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1802. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider integrating septic tank grants into existing home upgrade grant frameworks such as the SEAI's grant system to reduce administrative duplication for households; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26518/26]

1804. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total funding allocated in 2026 to youth specific homelessness services, including family mediation supports and other targeted interventions, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26532/26]

1805. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has carried out a needs assessment to determine the level of long term resourcing required to address increasing youth homelessness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26533/26]

1806. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will commit to a successor youth homelessness strategy given that the previous youth homelessness strategy 2023-2025 has now ceased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26534/26]

1807. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social homes that have been delivered in the Athenry-Oranmore local electoral area since 2020; the number that are new builds; the number that are acquisitions; the number that are leased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26712/26]

1808. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social homes that have been delivered in the North Conamara local electoral area since 2020; the number that are new builds; the number that are acquisitions; the number that are leased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26713/26]

1809. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social homes that have been delivered in the South Conamara local electoral area since 2020; the number that are new builds; the number that are acquisitions; the number that are leased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26714/26]

1810. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department or NPWS is engaged with Coillte with a view to acquiring land owned by Coillte to aid conservation efforts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26747/26]

1811. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline any plans to streamline the process for homeowners living in architectural conservation areas to install rooftop solar panels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26837/26]

1814. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide the web link to his Department’s Q1 2026 published report of purchase orders-payments over €20,000, in line with the FOI model publication scheme requirements; to confirm the date on which this report was published; and, if it has not yet been published, to state the planned publication date. [26912/…

1815. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the industrial relations dispute within Tailte Éireann concerning the non-implementation of a pay agreement which was agreed between Forsa, Tailte Éireann and Government Departments following the merging of Ordnance Survey Ireland into Tailte Éireann; the actions he is undertaking to ensure this pay…

1817. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of inspections of rented accommodation that have taken place in Dublin City council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council and Dun Laoghaire and Rathdown County Council for each of the years 2020 to 2025. [26986/26]

1818. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when the HSF funding applications will be announced for County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27030/26]

1820. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an estimate of the total volume of data currently stored by or on behalf of the State by his Department in data centres in Ireland, data centres outside of Ireland but within the European Union, data centres outside of the European Union and data storage facilities within his own Department; and if …

1821. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the current system of proactive market surveillance of concrete construction products, being undertaken by the State; to detail the types of testing now required to ensure such products are fit-for-purpose prior to being placed on the market and used in construction; and if he will make a statement on the matte…

1822. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a breakdown, by county of the number of proactive market surveillance inspections carried out in relation to construction products, for the years 2024 and 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27121/26]

1823. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide the number of inspections conducted which included testing of aggregates as part of the inspection process for each of the years 2024 and 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27122/26]

1824. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide details of the type and number of corrective actions issued to economic operators arising from inspections; and the number of economic operators that were temporarily or permanently closed due to non-compliance with relevant regulations for the years 2024 and 2025; and if he will make a statement on …

1825. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm if the Building Standards Agency (BSA), as recommended in the June 2024 report (details supplied) has been established; if so, to provide details of its current operational status; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27124/26]

1826. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the current staffing levels of the Building Standards Agency; to detail any plans to increase staffing to align with the estimated requirement of approximately 500 personnel, as recommended in the June 2024 report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27125/26]

1827. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the drafting and progression of primary legislation required to establish the proposed Building Standards Regulatory Authority (BRSA); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27126/26]

1828. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the plans for the compensation scheme for Moanveanlagh Bog in north Kerry (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27127/26]

1829. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to appoint additional staff to Tailte Éireann to allow folios-registrations be dealt with in a timely manner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27195/26]

1830. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the national policy framework governing the granting of planning permission in areas where wastewater treatment infrastructure is at or beyond capacity; and whether his Department has issued guidance to planning authorities to prevent additional loading in such circumstances. [27210/26]

1831. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the formal mechanisms in place to ensure co-ordination between planning authorities, wastewater service providers, and environmental regulators where infrastructure constraints pose a risk to environmental compliance. [27215/26]

It is just an observation. I will start with Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, who made a very good point. Hopefully, with this national development plan and the allocation of ten years, we will avoid this stop-start where we get a project from A to B but C is not provided for at all. We had that over the last two decades, I suppose. I recall how the Cork-Limerick road had planning in an earlier era and t…

I welcome this opportunity to discuss online safety. It is long overdue. It is a topic of interest to all of us in this Chamber, every parent in the country, every teacher, adult, teen and child. I ask that the Government work in a collaborative manner on this issue. It is too important for partisan politics. The opinions and input from all in the Opposition must be given due regard. The Committee…

I thank the Minister for being here today to discuss this important topic on the floor of the Dáil. Right now, young people in this country and across Europe and the world who have access to technology are being failed. Lives and mental health are being damaged as a result of online bullying and harassment. Some of us are aware of horrendous cases where lives have been lost. We have a responsibili…

I am a dad of three boys, aged six, four and one. Nothing terrifies me more than the virtual world they will go into. I am a few years ahead of Deputy Dolan but I also remember my phone not having the capability that phones have now. More important, when we in this House were growing up, we grew and acquired a phone. Our children today are growing up with phones as if they were part of their body.…

I again thank the House for facilitating the motion and thank all the TDs who contributed. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, this proposal will enhance the ability of member and partner states to tackle crime more effectively in a rapidly evolving political, social and technological landscape. That was very clearly also mentioned by the last speaker. The third additional protocol, though itsel…

I have already put some of this on the record, so I will not delay proceedings. We are dealing with film, which is an important industry in Ireland and we need to treat it as such. What we have done over the years, despite criticism, is to create, or recreate, a film industry that we hope will stand the test of time. In doing so, we have forgone a lot of tax revenue, which is what tax relief is. W…

I also welcome the young people from the Finglas Youth Service in my constituency who are visiting tonight. It is wonderful to have them in and it is interesting because it makes me reflect on this. I have looked at it and I am concerned, as others have expressed, by its rushed nature and the fact that we have not been given the time to go through it in detail. It connects with young people coming…

If am not allowed to talk about building control, there are building control elements all over this. Okay, I will move on. The transitional provisions in section 32 transitional provisions are welcome because they ensure that previous applications are not invalidated, but they do not address the systemic delays. Part 3, which amends the Building Control Act 1990, links defective concrete remediati…

I am speaking on behalf of the families whose lives have been shattered by defective concrete blocks. Homes across the country are crumbling, walls are splitting, ceilings are collapsing and mould is creeping into children's bedrooms. These are not statistics; they are real people living in fear and paying mortgages on houses that may not stand in six or seven years. The current redress scheme is …

I move amendment No. 3: In page 5, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: “(3) The Building Control Acts 1990 to 2020 and Part 3 may be cited together as the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2025.”. Amendment No. 3 is a standard provision to allow for the collective citation of the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2025. It refers to Part 3, which is the Part being inserted into the Bill b…

The amendments we are dealing with in this legislation - the amendments tabled by the Sinn Féin Deputies - go to the very core of the issue. If accepted by the Minister, they would probably satisfy the vast majority of people in my constituency regarding the challenges they have. Of course, there are other issues, including those related to the administration of the scheme and the criteria, but a …

The human cost of this whole crisis is absolutely incredible. I visited Donegal many times with my good friend Mary T. Sweeney in relation to this particular crisis. I visited many families in many homes who have shown me chimney stacks falling down and massive gaps in the walls of their houses. We have the incredible situation of children sleeping in rooms on windy, stormy nights in fear that the…

I was not reading from a script. Deputy Doherty mentioned, in the example he provided, that perhaps a policy instruction came from the Department of justice and that the Department of Finance legislated for it. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is legislating in this instance, and there may be policy discussions. Quite often in the context of housing policies we suggest taxa…

It is not at all clear to me what this amendment will do because this is something that I have dealt with in my constituency with one of my constituents whose property is a semi-detached house and the house next door does not meet the damage threshold. I do not even know how the Minister will realistically get builders to do this work. It is incredibly complex. It involves essentially splitting so…

My question is kind of the same as the first time. The Minister of State said this provides greater flexibility and it will effectively allow for the bypassing of that damage threshold. Will the Minister of State try to give us an explanation of how that is going to work? Having read this amendment four or five times, I am not clear. Is the Minister of State saying that if there are two homes side…

On a serious note, in fairness, Deputy Ward has lived through this and understands. I certainly do not intend to get into the minutiae and discuss various cases. A plethora of potential situations have been raised by Deputies, but the simple way to explain things is that the amendment attempts to address what we were told was rigidity in the scheme. We were told the old scheme was restrictive when…

I will address amendments Nos. 22 and 46, tabled by Deputy Charles Ward. Amendment No. 22 proposes that a designated local authority should allow 30 days for an applicant to reply to a request for further information from the designated local authority relating to an application for an increase in the remediation option grant. It then requires a designated local authority to issue a reminder after…

The time permitted for this debate having expired, I am required to put the following question in accordance with an Order of the Dáil of 9 December 2025: "That the amendments set down by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and not disposed of are hereby made to the Bill; in respect of each of the sections undisposed of, the section or, as appropriate, the section as ameded, is…

-----and with more social and affordable homes built right across our country. I want to do that by managing the economy in a way that ensures they have a future here into the long term, something the Deputy just takes for granted every time he gets up and down when it comes to finance issues. My message is absolutely clear. We want them to build a future here and our commitment is there in the na…

As has been mentioned already, as we speak there are people with disabilities protesting outside the gates of Leinster House because they are struggling with the cost of living. The hard reality is that in the budget the Government took away the supports that these individuals were relying on. People with disabilities are up to €1,400 worse off. The Government stripped away the vital supports they…

The vacant home refurbishment grant has been a hugely successful lever for dealing with the scourge of vacancy and dereliction as there have been over 15,000 applications. However, it was reported during the week that there is a proposal to cap the grant at €650,000, which would have a hugely disproportionate impact on Dublin where close to one in four properties currently would not be eligible to…

The Deputy has not referenced the housing plan, which is to sufficiently ramp up the provision of social and affordable homes to ensure we ramp up overall housing supply. The Deputy is misrepresenting the facts on this. It was something produced by SpunOut. It is not something-----

I am pleased to speak in support of the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025. I thank the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and her officials for bring it forward. It has long been debated in this House. This Bill is a direct and careful response to the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Costello case, which held that, legislative change would be necessary before the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agree…

We are asked to vote to amend the Arbitration Act to ratify the investors court part of CETA. I am asking the TDs to stand with the people and with the Dáil's ability to make laws for Ireland and to vote against amending the Arbitration Act. We already have Irish and EU laws that protect companies and investors, and if these laws are good enough for the rest of us, including Irish businesses, it s…

One of the most shameful legacies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government has been the services denied to children with disabilities throughout the State. We are back here tonight with what in many respects is a unique motion before the House. It is unique in a number of ways. It is unique in that it is signed by the entire Opposition. Every party of Opposition has joined in this call on the Go…