for planning permission to help people who are building their own houses, which means they are not depending on the State and also helps address inflation costs? Why can we not reintroduce that? Just to show the inflation costs we have at the moment for housing, it cost €121 per square foot in 2021. At the time, a 2,000 sq. ft house cost €240,000, plus VAT for the Government at €32,400. That same house today will cost €200 per square foot, meaning that the same house costs €400,000 and the Government gets €54,000 in VAT directly from that. Why are we not giving something back to people who are building their own houses?

The cap for the help to buy scheme is too low at €450,000. Most of the houses have moved past that and the people who were put on the help to buy scheme have gone far past that. Someone might build a house tomorrow and pay the builder €400,000. That person might get a valuation on the house and a valuer could value it at €550,000 because the people next door sold their house at €550,000. It is done on valuation and the help to buy scheme does not help those people.

Regarding infrastructure, when will the Government audit Uisce Éireann? I have been in construction all of my life and we visit plants to look at them. Let us consider the running costs of the Uisce Éireann plants over the past five years. Some of these plants have not been maintained. Its electricity costs have increased because it has not replaced aerators in the system. As there has been no maintenance, electricity costs are rising. Uisce Éireann is coming to the Government cap in hand claiming it has no money because the costs have gone out of control. It is deliberately not maintaining some plants. It has them overrun to fool the Government.

I invite the Minister to come down to visit any plant he wants. We will look at them to see what has happened over the four or five years Uisce Éireann has been running them and see where it is not telling the Government the truth and looking for extra money. I want value for money from Uisce Éireann. If it can be done in other European countries and projects can be delivered there for half the price they are delivered here, that is a problem. We need to question that to make sure the money the Government invests in housing goes further, and then we can get delivery that helps the Government and helps the people I represent as well. That is what I want from the Minister, so I need his help.

I thank colleagues on the Independent benches for tabling this motion. The Minister probably knows that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. However, the definition of madness has to be this programme for Government and this Housing for All scheme that the Minister has his faith in. Today, 15,378 people are homeless and 4,653 of those are children. I am ashamed to be standing here. I am sickened that we have our own children on the streets. I suspect those figures are not correct and are much higher than we believe.

I will share with the Minister a text I received this morning that is just a typical text that comes in every day to our offices.

My name is [I will leave out the name]. I'm resident here Mallow, a RAS house tenant for 20 years. My apartment is presently going up for sale and I have to vacate by April 13th 2025. I have literally nowhere to go. Can you please help me?

These are the messages that are coming into my office. As one of my colleagues said, this affected 21 of the 27 constituents he met on Monday. That is the reality of life for people. At 27, I was able to purchase my own home. I now meet people aged 40 or 45 living in box rooms. Even though they are earning significant salaries, they are not able to purchase their own homes and are stuck in their parents' houses. I meet people every day of the week who tell me they cannot get on the social housing list because Cork City Council, Cork County Council or Limerick City and County Council have told them they are adequately housed because they are living with their grandparents. That is not being adequately housed at 35 years of age.

We also have a generation of people who lost their houses in 2007 and 2008. They are now back working after losing their businesses and their properties. They are paying €1,500, €1,800 or €2,200 on rent for apartments. What will happen when those people reach 66 years of age with no access to finance, no possibility of getting a loan and no possibility of redeeming their credit ratings? They will be back on social housing lists. A gentleman rang me yesterday to say that the house he was involved with had fallen through. He is now 69 years of age and has been told by the local authority to come back in two or three years and it may be able to help him. The programme is not working and the Minister must fix this.

I am surprised when I look at the empty benches and all these people screaming for speaking time. No Government TDs wanted to speak on this issue.

I will use less than my 90 seconds because we are pressed for time. I welcome Deputy Healy's motion, which gives us another opportunity to talk about the important issue of housing, in particular the fundamental point that is the five-year emergency plan, which I absolutely support. We need to take a multifaceted approach. I have made a few suggestions before. A couple of months ago, I mentioned using gardens as a starter home for a couple or for a retirement home. It is only a small aspect but we need to look at the bigger picture. My colleague mentioned water infrastructure. Only a certain number of large towns will be able to facilitate rapid-build, large-capacity housing. We need to talk to Uisce Éireann and focus on those areas where house building will take place.

We need to massively invest in Dublin city centre, from a safety point of view but also in terms of the housing crisis. I reiterate to the Minister, whom I congratulate on his appointment, that there are many houses in settled areas with one person living in a four-bedroom house. There should be a scheme to enable the top part of that house to be sold and possibly the other part of the house to be sold at a later date so that young couples can move in, and as their family expands, they can purchase the other part of the house.

Mayo has a huge issue with dereliction and vacancy. Mayo has the highest level of dereliction in the country at 14%. Its vacancy rate is 12%, the second highest in the country.

I want to raise the issue of dereliction, particularly around the protected structures and listed buildings. Consider the old Bank Corner on James Street in Claremorris, for example. The owners tried to redevelop this corner. Could I have the Minister's attention? Unfortunately, the developer tried to redevelop this area but the fact the building was listed effectively made the proposition for the project economically unviable. The irony is that we are going to preserve these buildings until they fall apart. It is critically important in town centres where we have protected buildings that the local authorities work with the developers. We need more subsidiarity in relation to this. It is totally wrong that the Office of the Planning Regulator in Dublin can dictate what is happening in Claremorris. Local politicians and local TDs know what is best for the town. This area of the town has been blighted with dereliction. It is a corner and a building that needs to be redeveloped and yet the protected status is actually making this development economically unviable. It is like trying to drive with the handbrake on. We need to ensure that this development can get off the ground. The town needs it. We need more accommodation in the town.

This comes at a time when this Government, and the last Government, de-zoned a significant amount of land around the town. Now we are making it more difficult to develop the town centre as well. If this issue is not rectified, this building will fall into further decay and crumble. Will the Minister intervene in relation to this? We need more subsidiarity. We need to work with the local councillors, politicians, planners, and the developer to make sure this building is viable and that we can rehouse more people in the centre of the town.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this motion. For clarity, Deputy O'Flynn referred to no Government Members bothering to show up here. We are here-----

Where are they?

I show up every single week. The Deputy knows well how the speaking slots work here. Until last week we were locked out of this so I am glad to be one of the first-----

The Deputy protests too much.

-----Members to avail of this because we have a democratic mandate as well. There were a hundred issues that I would like to have raised last week but I got two minutes speaking time in the entire Dáil week to speak about legislation from the 1820 to the 1850 period. How irrelevant when I want to speak on topics like this. I am glad that anyone who is watching at home can look at the screen and see what is happening here today. We show up here every single day of every single week.

I will now speak to the matter we are debating. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Browne, that it is conceivable that in the next 12 months, many of the 112,000 Ukrainian war refugees who are in this country will go home when peace is brokered, whatever that peace deal looks like. It is important that when they go home, we immediately look at the 112,000 accommodation units they are taking up and look at bringing in people on work visas to backfill our construction sector. We are totally lacking people, particularly in the wet trades but also in skills like block laying. This is a huge impediment to getting houses. Imagine if we were to grant 112,000 work permits to people with skills to come into this country and build houses. Over many years we have sent trade missions overseas for the Irish dairy sector, the Irish beef sector or the tech and pharma sectors. It is time that our Ministers go overseas looking to bring in a workforce here that can backfill where we have shortages.

There is another important point, which others have mentioned in the course of today's debate. When I speak about County Clare we are not lacking in zoned land and road networks but the basic stuff we lack would be water and sewerage infrastructure, the very constraints that make housing very difficult to achieve and deliver. The Minister's Department has approved a pilot scheme. In County Clare we are waiting for schemes in Cooraclare and Broadford to progress. Will the Minister's Department push these forward? Without those schemes houses cannot be built. We are ready to house people in County Clare but we need the basic infrastructure. I thank the Minister.

There is a growing need for low-cost sites. It will help in addressing the housing crisis. It might not be the only solution but it will give young people a chance to secure their first home in every part of the country, especially in my county of Kerry. The area is under significant pressure, including around towns such as Killarney, Cahirsiveen, Killorglin and Castleisland. We have huge issues with planning. I like the idea the Minister mentioned about introducing a maverick. I hope he or she will be successful. It will require something like that to address the housing crisis. We need to free up planning permission for our own people who are landowners' and farmers' sons and daughters. As I said before, it is bordering on criminal that people who have their own land, where there are no traffic hazards and no percolation or wastewater treatment issues, cannot obtain planning permission. We are forcing people onto our housing lists. This needs to be addressed.

Another issue to address are the national primary and secondary routes in this context. Unless a road is under the speed limit of 60 km/h one cannot obtain planning permission. Where there are existing laneways and roadways people should be able to access the national primary or secondary roads. It is creating no extra traffic. The people I talk about are coming in and out of those laneways and roads every day of the week. They only want to live at home, work at home and live near their family and friends.

There is a need for planning reform. We need to give young people the opportunity to build their own home on their own land. At the moment it is like climbing a mountain with no path. It is frustrating, it is discouraging and it is impossible for young people today.

Deputy O' Flynn said there are no Government TDs here. Have you not been calling me a Government TD for the last three months? It is ridiculous. I do not have sympathy-----

Go back to him.

I am here now. I do not have sympathy-----

Go back to him. Go back to your boyo.

The Minister has a huge task ahead of him and I wish him the best of luck in his role. I urge everyone from all sides of this House to work together as we see in the committees. We are here for one reason, which is to work for the Irish people. As a newly elected TD, it is ridiculous what have seen in here for the last few months.

There is something clearly wrong with regulations where developers can pay adjoining residents considerable sums to not make objections. A recent article by the Irish Independent said that planning for 20,000 homes will expire in the next two years. I urge the Government to look at this. The permissions are set to expire over the coming two years even though the demand for homes is dramatically exceeding supply. This is according to a new report from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. Its recent housing market monitor said that 75,000 homes can be completed in 2025 and 2026 but this is well below the targets the report says are needed.

This is the key issue this House will be defined by when we go knocking on doors in five years' time. We need to have a Covid-level response. Tick every single box, try things and be bold. I really urge the Minister and my colleagues in government to do that because we need to get that done. I really appreciate the Minister listening, and I urge him to read to the motion.

Go raibh maith ag an Leas-Cheann Comhairle, ag an Aire agus ag Teachta Healy chun a bheith in ann caint sa díospóireacht seo. I will make just a couple of points possibly by way of solution. Number one is to deal with the most recent planning Act around commencements. Currently when planning permission is granted there is five years to construct. If the commencement period was altered to within 18 months anybody applying for planning permission would already have financing place. We have an active situation in Ratoath, County Meath, where it not about land hoarding but it is actually planning permission hoarding. The permission is being sat on and then moved on just at the eleventh hour.

A second possible suggestion is vis-à-vis the live-over-the-shop scheme, which is part of the programme for Government. Similar to section 23 in the past, it would have very targeted conditions, possibly age friendly or possibly housing appropriate for ages 25 to 45. This would be multipurpose in terms of passive surveillance in town and city centres. It would also bring older people closer to communities, to medical services and to all of the State services they might require. A possible amendment to the planning Act would be required vis-à-vis fire safety regulations, which is all possible.

There are two examples I would cite. I will always look to other jurisdictions, whether it is in respect of neurolinguistic programming or otherwise, and ask who is in a similar situation and where best practice is. The Danish andelsbolig model entails a type of mutual homeownership but specifically involves repurposing former commercial or heritage properties. Effectively, there is a collective mortgage rather than individual mortgages, and mutual home ownership society members contribute financially on the basis of their income levels. A typical contribution is 35% of net household income.

Closer to home is the example of the low-impact living affordable community, LILAC, project in Leeds. Bizarrely, I was given this information seven or eight years ago at a briefing that former Minister, Eoghan Murphy held here for councillors. Again, the model is based on mutual home ownership. This is an area that is forgotten and that I referenced in my contribution on the programme for Government. Hostel provision in the commuter counties is a sad reflection of where we are but it is necessary in the stepwise approach to accommodation. County Wicklow, in particular, is served, as is County Kildare, but County Meath has no hostel accommodation. It is not that this is a direction we want to be going in, but where people are vulnerable with addiction and mental health problems and where there are revolving-door circumstances, a hostel is probably one of the first steps in providing emergency accommodation.

I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his elevation to his new position, which is long overdue. I wish him good luck with it.

I welcome the Other Members' Questions slot. It is not so long ago that I was on the backbenches. I recall how frustrating it was to get speaking time on Private Members' business. If I was lucky, I might have got a minute from a Minister. Some of the best contributions here today have been from backbenchers, including Deputies Crowe, Cahill and Toole. I take Deputy Heneghan's point 100% on activating planning permissions that are at risk of expiry. This is something we have to take on board. I certainly welcome the slot. It was worth fighting for.

I thank all the Members for their contributions. I echo the comments made by the Minister and reassert the Government's commitment to tackling the challenges in the housing sector. We know these challenges are having a genuine impact on people's lives and understand the urgency and need to ensure sufficient numbers of homes are delivered to ensure people are safe and secure in affordable homes of their choosing. We are working tirelessly to address these challenges and implement policies that make a positive difference. While there is still much to do, the Independents and Smaller Parties Technical Group and Opposition inputs here this morning do not fairly represent the efforts and progress made to date. Indeed, some of the proposals put forward in the motion would be more likely to deepen and perpetuate the housing crisis rather than resolve it. Let me touch on some of them.

The motion calls for a blanket ban on rent increases and no further rent increases. We propose that the more appropriate measure is a more considered approach to regulating the private rental sector, including any recalibration of the current rent pressure zones that may be required, which will seek to strike the most appropriate balance between protecting affordability for tenants and increasing the supply of new rental homes through new private investment and construction. A blanket ban on rent increases would worsen the situation.

Furthermore, the motion calls for a ban on institutional purchasing of houses and apartments other than by local authorities and approved housing bodies. The reality is that the latest CSO data on market purchases of homes by non-households, including institutional investors, show the State was the largest non-household purchaser of homes in 2023, having acquired almost half of the 12,000 or so homes bought by certain purchasers, and that the owner-occupier guarantee introduced by the Government in May 2021 has succeeded in preventing the inappropriate purchase of homes by a single purchaser, securing those homes for purchase by homeowners, with planning permission granted for 55,600 homes and with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser between May 2021 and November 2024.

The amendment affirms the Government's effort to:

... diversify sources of investment, noting the level of investment required in the long-term cannot be solely the responsibility of the State, and it will also require a very significant level of private investment, including appropriate institutional capital investment, which is essential for the delivery of critically needed private rental homes.

I will speak on those points further.

The motion claims the Government is not doing enough. However, it is very clear that we have securely laid the foundation and built a housing pipeline that will allow us to continue to ramp up delivery in the coming years. As the Minister highlighted, more than 133,000 new homes were built and delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024, exceeding the Housing for All target for the period by 5,500 or so new homes – an almost 50% increase on the quantum delivered in the previous three-year period.

The measures introduced under Housing for All have helped to establish a solid platform to scale-up delivery further in the short term and secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us to meet fully unmet and emerging demand. Indeed, the past three years have seen an average of 31,000 homes delivered annually. The Government is fully committed to delivering social, affordable and cost-rental homes at scale and to continuing accelerating housing supply across all tenures, with overall capital funding available of almost €6.8 billion for the delivery of homes in 2025. This will further increase the availability of affordable homes to buy and rent, securing a sustainable housing supply and building vibrant, liveable communities.

Last year's dip in new home completions was certainly disappointing but we remain optimistic that the building blocks we have put in place will bear fruit and that with the appropriately targeted action by the Government, many of the 100,000 commencement notices lodged over the past two years will translate into new home completions. A continuing increased supply of new homes will help ease the impact of recent price increases and bring stability to the market, with Housing for All supporting access to affordable housing and assisting those who aspire to buy their own homes.

From the launch of Housing for All to September last year, more than 10,000 affordable housing supports were delivered through AHBs, local authorities and the Land Development Agency and were facilitated through the first home scheme and vacant property refurbishment grant. Moreover, as the Minister pointed out, the level of affordable housing supports provided in 2024 will outstrip the delivery of 2023. Affordable housing schemes, including cost-rental schemes, are now operating at scale. This momentum will continue as a pipeline is developed by local authorities, AHBs and the LDA.

The supply of new-build social homes also continues to be at a higher level than for many years. Our ambition is to deliver much more, and we will continue to do so in partnership with local authorities and other delivery partners. While of course the dip in overall delivery in 2024 was disappointing, as the Minister pointed out, we remain on a clear upward trajectory and it is important to put the 2024 figures into context. It is clear that with the year-on-year increase in the number of houses built, plummeting apartment completions on the back of an almost complete retrenchment of institutional capital was the root cause of the dip in overall delivery last year.

I echo the Minister's sentiment that the level of investment required in the long term cannot be the sole responsibility of the State. We also require considerable private investment, including appropriate institutional capital, which is essential for the delivery of apartments and private rented homes. The State has stepped in to fill the gap in the interim, but continuing to do so over the longer term is neither desirable or sustainable. A vibrant affordable private rental sector with abundant supply and choice can be delivered only with a sizeable level of private capital investment. To this end, we will also engage with domestic lenders, ensuring the banking sector is maximising its lending capacity to support the development of new housing nationwide, especially for brownfield sites and for small builders.

Homelessness remains a serious concern and a top priority of the Government. It is a complex issue in which causal factors and family circumstances can vary considerably, as do the responses needed. Interrelated are other areas of the housing system and broader social and healthcare policy and service delivery. A whole-of-government approach is required in the response. This is how we are working, and we will continue to do so.

Supporting households experiencing homelessness remains a priority of the Government, and the programme for Government reaffirms Ireland's commitment to working to eradicate homelessness by 2030. Budget 2025 allocated more than €300 million to this end, up €61 million on 2024.

The motion calls on the Government to fund local authorities and approved housing bodies "to implement a tenant in-situ scheme, with a minimum purchase target of 2,500 homes per year".

My Department is working closely with local authorities and their service delivery partners to support households to exit homelessness to a tenancy such as tenancies in the local authority and AHB properties, or in the private rental market supported by the HAP as well as the tenant in situ scheme.

In light of the challenges in addressing homelessness, Government introduced the tenant in situ acquisitions in 2023 as a temporary, short-term measure to address the issue. This was continued in 2024 and is being extended into 2025. Since the introduction of the tenant in situ programme in March 2023, more than 3,100 second-hand homes have been purchased with approximately 2,000 of those being tenant in situ acquisitions. The Government agrees it is important local authorities have the option to purchase a property where a social housing tenant is at risk of homelessness due to a notice of termination. However, local authorities must also use other options such as allocating a social housing tenancy to social tenants in the private sector on HAP or RAS on receipt of a valid notice of termination.

In the motion and in Opposition contributions, it is never acknowledged that Government continues to invest an unprecedented level of investment in housing. It will amount to €6.8 billion in 2025. There were 92,500 homes delivered in the period between 2022 and 2024.

Are they private homes?

What about value for money?

That is a 50% increase on the three years prior to that.

Is that value for money? Come on.

Apartment construction has reduced but the measures proposed in the motion here would actually reduce it even further.

No infrastructure, no houses. There is no infrastructure.

We have to face up to the reality; we need private investment. If we are to deliver apartments at scale-----

There is no infrastructure. The Minister of State should talk about something he knows about. He knows nothing about building.

-----we need private investment. The equation is simple.

He knows nothing about building.

In order to get to the housing targets we need, we are talking about a €20 billion per annum investment.

I live it every day. The Minister of State knows nothing about it.

Stop trying to shout people down.

The Minister of State knows nothing about value for money. He knows nothing about building.

The current investment by the State-----

Go away. The Minister of State should talk about something he knows about.

-----is €6.8 billion. How do we make up that €13 billion gap? Is the State going to contribute that €13 billion in the context of seeing tariffs introduced and economic uncertainty?

It is a waste of money.

We need to get real here.

The Minister of State needs to get real.

Private investment is needed. The tenant in situ scheme has been extended but many Members said the scheme is over. It has been extended into 2025.

The Minister has underfunded it.

We cannot be any way clearer about that.

He has underfunded it. There is no budget for local authorities.

There is an emergency and we will use every lever possible to increase supply, make houses affordable and to end homelessness.

I thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and congratulate you on your elevation to high office. It is well deserved.

The starting point, which the Minister of State will have to accept, is that house prices, rents and homelessness have skyrocketed. He cannot argue with that. A total of 51 people were homeless in County Laois in February. House prices have gone up 11.6%. The number of new homes is down. The number of new homes was down last year and 10,000 fewer than the Government parties promised during the election campaign. We have a housing crisis but is not being treated as a crisis by Government.

Average rents across the State are €1,956 per month. That is a month's wages for most people and that is 43% higher than 2020. We have 143,000 on social housing waiting lists and the current overall housing shortage, according to the Housing Commission and not according to us, is 235,000. Tens of thousands of couples and families are just above the income threshold for social housing, which is €35,000 in Laois. The Government is not looking after this cohort of people who are on between €35,000 and €50,000 or €60,000. They cannot get a mortgage or a local authority loan. It is a real problem. Some of them are over the age of 40 or 45 so they cannot get private finance. We have to gear up the cost-rental model for those people. I appeal to the Minister of State to do that and I say that in a constructive way because they are trapped forever in private rental accommodation and they will be pensioner renters. This will be a real problem in the years to come.

The Government needs to enact the emergency measures that are called for in the public interest to create a State housing bond. The credit unions have been saying for years that they have a lot of money on deposit that can be used to build housing. There is potentially €160 billion in savings, much of which could be used for housing schemes. They could be used for affordable purchase and cost-rental schemes and they do not all have to be used for social housing.

One of the proposals we need to examine is making finance available to small builders to build schemes in small towns such as Mountrath and Rathdowney and in some of the larger towns such as Mountmellick and Portarlington along with Portlaoise, Graiguecullen and Ballylynan.

Order, please.

Some of those towns have the capacity to add on small schemes. If builders got low-interest finance they could use for that, it could be done.

Why has the State not implemented the recommendations of the Kenny report from 1973, published 52 years ago? If I recall, it was actually commissioned by a Fine Gael-Labour Government and Mr. Justice Kenny set out very clearly how to keep land prices down such that development land would only be 25% above the market value of agricultural land or there would be an 80% windfall tax on the profits of development land. We have to take bold measures to force down the price of land. The Minister of State may balk at that, but can something be done in between that? We have to reduce the cost of land for building.

We also need to reduce the cost of building by mass producing. As I said last week, we need somewhere between eight and ten plans for the different types of households and household needs; large families, small families, people with disabilities, pensioners and so on. Those plans need to be used by all the local authorities for affordable housing, cost-rental and social housing. Do we really believe that people who need an affordable house to buy or a cost-rental house care if the house they are living in in County Donegal is the same as one in County Laois or Coutry Kerry or wherever else? No, they do not. I certainly would not. That is how we mass produced previously. We need to go back to doing this.

The same plans can be used. I would like the Minister and Minister of State to listen to this. When we are starting with a blank canvas on all housing schemes, the architectural fees are between 10% and 15% according to senior local authority officials. That needs to stop. The same plans will suffice and we need to use them. I appeal to the Government to do that. We need to mass produce, reduce the costs and speed up delivery.

Before Deputy Healy commences, I ask the Deputies on my right to have their parliamentary meeting outside. Have respect for the speakers that are on the floor.

That would be helpful.

The Government's response and amendment, while not unexpected, are nonetheless hugely disappointing, and even shocking, because there is absolutely no acceptance of the depth and breadth of what is an intolerable housing emergency. This emergency started with the privatisation of the local authority house building programme by a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, back in the early 2000s. Many of us warned then that would be the start of a huge housing crisis down the road. We were not listened to, of course, and here we find ourselves now in what is accepted by the vast majority of people in this House, on both Government and Opposition benches, to be an absolute emergency that requires emergency action.

There is no acceptance by the Government of missed housing targets; there is no acceptance of the emergency actions recommended by the Housing Commission; there is no acceptance of the need to implement the Kenny report on the price of building land; there is no acceptance that rents are too high and have to be frozen; and there is no acceptance that evictions need to be banned.

In fact, this is a Government that is in denial. That denial has consequences for ordinary families right across this country. What they mean is continued huge levels of homelessness, exorbitant rents, no security of tenure, skyrocketing house prices, 500,000 young people living in their childhood bedrooms and a huge cohort of families, which everybody in this House knows, completely locked out of the housing market. They will never be able to buy a house of their own. They are not on the housing list and they are not able to purchase a house by way of a mortgage.

The housing emergency is undermining the very fabric of Irish society and it must be addressed urgently by emergency action.

That emergency action is available, it is provided for in the Constitution and there is precedent for it.

I ask every TD in the House, both in opposition and in government, to vote in support of this emergency motion. In particular, I ask Government backbenchers, who know about this because they are contacted daily by families in intolerable situations and facing homelessness, to set aside the party whip on this occasion in the national interest and in the interest of families who are homeless. There are 15,700 people homeless, of whom 4,603 are children. I ask Government backbenchers to set aside the party whip on this issue in the national interest and vote in favour of this emergency motion on housing. Everybody knows that the housing situation cannot be turned around by the policies this Government is continuing to pursue. These policies have failed utterly over the years. I refer not just to this Government or that which preceded it but also to those way back to the early 2000s, when this housing emergency was set in train by the Taoiseach of the day, Bertie Ahern.

I commend the motion to the House and ask every TD in government and in opposition to vote in favour of it.

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is deferred until the weekly division time this evening.

Later this evening, the US President is expected to announce widespread tariffs on imports into the United States. While the severity and scope of these tariffs are yet unknown, it is clear that what is about to happen will present a significant economic challenge to Ireland. The hard reality is that our economy is particularly exposed. The United States is Ireland's largest export market, and there are real concerns about the impact on our pharmaceutical and tech sectors.

As the European Union formulates its response, the chief responsibility of the Government is to stand up for Ireland's interests and to protect Irish jobs, Irish industry and the prosperity of our people to ensure that any action taken does not exacerbate potential damage. It is crucial, therefore, that there is no knee-jerk reaction from the EU. Counter-tariffs are not in Ireland's interests. The ESRI has been clear that the Trump tariffs will be damaging and that automatic counter-tariffs from the EU would make things worse for Ireland. If we agree that Donald Trump's approach is reckless, we cannot mimic that approach and follow him down the road of damaging tariffs. The only value of EU counter-tariffs would be if they could de-escalate the situation and if we could be sure that they would force Donald Trump to withdraw his tariffs and avoid a trade war. We need a very sober assessment of counter-tariffs before they are considered or employed. This is a time for cool heads, a clear eye on what is important and a focus on the things we can control.

Successive Governments have not put the basics in place to attract FDI without complex tax incentives. They have failed to invest in the areas key to building Ireland's long-term competitiveness and attractiveness. The scenario we now face shows that this must change. We need ambitious investment in housing, our childcare system, infrastructure, research and development, and energy security. The threat of US tariffs cannot be used by the Government as another alibi for not dealing with these issues head-on.

There is also a need to recognise the threat tariffs pose to all-Ireland trade. The Government has contacted counterparts in the North's Executive. It is important that these engagements are at the highest level and focus on protecting the all-Ireland economy. I am also of the view that a meeting should take place between the leaders of the parties here in the Oireachtas and that the Taoiseach should facilitate this. It is disappointing that he refused to agree to a Dáil debate this week on the threat of US tariffs. The reality is that there will be no winners in any trade war. It is also true, however, that ordinary working people pay the heaviest price. Workers and families in Ireland are already struggling with the cost of living. The Government must ensure that they are not forced to pick up the tab again.

Bagairt shuntasach ar phostanna agus ar ár ngeilleagar atá i mbagairt na dtaraifí ó na Stáit Aontaithe. Dhéanfadh taraifí mar fhreagra ón Aontas Eorpach rudaí níos measa. Stuaim a theastaíonn uainn agus géarthuiscint ón Rialtas faoi leasa na hÉireann a chosaint. The challenge of US tariffs and a potential trade war is real and present. What is the Government's strategy to ensure that Irish jobs and Ireland's economy are protected? How will it ensure that the EU's response does not compound any potential damage to Ireland?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. This is without question the most serious issue to face the Irish economy in a long time. It is clear that the scale of these tariffs will be significant in European terms. Ireland does not believe in tariffs. The European Union does not believe in tariffs and does not want tariffs. The European Union has not started this; Ireland has not started this. Ours is a small open economy and, in my view, the economic model we have followed over 50 or 60 years has brought about significant progress and modernity for and led to investment in Ireland and has facilitated the growth of indigenous Irish companies that have interacted with the multinationals in a very effective way.

The bottom line, however, is that, ultimately, to get this into a sustainable landing zone for the future, negotiations are key. The Deputy outlined that part of the approach in designing any countermeasures from the European Union will be the negotiating table. Can we get this to a negotiating table where we could arrive at a reasonable, settled pattern? It will not be the status quo ante. As I said yesterday, the old order is changing. That is regrettable. We are in an era of increased protectionism. That is not good for Ireland or for open economies. We have obviously engaged with the European Union in respect of, first of all, having a cool and calm response and not an immediate response. It is also important that in the design of countermeasures, Europe be strategic and that such measures do not bring more harm on ourselves, on Europeans, as opposed to anybody else. In other words, where we have clear surpluses, it makes sense that we do not invite a doubling of tariffs or further tariffs.

That said, this is a very serious imposition on Europe. There will be some response. There are 27 member states. There are different balances across the EU. The car industry will potentially be very severely hit. Some countries will suffer greatly on that score. Our focus is on agrifood - which is a big concern for Ireland - beverages, spirits, food and dairy products and pharma.

Working within the European Union, we have to make sure that other sectors are not damaged by any potential countermeasures. The Government's strategy is to optimise the protection of Irish jobs. That is the fundamental objective. One of the most fundamental reasons people to continue to invest in Ireland is our membership of the European Union and the Single Market. American companies are global companies. If they are cut off from European markets, they will diminish. They will tell you they cannot survive without a global footprint. Our membership of that European market allows for the free mobility of European citizens. When companies come to Ireland, they can avail of skill sets from across the European Union. The composition of the workforces in Apple, Google or any of the pharmaceutical companies will bear witness to that. We have moved beyond tax as the key incentive in bringing jobs to Ireland. It is now much more than that. Our investment in research and development over the last three decades has been very significant. There was a step change in that area that brought many jobs to Ireland. These jobs would not have come to Ireland if we had not made those investments in research and development in the late 1990s. Is é an rud is tábhachtaí ná go gcaithfimid a bheith socair agus gach aon iarracht a dhéanamh chun jabanna a chaomhnú. Le cúnamh Dé, beidh cainteanna ar siúl idir na Stáit Aontaithe agus an Eoraip. Is é sin an tslí chun é seo a réiteach i gceart.

The seriousness of the situation is not in question nor is the need for collective action. I ask for a response to my suggestion that the Taoiseach convene a meeting of all party leaders across this House. That needs to happen as a matter of urgency. It is helpful to recall that Ireland is and will remain a very attractive location for investment. The Taoiseach has acknowledged that the era of tax deals, some of which were questionable and controversial, is now behind us, not least because of the evolution of the global taxation system. I will repeat that a focus on infrastructure, skills, research and development and basic public services, including childcare services, and the absolute imperative to provide working people with a roof over their heads are now front and centre. I will repeat my request and ask the Taoiseach to respond. I ask him not to allow Trump's tariff play to become an alibi for not grasping those infrastructural challenges and for not meeting them head-on.

A meeting of party leaders will be convened. It would make more sense to wait until we see the announcement on the imposition of tariffs from the US side and the initial response from the EU. We have no issue with a Dáil debate. Next Tuesday would be a more optimal time because we will not have the full information as to what could potentially happen this afternoon or tomorrow. If people want a Dáil debate tomorrow evening, we can facilitate that but I believe we need as much information as we can get. There are no specific tax deals with companies. The Deputy is mistaken there. There are no tax deals. We have a general corporation tax rate, which we have had consistently. We have research and development tax credits that are general and uniformly applied. It is important that we make that point and assert it because-----

I was referring to Apple.

-----Ireland's detractors seek to undermine us in making those assertions.

It was the Commission's ruling.

We have always objected to and fought against that idea and notion. We have increased investment in infrastructure exponentially. We have invested in research and development and will continue to do so. The results have been there to see over the last five years. A lot of foreign direct investment has come into Ireland over recent years for a broad range of reasons.

The chilling footage and grim images of children killed and wounded in Gaza shared by Dr. Morgan McMonagle on last night's "Prime Time" will stay with anyone who saw them for a very long time. I commend Dr. McMonagle on sharing those images and that chilling footage with us.

I will ask the Taoiseach about an issue affecting children and young people here in Ireland, the crisis in special education. Equality in Education, a group of parents who cannot access suitable school places for their children, will stage a second overnight sleep-out tonight in protest at the ways in which the State has failed their families. A few weeks ago, these parents slept outside the Department of Education on Marlborough Street. Today, on World Autism Day, they will bring their protest to our door here at Leinster House.

Following its initial protest, the group met with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the National Council for Special Education. I acknowledge that everyone in Government and across this House wants to see a school place offered to every child with additional needs in September. However, parents remain deeply frustrated because the Government appears incapable of guaranteeing that such a place will be provided. The last time I raised this issue, the Taoiseach told me the Government would do all it could to work towards providing a place for every child but the NCSE does not even know how many children are without a school place or how many places will be needed. It is therefore understandable that parents are frustrated.

Childhood is short and the consequences of receiving inappropriate schooling or no schooling are very significant for a child. Children who are being failed today do not have the luxury of time yet the Government is slow to even get to grips with the scale of failure. Every day, all of us, including myself, hear from parents who are at the end of their tether. I read the moving words of one such parent in today's Irish Independent. Chrissie Russell is the mother of Finn. She wrote about the rage she feels at the ways in which her autistic son has been failed. She wrote that "the Rage isn’t helpful, but I suspect I cling to it in preference to The Fear, which tearfully crops up on a regular basis when I think about the future." Sadly, her feelings are warranted because so many children cannot get a diagnosis, cannot access a school place or therapies and are not supported at the later stage of the transition from primary to secondary school. Many young adults with additional needs fall off the radar completely. Where is the wraparound support? Another parent told me that all she wants is a fair shot for her son.

As legislators, our job is to act. Parents sleeping out tonight do not want platitudes. They want action and to see that the issue is being taken seriously. The time has come for the Department of the Taoiseach to get involved and for a whole-of-government approach to be taken, a co-ordinated approach that would ensure that the Department of Education and NCSE have the information they need to enable them to carry out the planning needed for every child to get a school place this September. Children with additional needs and their parents are asking when they will see their right to education vindicated.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for making reference to Dr. McMonagle, whose bravery and courage we should salute. I did not get an opportunity to see the footage yesterday evening but I will in due course.

Every child in this country has the right to a school place. That is a fundamental constitutional right and it is the function of Government to vindicate it. That is my intention. I have already convened meetings with eight Government Ministers in respect of the disability issue. There will be full co-ordination across the whole of Government with regard to disability. More specifically, on special education, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, are working flat-out with the National Council for Special Education and the Department of Education to ensure a school place for every child this September.

Progress is being made. There has been exponential growth in investment in special education overall but that is not enough for parents who today face uncertainty regarding a school place for next September. Some 372 extra special classes have now been sanctioned for this year. This is in addition to the number of classes we already have, which is in the thousands, as the Deputy will know. The ultimate objective is to have a central application system in place for the school year beginning September 2026. The aim is to have it in place by then. We also aim to start accepting applications for that school year in November of this year. The closing date for applications this year was February, nine weeks ahead of last year's. The aim is to give the NCSE and Department of Education sufficient time to identify the number needing placements, to encourage schools to set up special classes and to establish special schools where we have to. As the Deputy will know, we have increased the number of special schools significantly over the last four years. An additional five are to be established this year.

We are working flat-out to do everything we possibly can to ensure that every child will have a place next September. Significant issues have manifested in Dublin and Cork. We believe there is a pathway in place such that every child in the Cork area will have a place. I acknowledge that there are still some outstanding issues in the Dublin region that need to be closed off.

That is what we are working and focusing on. We will do whatever it takes to make sure the capacity is in place to provide for that. An additional 1,200 places are available this year, bringing the total number to more than 3,900 for 3,275 students. In other words, 3,275 are seeking places but there is provision for approximately 3,900. That is the cover. We want children to have places in their local schools or in schools within a reasonable distance from where they live.

I thank the Taoiseach for the comprehensive response and for making clear that measures are being put in place to ensure that future planning will be improved upon. There is still serious frustration and doubt about whether children will secure the places they need this September. School principals are expressing this concern to all of us. I recently heard from a school principal who told me parents are now enrolling their children in mainstream classes where they hear that a school has secured planning permission for special classes which have not yet been built. Parents are so desperate for places that their best hope is in classrooms that currently only exist in plans. I spoke to a principal in Dublin this week who told me about her absolute frustration at the waiting list she has to face because so many children in her area are without places and so few places are available. I have heard of other principals who are knowingly oversubscribing their schools simply because the parents pleading with them are so desperate. On the previous occasion on which we spoke, the Taoiseach said he was working to see if places could be ensured for children next September. On World Autism Day, we need a clear commitment that this September there will be places available for every child who needs one.

That is our commitment. That is what the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, are working towards to make sure that happens and also for future years. The growth in numbers identifying with additional needs is growing exponentially. If one looks at the most recent census compared with previous censuses, one can see that there has been a significant increase. There are now 3,336 special classes. There will be a further 372 on top of that. We have 124 special schools, 11 of which have opened since 2020. Five more will open this year. There are now 23,400 special needs assistants and 20,800 special education teachers in our schools. That is no consolation to those currently facing issues but it provides an illustration of the enormous part of education provision that is focused and targeted at additional needs education or special needs education, as it may have been termed differently in recent times. That will grow, and we will provide resources to enable it to happen. The focus has to be on a better planning system in terms of a common application, which is part of the programme for Government and to which we are committed.

The Government has spent years trying to convince religious orders to contribute to redress for the survivors of mother and baby homes. These efforts started in January 2021 when the then Minister, Roderic O'Gorman, first wrote to the orders saying they may wish to consider making a financial contribution to redress costs. His begging letters were ignored. In May 2023, the Government appointed former trade union official Sheila Nunan to negotiate with the orders. She was told to come back with a best and final offer from the orders within six months. Nearly two years later, Ms Nunan has filed her final report. It states that just one order has made a serious offer of cash to pay redress.

Going cap in hand to religious orders was not a successful strategy. This is hardly surprising in view of the fact that we know these orders would much prefer to pay their armies of lawyers than the women and children they tortured and abused. These orders own assets worth hundreds of millions. For decades in Ireland, unimaginable horrors were perpetrated in mother and baby homes. The infant mortality rate in these institutions was five times the national average. There were thousands of unexplained infants deaths, missing children and multiple mass unmarked graves. Women and children were subjected to incarceration, forced labour, vaccine trials and horrific physical and sexual abuse. Families were ripped apart, there were forced adoptions and children were boarded out to act as indentured servants. There has never been any accountability for any of these crimes. Religious orders that made millions on the back of enslaving women and children are walking away without paying a penny because the Government is allowing them to run rings around it. We have report after report documenting the crimes of these orders, not just in mother and baby homes but also in religious-run schools. When will the State finally flex some legal muscle when it comes to these religious orders? Why are these orders not raided by the Garda? Why are their assets not seized? It is unbelievable that the approach of successive Governments to these orders, which operated as criminal networks, is to roll over. What will it take for the State to finally act and go after these orders with more than a begging bowl?

On Monday afternoon, the Minister received from Ms Nunan, the negotiator who was appointed, her report on negotiations with religious organisations associated with the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. The Minister will have to review that report and come back to Government in relation to it.

The Government has not gone cap in hand to anyone. The Government took its own decisions in respect of a redress scheme for those in mother and baby homes. It is quite a substantial scheme, which will total up to €800 million or more. I accept not everyone felt that was enough, but it was a first substantive response by the State in respect of mother and baby homes. There have been other responses in respect of industrial schools and Magdalen laundries which have been extensive. Each of these involved different dimensions.

On mother and baby institutions, we will assess the report and see where we go next. We cannot simply go in and raid premises. I am sure the Deputy appreciates there have to be processes regarding the legality of whatever the Government does. Suffice to say that the Government did not wait around for religious orders.

In the context of the industrial schools, I recall that the Government at that time was attacked for having a redress scheme and not having a substantive contribution from the religious orders in advance of doing that. The Deputy is correct to say religious orders will utilise lawyers and legal mechanisms to frustrate what the Government is attempting to do. The Government of the day, like the current Administration, focused on the survivors and victims of these institutions. If we had been waiting around for a legal process to try to garner from orders the necessary resources in order to have a redress scheme, we would never have had one. That is the position, unfortunately. Either way, the Government will be criticised and condemned. On balance, however, in trying to respond to survivors and victims, it is better that the State develops independently its redress schemes and endeavours to seeks returns from the religious orders. We will see what we can do and what options are open to us. I have not read or seen the report. I just read a report about it in the media this morning. There are options we can follow in getting contributions from the religious orders.

I have not been asking for the Government to wait around in the context of a redress scheme; I am asking what it is going to do when it comes to going after these religious orders. This has been going on for years. We are talking about religious orders with assets worth hundreds of millions of euro, partly financed off the back of incarceration, forced labour, vaccine trials and forced adoptions. They have the resources to pay. Why is the State not vigorously pursuing these orders? Compare this with how the State treats its own citizens. When ordinary people attempt to vindicate their rights in the courts, the State fights them every step of the way. Why is the State failing to flex its legal muscle when pursuing these orders? What is the Government going to do to make these orders pay?

As I stated, our view is that the orders have a collective and moral responsibility to respond to Ireland's legacy in relation to the mother and baby institutions. As I also stated, we just received the report on Monday.

We will assess that report and then consider what options we can take - within the law, obviously - in terms of persuading religious orders in respect of the mother and baby institutions. As I said earlier, it is a matter on which we will have to take advice in terms of the precise and specific issues that pertain to mother and baby homes, which will be different to those that applied to the industrial schools, for example, where the State was directly involved in terms of inspectorial reports and inspections of those schools. It was the State that put many young people into industrial schools, unlike mother and baby homes. The State was not directly involved in the latter. Nonetheless, we will see what is the most effective way to get a contribution from the religious orders and what options are available.

The Taoiseach has spoken about building 300,000 houses over the next few years and I wish him luck in that. The facts are at the moment that 85% of the towns of Ireland do not have capacity to provide extra water for new housing. We know the budget that Irish Water is working with. Its ten-year plan is to bring the network up to specification under EU regulations and is based on approximately 30,000 houses per year. We know that, in Dublin, Ringsend's sewerage is over capacity. What happens when it is over capacity? We open the sluice valve and away with it. The same is happening in Mutton Island in Galway. What is happening with the quality of water in Cork? There are major problems. This is all in the context of the Dublin wastewater plant, which started in 2015 and got approval in 2019 but which has been in the courts ever since. It has not moved. This is a major problem. The Ballymore Eustace pipeline, which has been on the go for 50 years, has six leaks at the moment. Approximately 40% of Dublin's water comes in through it but, according to the chair of Irish Water, it could burst any time and then there would be pandemonium. The Shannon pipeline that is proposed is going to cost a fair few quid.

At the moment, there are 400 sewerage plants in smaller towns that need to be brought up to specification but Irish Water is saying that will not be possible until after 2030. I will give an example. Irish Water said in 2022 that Ballygar in County Galway was going to get an upgrade, as was Mountbellew, and that they would be done in a bundle. Now we are looking at 2026, if Irish Water has the funding.

Cloonfad is a small village in County Roscommon. This morning, for the 21st time at Lowberry Cross, the pipe has burst once more. Irish Water has announced that it is doing part of it but that is like having two cuts on your finger, in that, if you put a bandage on one, the blood will still come out of the other.

How can the Government sort out the planning side of it and make sure there is enough funding to facilitate what the Government is looking for in terms of the 300,000 houses? Most of these infrastructural projects are ten years on the go. We have to cut that, at a minimum, in half. What will be done with the judicial reviews, including the big one in Dublin? What is going to be done around the country to make sure that smaller towns are looked after as well?

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a key infrastructural issue in terms of facilitating the construction of thousands of houses but also in terms of the broader economy. The existing Uisce Éireann strategic funding plan, which was from 2025 to 2029, was approved last November. That committed over €10 billion in capital investment by Uisce Éireann in that period. There will be further additional investment in the context of the national development plan. We already announced an additional €1 billion allocation in the last budget in respect of receipts from the sale of shares in AIB. We are under no illusion that it will need substantially more capital investment.

The water supply project was approved in principle by Government in June of last year. That is a generational project, as the Deputy referenced, in terms of dealing with the deficit and lack of capacity for growth in the eastern and midlands region by supplying water from a hydro power reservoir on the Shannon river. We need people to go with that. We need political representatives to go with that because any delay in that could have very serious consequences for the eastern and midland region. The spend on that is extraordinarily high.

Regarding the greater Dublin drainage project that the Deputy spoke about, the current planning application is, it is my understanding, under review. Again, the Deputy mentioned judicial reviews. The new planning Act is meant to streamline that. We have to now implement that and commence it. That was the subject of a lot of debate and opposition in the last Dáil. A lot of people said we were rushing it but it took four years to get from conception to conclusion in the Legislature and to get that Act passed. On the one hand, we are saying our system is too slow - and it is, in my view - in terms of both planning and the utilisation of judicial reviews, JRs. Collectively as a society, we have to weigh up what is important for all of us. Water supply is part of that. What we are saying to Irish Water is that there will be further investment but, parallel to compliance obligations, there has to be increased capacity for housing.

We also, I believe, have to look at the option of working with the private sector in terms of water supply and wastewater. We have to just open up and broaden perspectives in terms of how we are going to meet the enormous challenges we are facing, on the housing front in particular, in terms of new connections and new supply capacity. That is something the Government is examining at the moment.

The facts are that of the €10 billion that is proposed, €5 billion is to comply with EU legislation. It is to bring plants that are not compliant at the moment into compliance. Another €3 billion of it is for the Shannon project. What the Government is saying, then, is that the Government has €2 billion over five years to produce an additional 30,000 houses every year. To be quite frank about it, whoever did those figures - and I know it was not the Taoiseach - does not have a bull's clue of what is going on in this country in terms of trying to supply water and sewerage plants for the projects in question.

Last year, the budget for subcontractors working for Irish Water on repairs, leaks and maintenance was gone by August and 500 subcontractors - people out working - were laid off. They were laid off because the budgets had been blown. From August until Christmas, it was tough luck with regard to leaks or repairs. They had to be left until the next year and the same will happen this year because of the way Irish Water is doing its budgets. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this.

Given that we are talking about an extra 300,000 houses on top of the 30,000 target, we must look at the figures that Irish Water is giving. The Shannon project is a once in a lifetime project for Irish Water and should have a completely separate budget from all of the other projects.

The Deputy has made a number of fair points there. In the context of the national development plan, we will look at some of those issues in terms of, first of all, the need for additional capital funding for water because that is key, in my view, for housing and economic development, particularly in the context of the trade war that is potentially on our doorstep. We need to be very nimble in ensuring that we can respond to the needs of industry, both our own industries and those that may wish to invest in Ireland. Historically, we have always been very strong on utilities, including water availability and connections to the grid. Those two areas of investment in the grid and investment in water are going to be critical in terms of the economic development of the country into the future.

I will take on board the suggestions the Deputy has made and we will engage with Uisce Éireann in respect of them.

That completes Leader's Questions. Before we move on, I want to welcome all of those viewing proceedings from the Public Gallery, but particularly the students from my former secondary school, Ramsgrange Community School. I was not there too long.

I wish to raise an issue that is of considerable importance not only to my constituency of Offaly, but to many areas nationally that have witnessed a dramatic increase in the level of demand. I refer to special education schools and the enormous pressure they are under every single day to keep the doors open, retain staff and deliver urgent therapeutic interventions to all pupils in their care.

Last November, there was major disappointment and anger at the news that special schools in Laois and Offaly had yet again been excluded from participation in the then Government's pilot programme for enhanced school therapy supports. Offaly School of Special Education in Tullamore, St. Francis School in Portlaoise and Kolbe Special School in Portlaoise were also denied entry to the pilot programme in August, when phase 1 of the initiative was announced.

Today, I wish to highlight specifically the challenges faced by Offaly School of Special Education. I visited the school some months ago and it is a fantastic school. I commend the principal and all the teachers and hard-working SNAs who do so much to help the students. What I witnessed was very impressive and the care for all students was to be noted.

This year, Offaly School of Special Education had 18 applications for the one space it was capable of offering. Next year, it will still have just one vacancy. The school was promised two in-school therapists - an occupational therapist and a speech and language therapist - but, to date, the HSE has been unable to fill those positions despite many months of trying. The difficulties in securing additional SNAs from the NCSE are also proving to be exceptionally cumbersome. I am constantly informed that not only is the paperwork onerous, but there is a cap placed on the number of SNAs any special school can have. It really should be based on need. That would make far more sense than a cap. How is this reasonable and why is this criterion being applied to special schools when there is a need and there is justification for hiring more SNAs?

A planning application for a new school will go to the county council by the middle of this month, but there is an urgent need to guarantee that the school is built on time and be well equipped. The proposed completion date for the new school is the end of 2027. It is imperative that this happens.

Offaly School of Special Education is not asking for miracles, but it is asking for adequate staff support, an increase in enhanced therapeutic resources and a recognition that the current system is just not fit for purpose. Will the Taoiseach commit to ensuring that the school receives whatever help it needs to keep its doors open?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. She had been raising the issue for quite some time previously on the floor of the House in respect of special needs education more generally, but here she is specifically referencing Offaly School of Special Education. She referred to the most recent pilot scheme, which was announced last summer, in respect of 11 special schools across the country.

As I said earlier in reply to questions on special education, the overall objective of the Government is to ensure that every parent will know well in advance that there is a school place for his or her child for the following September. I also outlined the exponential growth in the number of SNAs and special teachers. That number will continue to grow. It has grown and will grow this year. There is no specific cap on any school. The Deputy is correct that allocation should be on the basis of need, but there is a general guideline and framework by which the NCSE works.

The pilot scheme has not worked. It was initiated with a view to having an impact from September of the 2024-25 school year. Ideally, the HSE was to have provided therapists for approximately 11 special schools to see how it would work. That has happened in some schools but has not happened in others. What we have had is an alignment of therapists with schools but they are not actually in situ working in the schools.

I convened a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on disability and a decision has been taken to set up a national therapy education programme. We will be recruiting and employing, through the NCSE, therapists to work in the 124 special schools across the country. We have to do that on a phased basis but we want to have it in place by next September or commencing next September. The Minister for Education, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State for special education, Deputy Michael Moynihan, are working up proposals to bring back to the Government as to how the scheme will work, with a view to having it commence in September of this year for the 2025-26 school year.

I am of the view, and have been for quite some time, that we need multidisciplinary teams, starting in special schools. We were frustrated over the past two years in getting that over the line. The pilot was a response to that but the pilot has not worked. I made it clear during the general election that I wanted this to happen. I made it clear that it had to go into the programme for Government. I have made it clear to all officials in all departments in the HSE that this is going to happen. It is a Government commitment and we are going do it. We will evaluate over time in terms of further expansion.

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. The pilot scheme has failed. We are certainly all in agreement on that. However, I am concerned about the backlog of children waiting for in-school therapists. I acknowledge that a disability forum will be set up, which is progress in the right direction, but there is a need and a vacuum now. Offaly School of Special Education has done its level best in working to get the in-school therapists in place but that still has not happened. Is it possible that private therapists could be hired in the interim until the disability forum is working properly? This is an emergency situation.

It is correct that the number of SNAs across the country has increased, but there are particularly acute needs in special schools. These schools feel that the current framework is restrictive. Could more flexibility be given in terms of the NCSE framework to allow schools more latitude to hire SNAs?

I acknowledge there is a vacuum. We need a structured approach as a country between health and education. We are all aware that the CDNT workforce has grown. There have been issues with recruitment but progress is being made. We want to do this in a way that does not undermine capacity within the health service. We want to recruit and retain more therapists overall in the public service. We have to get the structure right first. The danger is that we could create an alternative system that would ultimately undermine our capacities in the public service. The situation is not ideal. I fully accept there is a vacuum at the moment . In a very few places in the country, the private option has been utilised. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, has been asked to substantially increase the number of therapists in our schools. We also want to work with CORU to recruit more therapists from overseas. We recruit many professionals from overseas but there seems to be an issue with getting therapists' qualifications recognised here. That is an issue we will pursue.

Today, parents of children with special needs from across the country will again begin an overnight sleep-out at the gates of Leinster House. These parents cannot find suitable school places for their children. It is a deep and long-standing crisis. Notwithstanding the Taoiseach's answer to Members earlier, the fact is that hundreds of children are locked out of the education to which they are entitled. When I raised this crisis with him in February, he said he would do everything to ensure that every child waiting for a school place got one in September.

However, the parents are now beside themselves with worry because, following a meeting with the Minister for Education, no such guarantee was made or given. These children and parents deserve that guarantee. They should not be forced to protest again outside the Dáil. Will the Taoiseach now again give a clear-cut commitment that every child will have access to a suitable school place come September?

As I said earlier to Deputy Bacik, who raised this on Leaders' Questions - I have just responded to Deputy Nolan, who has also raised this issue - the Government's obligation is to vindicate the right of every child to education and to a school place. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, are working flat out with the National Council for Special Education and the Department of Education to make sure there will be a sufficiency of places for the school year beginning next September and throughout. That means additional special schools. Three hundred and seventy-two extra classes have already been sanctioned and there is engagement now with other schools with a view to those schools taking on additional needs children and providing additional places.

As the Taoiseach knows, today is World Autism Awareness Day. I ask about the supports and therapies that are available for children with additional needs in my constituency of Dublin South-West. As the Taoiseach knows, we are all being contacted constantly by parents at their wits' end who are seeking crucial and urgent interventions for their children, be it speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or psychology. Waiting lists for assessments of need are in their thousands and even waiting for a follow-up services statement and getting access to the therapies can take years.

In the Ballyboden primary care centre in my constituency, we have gone from five speech and language therapists in 2022 to one part-timer. Our local CDNT is struggling to get staff. It is competing with the HSE for staff because it is a section 39 agency. We have schools that are opening additional special classes, which is fantastic, but with the number of students with additional needs increasing, the wraparound supports for those special classes and the therapies the students need have to increase as well.

I am not disagreeing with anything the Deputy is saying. The issue is solutions and we have got to work on it. My own view is that the progressing disability programme, which was developed back in about 2013, has not worked, or the particular models. I want to pay tribute to people working in CDNTs because they have had huge burdens and workloads but the problem is, prior to 2013, special schools had therapists. They were taken out of the special schools and spread more widely. In my view, those with severe and profound needs lost out.

There is no easy solution to it but we need to provide a therapy service in education, and we need to do that in the first instance with special schools. This is something I have been focused on for quite a long time. I acknowledge the frustration. In the last term of the previous Government, we were not in a position to get it over the line but we have made it clear we want to do it this time. That is not the full answer but it at least allows for and would create a multidisciplinary within the special schools that we could then evaluate and expand to the broader school system.

Today marks World Autism Awareness Day. Aligning themselves with the occasion, there will be up to 200 parents and guardians who will sleep on the pavement outside Dáil Éireann today. It will be the second time they have done so in a number of weeks. They are doing so for a plethora of different reasons related to assessments, diagnoses, therapies, school places and access to SNA provision. However, there is a common thread that aligns with all of those parents and guardians, that is, paying for what their children are being asked to go without.

Acting upon that pain, those parents became legal experts. They have had to take on therapeutic practices themselves just to provide the service to their children that the State is failing to give. We have talked about it in a number of different ways. I understand what the Taoiseach will say to us regarding what his intention is. I hope he might, or somebody from his Department or members of his Government will-----

I thank the Deputy.

What would the Taoiseach say to those 200 parents outside on the pavement today if he were to talk to them?

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, have met the parents. We are saying we are doing everything we can to provide places. We have already provided 372 school classes. We are making very significant progress this year. Delivery is more important than making promises. Next September, we want every child to have a school place that is appropriate for the child. That is what is being worked on right now.

The Minister and Minister of State are saying - the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, spoke to me this morning - that for next year, they want the applications brought forward to November of this year for the following school year, and that the NCSE and the Department would have in place by 2026 - that is the aim - a common application system where people would apply in November and where there would be a liaison with parents and schools to make sure that children would get places early, taking the anxiety out of it.

I am sure the Taoiseach is aware there are extremely long waiting lists for driving tests across the country. I have been contacted by many of my constituents who are taking tests in Letterkenny, Donegal town and Buncrana. As the Taoiseach can imagine, when people do manage to secure a test, it is important that it go ahead. Unfortunately, this was not the case for one of my constituents, whose test was immediately terminated because the insurance disc on his car was printed in black and white. This is completely unacceptable. It is unacceptable that most insurance companies, rather than post them out, now require customers to print their own discs in a bid to save costs. Most people, including myself, were unaware of the colour printing requirement. Does this requirement expand beyond driving tests? If there was an accident, would a car with a black-and-white disc legally be insured? Will the Taoiseach look into this matter and ensure that people are not being penalised for having black-and-white discs?

I am not an expert on discs in terms of presentation and so on. I will ask the Minister responsible to come back to me on it and to respond to the specific query the Deputy raised this morning, if that is okay.

In August 2023, the Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield closed its doors, discommoding over 100 families who were left scrambling to find alternative places for their children. At that time, there was a commitment given by the previous Government that it would try to resource and fund this. Prior to the general election, as I am sure the Taoiseach knows, it was announced that funding of up to €250,000 would be made available for the centre through Northside Community Enterprises, in tandem with the Diocese of Cork and Ross. It was very much announced in the local press and it appeared on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael newsletters and propaganda prior to the election, but to date, there has not been a shovel put in the ground. The gates remain closed. No builder has been appointed. Nobody has been appointed, actually. Are we still on target? Is the €250,000 ring-fenced for it and when can we expect the Before 5 Family Centre, which was 50 years in the community, to be reopened?

I am very familiar with the service, and Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan would have raised it with me. I think Councillor Tony Fitzgerald, as the Deputy knows, has done fantastic work in that area over the years and has been very active on this. Hence the allocation. I spoke to the former Minister, Roderic O'Gorman, on foot of representations from Deputy O'Sullivan and Councillor Fitzgerald specifically on this issue. I will check with Deputy O'Flynn on what the issues are around the building and the delays. The Deputy might know some background himself as to why it has not physically got under way. I will certainly pursue that.

By the way, the Four-Faced Liar did get funding, as in, the Shandon clock.

I am delighted to deliver for my constituency.

On Monday night last in the community hall in Ballyouskill, County Kilkenny, a community came together. It was a packed hall. Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan was there also with local councillors. We were there to discuss the Ballynalacken wind farm development. The community was forced to come together to fundraise and fight against the company making the application, which is well-heeled and well financed. The Taoiseach outlined his position on this in support of communities back in 2013. Will the Government introduce a moratorium on such applications until such time as the 2006 regulations are updated and made available and the playing field is levelled? At the moment, communities are at a disadvantage. They are volunteering themselves to defend their position and it is urgent that action be taken in this regard.

I am not familiar with the full background of the specific application and this specific wind farm development. Obviously, I would want to be apprised of that in terms of what the issues are around planning and so forth.

The Government will not be introducing a moratorium on onshore wind, however. It is just simply not in a position to do that given the huge pressures we are under in terms of the increasing prices, particularly of a predominantly fossil fuel-based model at the moment. That will continue for quite some time. We have to get more renewables. Hopefully, offshore wind will be the way of the future. We are hoping we can get the first offshore wind farms before 2030. That would take pressure off the onshore sector because there has been significant onshore development in Ireland, which is making a huge contribution to electricity generation. Ireland is under a lot of pressure on the energy question-----

Six regulation-----

We do not have great resources other than wind and solar-----

The Government should not be putting-----

----- but I will talk to the Minister in respect of the guidelines as to when they will be issued. I will come back to Deputy McGuinness on that.

I raise the number of dental training places that are available in the universities in Ireland. It has not increased in the past 25 years, yet the population has increased by 1.5 million. The number of dentists taking part in the dental treatment services scheme has reduced from 1,492 to 810, which means 682 fewer dentists are available under the scheme. There is an urgent need to increase the number of training places in universities for dental students, which is quite easy to do. A total of 44% of current students attending Irish universities are from overseas. Why can we not use those places for training Irish students? It is about funding, and the reason they are bringing people from overseas is the funding. It is an easy matter to deal with. There is also a need for funding of more than €20 million between UCC and Trinity College Dublin to increase the number of places. I ask that the matter be dealt with before September 2025.

I fully accept that there is a real need and issue with regard to expanding capacity of undergraduate dentistry places in Ireland. I understand that the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RCSI, will be producing approximately 75 graduate dentists. There is an issue as there will be 25 Irish and EU graduates and 40 non-EU graduates. RCSI is hoping to increase capacity by approximately 20 extra places. Then we have UCC and Trinity College Dublin. We need greater coherence from the other colleges as to what their priorities are from a capital investment point of view. The Department of Health and others are working with these colleges with a view to seeing how we can increase the number of dentistry places. I take the Deputy's point about the need for interim solutions.

All EU citizens and their family members have the right to move and reside freely within the EU. This fundamental right is established in EU treaty law and the decision to expel an EU citizen is the highest form of restriction on freedom of movement. Two Irish citizens, Shane O'Brien and Roberta Murray, have been issued with deportation orders because of their values. Neither of these individuals has been convicted of a related crime, and my query is: is opposition to genocide not an EU value?

For context, I was raised by a German mother. I am half-German and I like to keep a close eye on German politics. I have been very concerned with the heavy-handed approach Germany has taken to peaceful pro-Palestine protestors. These people are being deported on policy grounds. Will the Taoiseach stand up for one of the three fundamental freedoms of the EU? Will he stand up for the rights of these Irish and EU citizens?

Hear, hear.

I am aware of reports in the media in respect of a decision ordering two Irish citizens to leave Germany. That is of fundamental concern in terms of the freedom of movement rights that EU citizens have. Approximately four individuals, I believe, are being deported, including two Irish citizens, namely, Shane O'Brien and Roberta Murray. The other individuals are from the United States and Poland. The embassy in Berlin, I understand, has raised the matter with the German foreign ministry, and we will raise this issue with the German authorities. Each of the four is apparently facing differing charges. It is reflective of a completely different climate in Germany as opposed to here or other European countries in respect of the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have been saying that for ages in the House. This is a manifestation of that. I am not justifying it in any shape or form; it is just illustrative of a completely different approach taken to protest to Germany on this issue as opposed to what would be taken here.

The previous Government introduced a waiver scheme for people who were building first-time homes. It included council charges plus Uisce Éireann charges. On 31 December 2024, this was stopped. When this was introduced, it set out all the principles and achieved the objective of speedier activation of planning permissions by the development sector. It also escalated planning permissions that had been granted for a number of years and were not activated, and caused a higher rate of housing commencements. The Taoiseach will remember when he started out in his first house with his wife, Mary, how difficult it was to save up. This waiver is something the previous Government brought in for people who do not get any other contribution, such as the social housing waiting list. This was an opportunity and was very well received by people, where there could be savings of €5,000 up to €25,000, depending on the county. It was really worthwhile for these people. The Taoiseach knows how difficult it is to save up to €10,000 or €20,000 before a block is even laid for a house. That is something the previous Government did, and I am asking the Taoiseach to please consider doing it again.

The individual buyers from the help to buy or first home schemes, which are very significant interventions by the Government. The waiver of development levies goes to the builders. It has led-----

Not necessarily.

Yes.

If you build your own house-----

Okay. In general, it went to all sorts of applicants. The bottom line is there were approximately 60,000 commencements, which we now need to see them completed and delivered. We are not extending it. I want to make it very clear to everyone out there: build what you have signed up for and get it built before the end of 2026.

The Taoiseach is being very unfair.

No, I am not-----

Sorry, Deputy. It is not a back and forth.

This will go on and on forever. I will talk to the Deputy again.

For a house in one's own garden. The Taoiseach's son could be building a house in a rural area.

Deputy Aird, this is not a back and forth.

Deputy Aird might give me some time now.

I was recently given a tour of the new 96-bed block that is under construction at University Hospital Limerick, UHL. It will be completed by the end of May, and by September for patient occupation. It is modern, and will help hugely in terms of public healthcare. As we reached the top floor, the builders pointed out that is where the new 96-bed block will go, and further back in the carpark they aim to build another 96-bed block. I made the point to the builders and HSE management that they should just keep going up and up,but they were told and advised that the current planning regulations mean they can only build a 96-bed block at a time. Anything exceeding that has to go through the strategic infrastructure development route and An Bord Pleanála, therefore making it longer and more arduous. A planning fix here could allow for these new 96-bed blocks to go a few storeys higher and accommodate more wards and beds. It is a technical issue, and is something the Minister for housing will hopefully have to fix, but that planning fix could be transformative. It would mean not having to dig new foundations or build new towers. We could build up on a building that is fully load-bearing. It can go higher, and we can provide more beds.

I will have to examine that. Presumably, they could have applied for more at the time if that is what they wanted to build.

It would have pushed them to An Bord Pleanála.

Yes.

Anything will push you to An Bord Pleanála. That facility was created to enable them to get a faster permission and to go directly to An Bord Pleanála. I will check the background to this, but my understanding is 96-beds is what was sanctioned from an earlier bed review. I will check it out, because we want to provide beds as quickly as we possibly can in UHL. Obviously, it has to be done legally but I will examine what the Deputy has said.

I raise the case of a young William Jonathan Moore, a four-year-old boy from Kilkenny who has been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD. This condition is so rare that no treatment is available in Ireland. William has been accepted at the Boston Children's Hospital for treatment. However, as I am sure the Taoiseach is aware, the treatment abroad scheme does not currently cover the United States. The State has a duty to provide care to children such as William to be treated in Ireland or abroad. At the moment, William's future is dependent on the goodwill of the public via a GoFundMe page for treatment and local fundraisers. We have had bespoke arrangements in the past for children with rare conditions, where the only treatment options were in the United States. I am asking that the Minister for Health engages with the HSE and William's family to ensure that they are supported to get the treatment and that the Department works to develop support for any future cases of DMD.

I thank the Deputy for raising the case of William Jonathan Moore.

Normally, the treatment abroad section is very responsive to cases. I understand that the guidelines stipulate treatment should be within the European Union, although with the common travel area with Britain, we also send people with rare conditions to get treatment in the UK. If the Deputy can send me the full details of the case, I will certainly examine it. The child should get-----

It is only available in the United States.

If it is only available in the US, we should do something about that. I will come back to the Deputy about it and will talk to the Minister for Health.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. Children with autism are being abandoned in south Tipperary. The HSE has confirmed that the waiting time for autism assessments is now in excess of two years. A total of 233 children are waiting for an autism assessment. Cara Darmody was told in the past that children could access assessments privately if the HSE continued to fail but that is not happening. Beyond that, I have repeatedly raised the difficulty of children with autism getting appropriate school places. At least 17 children in south Tipperary are waiting for a placement in a special school while many others are waiting for placement in special classes. The Minister for Education said that she will force schools to take places, but we have schools that are waiting for places and will not be allowed to give them. On this day especially, will the Taoiseach please try to do something to alleviate this? I know much progress has been made with a number of new special schools recently and indeed at a number of new special classes in south Tipperary. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, for his engagement and for his recent visit to Cashel. We need to do more for the likes of young Michael Barrett in Cahir and others who are waiting.

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues. If he could identify those schools with places that are, for some reason, not being filled, I will take that up with the Minister. I know the Deputy has been engaged with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan.

Bansha National School.

The Deputy might provide them to me afterwards. Our immediate focus is on getting places for all children. I understand that in the Munster area more generally, that is more or less on track, and we just want to keep on top of it. As I said earlier during Other Members' Questions, there are still challenges in Dublin.

I raise the issue of University Maternity Hospital Limerick and the long-awaited need to colocate the maternity hospital with the main acute hospital in the region. University Maternity Hospital Limerick delivers excellent care with good outcomes for mothers and babies. However, there is no ICU or blood bank on-site and the building has not changed significantly since I entered the world myself nearly 32 years ago. Much of the focus at UHL is rightly on the acute bed shortages and staff shortages in the UL Hospital Group but it is vital that this colocation, which the Minister for Health said in a parliamentary question reply to me is the next maternity colocation to be considered, goes ahead, because there are no ownership or land issues with this. When will a strategic assessment report and preliminary business case for this be completed?

I do not have the specific timelines on that but I can revert to the Deputy. I fully support the concept of colocation. The absence of colocation is a sad indictment of many of the healthcare structures and some of the hospitals themselves. The most significant colocation happened in the early 2000s with Cork University Maternity Hospital because the two hospitals involved and the private hospital in the city agreed to it. It happened and then we have had the Holles Street saga, which went on for far too long. it is incredible that it has not happened in other locations. Limerick seems to me to be the more obvious one, where there is apparently not a land issue. There will be huge expenditure, it will be subject to resources and so on, but at least the group could start doing all the planning, site assessment and so on. I will talk to the Minister about that.

I want to raise the issue of school funding. Yesterday, the Taoiseach informed the Dáil about the work of the financial support services unit in the Department of Education. Three school principals have been in touch with me who do not want to make a public matter of the issue but who want to get to the bottom of funding issues they are having. I have looked at the books in some of these schools. There are big questions about the funding for insurance, heating and cleaning. All of them are schools that in the sixties and seventies would have had 700 or 800 pupils and are now operating at 15% or 20% of that. There is an issue in the Department with those large schools. I encourage the Minister to try to come up with a bespoke solution bespoke for them. They are located all across north Dublin. We need to examine how we are funding them in addition to the capitation grant, while ensuring that they retain responsibility for managing their own finances. This is a real issue.

I thank the Deputy for raising that. He is correct that there is an issue. Issues can always emerge. There are many older schools that had huge numbers in the past, which have declined significantly. They are in older buildings, are harder to heat and have issues. I will talk to the Minister about whether we could devise a bespoke solution that would help schools in certain circumstances to more sustainably deal with the financial pressures they are under.

It is important that we maximise the impact of our Presidency of the European Union next year. It is such an important event for Ireland. Perhaps the Taoiseach will provide an update on the preplanning of our Presidency. Have there been any discussions of key priorities for our Presidency, having regard to the timing of the Presidency? It will include the next round of discussions on the multi-annual financial framework, with pressures on increased spending in the areas of defence, climate and digitalisation. Can the Taoiseach provide any assurance to farmers in my constituency of Tipperary South and across Ireland that a key priority for our Presidency will be an increase in the Common Agricultural Policy budget, which works for farmers across Ireland and, more importantly, which encourages more young farmers and new entrants into the area of food production?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The multi-annual financial framework negotiations are starting. We had a first meeting last week, which was a general tour de table type of exploratory meeting. I made it clear that Ireland was interested in protecting the common agricultural payments system and the CAP, as well as investment in the Horizon research programme, which is important. The problem will be that everybody is looking for more funding for more new initiatives. Defence is looming now as an issue that people want to have some provision inserted into the multi-annual financial framework for their member states to avail of. This would require alternative revenue sources. The Commission is looking at own resources. We favour the GNI metric, which would mean an increased contribution from us but would be fairer and more transparent. There are two issues here. Can we increase the budget in a realistic way to accommodate the increased needs? The CAP is important to us, as is food production more generally.

The world waits with bated breath to see what the announcements from Washington will be. Workers and families across the State and in my constituency of Waterford are anxious. They are wondering about their jobs and the impact of these tariffs on the wider economy, particularly the pharma sector. The pharma sector is incredibly important in Waterford city and county and across the wider south east. We have the likes of Haleon in Dungarvan, Pinewood Healthcare and JB Pharmatron. Many companies and firms are directly involved in pharma and many more work in the wider orbit. What is the Government's plan for the pharma sector? Waterford has been left behind when it comes to job creation, investment in infrastructure and efforts to diversify the economy. There is a very strong feeling that Waterford has been left behind in the wider south east and that is borne out by the facts. What is the plan? What can the Taoiseach say to reassure families and workers? What is the strategy?

I will have to counter and say there has been significant investment in Waterford in recent times, particularly the €170 million north quays project. As the Deputy said, Waterford has been a good and attractive location for foreign direct investment companies, especially American multinationals in the pharmaceutical sector. The objective is to protect as many jobs as we possibly can and to work both with the European Union and bilaterally with the US, and also with multinational companies, to get the best strategy to protect those companies to keep them in Ireland and to continue to export to the European and Asian markets. Those companies have done very well in Europe because of their base in Ireland and our strong workforce with high-quality skill sets that are not easily replaceable, certainly not in the short term. We want to do everything possible to protect pharma as best we can.

We are not starting these tariffs. The US has decided to go down this road.

As we are over time and as there are two remaining Members, namely Deputies Gogarty and Cummins, I intend to take both now, with the Taoiseach to respond to both simultaneously.

A worrying increase in incidents involving the spiking of drinks has been reported. I met a constituent this week whose daughter's drink was drugged, but luckily she had people close by. This sinister offence and others like it are currently covered under legislation on poisoning or drugging - namely, the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Intoxicating Liquor Act. We need more specific laws and real consequences to deal with this problem. In fairness, I note that the previous Government was working on an amendment to the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act, the so-called spiking Bill 2023. This welcome legislation lapsed following the recent election and needs to be reintroduced at the justice committee. Is there a priority and timescale the Taoiseach can give for this law to be passed this year?

During the Taoiseach's maiden speech in June 2020 following the election, he mentioned the school completion programme. I do not know whether he knows that school completion co-ordinators and project workers throughout the country were delighted that it was mentioned in his maiden speech. As he probably knows, I worked for a school completion programme, Ballymun Anseo, as Deputy Paul McAuliffe knows because I had his head melted about the school completion programme. I am now here, so I will melt his head again. When will the Department of Education finalise the governance and employment structure for the school completion programme? It is very difficult to work as a co-ordinator or project worker when you are uncertain what the future will be. We work with the most vulnerable children in the country aside from children with special educational needs. This is very important for vulnerable workers, especially those working in Tusla. Educational welfare officers and home school liaisons have steady employment, but school completion co-ordinators do not. We need to know when an answer will be provided in respect of this matter. I appreciate the Taoiseach's championing of the school completion programme for the past number of decades.

I thank both Deputies for raising very important issues. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, with a view to trying to get the legislation to which Deputy Gogarty referred restored to the Order Paper. It has not come forward from the Department yet. The behaviour in question is very sinister and reprehensible. I do not understand why people do this sort of thing. We can understand it, but I do not understand it, if the Deputy knows what I am getting at. It is horrible. Anything we can do to create legal deterrents and the potential to punish people is important.

On school completion, I will talk to the Minister in respect of the commitment in the programme for Government. The previous Government nearly got there but when Departments are transferring functions, they have a habit of frustrating the best-laid plans. School completion in its entirety should be under the Department of Education. It should be part of the ethos of education to enable every child not just to participate in school but to complete it. That then informs policy in education and curricular matters. If it is divorced from education, focus can sometimes be lost in respect of curriculum design and how the school year is organised and so on. I thank the Deputy for her commitment to school completion throughout her career so far. Hopefully, we can move this on together.

The issue of community safety is something that I know is a top priority for the Members of this House. There is no doubt that supporting our young people, particularly those who need it most, will play a central part in achieving this goal. As the new Minister of State, I am filled with hope and optimism for what we can achieve together.

The measure of a safe community is how we care for each other and the most vulnerable in our society. How we care for our young people in particular is central to this goal. The youth justice strategy is a forward-thinking plan designed to address the unique challenges faced by young people in Ireland. At its core, it emphasises early intervention, prevention, family support and community engagement. It includes a number of key objectives aimed at promoting positive behavioural change. It is only by targeting this behaviour that we can break the cycle of young people reoffending.

We must all work towards seeking positive outcomes for young people who come into contact with the justice system. We are continuing vital work to implement our youth justice strategy. We have made a commitment in the programme for Government to develop a successor at the end of our current strategy’s lifespan.

A key initiative in our current strategy is the continued development and enhancement of our youth diversion projects. These community-based initiatives seek to direct young people who have become involved in crime and antisocial behaviour. They also support wider preventative work within their communities, particularly with at-risk families. We all know that there is no quick-fix solution to directing young offenders away from a life of crime. However, these youth diversion projects offer a responsive, empathetic path towards a better quality of life for many.

I have been fortunate enough to see first hand the incredible work being done by people up and down the country in these projects. In my capacity as Minister of State, I have visited the LIFE project in my home county of Limerick as well as Solas in the Liberties. Youth diversion projects give renewed hope to some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They offer a chance at a better, more fulfilling life. This work has been shown to have positive impacts on these young people, their families and their communities.

My Department conducted a youth diversion project evaluation that identified decreasing risk levels among participants in respect of peer relations, leisure and recreation, personality and behaviour, and attitudes and orientation. It showed that young people who engaged with youth diversion projects were less involved in criminal or antisocial behaviour and had improved self-confidence and communication skills, increased happiness and an overall improved sense of hope.

Two new successful youth diversion applications have recently been commissioned in east Clare and north Tipperary. I am delighted that when these projects are up and running before the end of the year, we will have achieved full nationwide coverage in our youth diversion programme.

This means that any child in the country who needs to avail of these services will be able to do so.

This expansion has been made possible by the unprecedented funding that has been allocated to youth justice services. The youth justice strategy is not just a plan on paper; it is a commitment to the young people of Ireland and a promise to create a brighter, more equitable future for all. By investing in our youth, we are investing in the future of Ireland. We are building a society where young people can achieve their potential, positively impact their communities and escape cycles of crime. Funding for youth justice services has increased substantially from €18 million in 2020 to just over €36 million in budget 2025. It has also allowed for increased availability of these services at weekends and late at night, a key recommendation of our Department's evaluation. It ensures that these vital services are made available when many young people need them most, and it increases our supports for those young people who are hardest to reach and allows for early interventions for eight- to 11-year-olds, who may be at risk of becoming engaged in criminal activity. All of this reflects our continued commitment to investing in our youth for the betterment of our communities.

We have also made a commitment to expanding these services to be available to 18- to 24-year-olds. We know from international research that a number of factors place young adults in this age group at a higher risk of becoming involved in criminal behaviour. It is important to reach out to this age group and ensure those in it recognise they will not be abandoned or left to fend for themselves when they officially become young adults as they turn 18. It is also very important to emphasise that youth diversion is not about people avoiding consequences for their actions. It is about recognising that many people who stray from the path need guidance and support to prevent them from reoffending. Every cent that we invest in diverting young people away from the criminal justice system pays us back in spades. It is also important to emphasise that diversion works. At the time of the introduction of the Children Act 2001, some 30,000 children committed crimes each year. By 2016, that had reduced to 10,000 approximately. This decline has continued. In 2023, the most recent year for which official figures are available, the figure was 7,843.

Another example of our commitment to youth justice is in the Greentown programme, established by our Department in 2020. This programme aims to reduce the influence of criminal networks on children at risk of involvement. It also seeks to improve the likelihood of pro-social outcomes for children who are already involved in these criminal networks. The Greentown programme has been in place in two locations since 2021, and has now been extended for a further three years. Over the last two years, there have been notable improvements in reducing the influence of criminal networks in the trial site communities. Children and families are better enabled to withstand the powerful attraction of network membership and to make pro-social choices.

The programme also targets adults who seek to groom children into their criminal networks as one of its key pillars. Reducing the susceptibility of the young people concerned to negative influence by criminal networks has laid positive foundations for greater concentration on the network disruption pillar over this second phase of the trial sites. To further support this work, legislation was introduced last year that makes it an offence for an adult to either force or encourage children to engage in any criminal activity. Those found guilty of the offences under this Act may face imprisonment of up to 12 months on summary conviction and up to five years on indictment. The legislation recognises the lifelong impact and harm done to a child by drawing him or her into criminal activity. We are unfortunately all too aware of the immensely damaging impact these organised crime gangs can have on communities. This is yet another key step as we strive to deliver on our commitment to criminalise those who target some of the most vulnerable in our society, namely our children and young people, in order to commit offences.

A very serious issue which can result in young people being drawn into criminality is the sale and supply of drugs, most specifically drug-related intimidation. To tackle this, An Garda Síochána has run Operation Fógra since 2020. This operation was established in the Dublin metropolitan region to enhance the understanding of and support An Garda Síochána’s response to incidents of drug-related intimidation in the Dublin metropolitan region. The operation has two pillars - a harm-reduction, victim-centred approach and information-enabled policing, informing operational responses. The objectives of Operation Fógra are to increase front-line awareness of drug-related intimidation, enhance collaboration with community supports, improve effectiveness of the drug-related intimidation reporting programme and provide a greater analytical understanding of drug-related intimidation, driving appropriate and proactive interventions. An Garda Síochána continues to make arrests under this operation. In January of this year, as part of ongoing investigations into drug-related intimidation, gardaí from the Dublin metropolitan region north division, assisted by the district drug unit, the armed support unit and the Garda dog unit, conducted a number of searches under warrant in north County Dublin. A man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s were arrested under organised crime legislation. I commend An Garda Síochána on this work. It is important that it continues to tackle those who attempt to ensnare young people in a life of crime, either through grooming or intimidation.

With regard to tackling the sale and supply of drugs more broadly, An Garda Síochána continues to target those involved in street-level drug dealing across the country. The focus of An Garda Síochána is on disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking networks that impact our communities, and prosecuting those involved at every level, through Operation Tara. The focus of Operation Tara is to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels - international, national and local - involved in the importation, distribution, cultivation, production, local sale and supply of controlled drugs. Under Operation Tara, individuals and groups involved in the drug trade will be the target of enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest crime trends. The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, GNDOCB, leads in tackling all forms of drug trafficking and the supply of illicit drugs in Ireland. The unit was established in 2015. Since then, the unit has seized €627 million in illicit drugs, 171 firearms and 6,586 rounds of ammunition and made 1,722 arrests. Again, I commend An Garda Síochána on this work. The more it does to disempower those who entrap young people in crime, the better. The Garda Commissioner has stated that he will continue to target those who import and supply drugs. I am sure that is something we all welcome and can recognise the positive impact it will have on the lives of young people across the country.

Today the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, has commenced the landmark Policing, Security and Community Safety Act. This Act will provide for the establishment of local community safety partnerships across the country. These innovative projects bring together local stakeholders with Government agencies and An Garda Síochána to create a community safety plan tailored to their needs. The plans will assign ownership to the appropriate State body to address each concern, whether that is additional street cleaning by the local authority or increased Garda engagement in a particular area. Nobody understands the needs of a community better than the communities themselves. These partnerships will complement the work of the youth diversion projects, providing accessible services that young people want to engage with.

The Act also provides for a national office for community safety. A function of this office is to provide training, guidance and support to the partnerships. In preparation for the establishment of the national office, a number of staff, including a director designate, have been appointed. These staff are engaging directly with local authorities and other stakeholders to support the establishment of the partnerships. These tailored approaches to community safety will address the specific needs of our young people, ensuring that no one is left behind. By doing so, we strengthen the fabric of our society and create a more inclusive environment where every young person has the chance to thrive.

The community safety fund, founded by our Department, also plays a central role in supporting our communities. This fund was established in 2021 to reinvest the moneys seized as the proceeds of crime into new, innovative community safety projects, a number of which are focused on youth justice.

It highlights the great work being done by An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in identifying and seizing these ill-gotten gains. It puts the money back into local communities for the benefit and support of those who need it the most.

We are already seeing the positive impact on communities of projects such as the steering and sparring programme from Omeath District Development. I assure the House that we will continue to support initiatives like this and many others across Ireland. We have seen the incredible work that is being done by people across the country to improve the lives of our young people. It is a reflection of the fact that, when it comes to our young people, it truly does take a village.

Youth diversion is not about young people avoiding punishment or consequences. The aim of the statutory Garda youth diversion programme is to prevent young people from entering the criminal justice system. An Garda Síochána's decision on whether to admit a young person to a diversion programme is based on a number of factors. These include the nature of the offence, the impact of the offence on the community, the views of the victim and the offending history of the young person. Diversion is not used for very serious offences or serious repeat offending. I believe that every young person deserves the opportunity to improve his or her quality of life. Young people deserve to have choices and to be enabled to make better life decisions for themselves.

Now that we have achieved full nationwide coverage, every child will have this opportunity. However, we cannot afford to get complacent. Too many children with complex backgrounds and needs still come to Garda attention. We must continue to focus on working with children who are heavily involved with crime and antisocial behaviour, or who are at risk of being groomed by criminals, to pull them back and give them a better pathway in life. We will continue to strive to improve the quality of these children's lives and those of everyone in their communities in line with our youth justice strategy.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and look forward to listening to Deputies' contributions to this debate.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. This is a priority area in the programme for Government. I see at home how important youth diversion projects are. The newest one just started in east Clare in the past fortnight. This is the first time that the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, has been here leading a debate. I congratulate him on his new role and wish him the best in the Department. We have a good man leading the youth diversion area.

It is important that we broaden the service even more. I note that is in the programme for Government. It generally tends to locate in big towns but we have seen in recent years that the problems young people face as they navigate those difficult adolescent and teenage years are not just confined to urban street settings. Many children and adolescents in rural areas are also struggling. The east Clare youth diversion programme that the Minister of State has established will go some way towards addressing that.

One alarming thing I recently encountered was the case of a young person, not yet 18, who had gone through addiction services. When the young person returned to the home environment, the very people who were trying to sell that person drugs for a long time reappeared. When people are treated for drug addiction, they remove themselves from the sales market, a client is gone and a sales base is gone. In this particular instance, I was told that the person refused several times to buy the drugs they had been weaned off of during the treatment period. The young person was eventually held to the ground and injected by a gang of thugs. We are doing all the right stuff with youth diversion and leading people off the wrong path, but more can be done, particularly for young people who have gone through addiction therapy services. There are fantastic services but there seems to be a drop-off when they leave that support network and return to the home environment.

Is ábhar tábhachtach é seo. Caithfimid níos mó a dhéanamh chun stop a chur le daoine óga a bheith páirteach sa choiriúlacht. Ensuring that young people are not drawn into criminality is a crucial part of any effort to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour and make our communities safer. There are two elements to this. First is ensuring that as many young people as possible never actually become involved in criminal activity. The second is ensuring that those who do are rehabilitated and do not engage in further criminality. In particular, we need to ensure that public policy supports those young people who are vulnerable because of difficult upbringings, mental health issues, addiction issues, deprivation and poverty, as well as those who are leaving the care of the State.

Juvenile crime levels have risen in recent years. We have seen sharp increases in reports of theft, robbery, fraud and sexual offences by teenagers. The increase in sexual crimes by young people is a stand-alone and complex problem that needs to be addressed, including through understanding the reasons behind this increase and the role of education, parents and social media. The rise in juvenile crime across the board shows that Government policy is currently failing. These failures are a result of a combination of cuts that were implemented over the past 15 years, failure to invest in communities, failure to invest in youth outreach programmes and in child and youth mental health services, and of course the dramatic reduction in the number of community gardaí. The impact of cuts on community projects, youth services and regeneration projects that were implemented in the aftermath of the economic crash has never been fully examined and, more importantly, has never been fully redressed.

Diverting young people from crime cannot be dealt with separately to how we address economic inequality and deprivation, how we invest in communities, including in housing and public services, and how we give every young person a sense of hope and the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential, no matter the young person's background or class. That means access to housing, education, training, services, facilities and job opportunities. Unless the Government puts funding into communities, youth outreach programmes, child and youth mental health services and sports facilities, particularly in deprived and disadvantaged communities, there is little point in us having debates like this.

Looking at statistics on the educational attainment and skills of those who end up in our prisons, it is clear that supporting young people to stay in school and gain qualifications is a crucial part of any effort to divert them from crime. The educational welfare system needs to be properly resourced and staffed. We need to do much better at tackling recidivism and rehabilitating young people who become involved in crime.

Sinn Féin wants to see the Garda youth diversion programme properly resourced and staffed, with sufficient Garda juvenile liaison officers in place. We also want to see the programme extended to those aged up to 24, in line with international best practice.

Before concluding, I want to address the role of community gardaí. These are the gardaí who know the communities that they serve in and the young people in those communities. They are the gardaí whose job it is to build relationships in the community, be approachable and develop positive relationships with young people in particular while also being visible on the ground. When we look at the increased levels of juvenile crime and antisocial behaviour, we cannot ignore what has happened with community gardaí. There were only 700 community gardaí in the State at the end of last year compared with 1,113 at the end of 2011. At a minimum, we need an additional 500 community gardaí. I hope the Minister for Justice will finally recognise this and act on it.

Of course, we cannot simply police our way to safer communities, but likewise, we cannot build safer communities without adequate policing. Therefore, the responses to these issues have to be targeted, multifaceted, visionary and community centred. The Government is failing on all fronts at the moment.

We are discussing diverting young people away from criminal activity today. The best way to do that is to offer our young people hope. It is the hope that, if they fulfil their social contract, then the Government will do the same. Imagine being a young person in Ireland today and having the ambition to have a safe and secure home. It is almost impossible due to Government failings in housing. Imagine being a young person waiting for appointments with mental health services or disability services and being failed. Imagine being a young person who is waiting for a school place with provision for additional needs and being failed.

I take the opportunity to express my solidarity with the parents who are sleeping outside Leinster House tonight for 24 hours to raise awareness that their kids are not getting special education places this year. The Government needs to redress this imbalance and properly invest in housing, health and the educational needs of our young people. When the Government fails, vulnerable young people fall between the cracks of society. In a real republic, youth justice would give all the young people of this island an equal chance to reach their full potential, but successive Governments have failed in this. I am honoured to have been appointed the Sinn Féin spokesperson on community, safety and youth justice. I wish the Minister of State well in his role over the next year. I will work with him in a tangible way but I will also hold him to account.

When we think of young people and crime, we usually think of gangs of youths up to no good, but what are we doing to engage with these young people? The Minister of State mentioned a youth diversion programme that is in two locations so far. That is great but it needs to be in every constituency in Dublin and probably every constituency in the State. What he mentioned is only a drop in the ocean.

Last year, I visited the Solas Project in Dublin 8. I accompanied its workers on outreach as they engaged with young people who are involved in crime or in danger of becoming involved in crime. Their motto is: "Nobody is too far gone, everybody is worth it, everyone can change, communities can improve, society can flourish." I agree with that wholeheartedly but they need to be resourced. That project needs to be replicated in other parts of our city and counties. I spoke with some of the young people who could see no way out of poverty other than getting involved in crime. They look around and see their area being regentrified. They see the new buildings going up and they know that they will never be able to afford a place to live in their own area. The outreach workers I accompanied were professional. They engaged with young people where they were at. They supported them in suggesting some positive changes they could make. Solas uses evidence-based methods that have led young people to move away from a life of crime.

In an area of high poverty, it is very easy for young people to get involved in criminality. They see criminals with flash jackets, new runners, top of the range cars and a seemingly endless supply of money. They also see an attraction in becoming a somebody. However, let me be clear: these criminals are absolute nobodies. They groom our children, suck the lifeblood out of our communities and offer nothing in return. We need to see projects, such as Solas and the one the Minister of State mentioned, replicated throughout the State and the rest of Dublin.

I raised this matter with the Minister recently. Parts of my constituency are basically under siege by gangs of young people. This is often written off as antisocial behaviour. Nothing annoys a community more when it is said, "It is only antisocial behaviour." Let me be clear. Drug dealing is not antisocial behaviour; it is a criminal activity. Intimidation is not antisocial behaviour but a criminal activity. Vandalism of public and private property is not antisocial behaviour but a criminal offence. Assaults are not antisocial behaviour but are criminal offences. Arson attacks, many of which my area has been subject to over the past year or so, are not antisocial behaviour; they are criminal offences.

We need to resource the Garda and give it the powers to deal with the criminal activity in our communities. Our communities have every right to feel safe.

I proudly represent a diverse constituency that is also one of the youngest in the State. The Minister of State talked about community engagement and the need to foster positive behavioural change. I agree with him. Positive behavioural change is definitely a worthwhile goal for our young people. It is also a worthwhile goal for members of An Garda Síochána.

I draw the Minister of State's attention to the findings of the Irish Network Against Racism study published in the past couple of days. It found that survey participants described traumatic experiences while being stopped by members of An Garda Síochána, including strip searches, property damage and wrongful arrests, some of which had long-lasting psychological impacts. Rural and Dublin groups spoke about concerns about racial profiling and disproportionate stopping of young black men by police. Both groups shared examples. Every word in this report is echoed by the anecdotal experience and evidence from my constituency. I commend the members of An Garda Síochána who undertake community-based activity and are really trying hard. I know them in the area where I live, as does the Minister of State. They are going above and beyond, but what this report tells us is there is a serious issue that has to be addressed.

The report makes a number of recommendations. I will draw the Minister of State's attention to some of them. Sadly, many of them relate to very simple things, such as the collection of data. It is shameful that is not being done. The report also references the establishment of intercultural partnership structures in each division between An Garda Síochána and diverse representatives within minority ethnic communities. That is something that can and should be done.

Young people need to have a respectful attitude to An Garda Síochána and a positive attitude to their engagements but that goes both ways. We cannot expect our young people to have faith in An Garda Síochána unless they can see that replicated and reflected back to them.

This is a crucially important area. When it is properly supported, the difference it makes is profound. I have seen in the community where I live the difference it makes when there is a good community garda and a good youth diversion project, and what it achieves in respect of the trust and relationship between the young people in an area, a community garda and a youth diversion project.

Unfortunately, the pressure Garda numbers are under means this will be significantly undermined. We have a situation that was reported recently where two stations, Carrigaline and Douglas, that previously had independent Garda units will have to merge those units. These are two areas with more than 30,000 people where the Garda will have to merge these units because of the personnel shortage that exists. That is replicated in Ballincollig and Bishopstown. In the Cork city division, Garda units are being merged, as they are under such pressure because there have been so many retirements. Those gardaí are not being replaced and Cork is not getting a fair share of the gardaí coming out of Templemore. I appreciate this is a national problem but Cork is not getting anywhere near enough in the context of the population there.

What happens in these situations where there is a shortage of Garda numbers? Community gardaí will inevitably be pulled into front-line policing and core unit work, which is crucially important. However, if community policing is being sacrificed, that preventative work, the relationship and trust built up with young people, and that proactive work in preventing crime suffers significantly. I am very concerned by the implications the lack of Garda resources will have.

From talking to youth diversion project workers, they are prevented from working with young people over the age of 18. This is not the case when referring, and young people obviously need to face full criminal responsibility for any actions, but the point is there should be further scope to work with people who have been through the projects and reached the age of 18, who are trying to get jobs or enter further education and training, to support them in getting employment and so on.

We sincerely want to work with the Minister on this. We will support positive initiatives but in the austerity years, funding for youth clubs, youth projects and education were all slashed, whether these were for diverse communities, the Travelling community or working-class areas. We need that funding restored. That is the first thing I ask for. Second, we need investment in more community policing, especially in areas where we know there is huge social deprivation. You can see it. It is there in part of the constituency I come from. There is a big cross-section where I come from, but certain areas need extra help. We need community gardaí on the ground.

In the past couple of years, I have seen a number of young people die by suicide, which is absolutely tragic, because of intimidation due to drug debts they had and their families being threatened. We need to be able to work with young people. The youth diversion scheme needs to be broader. It needs to go into clubs and schools. I am involved with a GAA club in Cork. It is a terrible thing to say, but I know a certain kid who will be gone and will not be playing by the time they are 14. We have volunteers who are running the teams and doing their best, but we know the kids who need the most help will not get it because we have just two or three volunteers helping out. Youth diversion projects should be working with this.

There was a superintendent in Cork, Mick O'Loughlin, who was a former Cork player, a great GAA man and a great garda. He used come out to coach our under-14 team every year. Why? It was because the kids would get to know a garda and would build up a relationship. It was good for him, good for the Garda and good for the community. That is the kind of stuff we need. Whether it is through education, sport, the arts, including music and dance, we need to work with young people to get them away from criminality.

Any discussion about community safety, crime or youth diversion must take into account the wider context of the absolute failure - let us call it what it is - of the Government to adequately resource public services within communities all across the State. There is the failure to invest adequately in community infrastructure, social and outreach services, drugs and alcohol strategies, youth justice and diversion programmes and An Garda Síochána.

Garda stations have been closed right across rural Ireland during the past decade or more and those that have survived are often left without enough personnel in them. They are left empty for most of the time if we are being honest. Garda visibility is at an all-time low. This is right across the State but is particularly pronounced in rural Ireland and in particular in my own area in west Waterford. I see it all of the time. That puts huge pressure, not just on members of An Garda Síochána but on communities as well. It is adding to the sense that communities are no longer totally safe. This can be clearly seen on the ground in west Waterford in towns such as Lismore but also many other towns and villages across County Waterford where there is just not that availability of Garda personnel.

We cannot separate the issue of young people becoming involved in criminality from the abject failure of the Government to address inequality and deprivation. Our communities have yet to recover from the austerity era and a number of Teachtaí have mentioned that. We have consistently advocated for early intervention for community-based approaches to divert young people from criminal activity, support for young people to keep them out of detention and support for those being released from detention as well. We need to ensure the social services, youth services and community infrastructure are there. We do not have a family resource centre in my own town of Dungarvan. It is a town of well over 10,000 people and one of the only towns of its size in the State that does not have a family resource centre. These basic building blocks of community infrastructure are missing in so many communities up and down this State. That is where this problem begins and this is where it must end.

When we look across our cities we see fantastic work is being done by youth workers and we really need to support them. A few weeks ago I met representatives of Galway City Partnership to discuss their work in the Headford Road area of Galway centred around Ballinfoile, which draws in community members from neighbouring estates in the city as well as areas just outside the city such as Carrowbrowne. Galway City Partnership has identified this as a disadvantaged area but with fewer community resources when compared with other disadvantaged areas in the city. In particular, they are trying to improve community resources for children, which is a fantastic initiative. As there are not currently many spaces and opportunities for children and teenagers to socialise outside of school, they have a particular focus on that.

As a result of this, Galway City Partnership established Ballinfoile youth activities project, which aims to provide free activities for children from the ages of five to 16. Since its launch in January 2024, it has engaged with 240 children living locally, and currently engages with 80 children every week which is fantastic. It also has 40 children on its waitlist. It is looking to expand what the project can offer and make sure they can put it on a sustainable footing in terms of a funding model. That is why I wanted to raise the project with the Minister of State because that is with we need to look at when talking about these issues.

Ballinfoyle youth activities project also did a survey of the area and the teens interviewed responded that there was not much to do apart from hang around bus stops and outside the local shop. The teens feel they are just seen as being up to no good, whatever that might mean, and that kind of message can be internalised by them. The project wants to be build a sense of community and pride in the youth and keep them engaged with activities and events around their community.

One of the young people involved told me:

A lot of trouble comes from people sitting around and doing nothing whereas in here you are actually doing something. We are doing our theory tests, doing up out CVs, [that is] setting us up for jobs and that's setting up for driving as well. That is getting your life sorted and they are actually helping us do that and you are more motivated to do stuff in here.

Please conclude, Deputy.

We need to examine that project and make sure we put it on a sustainable funding model.

It is clear there is a lot of work to be done to have proper youth services in place across the entire State. The Children Act states that a juvenile should not be in the criminal justice system, and only as a last resort or for a very serious crime. That is absolutely appropriate but the big issue in my experience has been resourcing. That comes into everything. We can have all the perfect plans in the world and all of the legislation but unless is resourced and unless we have gardaí to provide the service and to liaise with all of the other services out, including youth services, mental health services and everything else, we will go nowhere. That is the big issue we need to grapple with.

I will bring something I raised a number of years ago to the Minister of State's attention. I raised a case in my own constituency of a young girl who was a victim of a serious sexual assault. A number of young men, who were juveniles at the time, were clearly identified in respect of that. What happened was they were diverted into the youth diversion programme. That young girl was extremely upset. Her family was extremely upset. They were not dealt with properly and I understand that is not the only case in the State where this has happened and the youth diversion programme has been used, in what I consider and anyone objective looking at it, in a most inappropriate manner. These young men who engaged in a very serious sexual assault were in the eyes of the victim let off scot-free, and the victim and her family had a serious issue with that. That needs to be examined.

I have written to the Minister about this case on a number of occasions and I know there has been some effort to examine and review the youth diversion programme, particularly in respect of sex crimes. I would like the Minister of State to take note of and examine this closely because it was a serious issue for that family and I know there are others in a similar predicament.

At the end of the day the youth diversion programme can, and should, work very well if it is properly resourced. The point needs to be made clearly that we cannot have a situation where the programme is used inappropriately or wrongly and a lot of that comes down to proper governance and regulation. I understand that has been missing up to now as youth diversion programmes have been used across the State in an ad hoc manner. That needs to change and there needs to be proper governance and proper resources put into that system.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss strategies we urgently need to use to divert young people from criminal activity. Children who are lured into criminal activity should still be afforded the opportunity to reach their full potential. Our young people are our future and we must invest in them. Unfortunately, some have been lured into criminality. I have seen that happen in my own city. They look around their communities and see disadvantage. They are longing for the instant material benefits a life of criminality can bring. They want to buy the nice watch, the nice jacket, expensive trainers and have the status they believe their involvement in criminal activities brings.

Unfortunately, this is true in my home city of Limerick, as it is in other parts of the State. In some areas, drug dealers and senior gang members use teenagers on bikes, horses and e-scooters to deliver drugs and receive payments for that. Teenagers are vulnerable to being groomed into the criminal lifestyle. When we consider that 18- to 25-year-olds are the largest group in our prisons, it is clear early intervention is crucial.

The intervention should come from knowing your community garda but there are far too few of them and far too many communities where community garda numbers have been decimated by successive Governments. Criminality thrives in areas with deprivation and that lack sports complexes, youth clubs and facilities. The investment we make now in our young people in our communities will pay dividends in the future. We need to give these children a sense of hope and the opportunity to achieve. That involves access to education, job opportunities and the prospect of owning their own homes. The drug dealers who corrupt these children are a plague on our communities. They are anti-community. They offer nothing positive and are a scourge on the hard-working people on these local estates. It is the hard-working people in these areas that keep the communities going despite the presence of these criminals. Too often our working-class communities have been let down by successive Governments through lack of funding and lack of support for community gardaí. There is simply not enough of them. Young people in these communities are being left behind as a result.

Some of us were very lucky to play football, very badly, in Mountjoy Prison recently. I would probably hate to see rap sheets of the guys we played against. I also hate to point out that we lost very badly - twice. The fact is we were probably dealing with people who are very different from when they were charged and when they were involved in criminality probably many years beforehand. What we need to see with regard to youth diversion are projects that are a means and way we can absolutely divert people away from what will be very costly to them to their victims, and to society as a whole. I have seen the huge work done by the High Voltage Project, which now has an early intervention piece, that operates out of a house in Cox's Demesne, Dundalk and also the teen youth diversion project operating out of the Muirhevnamor Community Youth Project. It is like all of these projects. We talk about brilliant people who are doing brilliant work but it is about the resources and at some stage we are coming too late to the problem.

The Minister of State spoke earlier about criminality and then he started speaking about drugs. Unfortunately for a significant part of the country, it is all about drugs. As I said to the Minister, there needs to be a real conversation around the issues out there, in particular issues that are happening in working-class areas where it is a hell of a lot worse as regards drug debt intimidation and other issues which are impacted more by having fewer gardaí.

People from soccer teams have come to me suggesting that we need to increase pressure in the next while because we just have too many bad examples of what are reasonably sized drug dealers, who, as I said last week, at times have had houses seized by CAB, which has carried out some serious operations against them. However, they are still in operation and they provide the bad example, particularly in these working-class areas that are suffering high levels of deprivation.

We need to get real and we will engage with the Minister of State. However, there has to be a two-way engagement, a real conversation and a real plan. That means we need to go out there and assess the problem that we are dealing with because I do not think anyone has been serious about this to date.

I call Deputy Kelly who is sharing time with Deputy Lawlor.

This is a very important issue, which goes beyond political tit-for-tat stuff. The achievements that can be made for young people in this area if it is properly resourced are unique. I acknowledge that there has been a dramatic increase in funding in this area, which has gone from €21 million or €22 million up to €36 million in a short time. There was a gap in fulfilment across the jurisdiction affecting my area of north Tipperary and east Clare. I am not claiming east Clare but I wake up every morning and see east Clare, so there is a crossover. They were the two areas that were left. In fairness, in February of this year there was an announcement that Foróige would run the programme in both areas. North Tipperary and east Clare come under the one policing jurisdiction. That is a problem at times but at least we now have the one organisation running this for both areas.

I believe we have more than 113. This has been surveyed and the analysis has shown the very impressive improvements it makes in young people's lives. However, the success rates vary in different locations. There are major issues in areas with higher levels of crime and social deprivation. Statistically, it has been shown that the programmes cannot cope.

We genuinely have a problem with the number of community gardaí. The figures and facts show they are down. I have engaged a lot with the Minister on increasing recruitment and I hope we will be able to deal with that. I believe that community gardaí are incredibly important but the problem is that in many cases, community gardaí are being appointed but they are being taken from other areas of the force in the local division. The problem is that those positions are never backfilled. Gardaí are coming into community policing, which is totally necessary, but their previous roles are not backfilled because we do not have enough gardaí to do so. Every single TD in the Chamber is dealing with that. I come across it all the time in my area.

We also need to improve the outcomes through education dramatically. That is why integrating school programmes with the youth diversion programme is so critical. Many schools do great work with young people. While the education side of things is fine for 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds, it may drift on to the stage where it has to be about employment. This comes to the issue of trades and the requirement for more people to move into trades. I have seen situations where young people who were going on a certain pathway ended up going on an alternative pathway, feeling of much greater worth and getting qualified in a trade. Is that not fantastic? Is that not what we all want to see where there is a positive impact on their lives, where they are contributing to society and where their sense of worth is huge?

There is a significant issue with drugs, which are ubiquitous. Children are being sucked into being mules for drug dealers. Much of this is through organised crime. Any advancements made with young people through this programme are lost because they are continually reintroduced; it is all part of their lives. They are socialised around this. They are trying to help family members. They are not fully aware of the consequences of their actions. Continually trying to intercept that is a big problem.

It can also be formed in a sense through constant intimidation. The work of gardaí must go beyond what they do through the programmes by trying to isolate young people from some of the aspects of the community they are in. That is very difficult because many of the kids come from very difficult backgrounds, in some cases dysfunctional families and sometimes there are intergenerational issues. There needs to be a wraparound service for these kids to try to change their lives.

This has started but there is a big gap. The programmes need to run seven days a week. Having them for just five days does not fit. It is necessary to have some form of interaction, monitoring and relationship seven days a week so that the kids in the programme do not feel that it is a Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. programme and rather it is an holistic programme that they are contributing to and that is having an impact on their lives.

I have seen how young people in these programmes have changed their attitudes towards society and communities, and have changed their behaviour in how they respect public facilities. They have changed their attitudes to sports clubs. They have changed their attitudes to themselves and their self-worth. They have changed their attitudes to An Garda Síochána. Many of the gardaí who do this work have a vocation. It is a vocation that is slightly to other work in An Garda Síochána. The people who do this work have great patience and understanding. They have a sociological awareness of what they have to deal with. The respect that is generated takes time but it does happen.

In many cases we need a multiagency approach. It is not just through the schools, An Garda Síochána and the other people involved. We also need to ensure that health agencies, social agencies and family groups across the country are all also involved. It is not a one-size-fits all approach. In many cases, we also need other supports. It needs to be a no-wrong-door experience so that when kids go into this programme, they understand that they are in a programme where no matter which door they pick, there will be a different pathway for them once they go through it.

I wish to raise a number of concerns that have been mentioned previously. There are certain crimes committed by young people which mean they do not merit being put into this programme. It is unfortunate but it is real. I refer to rape and other serious crimes. In some cases people in the age bracket up to 18 have been put through this programme despite having committed such crimes.

There is within the regulations the power for the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, or the senior Minister, to change those regulations to ensure that certain crimes are not facilitated as part of this programme. I am not sure anyone in this House would disagree with me on that. There needs to be a formality around this. Victims must have a say. In the context of the regulations and the legislation, they do not. We should change the regulations to ensure that certain crimes like that are not facilitated. I understand it is happening less since it was the subject of a report by "Prime Time Investigates" a number of years ago but there are certainly other crimes, not just those relating to sexual offences and rape, that should also not be covered under the programme.

The Minister of State referred to how the programme has been extended to early intervention in relation to eight- to 11-year-olds. That is welcome. In Roscrea in my constituency, the North Tipperary Partnership is involved in work relating to an early intervention initiative at the Roscrea Youth Service. That is the type of work we need in order to intercept young people at a very young age to prevent them from getting involved in a life of crime.

I also feel that we need to work much more closely with sports organisations. Such organisations have a major impact and a huge pull. They have a capacity to influence young people way more than any of us in this Chamber or others throughout the country can. I honestly believe that sports clubs can have a significant and healthy impact on people's lives when it comes to the issue of drugs. As part of a whole-of-Oireachtas plan, we should look at how to engage all the major sports organisations to work with each other and with us to put in place a plan for how we can promote healthy living and the type of societal behaviour and outcomes we want to see and highlight the dangers of drugs. I have attended meetings where people said they had spoken at events hosted by sports organisations. They had asked national sporting organisations to engage in a programme to encourage people to say no to drugs and to create a whole brand around this. They have not even received a reply. If the Ministers for Health and Justice could work on this, it would be extremely beneficial.

This is a great programme. It should be supported by everybody. It does need more resources and community gardaí must have the capacity to engage. We need to look at the regulations and ensure that they are changed.

If we look across the country, it is clear that when it comes to diverting young people from criminal activity the presence of community gardaí delivers huge results. I have seen it across my home county of Wexford where community gardaí working assiduously on the ground are making a real difference in their communities. Investment in community gardaí is a no-brainer when it comes diverting young people from criminal activity.

I wish to highlight the example of Ferndale, an area in my hometown of Wexford. Even though I have referred to community gardaí, I believe this is a cross-agency matter. I agree with my colleague Deputy Kelly in that regard. A number of years ago, I worked with Tom Enright, a former excellent county manager in Wexford. I approached him about utilising a piece of council land to put in place some sporting facilities. Mr. Enright came fully on board. He was extremely supportive and the council came on board. Following on from that, we applied for sports capital funding and the Government gave us €300,000. We built some AstroTurf facilities. So impressed with the whole development was a local businessperson that he volunteered €500,000 as a donation towards the project. Wexford FC then came on board, and each week people come together under the stewardship of Mark Ross and his team. In this area that had suffered over the years from antisocial activity, people are coming together. The custodians of the AstroTurf facility are the local mothers in the area. We are now currently building a boxing club on foot of the resources and the funds the council have added to this. A cross-agency approach is needed and not just when it comes to community gardaí. Certainly, the benefits of everybody coming together under the leadership of community gardaí initially, and with their endorsement, leads to results.

Another area in Wexford town benefits greatly from the presence of a family resource centre. The Southend Family Resource Centre operates in the Maudlintown area of Wexford town. One can see on the ground that it is almost a perfect storm of community development. People come together, anchored and centred by the centre. It is there that the ideas, facilities, projects and courses spring from. It brings together all elements of the community, be they the men's shed, knitting groups or choirs. The local sports GAA club is here as well, St. Mary's of Maudlintown. These groups are coming together and community gardaí are providing assistance.

Community gardaí are leading the charge. They give credibility to any project that leads to an enhancement of a particular area. I urge that there be consistent and increased investment in community gardaí.

This is a very important debate because, as the Minister of State will be aware, the more people we can divert from criminal activity, the better. Apart from being good for the individual themselves, this leads to a significant saving for the State. I agree with colleagues about the importance of community gardaí. Within the communities in which we live, we all know of those gardaí who have been effective in engaging with young people and youth organisations. There has to be an increased emphasis placed on gardaí getting to know those young people who are particularly hard to reach, some of whom are from minority and Traveller backgrounds, to get them to be actively involved within their communities. Many youth groups in areas I represent in Wicklow-Wexford are more than willing to engage with gardaí. That investment in youth services is critical.

The tradition of gardaí going into schools and talking about their work and breaking down the barriers is critically important. We are not seeing this to the same extent that we did in the past. In raising the matter with An Garda Síochána, I encourage the Minister of State to ask that there be an active programme of engaging with young people in schools and in the context of youth services.

One of the challenges of young people getting involved in crime is that they often end up there by simply being the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they have had poor peer influence. In those circumstances, the key is that programmes are put in place to ensure that we prevent them from reoffending, that supports are in place to ensure they will not reoffend and that they do not end up going to prison, which becomes a training camp for them to develop worse habits and possibly get involved in more serious crime.

I am very heartened by the work of the Gate Service, which is part of the Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities. I see this operating in Shelton Abbey, which is the open prison just outside Arklow. The facility there is managed by Neala Murphy, the training and employment officer with the Gate Service. Within an open prison, it allows for a lot of the prisoners, many of them young people, to have opportunities to contribute towards the community and take up education, training and even employment opportunities. In other words, those who have been involved in crime are given a second chance. I am aware that we are talking about diverting people away from criminal activity, but for those young people who make mistakes, and many of them do so, it is critical that we give them that second chance. We should look at investments in the likes of the Gate Service. I encourage the Minister of State to come to Shelton Abbey to see it in action.

I reiterate a critical point that was made earlier, namely that it is about engaging with young people, listening to young people and hearing their voices.

Some children come into contact with the law as a consequence of doing what comes naturally to them: pushing boundaries, acting without thought of consequence and establishing themselves in the mistaken judgment that they are impressing their peers. They may also be victims of criminal exploitation. However, research shows that where children are apprehended and convicted in the criminal justice system, lives are blighted in terms of educational and employment opportunities. In fact, a 35-year international meta-analysis found that formal court processing and even formal out-of-court disposals increase the risk of further criminal activity and are a marker for predicting criminal involvement into adulthood.

Most adolescents grow out of criminal behaviour as they get older. It is recognised as the age–crime curve, peaking in mid-adolescence. The most deleterious thing we could do to adolescents and ourselves as a State would be to formally criminalise them. Children diverted at the point of arrest are less likely to reoffend, more likely to stay in education and more likely to find employment in later life. If we are serious about diverting young people from criminal activity, we must address the broader context in which that activity emerges. Drug use, mental health challenges and peer pressure are key drivers but they rarely exist in isolation. Too often they are accompanied by poverty, early school leaving, family instability, exposure to trauma and a lack of access to safe and supportive environments. Drug use among adolescents is not just a health concern; it is often a red flag for deeper distress. Substance use often begins as a coping mechanism for anxiety and adverse life experiences. Without the right support, it can become the gateway to exclusion, addiction and contact with the justice system. This is why mental health in its widest possible definition must be central to our response.

Young people today face enormous pressures online, in school and at home. Peer influence is another powerful force. Adolescents crave belonging and identity. When positive role models are absent or structured alternatives are lacking, they may find the sense of identity in peer groups where antisocial behaviour is normalised.

Youth work, education, sport and community engagement must not just be available but also visible, inclusive and appealing. The Government’s youth strategy and the expansion of the diversion projects are a welcome step. According to the Centre of Justice Innovation, diversion can reduce the police burden by up to 35% while giving young people a genuine second chance. In neighbouring jurisdictions like England and Wales, 40% of point-of-arrest diversion schemes limit access to those with two or fewer prior offences. So, what must we do? Eligibility must be flexible and inclusive, based on more than just a one-shot approach. Diversion schemes must be accessible and timely. Schemes have to be tailored to individual needs and not one size fits all. Schemes need to feed back to An Garda Síochána. Diversion schemes should be seen as an evidence-based investment in young people and the State itself.

I welcome these statements today on youth diversion. As we know, the programme for Government commits us to investing strongly in preventive measures, including youth justice programmes, while strengthening our laws. We have to commit, and I am committed, to building stronger, safer communities in my constituency, namely Carlow–Kilkenny, and nationally. Diverting vulnerable children away from a life of crime and giving them an opportunity to build a better future themselves is absolutely key to this.

Youth diversion projects intervene and support young people in trouble, which can be the difference between a lifelong career in crime and the pursuit of a better path for the rest one’s life. We owe it to our younger people and communities to make the interventions I describe and support better outcomes for all. Youth justice interventions are about recognising that many young people who stray from the proper path simply need support and direction to turn their lives around. My party and I are committed to ensuring children who have become involved in criminality and those at risk of doing so have the tools and supports necessary to make good choices and turn away from offending behaviour.

Diverting people from crime involves a combination of community support, education and intervention programmes. For me, there are a couple of key priorities in this regard, the first of which concerns youth mentorship programmes. We need to establish mentorship initiatives with positive role models. We are very fortunate in Ireland to have many positive role models who can guide our young individuals, helping them to navigate challenges and make better choices. However, in particular we need to focus on our recreational activities. We need to provide access to sports, arts and cultural programmes that engage youth in constructive activities and promote teamwork and leadership skills. As a result, we need to continue to invest in our sports capital grant infrastructure and encourage participation in sport, particularly female participation. There is a huge drop-off rate, particularly among girls at second level. We really need to focus our time and energy on participation in sport and make sure young people have this outlet for themselves.

On education and educational supports, we need to make sure we improve access to quality education and provide tutoring and after-school programmes to students to succeed academically, reducing the likelihood of criminal behaviour. There are now so many courses and options available for students of all ages, whether they go down the apprenticeship route or go to Carlow Institute or College of Further Education and Training, Kilkenny. The choice of courses available is endless and we can really steer people on the right path in this regard.

One of the biggest aspects for me concerns community engagement. We need to involve our young people in community service projects, allowing them to contribute positively to their neighbourhoods and develop a sense of belonging. I see this in communities right across Kilkenny and Carlow, including in the likes of Borris, St. Mullins, Ballymurphy, Ballinkillen, Graiguenamanagh, Thomastown and Callan. The participation of young people in the likes of litter-picking is absolutely fantastic. I will give an example. In my town, Graiguenamanagh, there is a fantastic initiative involving transition year students in the local college, Duiske College, and the senior Age Action team. The transition year students teach the older people in the community technology, including smartphones, and the older people in the community teach the young people skills such as knitting and sewing. It is a fantastic partnership. It has been replicated in many of the ETB schools in Carlow–Kilkenny, including in Ballyhale. It is absolutely fantastic.

On mental health services, we need to continue to provide accessible mental health resources and counselling to address underlying issues, such as trauma, anxiety and depression, which can also contribute to criminal behaviour.

By implementing these measures, communities right across Carlow–Kilkenny and nationally can create an environment that encourages positive development and reduces the risk of youth engaging in criminal activities.

Every city, town, village and smaller centre of population is affected by the issue of drugs. They are available on the street, on river walks, in children’s playgrounds and, indeed, in a graveyard in Kilkenny. The Garda knows about this. Children are being used to provide the drugs to the client in an effort to avoid the law. The policing committees involving the councils were very relevant during the last term but now the model has changed and is not as effective as it used to be. However, we do have resources on the ground. We have family resource centres, as mentioned by Deputy Gould. There are centres in Urlingford and Callan, County Kilkenny, and at the Fr. McGrath centre and Newpark Close in Kilkenny city. They do an amazing amount of work. They engage with the community at the level where they can make a difference to individuals and families. We need to support each and every one of the centres and maybe establish more. Owing to the increase in the availability of drugs and their use, we should explore this avenue. The required professionalism and community engagement exist at family resource centre level, and it is at this level that we need to make the difference.

Perhaps the law needs to be changed so we can intervene at an early stage in the case of children not in their teenage years but younger who are being used to facilitate the transaction of the sale of drugs. Using them is reprehensible but it is going on.

We have to intervene at various other levels in society to get those who are seen as leaders within their own communities or those who are obviously known to members of their own communities to stand out and give the example that is necessary.

I applaud the work being done by the GAA and every single club throughout the country. I firmly believe that the GAA, as an organisation, is the last man standing in the context of community development and the development of the characters, personalities and skills of young people. The more we invest in those clubs, the greater positive result there is for a community.

There is no doubt that the community gardaí, when they were active and out in the community, had a very positive effect too. They brought together the law and the enforcement and they engaged with the families and the children. Where you get a good community police officer, you will get a community that is actively engaged and supportive of the rule of law and that will see the different pathways out of the poverty they exist in, perhaps, but certainly a pathway out of the use of drugs or the use of drink.

I encourage the Minister to look at the structure in each of the Garda stations throughout the country to ensure that community gardaí are placed to the fore wherever they are located; throughout a city, a town, a village or indeed, an area that is in particular difficulty. The sooner we do that and invest in it, the sooner we will make an impact.

The genesis of many of the issues we face today lay in the Fine Gael austerity years. Addressing issues like economic inequality and deprivation are the best proven methods to divert young people from crime. The truth of the matter is that we have yet to redress impacts and cuts to community projects and to youth projects from the time of the Fine Gael austerity years. Not only is this the case, in some crucial areas the situation is actually getting worse. Community gardaí are a vital component. They establish and support community crime prevention measures. They are tasked with identifying and tackling the root causes of community issues. They patrol our local communities and are often accessible to the community.

I know from my experience as a public representative for the past 12 years that they are often my first port of call when I need to engage with the gardaí on a local matter. Crucially, in terms of youth diversion, it is community gardaí who are tasked with improving interaction, communication and community relations. In the Cavan, Monaghan and Louth region, in 2011 we had 41 community gardaí. By last year, this had decreased by more than one third to only 26. Figures understate this failure, given population growth over the intervening 13 years. In fact, what we see is that we have gone from one per 6,200 people to one in nearly 11,000, a 42% cut per capita. Our remaining community gardaí are expected to maintain the same output. That is a crucial reason we are having this debate today.

This is a legacy of the Minister's partners in government, and what I would like to hear about the plan to fix this from the Minister in his closing remarks. When will this be done? When will Cavan, Monaghan and Louth have the 45 community gardaí we would need to put us on at least an equal footing with where we were before the Minister's party ushered in the austerity years.

It is clear that criminal activity among young people is on the rise but that did not happen in a vacuum. With increased reports of theft, fraud and sexual offences by teenagers aged 12 to 17 years of age, more needs to be invested in our young people to engage with them instead of treating them as social pariahs. Last week, I visited the Lough na Mona community centre in Leixlip, which is supported by In Sync. Lough na Mona is a council estate in a very affluent area in Leixlip. Supported by Kildare County Council, the youth workers, Mars and Zoe, are doing incredible work engaging with young people and providing a space for them to cook, meet, play pool and DJ. The are also educating them about the challenges they will face in the future such as the harm of drugs, the importance of consent and practical things like the difficulty of transitioning between primary school and secondary school.

I was told that upon its founding, local people it would not last more than a year and the young people would either burn it down or rob it. The centre has proved that if you treat young people with respect and give them a space of their own, they can be leaders in their own community. Three years later, they have seen incredible work, interest and engagement from the young people in the centre. They have been blessed by the flaithiúlacht of local enterprise in the area and financial support, but that support is not guaranteed. The Government needs to support youth community centres, like the one in Lough na Mona, and build more across north Kildare.

Unfortunately, we have too many people who are in jail today where neurodiversity was never assessed and they were let down by the system. Kids believed they stupid because of who they were and it led them to drugs and crime. We have to invest in our special education system as well. I have just come from an emotionally charged meeting in the audiovisual room - I am sure the Deputies will hear about it at their parliamentary party meetings today. Some of the parents said they did not want their children, who were neurodiverse, to end up institutionalised, but it is our job to make sure they do not end up in jail.

Investing in sports facilities, arts programmes and community spaces in working class areas and communicating with our young people can give them a purpose and a sense of belonging and ownership because they are equal citizens in this State. We have to address the economic inequality and create a just society. Mar a deir an seanfhocal, mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí.

Statements on diverting young people from crime is an interesting concept and something I would talk about every day if I could. However, statements without follow on action leaves us nowhere. We have had all the evidence and research and we know what brings young people into crime. We have known for decades now.

If you imagine the portrait of a young person, I obviously think about Dublin Central and the north inner city, the places I am familiar with and where I grew up. Imagine them all over the country. No young person fills out an application to involve themselves in crime. There is not a website you go to say you would like to pick that profession and you would like to get involved in that sort of behaviour that is disadvantageous both to the person and the community in which they were brought up. That is far from what brings a young person into crime. Before we talk about what diverts a young person from crime, we must make sure we start by addressing what brings that person to those conditions in the first place.

It is always going to be poverty. It is always going to be trauma. It is always going to be generational neglect. It is always going to be a sense that this is not a place that is built for you; be that the education system or the world in which other people have an advantage over them that would just seem normal, like a comfortable home, a safe upbringing and all of those things. They are not the reality. I often think about the quote from Frankenstein when I think about what crime is. It reads that when all good to me became lost, "evil thenceforth became my good."

We have criminal and gang networks that are building the kind of structure that fills in where the State has removed itself. There are very obvious examples and I might come to them shortly but this is about neglect. It is neglect that creates the conditions of a poisoned orchard where the fruit of that will emerge in a way that is not good for any of us. We should always be willing to address that first. We need to build structures that are safe and where young people feel seen and supported and where the issues they have, whether through how they came into the world, the conditions of trauma, the poverty or the sense of anger that builds, can be addressed.

There are reports going back decades that address this and point this out yet we have not had the action to back it up. Of course, there are going to be calls for more policing. I make calls for more policing quite regularly in this Chamber. We need community gardaí in our cities, our villages and in our towns. Of course we do. We need gardaí that know a person's name and understand the environment they are asked to police but gardaí on their own will not solve this. Gardaí cannot be expected to be social workers or youth workers. Our court system was not built for that type of prevention. It was built with a Humpty Dumpty approach of when things fall down, then we step in and the cycle repeats and will continue to repeat.

Even over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of focus placed on Dublin and calls for more gardaí. I then heard to great fanfare that 60 new public order units would be sent into Dublin city. More gardaí are absolutely welcome but the style of garda is what will make a difference. Public order units have a very specific function. They can only be called in when certain conditions are met and when things have already broken down. What most of us would much rather see is gardaí on the ground and who would be in our community centres and building relationships.

That will not be addressed with public order policing alone. Far from it.

Sport was the original diversion programme. Sport has been for many young people a space where they build their confidence, find their mentors - the one or two good adults in their lives - and build identities for themselves outside of crime. It is where a young person would learn discipline, teamwork, emotional regulation and, most importantly, a sense of belonging. Sport should not just be about the medals or the achievements at the end. It is actually about all the young people getting to feel included and, within that inclusion, building their confidence and sense of place. Sports clubs, youth programmes and community safety groups do this work every single day, often with no recognition or resourcing from the State. It should also be pointed out that when those 37% cuts to community programmes happened during the period of austerity, they devastated the infrastructure by which young people could emerge into an environment that was catered to their needs.

In my constituency of Dublin Central, specifically in Dublin 1, which is often talked about but rarely if ever really understood, I think it surprises many people to learn there is no 11-a-side football pitch. Many Teachtaí Dála who represent different constituencies often find that the GAA club or the sports facility is the centre of their constituency. It is the place where you go to connect and make friends. Imagine, an area like Dublin 1, the north inner city, does not have access to an 11-a-side football pitch. I know it is the same in Deputy Cummins's constituency, in Dublin 8, where they won a long campaign just to get a football pitch. Imagine that basic amenity just not being provided. Resourcing went into the inner city a couple of years ago following the well-documented feud. There has been the north inner city task force in the six or seven years that have passed since. It is often lauded in here. Other TDs ask for something similar in their own areas. Imagine over €15 million being spent and still not having a football pitch.

The eyes of the country were brought onto Dublin Central during the general election because a particular individual with a high profile ran. When he was talked about, he was often referred to in the context of the boxing club that he helped found. Did that not ring alarm bells for anybody? When the State removes itself, particular individuals have to step in and provide basic amenities. That is what happens in the absence of a state. If there is no access to boxing clubs, sports pitches or sports clubs, other actors will fill that space for us. Then we ask, "How did that happen?" It happens in the absence of a state.

There have been multiple instances in Dublin Central - for example, in Fairview Park - where kids have gone to play football every week but cars have driven onto and over the pitches and then the kids cannot play football there for the next couple of months. Sports clubs like Sheriff YC, East Wall Bessborough, Montpelier and Belvedere do absolutely amazing work in fostering environments in which young people can feel safe, develop their identities, grow their confidence and have that sense that they can be anything because they have found a place there. Every single month, many such clubs struggle to keep the lights on. I find that incredible. If we are going to talk about diverting young people from crime, let us talk about what the State has to do in terms of going in with full resourcing and full vigour and with the belief that this works and makes a difference. Somehow, it still does not happen. I find it difficult to explain this to my constituents and those sports clubs when they come looking for funding to buy boxing bags. We are talking about places that deal with young people and their families who are at genuine risk of poverty, yet they do not have access to basics such as gloves and the parents are asked to spend €10 or €20 a week. The State should be doing that.

In the absence of that, I was at City Hall a couple of weeks ago when a sports club network was founded for groups and sports clubs in the inner city. There were about 200 people there - all sports clubs, football clubs, rugby clubs, darts clubs, swimming clubs. They were dealing with about 2,000 to 3,000 young people and all they were asking for was support in order that they could do that work. I do not doubt for a second that there are funding grants, but it is very clear there is one group of people who have access and there are others who do not. That is what this is about: who has access to be able to take the time to fill out those forms and who does not. That situation is not in equilibrium.

When it comes to what investment and prevention look like, there are models that work. We have talked with the Minister about rising knife crime a number of times. The Minister's response to increases in knife crime has been simply to increase sentencing. If somebody carries a knife or uses a knife, he or she should feel the full force of the law, but that will not address knife crime. It will not address the means by which a person chooses, out of fear or abandonment or whatever forces that person to pick up a knife in a manner that very few of us can imagine, to take the next step. Nobody who is engaged in that behaviour is going to think about how it used to be a five-year sentence but is now seven years. That is not the mindset of a person engaged in that behaviour. Until we realise that proper prevention measures and intervention require resources, we will continue to have these conversations. We can increase the sentence to ten years or 15 years; it will not make a difference.

Real investment looks like the expansion of youth diversion programmes, not just in name or in scope, but in staffing and funding, and the recognition that every young person should have access to tailored support. It is about treating sport and youth services as essential infrastructure, building proper facilities, ensuring disability access and giving clubs the resources to meet existing need.

We know the consequences of inaction. We see them all the time. We see them in the rising stats. The consequences of inaction will continue to be courts that are full and prisons that are overcrowded. If we ignore trauma, we pay for it later. It is a simple fact. Hurt people will hurt people. It costs us more in terms of societal impact to clean up the damage than it would cost in terms of investment to prevent it. We need trained mediators. A lot of this requires funding and courage, not just statements, but genuine action that backs it up with evidence-based solutions, understanding the research that is decades-old and just going in there with vigour to say it does not have to be this way. We can have better outcomes for our young people.

I was a professional youth worker for many years. I have spoken about this with the Minister of State in the House previously. I will jump at any opportunity to speak about young people's lives and experiences. I just hope that there is nobody in charge of or responsible for youth justice or youth crime scratching their heads as to why we are where we are in society. It is fairly straightforward, actually. Without trying to sound too simplistic, young people's behaviour, circumstances and consequences are caused by the communities, societies and environments that they live in and grow up in. We all acknowledge that. If that were a starting point for addressing the structural inequality and the cyclical poverty that young people face, and asking why as opposed to what, it would be a phenomenal starting point in trying to understand a little better why young people who engage in criminal behaviour do so. There is always a why, there is always a person and there is always someone who, deep down, just wants hope, wants leadership, wants a different story sometimes. That is where we can step in and be those leaders, provide that hope and provide the circumstances in which young people can thrive and achieve their potential in communities.

When I was a youth justice worker in Newbridge Youth Project, the CAN project in County Kildare, with Adele, Ciara and Olivia, we genuinely did life-changing work. It changed our lives as youth workers and it changed young people's lives. I can personally guarantee that if every community had a professional youth project or a youth justice project, we would see the outcomes for a generation of young people change overnight. A study done many years ago put an economic cost on that, whereby for every €1 we invested in young people's lives in different services, it saved the State multiples of that in the long run. I was a youth worker during the recession and I saw first hand the impact of those costs and cuts. We are still as a sector coming back and regaining confidence and trust in the future of the sector. I implore the Government to do whatever it can to maximise professional youth work services and Garda youth diversion services.

The last point I will make is about restorative justice. I would love to learn more about the Government's commitment to that. Is it possible to amend the Children Act 2001 to put some legislative support behind the Garda to empower JLOs to use that as much as possible?

Like my colleague, I was a youth worker for many years and worked on the school completion programme. Anyone who has worked with young people knows just how amazing they are, how hopeful they are and how clear they are in their vision for the future. They love their friends and their families.

When things are going well for young people, it is a positive experience to be around them. However, Ireland has a real difficulty with young people. Yesterday, I went to an event with the Ombudsman for Children, who was talking about the deaths of children and the fact that there needed to be a review. There are 200 parents protesting outside Leinster House because of a lack of appropriate school places and the supports that go with them. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan talked about mother and baby homes. The list goes on. Children in care age out and end up in homelessness. As Deputy Gannon said, poverty and adverse childhood experiences can significantly divert the pathway a young person takes. Regardless of which party we come from, if any, it is incumbent on Members of the Thirty-fourth Dáil to get our act together and do everything we can to ensure that everything is in place. A good starting point would be restoring funding for youth services, Garda youth diversion projects, school completion programmes and other services like them. Funding is being restored but only to pre-austerity levels while the cost of everything has gone up. Everybody is saying that. If we could get on track with that, those youth services and programmes could take in more young people.

In the last few seconds I have, I will note that I am from Dublin South-Central and there are no playing pitches in Dublin 8. We have been fighting for this for a really long time. Young people have to hang out on the road because there is nowhere else. When young people hang out on the road, it is not antisocial behaviour. It is their equivalent of a café.

As an east Galway representative, I will speak not just about diverting young people from criminal activity, but about something deeper, that is, how we give young people a life to choose so that they do not fall into crime in the first instance. When we talk about prevention, we must talk about access to services, safe spaces and support systems. Young people need somewhere to go, something to do and someone to listen. Most young people need to be understood. A simple sports club, a youth café, a creative project and a space where they can simply speak and be heard are not luxuries, but essentials. In far too many areas, including parts of my own constituency, these options are very limited or non-existent. The evidence is clear, however. When we invest in community-based outlets, youth engagement and local leadership and support, we give young people real alternatives. We give them self-esteem, structure and connection. We need to stop treating youth justice as a crisis response system and start treating it as a chance to build up rather than clean up.

Alongside local supports, we need to recognise the growing influence of social media on our young people's lives. Today's teenagers are growing up in a world where much of their identity, self-worth and connection is shaped online. Social media can be a force for creativity and belonging but it can also fuel anxiety, impulsive behaviour, peer pressure and isolation. Platforms designed for instant gratification and public validation can distort a young person, which can lead to risky and harmful behaviour. That is why any serious prevention strategy must now include digital education and media literacy, teaching young people how to think critically, navigate safely and value themselves beyond likes, trends and viral challenges.

Let me be clear, in that the most sustainable and effective model is a preventative one. If we act early in schools, communities and families, we will reduce the need for intervention later. It is not just about better outcomes socially; it is a smarter use of our resources. It costs far less to support a young person through education, mentorship and youth services than to deal with the consequences of crime, trauma and incarceration down the line. However, when we look at the national picture and at east Galway in particular, there are gaps in services.

Galway East is a large and geographically spread constituency with growing towns and rural areas facing some of the same pressures as urban centres. I refer to social isolation, economic challenges and digital vulnerability. In communities like Athenry, Loughrea, Gort and Mountbellew, young people face tough choices and tough environments. If we are serious about prevention, we need to provide these communities with the same level of support that is being made available elsewhere. We simply cannot have an eircode lottery when it comes to giving young people a second chance or a first opportunity.

Ar dtús báire, ní féidir linn a rá cé chomh tábhachtach is atá an t-ábhar seo agus an luach a bhaineann le polasaí éifeachtach anseo ach an oiread. The importance of diverting young people away from crime cannot be overstated. It is a deeply important thing and the underlying principle has to be that prevention is better than cure. Although it does not mean that people are beyond the scope of policies if they have been involved in criminality, the reality is that it is increasingly difficult to undo the damage of being involved in certain criminality once it has happened. We are much better off investing in programmes that save people from ever going down that road or finding themselves in that situation.

The value of diversion cannot be overstated. The 8,404 young people who were in the Garda youth diversion programme in 2022 benefited from it. It is impossible to say how effective that programme has been. We do not know how many other young people did not get into that programme and benefit from it. It yields dividends tenfold if it is effective. I come from a background of criminal law and defending young people who have been involved in or accused of being involved in criminality so I have seen these people up close and in person. I have heard their stories and I understand the circumstances that brought about that involvement. To be perfectly honest, it is very rarely accidental. If you superimpose a map of those who have become involved in criminality onto a map of disadvantage, it is very clear why it happens. Not providing young people with the opportunity and option to get out of that is part of the problem. The evidence linking where you come from with criminality is very clear. It is not necessarily something that is geographically defined although there are definitely concentrations. From the people I have represented, I know there are areas, particularly areas of Dublin, that are over-represented. That is not a reflection on the people who live in those areas but it is a reflection on investment in those communities and the options available to people who grew up in them.

I will raise an issue regarding my own area that I have raised before. I live in Honeypark in Dún Laoghaire. It is a lovely place to live but we have had issues in the local area with young people who do not have alternative options, facilities to entertain them or sports facilities. One of the greatest pressures on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at the moment is the lack of playing pitches for the many sports clubs that want to provide facilities for kids who are in exactly this boat to do things other than the things they might otherwise end up getting involved in.

There are a couple of approaches that we need to take to this. It is without doubt that we need to look at where there are problems and focus our efforts there but, as a general rule, we need to invest in communities and community facilities, particularly sports facilities, to give young people options to do other things. We also need to give gardaí the confidence and power to deal with issues when they arise. One of the issues that people raise with me all the time in Dún Laoghaire, particularly in the context of antisocial behaviour, which is the thin edge of the wedge as regards youth criminal activity, is that we should encourage gardaí not to take the view that nothing can be done when those involved are children.

We should also look at parental responsibility, which is something we do not focus on enough. Children do not get involved in criminality off their own bat. It happens because of a series of failures at societal, community and family level. There is no doubt about that. Parents need to take responsibility for their children. That is very clear. However, I know from speaking to gardaí in my area that they feel that, if they come across a situation where young people are involved in something, they cannot intervene or that, if they do intervene, the courts system will not deal with those people in an effective way.

With regard to young people who have involved themselves in crime and ultimately paid the price of being imprisoned, the most recent figures, which I believe are from 2024, show that 84% of young adults under 21 reoffended within three years. That is an appalling recidivism rate. Unfortunately, it reflects poorly on us in this House and in this society. We need to deal with that. Many years ago, when I worked in this House as an adviser, I visited a young offenders institution in Cheshire in England that had reduced the recidivism rate among young people to 16%. It had done this by bringing them into a very expensive prison system in which they had freedom to operate and from which they could walk away at any time, although they knew that, if they did, they would not be allowed back.

While in there, they had to take responsibility for their conduct, make their beds, keep their rooms clean, get up early in the morning, get their breakfast, learn a trade and be involved in a programme that resulted in a particular outcome.

This is the type of thing we need to invest in. Let us be real, however; it is not cheap. If we want to reap the dividends that come with diverting young people away from criminality, we also have to be prepared to pay the financial cost, because it is expensive. Investment in young people is expensive but the idea is that a generation from now we will reap the dividends of having young people who understand that crime is not the only option. We can therefore compete with those on the streets who seek to draw them into criminality, tell them they can make easy money or get whatever it might be - jackets, runners and so on - and that this will somehow compensate for the damage that will be done to them in later life. Let us make sure they are equipped with the proper tools to allow them to make the decisions they have to make to be on a path that results in a positive, constructive approach to society. That is what we want for all our young people. We in this House have to be willing to invest in the products that will bring about those dividends and in policies that will ensure young people have options when they go out of their homes and away from their families in order that they will not be drawn into attractive alternatives but will instead avail of opportunities that will bring them into a fruitful adulthood, one we can all be proud of.

It is always difficult to follow Deputy Ward, especially when he has been so knowledgeable of and engaging on the topic under discussion. I have been listening for the past couple of hours, both up in my office and since I came into the Chamber. There were similarities with what many people said, but I was struck by one statement. Someone said that this is quite a simple problem. It is anything but simple. I will not say who said it, but it is anything but a simple problem. It is very complex. The solutions are many, and the causes are also many. The situation is difficult to break down.

As Deputy Ward said, there are some opportunities. He said it will not be easy; we know it will not be easy or cheap. We know we have to make an effort. As many of us know, as I stated last week on a similar issue and as Deputy Roche alluded to, we face difficulties with social media. It is one of the new issues we face. No previous generation has ever faced those sorts of complications and the influences that come with them. That is part of the problem. As a parent and a coach who works in schools, I see the difficulties facing young people. We also know the opportunities and education facilities that need to be available, and we are aware that we need to encourage young people. There is full employment. We have a good education system that is the envy of other countries. The skill sets can be there. We need to push all our people and show them all the opportunities – educational courses, skills, plumbing trades – we can show them. These are important.

A number of Deputies referred to the need for facilities. As someone who has been heavily involved in their community as director of both a youth centre and a sports centre, I know the importance of sports facilities. However, sport is not a solution for every child. A child who does not want to play sport might also not want to be in these centres. They want to just hang out with their friends. We need to reach everyone.

If there are indications that a young person may be going down the wrong path, community gardaí are important. I see the importance of community gardaí in my area in Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth. They do Trojan work. The knowledge they have of the individual people and all of those in the community, be it councillors, TDs, people who work in shops, schools and young people, is impressive. What they do is impressive. I spoke yesterday in the Dáil and to the Taoiseach about the importance of supporting local gardaí and ensuring that we have the numbers. Part of that is community supports. That is why it is so important. If we do not have gardaí in place, we have to respond to issues after they happen. It is about prevention. We are trying to prevent people from going down a certain path. That is where the community garda is important. We know of the involvement of different groups with young people. In North Kildare, I see the importance of In Sync, previously Kildare Youth Services. It is involved with families, groups, community centres and individual estates. The work it does can stop young people going down certain paths. That is where we want to get to. Young people are the future of the country. How we support them will be evidence of the success or otherwise of this Government.

As a parent, a coach and a public representative, in the past I have done the best I could locally. It is important on the national stage to continue to push that forward. I will push the Government where I can to get involved with our young people, be it in the form of outreach on football pitches or in community centres. That is one way. Supporting our gardaí is another. It is incumbent on us to ensure that there are opportunities for all our young people in any way they want or need.

Ireland is a successful country. We talk about the wealth we have but we need to make sure it is channelled to the right places. I will continue to ensure that there are opportunities for our young people to be diverted from crime and that they have all the opportunities they need to live successful lives.

Our young people are our greatest resource. We need to start by acknowledging that. We also need to support and invest in them. I acknowledge the great work done by the youth services in my area in Fingal east, including Crosscare, Youthreach, the north Fingal youth diversion programme and all the local clubs that work with our young people. Diverting young people from criminal activity must be based on international best practice and in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ensuring young people’s legal rights and safeguards are fully respected. Projects must be community-based, multi-agency initiatives that seek to divert young people who have been involved in antisocial or criminal behaviour or those identified as being at risk of slipping into the criminal justice system. Programmes must be adequately resourced to provide suitable activities to facilitate personal development, promote civic responsibility and improve long-term employment prospects. These projects contribute to improving the quality of life within communities and enhancing relations between gardaí and communities.

While gardaí play an important role, it should not be left to them alone. We also need to look urgently at an education programme for youths on the implications, damage and consequences of carrying knives. This is a huge problem. The work of protecting our children from crime is multifaceted. It involves early intervention and preventative work, diversion from crime, improving educational attainment, reducing substance misuse and improving use of leisure and recreational time. Positive outcomes in these areas of young persons’ lives are proven to lead to a reduction in their likelihood of offending or reoffending.

Consecutive Governments have wasted opportunities to invest in our young people. Following the most recent budget, the National Youth Council of Ireland said, "NYCI called for a budget to renew the social contract with young people, but this hasn’t been delivered, and young people at the margins have been overlooked." This is a shocking indictment of a Government that applauds itself for record budget surpluses. Once again, those at risk and the vulnerable, especially our younger people, do not benefit from the wealth of this nation.

If we want to divert young people from becoming involved in criminality, we need a dual approach. The first is ensuring young people have proper supports, services and amenities in their areas, that they have hope and that they feel they have the opportunity to meet their full potential regardless of their backgrounds. The second is that we need a community approach that steers young people away from crime. The last thing any of us wants to see is a young person ending up in the courts and going to prison. A criminal conviction can do serious damage to a young person's future prospects. We need the Educational Welfare Service to be given the resources necessary to ensure that children attend school regularly and to support families that need it.

We have also seen the benefit across communities of ensuring that young people have spaces they can socialise in that are accessible outside school hours at weekends and in the evenings and that do not come at a cost. I have noticed, particularly in the context of many of the new estates being built in my constituency, that there are houses but that we do not have communities.

We should not have to wait years until we get the community centres, playgrounds and all of the other facilities communities need.

Another major problem and one that contributes hugely to criminality is drug and alcohol addiction. Supports and services need to be in place for drug and alcohol addiction. On top of all of this, we need policing that can identify young people who are at risk of offending and steer them away from that path. That works but it takes resources. I commend the work of the Garda youth diversion programme and urge the Minister to ensure that this programme is expanded and resourced. We all know, from all walks of life, that early intervention works and is so important. To do that, we need more community gardaí who are out and about, talking in our youth clubs and talking to residents and business. In Coolock, for example, we currently only have eight community gardaí whereas in 2015, we had 16.

The key to addressing the diversion of young people from criminality is the provision of services right across the whole spectrum including education, health, community, and recreation services and, of course, employment. Those services must be properly funded and staffed. As others have said, this is not cheap but society gets back in spades what it gives in funding for these services. These services are not just self-financing; society get back in spades what it puts into them. Talk of diverting at the teenage stage is simply too late. We need to start with the provision of these services at community crèches with the provision of childcare services. I acknowledge the work done by huge numbers of volunteers right across the country, particularly in community organisations, recreational services and sports clubs. I am well aware of the great work being done by the community childcare facility in my own home town of Clonmel, Clever Clogs in Elm Park, which provides a high-quality service. I salute the manager there, Ms Clare McDermott, and her staff for the work they do. I am also involved in sporting clubs, including Old Bridge Football Club, which is based in the community and provides activities and a vital service for young people. Community organisations such as the Waterford and Tipperary Community Youth Service provide invaluable services to young people. In the context of our education services, transition year students are involved in the community, not just in south Tipperary, but throughout the country.

Community gardaí have been mentioned and they are a vital element in this area. They work in the community, become involved with community services, local sports clubs and community organisations. They know families and the young people on the ground and form relationships and friendships with them. They can identify early on the difficulties that might arise down the road and can divert young people away from criminal and antisocial activity. There is an obvious and established link between criminality and poverty, mental health problems, addiction to both alcohol and drugs, as well as domestic violence. I want to refer to the Le Chéile mentoring programme in particular, which is hugely successful and beneficial. It caters for young people between the ages of 12 and 24 who are usually referred to it through the Garda youth diversion programme. These are young people who have either committed an offence or are at risk of committing an offence. The programme provides a one-to-one mentoring service on a weekly basis for approximately three hours per week. The idea is that the mentor is a role model for the young person.

I move:

(1)  THAT the rate of value-added tax chargeable on the supply of electricity provided for by section 46(1)(caa) of, and paragraph 17(2) of Schedule 3 to, the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 (No. 31 of 2010) and the supply of gas provided for by section 46(1)(caa) of, and paragraph 17(3) of Schedule 3 to, that Act, being 9 per cent until 30 April 2025, be extended until 31 October 2025 and that section 46(1)(caa) of that Act be amended accordingly.

(2)  THAT this Resolution shall have effect on and from 3 April 2025.

(3)  IT is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).

This financial resolution provides for an extension of the temporary reduction in VAT on gas and electricity which is due to expire on 30 April and revert to the original 13.5% VAT rate from 1 May. This financial resolution extends these temporary reductions until the end of October 2025. The estimated cost of this change is €85 million. The Government is conscious that energy prices are beginning to increase again and believes in this context that it is appropriate to extend this reduced rate of VAT, particularly given how high energy costs contribute to a rise in the cost of living. It should be noted that increases in energy prices are driven primarily by global factors over which the Government has no control. However a measure such as this does make a difference to households and businesses struggling in this uncertain economic environment by alleviating some of these increased price impacts.

I will outline the background to our ability to be able to apply these reduced rates to gas and electricity. With respect to VAT, Ireland has maintained an historical derogation in respect of the VAT rate on gas and electricity since 1991. This allowed us to apply a reduced rate of 13.5% but also prevented us from lowering the VAT rate below 12%. However, following lengthy negotiations, amendments to the VAT directive were provisionally agreed in December 2021 with final sign-off on the amended text at ECOFIN in April 2022. This new agreement came into effect on 5 April 2022. Under this new agreement, Annex III of the VAT directive has been expanded to include gas and electricity. This means that Ireland can apply a reduced rate of 9% to these products in line with other goods and services to which a reduced rate applies. The Government made a decision to avail of this flexibility from 1 May 2022, the start of the next VAT period. The measure has been extended since that time with the last extension being approved in budget 2025 up until 30 April 2025. The cumulative cost of the measure since its introduction is €631 million.

The VAT reduction from 1 May will add to the already substantial support provided by Government to help with the cost of living. Finally, it should be noted that the financial resolution allows this reduced rate to apply from 1 May. However, there is a requirement to have this matter formally legislated through statute within 120 days. It is proposed therefore to do this through the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Bill 2025 which will be enacted before the summer recess.

I call Deputy Nash for the Labour Party.

I was not expecting to be called so quickly.

I am sure, but some Members are not present.

I am ill-prepared. I have an amendment to move but I assume it will be taken at a later point.

It will be taken at the end of the debate but the Deputy must move it now.

I move amendment No. 1:

In paragraph (1), to delete "31 October 2025" and substitute "31 December 2025".

I thank the Minister of State for introducing this measure. We in the Labour Party anticipated last October that we might be in this position at this point in time. The Minister of State was not in her current role then but she may recall that on budget night, when the financial resolution was moved regarding the extension of the VAT reduction for a further period, we proposed that the reduction be maintained at least until the end of 2025. We did so in anticipation of very difficult times for families and that, indeed, has come to pass.

Today, for example, SSE Airtricity confirmed that increases in energy prices it had previously announced will be implemented. The Government's resolution may have been informed by that. Experts, including bonkers.ie and its analysts, are pointing out, as we know from our own experience, that when one electricity company moves, others will surely follow. The ESRI report issued this week shows that low-income families in particular are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet at the moment. We know sacrifices are being made and that low-income families, especially, including the 1,600 surveyed by the ESRI, are cutting back on heating and groceries. A total of 63% of those surveyed indicated that this is how they have been dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. That is bad for families and bad for society. Families are also cutting back on footwear and clothing.

We also know people are getting themselves into debt because of rising energy costs. We have a problem in this country with energy poverty. The scattergun measures introduced by the Government over the past few years were not targeted enough. Huge resources were allocated to those who may not have needed them. We in the Labour Party did not support that approach. What we need to do if we are to deal with energy poverty is introduce, for example, street-by-street retrofitting programmes. We proposed in our alternative budget and in our manifesto that we should move towards using a goodly portion of the Apple tax resource to implement a genuine national campaign of retrofitting to ensure we address energy poverty and meet our climate ambitions, which we are far away from meeting in 2030. Other energy companies will follow SSE Airtricity's lead in confirming today that the increases it announced last month will come into play. That will affect the average family to the tune of approximately €250. Other companies will follow.

We need an independent analysis of why Ireland has the second-highest energy costs in the European Union. Most of us practising politicians will understand why that is the case. We know we are still far too reliant on expensive fossil fuels to generate the electricity we need. We know we are far too slow to reach our targets in respect of what former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar rightly said was our moonshot moment, that is, offshore wind generation. We can be more energy-efficient, we can meet our energy demands and we can be net exporters of energy if we do that.

I am concerned that the regulator seems to sign off on a routine basis, without any apparent analysis, on all the price increases introduced by energy firms. We have a problem with regulation in this country. The regulator seems to roll out the red carpet for big firms and screw householders and businesses with high energy costs without doing a proper analysis of why the prices are so high. We have toothless regulation in this country and consumers are paying the price.

I welcome this initiative by the Government. We anticipated on budget night last year that it would be required. The Government should have listened to the Labour Party. We made a formal request by way of an amendment to the Government's financial resolution that the reduced rate be extended to the end of this year. We are glad to see it will be extended until the end of October. We have no doubt that families will face more difficulties this year, especially in light of what we are going to hear tonight from Donald Trump. The net effect of additional tariffs will be higher costs for families on this side of the Atlantic and, indeed, on the other side as well. Donald Trump is about to engage in a massive act of national self-harm against his own people. We are all awaiting those announcements with trepidation.

I understand the necessity of bringing forward this resolution. We support it. As I understand it, I have formally moved my party's amendment. Will I get to speak on it later or is this my only opportunity to do so?

The Deputy will have an opportunity.

That is fair enough. I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

The next speaker, with the agreement of the House, is Deputy Conway-Walsh. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. We are all trying to get ready for the announcement at 9 p.m. That is the situation we are in. I apologise for being late.

I understand the absolute necessity to extend the 9% VAT rate on electricity and gas. The Eurostat figures released in October last year show that the average energy bill for an Irish household is €500 higher than the EU average. The figures are due to be updated in May and I doubt they will make for any less grim reading. We have the highest energy prices in Europe and this is crippling not only our workers and families but also our small and medium-sized businesses. This really speaks to what is happening in terms of our competitiveness and what we need to do to protect ourselves against the tariffs we are facing.

Media reports have indicated that SMEs are going to the wall because of huge energy costs. In October, the Government announced an energy subsidy of €170 million to provide approximately €4,000 to 39,000 hospitality and retail sector businesses. At the time, some in the business sector described the scheme as not worth talking about. Does the Minister of State have information on how many businesses have applied for and received the energy subsidy? There is currently extreme worry among Irish business owners regarding the imposition of US tariffs later today. We simply do not know the extent to which our economy will be affected. Even though the major threats at this point seem to point to the pharmaceutical and tech industries, any loss of jobs in those sectors will have a knock-on effect across the entire economy.

The Government needs to get to grips with this and to consult with executives in the North to ensure we have a whole-island approach to protect our island economy. While I welcome any and all business supports in light of the challenges facing our small and large firms, the elephant in the room at this stage is the Government's pre-budget commitment to lower the VAT rate on the food-led hospitality sector. That was done during the pandemic and a similar measure must be considered afresh and brought forward. This issue resonates far beyond employers, business owners and the many people who work in the sector. When well known restaurants and pubs close down, it is felt right across society. Those businesses make up an important part of our culture and are part of the social fabric of every city, town and village. We cannot have vibrant communities without a viable hospitality sector. I urge the Minister of State, in addition to this extension for electricity and gas, to consider a VAT reduction for food and catering businesses and other small service businesses. That was committed to by the Government but I ask that consideration be given to bringing it forward at this stage.

Ordinary workers, families and businesses the length and breadth of the country are crippled by exorbitant gas and electricity bills. Week in and week out, people come to our office who are struggling to afford to keep the lights on and heat their home. Often, we have no choice but to send them to apply for an additional needs payment or to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. That is why the extension of the lower VAT rate on gas and electricity is necessary. It is the least the Government can do.

Why is the Government not doing more to address Ireland's rip-off energy costs? As colleagues have noted, prices here are either the highest or second highest in the EU, at €500 more than the average. Prices are set to rise even further in the coming months with the recent SSE Airtricity announcement. The Government, in its wisdom, has decided to rip away supports from struggling households. Rather than making things easier, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Healy-Rae brothers and the Lowry-led Independent Deputies are determined to make things even harder.

I want to be clear: the electricity credit scheme should be kept in place until the prices reduce. Last month, the Government told us it had no intention of providing this essential relief to households this year but is it really the Government's plan to abandon workers and families to crucifying energy prices in the depths of this winter?

Electricity credits, while important supports, are really only a sticking plaster in a fundamentally flawed system that has developed over decades. It is also deeply regressive and inequitable. It is the unfairness at the heart of our energy system that leads to such high energy costs in the first place. For example, network charges and the PSO levy place a disproportionate burden on ordinary households, pushing up bills even further while larger energy users such as data centres get off relatively scot free. We have called out this deep unfairness repeatedly and the Government must urgently reform network charges and the PSO levy so that the burden is redistributed more equitably. I fundamentally refute the idea that households should be expected to pay for the damage wreaked by the recent Storm Éowyn through an increase in the standing charge.

Why can the profits being made by the energy companies not be invested in repairing the damage to the distribution network and make it resilient to the increasingly frequent extreme weather events? The Government also needs to get serious about accelerating the transition to indigenous renewable energy. Rather than continued overdependence on imported fossil fuels, we should not entrust Ireland's energy security to the hands of commercial LNG developers with a dubious financial history and untested or untried job creation records. This move makes a mockery of Ireland's commitment to achieving 80% renewable energy by 2030.

While the indigenous generation of renewable energy will be a prerequisite of reducing the cost of energy here, this will not, in isolation, fix a system that is fundamentally broken. As long as energy is treated as a commodity for private gain and profit rather than as a basic right and necessity, and with the overall influence of the common good, the price is going to remain unreasonably high and we will continue to have such high bills. Sinn Féin will deliver the wholesale change necessary to make energy affordable in a system that prioritises fairness over the corporate balance sheet. Ireland's energy system should be reoriented towards fairness, transparency and affordability and ensure that energy companies are held to account so that ordinary workers and families feel the benefit of the inevitable renewable transition in their pockets and not be continually overdependent.

The recent announcement regarding a State-led backup system should be that - State-led, State-prioritised - and be temporary. It should not, as I said, entrust the future of any backup system completely to private enterprise.

While inflation on many goods and services has abated compared to what we experienced from 2021 through 2023, it simply would not be correct to say that Ireland's cost-of-living crisis has gone away, as I am sure we all agree. Lower inflation rates do not mean prices are falling; they just mean prices are not rising quite as fast as they were previously. The period of severe inflation between 2021 and 2023 was experienced by a society that did not have much room to manoeuvre in the first place.

Ireland was already a very expensive country in which to live in 2021. Compared with EU averages, it is even more so now. With the exception of Luxembourg, we are now the most expensive country in the European Union with prices of goods and services for households 45% above the EU average in 2023. There are many reasons for this. One of them is the chronic unwillingness on the part of previous Governments to make necessary investments to bring down the cost of living, including for key public services. Whether it is housing, healthcare, transport, childcare or education, people have for far too long been dealing with significant out-of-pocket costs for access to basic services that are free or very heavily subsidised in most other European countries. There have been some welcome initiatives, it is important to recognise, in recent years around public transport and childcare, but notwithstanding those there still remains a very big problem and there needs to be a lot more done in these areas.

Government has less control over things like the price of energy, of course, but there are still things that can be done to ease the burden on hard-pressed families. In our general election manifesto, the Social Democrats pledged to retain the lower 9% VAT rate on energy to provide support to households and businesses in difficult times. To do otherwise would be to place too heavy a burden on families and businesses of all sizes. It would also be unnecessary. The Minister of State will be just as aware, as I am, of the stories over the past three or four years of businesses facing monthly energy bill increases in the thousands or even tens of thousands of euro, the kinds of numbers that can make businesses simply unviable.

It is often the case that the larger the business, the larger the energy bill and therefore the bigger the hit, especially in some areas of manufacturing that are so important to our economy. Of course, they are under huge pressure at the moment, particularly with the impending announcements expected from Donald Trump with regard to tariffs and the severe negative repercussions that will have for some businesses, including some sections in manufacturing. Where it is possible for us to support businesses, help them keep cost increases to a minimum and maintain competitiveness, we must do so.

It is not just the Trump announcement. Hundreds of thousands of SSE Airtricity customers will also see their energy bills rise today. The average electricity bill for households is likely to climb by more than 10% while the average gas bill will rise by 8%. That will cost the average user approximately €300 per year, and more if they are heavy users, for example, a large family or household living in a poorly insulated home.

There are structural problems with our energy system that contribute to our high prices. We are yet to see the scale of investment that we need in renewable energy that would contribute to cheaper and more secure energy. In the meantime, postponing a return to the full rate of VAT on electricity and gas is a proportionate move given the economic circumstances we are in and the high cost of living that workers, family and hard-pressed individuals are in, and indeed businesses. I welcome this move, and the Social Democrats support it.

Is this the amendment?

No, the amendment is negatived, so in general, this is on the motion.

Is the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, taking this?

No.

We will have to wait for the Minister of State, Deputy Troy.

Amendments Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together.

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 7, to delete lines 13 to 21 and substitute the following:

“ “credit institution” means any of the following that provides, or offers to provide, current accounts in the State:

(a) the holder of a licence under section 9 of the Central Bank Act 1971;

(b) the holder of an authorisation under section 9A of the Central Bank Act 1971;

(c) a credit institution authorised and supervised by the competent authority of another Member State that carries on business in the State, by way of the establishment of a branch in the State, in accordance with the European Union (Capital Requirements) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 158 of 2014);

(d) a credit union registered as such under the Credit Union Act 1997;”.

The amendments in this group relate to the definitions in section 2. Amendment No. 1 changes the definition of a "credit institution" to insert a reference to the establishment of a branch for "credit institution[s] authorised and supervised by the competent authority of another Member State". This has been proposed for technical reasons to ensure such credit institutions report statistical information to the Central Bank in respect of their operations in Ireland.

Amendment No. 2 changes the definition of "current account" to refer to the lodgment and withdrawal of "funds", as the definition of "current account" in the Bill refers to the ability to deposit and withdraw cash. Some current accounts, such as those from Revolut and other online banks, do not offer a direct cash lodgment facility. Therefore, these accounts would not satisfy the definition as currently worded. While none of the online-only banks currently meet the quantitative criteria of the designated entities, there was never any intention to exclude them, and doing so would be likely to lead to further legal challenges on state aid and competition grounds. In addition, failure to address this issue could leave the legislation open to gaming. For instance, a designated entity could decide to no longer facilitate the depositing of cash in new current accounts. It has always been the policy intention that online current account providers would become designated entities if they satisfied the criteria regarding the shares of the current accounts and household deposits.

Amendment No. 3 is largely technical in nature and inserts a new definition of "funds" to ensure the proper functioning of the updated definition of "current account" in amendment No. 2. This definition of "funds" is as set out in EU Directive 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015, or the payment services directive. As part of this amendment, section 4 is proposed to be deleted, as the provisions of that section are no longer needed after the addition of a new section 48, which I will propose and discuss with amendment No. 8.

I wish to discuss the overall Bill. I was recently in Liverpool, and in one of the local chip shops, there was a message on the glass screen that read:

Cash is our preferred method of payment. With cash, we retain 100% of its value. The card processing companies get 0%. Big banks get 0%. Keep cash alive and support local businesses.

Over recent years, organisations that should really know better, such as the National Driver Licence Service, NDLS, the ploughing championships, Iarnród Éireann, the national car test, NCT, and the GAA, have rowed back from plans they had to eliminate cash payments. We also recently saw plans by one of the major supermarket retailers in Britain, which also operates here, to phase out cash payments at self-service checkouts. The motivation for this is always to do with making more profits for the company. There is nothing to do with conveniencing consumers. Access to cash remains, and will remain, crucial in our economy and society.

The same must be said with regard to banking services through the branch and ATM networks. A recent survey commissioned by the Department of Finance found that 37% of customers still visit their branch every month, and that number is greater in rural areas. Despite the push from the banks to move people towards online banking, there is a distrust of online services. People like to have cash in their hands and they should be facilitated. They should have an ability to access cash locally and conveniently. These services should be provided by banks, or ATM operators where ATM infrastructure has been sold off, and without unfair fees. In some places, particularly abroad, there is a charge of, say, €2 to access an ATM. In the North and in Britain, 95% of the population has free access to cash deposits and withdrawal facilities within 1 mile of where they live in urban areas and within 3 miles of where they live in rural areas.

The details of what communities, individuals and businesses will be able to depend on in future are missing from the legislation. The legislation must ensure that banks do not close cash facilities, including bank branches, where branches are a key local source of cash. The Bill does not protect the right to use cash, only to access it. It is critical that the Government, industry and regulators understand the important of access to cash for social and financial inclusion. Its use and access must be protected in legislation. Often, the lower paid workers will suffer, such as people who rely on tips. Even though legislation was introduced a few years ago to ensure they receive access to tips, the reality is that sometimes does not happen. Retailers should be required to accept cash as a form of payment. The predicted transition to a cashless society is neither inevitable nor desirable. Research has shown that reduced access to cash presents risks to rural communities and personal independence and creates risks of financial abuse and increased debt.

Similar to what we saw in the chip shop in Liverpool, we should keep cash alive, support local businesses and ensure that the transition and the money are there to keep as much money as possible in the hands of the local retailers.

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 7, to delete lines 24 and 25 and substitute the following:

“(a) deposit or receive funds,

(b) withdraw or transfer funds, and”.

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 7, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following definition:

“ “funds” has the same meaning as it has in Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market;”.

Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 will be discussed together.

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 10, to delete lines 16 to 25 and substitute the following:

“in respect of each NUTS 3 region—

(i) shall, by order, specify—

(I) the minimum percentage of the population of the region concerned that ought to be within a radius of 5 kilometres of an ATM accessible 24 hours,

(II) the minimum number of ATMs that ought to be available per 100,000 people in the region concerned,

(III) the minimum percentage of the population of the region concerned that ought to be within a radius of 5 kilometres of a cash service point, and

(IV) the minimum percentage of ATM that provide the necessary functionality to be accessible for those with visual impairment and other forms of disabilities,”.

Deputy Daly referred to issues relating to access to cash and comparisons with what is happening in neighbouring jurisdictions. Amendment No. 4 would reduce the criteria that would be used here from 10 km to 5 km. It would also ensure access would be for 24 hours rather than on a shopping or business hours basis. Since we looked at this in pre-legislative scrutiny, we had the recent Storm Éowyn, which brought reality home for many people regarding the nature of digital services. We saw many communities left without power for quite a period. For weeks after the storm in some areas, cash again become king, since it was the only means of payment. It is a reminder of the importance of an underlying paper-based system, no matter how convenient digital systems are.

Our amendment to this enabling legislation aims to tighten up the criteria to a degree. We want it to be looked at on a basis of up to 5 km instead of up to 10 km. That is basically to ensure that a certain proportion of the population should have access to cash up to 5 km. The Government is proposing that it be up to 10 km. This is in line with the recommendation of the finance committee when it looked at this in pre-legislative scrutiny. A 10 km round trip to an ATM is not reasonable. We also seek to add into the definition the idea that the ATM needs to have 24-hour access. This is a key metric in assessing the availability for cash. As I said, it is handy if there are ATMs in shops and so on but if the shutters are down at 6 o'clock in the evening, access to cash is needed thereafter. Even though there is an ATM, if it is not available in those periods, then it is not available. We need to have a metric which looks at what ATMs are available on a 24-hour basis.

In Britain, 99.3% of Britain's urban population are currently within 1 mile of a free-to-use cash access point offering withdrawals and 98.6% of Britain's rural population are currently within 3 miles of free-to-use cash access points offering withdrawals. That puts into clear perspective that looking at this with distances larger than 5 km will not really give us the information we need to ensure we have a reasonable level of access to cash.

The last point of the amendment relates to accessibility for people with visual impairment and other disabilities. The standards must be led and assessed by people who are affected. I know there was great frustration from many organisations across the State, such as Voice of Vision Impairment, VVI, which represents people with visual impairment, when banks rolled out accessible ATMs without engaging with them. This has to be more than a box-ticking exercise and the best way to make it happen is to make sure that the Central Bank and the regulator have the oversight role to hold banks to account.

Amendment No. 5 deals with the issue of cearta teanga. Moltar leis go mbeadh cearta ag daoine a gcuid gnó a dhéanamh ag an ATM nó UMB i nGaeilge. Agus muid ag plé rochtain ar airgead tirim ó UMBanna, caithfear labhairt freisin faoin rochtain atá ag pobal labhartha ár dteanga náisiúnta ar airgead ó UMBanna. Tá cearta teanga i gceist leis an leasú seo. Ba chóir go ndéanfadh dul chun cinn sa teicneolaíocht ár saol níos éasca dúinn go léir, Gaeilgeoirí san áireamh. Tá sé níos fusa anois ná riamh seirbhísí a sholáthar trí Ghaeilge i suímh nach bhfuil gá le daoine le scileanna i dteangacha éagsúla a fhostú chun freastal ar phobail éagsúla. Ní gá ach inneall féinfhreastal ar nós UMB a chlárú chun an tseirbhís chéanna a sholáthar i réimse teangacha agus an rogha fágtha ag daoine. Sna blianta thart, rinneadh iarrachtaí chun a chinntiú go ndearna na meaisín seo freastal ar Ghaeilgeoirí ach, leis na blianta beaga anuas, tá meath sonraithe againn ar an dul chun cinn seo. Áit a raibh UMBanna de chuid Bhanc na hÉireann ag soláthar rogha Gaeilge agus a raibh seirbhísí fisiciúla ar fáil do chustaiméirí ar Ghaeilgeoirí iad, go háirithe i gceantair Ghaeltachta, feictear anois brainsí áitiúla ag dúnadh agus Béarla amháin ag na UMBanna. Mar sin, tá Sinn Féin ag moladh gur chóir go mbeadh rogha Gaeilge ar chomhchaighdeán leis an mBéarla ar gach UMB agus, má tá teanga réamhshocraithe mar rogha uathoibríoch ar an phríomhleathanach, go mbeadh an Ghaeilge mar an default agus deis ann teanga eile a roghnú. Is í an tábhacht a bhaineann leis an phointe deireanach seo ná go spreagfaidh úsáid na Gaeilge, más féidir de réir prionsabal na tairisceana gníomhaí, deis dul i dtaithí leis an teanga. Agus é sin ráite, glacann Sinn Féin leis gur chóir go mbeadh an rogha iompú ar an Bhéarla dóibh siúd atá á lorg agus roghanna eile teanga freisin. Chun costais a choimeád íseal do ghnólachtaí, cinntíonn an leasú seo nach mbeadh feidhm ag an riail nua seachas i gcás meaisín nua nó uasdátaithe tar éis don Acht seo a theacht i bhfeidhm.

The second amendment is about language rights. It is about the rights of Irish speakers, the rights of people in the Gaeltacht and the right to be able to withdraw your cash in Irish. In the case where there are multiple languages, we are saying that all ATMs should have the Irish language available. Where there are multiple languages, the main, default page should be in Irish, with an option to turn to English or indeed any other language. Given technology today, this is not impossible or costly. We are not asking for all these ATMs to be changed overnight. We are saying that where there is a new ATM or an upgrade in the software of the ATM, this would have to apply. That makes a lot of sense for all the parties here which talk about the restoration of our national language being a priority for all of us. This is one wee step which does not cost us anything but gives us an opportunity at a time when we are withdrawing cash to remind us that Irish is our national language.

Amendment No. 4 proposes to change the required distance for the percentage of the population to be 5 km from an ATM or cash service point. It also proposes to add the criteria of a minimum percentage of ATMs that provide the necessary functionality to be accessible for those with visual impairments and other forms of disabilities. Section 6 of the Bill sets out population criteria that will require a specified percentage of the population in a specified region to be within a set radius of not less than 5 km and not more than 10 km of an ATM. The minimum distance of 5 km was added in response to the finance committee's recommendation. A minimum distance of 5 km, a maximum distance of 10 km, minimum ATM numbers per 100,000 people and a local deficiency framework were deemed the most optimal approach to maintain access to cash in the State.

A distance of 5 km was considered on the basis of the committee's recommendation. This found that a 5 km criterion would be disproportionately restrictive as the population percentages would still be based on the December 2022 coverage levels and travel and geographic factors would inhibit attempts to remedy it. The preference is therefore to set the distance criterion to 10 km in the first instance, which represents approximately 99% of the population being covered. A 10 km distance, coupled with the local deficiency process, will provide an initial indication of the number of ATMs and cash service points necessary to provide sufficient and effective access to cash.

The local deficiencies process complements the 10 km criterion by providing a framework to address any deficiencies in the ATM coverage. Local deficiency is the term in the legislation for locations in the NUTS 3 region where particular difficulties arise in accessing cash, even if the access to cash criteria for that region are being complied with. It is possible that changes in the ATM locations, branch closures or independently-made changes in the An Post network could give rise to localised difficulties in accessing cash, even where the criteria for the relevant NUTS 3 region are still being complied with. In these cases, the local deficiency provisions of the Bill will come into effect. A person can notify the Central Bank of Ireland of local deficiencies or potential local deficiencies. The Central Bank will assess submissions and determine whether there is a deficiency that warrants a remedy. If so, the Central Bank of Ireland will notify the designated entities, which will have at least one month or up to eight weeks to present proposals to the bank to address the breach. Where the Central Bank of Ireland is satisfied that the remedy is adequate, the designated entities will implement it.

Where the Central Bank of Ireland is not satisfied that the remedy is adequate, it will have the power to issue a draft direction setting out measures to be taken by a specified deadline to one or more designated entities to remedy the deficiency. Relevant designated entities may provide observations on the draft direction within two weeks and the Central Bank of Ireland may amend or affirm the direction. Where designated entities do not comply with the direction, the bank may implement its sanction procedure. Prior to the implementation of the local deficiencies framework, the Central Bank of Ireland is required to produce guidance on the assessment and classification of local deficiencies and when a remedy is appropriate and proportionate. The guidance must be prepared within 12 months of the commencement of the Act. It will also detail the steps the public can take to begin the process of having a local deficiency assessed.

Following commencement of the legislation and once the Central Bank has gathered the necessary information, the Central Bank will review how the criteria operate in practice to see if the 10 km maximum distance for ATMs and cash service points, coupled with minimum ATM numbers per hundred thousand and the local deficiencies process, provide sufficient and effective access to cash. The distance can be adjusted in future if, following data collection and review by the Central Bank, doing so would serve a useful purpose.

Accessibility is governed by the European Union (Accessibility Requirements of Products and Services) Regulation 2023, SI 636 of 2023, which transposed the requirements of the European Accessibility Act into Irish law. This includes requirements that the ATM contains features, elements and functions that allow persons with disabilities to access, perceive, operate, understand and control them. SI 636 of 2023 addresses accessibility issues raised by the committee in the pre-legislative scrutiny report. The implementation of this legislation is the responsibility of the Minister for children, disability and equality. Monitoring and compliance of the ATM accessibility requirements will lie with the Central Bank of Ireland. ATMs installed after 28 June 2025 must comply with the regulatory requirements. ATMs in use before that date may continue to be used until the end of their economically useful lives or no longer than 20 years after they entered into use. Accordingly, it is not proposed to accept this amendment.

No other Members are indicating. For the sake of completeness, will Deputy Doherty move-----

I have moved amendment No. 4.

It is section 6 and amendment No. 4. Is the amendment agreed?

Agreed.

Not agreed.

The question is that the amendment be made. Those in favour, say "Tá".

Tá.

Those in favour, say "Níl".

Níl.

The question is carried. I ask Deputy Doherty to move amendment No. 5.

Thank you. Just for clarification, the Ceann Comhairle declared the question carried. So the amendment has been carried?

The amendment is lost, excuse me. The Deputy is correct. The amendment is lost.

I thought it was carried.

Thank you. The amendment is lost.

Are we sure it was lost?

Well, you have not moved amendment No. 5 yet.

You know something, I should not have raised anything at all.

Thank you, Deputy. Will you move amendment No. 5 please?

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 12, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following:

“(7) In the case of any new ATM which enters operation following the commencement of this Act, or any existing ATM in operation whose operating software is updated following commencement of this Act—

(a) the option of a full service of equal quality shall be made available to consumers in at least both official languages, with the Irish language option given no less prominence than any other language option, and

(b) where one language option serves as the default home screen option on an ATM, this default shall be the first official language.”.

There is no further discussion from either side.

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 12, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following:

“Report on the acceptance of cash within the Irish economy and to set out a legislative approach to ensuring the broad obligation to accept cash into the future

7. The Minister shall, in recognition of the interrelationship between access to cash and acceptance of cash will within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann report the acceptance of cash within the Irish economy and to set out a legislative approach to ensuring the broad obligation to accept cash into the future.”.

This amendment would insert a new section into this legislation. It asks the Central Bank of Ireland to collect and publish data on cash infrastructure. It calls for a report on the acceptance of cash and on how we ensure, legally, that the broad acceptance of cash would take effect in our State, or where it is at a point in time. Without legal protection to ensure acceptance of cash, all this Bill will achieve is the managed decline of cash because we see areas where cash is not accepted. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but cash is only good if you can use it. Euro banknotes and coins are legal tender in the euro area, with cash being the only form of Central Bank money to which everyone can have direct access to currently. This means that all other money is created by the creation of debt, the vast majority by the private banking sector or system. We need a digital euro to give us a public form of digital money, but until this happens, we only have cash.

This issue goes from the ground level, where people want the right to use their cash in their local shops or when they go to watch their local football team, all the way to the core of our economic and monetary system. We cannot and should not give up on cash. For many people, cash helps them to track their expenses. It is not required that they be literate or even computer literate to use cash. It ensures their freedom and autonomy. Banknotes and coins are the only form of money people can keep without involving a third party. They do not need access to equipment, access to the Internet or even electricity to pay with cash, which means it can be used even when the power is down or they lose their card.

The EU Commission recommendation from 2010 sought to clarify the definition of legal tender as set out in EU treaties. That recommendation clarified legal tender. It implied mandatory acceptance, but that was never reflected in Irish law or in the State's approach to cash. In June 2023, the European Commission adopted a draft regulation seeking to give force to that recommendation. The European Commission's proposal requires that euro cash acceptance should be mandatory across the euro area.

We should not have to wait for the EU to tell us that this is what we have to do. We can and should take the necessary steps to protect the use of cash. If that is not done, as I said, there is no point having access to cash if where people want to spend that cash, or the businesses or entities in which they want to use it, will not accept it.

I welcome the Bill but also encourage the Minister of State to accept the amendments to it. Being from County Mayo and rural Ireland, and Storm Éowyn was mentioned by Deputy Doherty, I see at first hand the importance of a Bill such this and the Bill having a legal standing for businesses' acceptance of cash. I commend the post offices on the Trojan work they did when they did not have services from Eir and others and still did their very best to provide cash for people.

This is also vitally important for elderly people living in rural Ireland who want to deal with their own cash affairs and in order that they do not have to hand their card, and trust their numbers and access to the whole of their bank balance, to somebody. It is vital they have cash.

Has any audit been done on the impact of changes that banks have forced as regards behaviour in using cash? Has any analysis been done of the impact that has on voluntary and charitable organisations? This Bill is vitally important, especially to rural Ireland.

There is an old saying, "Cash is king." I agree with that. It is very important that cash is facilitated. As a postmaster myself, I fully appreciate what Deputy Conway-Walsh said about the good work the post office network did in making sure people's pensions and unemployment benefit were paid out, even though these were not on the system, so to speak, and manually did it to make sure cash was in circulation.

One thing I always say is the best way to make sure these services are preserved into the future is for people to use them. I often give my own experience as an example. When I was working at the post office in my home village ten or 15 years ago, we made 200 payments on average on Fridays. Now we pay out 40% of that figure. That is not because the population of the village is declining. The simple reality is that people are taking the option to get payments paid into their bank accounts. That is their entitlement; I am not saying it is not. People are moving away from cash. The reason we have this legislation in place is to protect the infrastructure based on the 2022 levels. The fact of the matter is many people are using cash less and less frequently.

With regard to the point about cash acceptance made by Deputy Doherty, the European Commission published a proposal for the regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins in June 2023. The proposal would provide for mandatory acceptance of cash in the euro area, with some exceptions. European Council working party meetings on the proposal are under way and progress is being made towards gaining agreement on a general approach. The proposal included a requirement that member states prepare and submit an annual report on the acceptance of cash.

In October 2024, the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Jack Chambers, launched a national payment strategy at the Central Bank of Ireland's offices and published the national payment strategy on the Department's website. The national payment strategy contains 16 further outcome recommendations in areas such as cash, resilience of payments, payment fraud, account-to-account payments and data collection initiatives. With regard to cash acceptance, the national payments framework recommends cash acceptance or cash facilitation in the public sector where a public body levies fines or fees or provides goods or services for a charge. The national payment strategy proposes that all Government Departments and bodies under their aegis accept a range of electronic and non-electronic payments, including cash. If a body cannot accept cash directly, it must arrange immediately for the facilitation of cash payments through a third party.

In November 2024, the Secretary General of the Department of Finance wrote to all other Secretaries General notifying them of this requirement and that any future contracts to be agreed between Government Departments, and bodies under their aegis, with third parties that involve seeking payment from the public must also include a cash acceptance or facilitation element. Government Departments and bodies under their aegis will be required to confirm, via their annual reports, that they are in compliance with the recommendation, further supporting the need for oversight and review.

Future outcome 3.3 of the national payment strategy sets out that there will be a comprehensive overview of the national cash cycle environment that will inform policy thinking and formation related to cash and payments. Accepting this amendment would therefore represent a duplication of effort.

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 18, to delete lines 23 to 35 and substitute the following:

“(2) The Minister shall, following consultation with the Bank, make regulations to prohibit the charging of an access fee where the withdrawal concerned is from a relevant account.”.

This is a simple amendment. The legislation states that the Minister may, following regulations, prohibit the charging of ATM access fees or a set-up cap of such ATM access fees. Access fees for withdrawing cash from a relevant account should not be allowed. The amendment is in keeping with that view. I ask the Minister of State to outline where access fees are being charged currently and if they are being charged for withdrawals from a relevant account. If access fees are not being charged currently, why would the Minister of State not agree to an amendment ensuring access fees are not charged in the future?

Access fees are a charge, usually a flat-rate fee irrespective of the amount being withdrawn, levied by an ATM operator to use a specific ATM. Most of us pay bank fees and charges to our current account providers. However, customers of Irish banks and payment service providers have not been subject to what are known as domestic access fees or ATM access fees. Access fees have not been charged for domestic withdrawals in Ireland to date due to Visa and Mastercard rules. However, visitors, including those from EU countries, are generally subject to such fees when using non-ATMs. Likewise, Irish account holders often have to pay access fees when using ATMs abroad.

The status quo is dependent on Visa and Mastercard policies. These entities may change their rules to permit such fees in the future. Consequently, the Bill provides the Minister for Finance the power to make regulations to prohibit or cap access fees should they become a barrier to financial inclusion. However, the clear legal advice was the cap or ban must apply to all cards issued in EU countries. Therefore, if the amendment were accepted and access fees banned, revenue from access fees charged to EU visitors by ATM deployers would be lost. This would harm the commercial viability of certain ATMs, particularly those in areas with high tourist traffic, and could lead to their removal in more rural areas where such revenue is necessary for the viability of the ATM in question.

While compliance by the designated entities with the access to cash criteria should mean new ATMs are installed, there is no guarantee they would be at the same location and this would be disruptive for communities. The introduction of an immediate prohibition on access fees would also place an increased burden on designated entities. It is for this reason the current wording of the section allows the Minister for Finance to either cap or ban access fees, as appropriate, rather than compelling such an intervention. It means the Minister for Finance can act in the future if access fees were to be introduced and impair access to cash, affordability and be harmful to financial inclusion.

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 40, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following new section:

“Amendment of section 61G of Act of 1942

48. Section 61G(1) of the Act of 1942 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of “a designated enactment, a designated statutory instrument

or the Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Act 2025 (in so far as

that Act is not a designated enactment)” for “a designated enactment or

designated statutory instrument”, and

(b) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (b):

“(b) in the case of a body corporate—

(i) by leaving the notice or other document at, or

(ii) by sending it by prepaid post to,

the head office, a registered office or a principal office of the body corporate, or”.”.

This amendment concerns the serving of notices as part of the regulatory framework introduced in the Bill. Under the existing section 4 of the Bill, a notice, notification, direction or other document may be served on the recipient in person or in hard copy by delivery. It does not provide for the serving of notices by electronic means. This amendment is required to ensure that notices under the Bill may be served by electronic means to cash-in-transit providers and ATM operators who will fall under the regulatory framework introduced in the Bill.

The proposed amendment addresses this by amending section 61G of the Central Bank Act 1942 to specifically reference the Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Bill once enacted. Naming this Bill in section 61G(1) of the Central Bank Act 1942 adds it to the list of designated enactments and designated statutory instruments to which section 61G of the Central Bank Act 1942 applies. This change will allow notice under this Bill to be served electronically. Service of notices electronically under the 1942 Act is allowed for under SI 177 of 2023. The inclusion of the Bill in section 61G removes the need for a specific section in the Bill on the giving of notices and hence section 4 of the Bill will be deleted.

The Bill will now be sent to the Seanad.

I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding support for householders, businesses and farmers affected by Storm Éowyn. On Tuesday, 1 April, on the question, "That the amendment to the motion be agreed to", a division was claimed and in accordance with Standing Order 85(2), that division must be taken now.

I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding housing emergency measures in the public interest. On Wednesday, 2 April, on the question, "That the amendment to the motion be agreed to", a division was claimed and in accordance with Standing Order 85(2), that division must be taken now.