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608. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of local authorities that are supporting their staff to get an accredited planning qualification; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21745/26]

609. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the full breakdown of expenditure by his Department on St. Patrick’s Day related activities; the details of any travel abroad; the number of officials that travelled; the costs involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21826/26]

612. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of heads of government, heads of state, ministers, governors, mayors or other senior elected officials he and Ministers of State in his Department met for the St. Patrick's Day engagements overseas this year. [21905/26]

613. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of Irish diaspora groups, including but not limited to sporting and cultural organisations, as well as emigrant organisations he and Ministers of State in his Department met for the St. Patrick's Day engagements overseas this year. [21923/26]

614. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of businesses and business representative organisations he and State Ministers of State in his Department met for the St. Patrick's Day engagements overseas this year. [21941/26]

615. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the value of trade and tourism respectively, between Ireland and the states visited by him and by Ministers of State in his Department for the St Patrick's Day engagements overseas this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21959/26]

616. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the position regarding the liability of early years services to commercial rates; and to clarify the changes that have taken place with Tailte Éireann inspections [21977/26]

617. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on the Taskforce on Local Democracy; the expected timeline for the publication of the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22022/26]

618. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a detailed breakdown of the costs relating to the temporary work of the Taskforce on Local Democracy and the associated report submitted on 4 March 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22023/26]

619. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on an implementation plan relating to the Taskforce on Local Democracy; the expected timeline for the publication of the plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22024/26]

620. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps he is taking to ensure more balanced regional development and population growth distribution in the term of this Government;; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22025/26]

621. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a list of all Section 42 (1A) Planning and Development Act extensions that have been applied for and granted with details of each application including, the location, and number of residential units, in tabular form.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22027/26]

622. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 195 of 5 March 2026, to provide a copy of the review of PPP bundles 4 to 7; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22203/26]

623. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 195 of 5 March 2026, to outline the communications to local authorities regarding the transfer of delivery of PPP bundles 4-7 to direct delivery by local authorities; the funding stream that PPP bundles 4-7 will be delivered through; and if he will make a statement on the mat…

624. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of people who are working under the CPO activation programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22205/26]

626. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of the determinations under the defective concrete blocks scheme that were made under the enhanced scheme, and from the previous scheme, for Mayo homeowners, with a breakdown by options 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and any blended options, including the corresponding dates of determination and issuance of grant a…

627. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the criteria or methodology used to prioritise the order in which appeals are processed regarding the defective concrete blocks scheme; and the reason there appears to be significant variation in processing times, such that some appeals submitted six, nine or more months after others, have been determined, while…

628. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps being taken to ensure consistency, transparency and fairness in the processing of appeals; and whether his Department intends to publish processing timelines or a standard framework for appeals to provide homeowners with clarity on expected waiting periods; and if he will make a statement on the matter…

629. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his attention has been drawn to cases where homeowners are excluded from the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme due to the absence of a certificate of completion prior to 2021, despite the fact that construction of the dwelling was halted due the discovery of defective concrete, rather than any a…

630. Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline whether any legislative amendments or administrative measures are currently being considered to address situations where homeowners are effectively excluded from the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme due to technical compliance issues, despite clear evidence that works ceased due to defe…

631. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the Government is considering permitting modular homes on privately owned land to be used as rental accommodation. [22233/26]

632. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will raise the ceiling cap from the present figure of €425,000 in Limerick for the first home scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22243/26]

633. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an updated timeline for the delivery of PPP Bundles 4-7; if the new completion dates differ from the original dates; the difference between the original and new completion dates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22267/26]

634. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm if any funding allocated to the delivery of PPP Bundles 4-7 has been spent before the change to delivery model to Local Authority direct delivery; if so, the amount which has been spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22268/26]

635. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to report on the extent of detrimental impacts on bird habitats from ongoing water pollution at Lady’s Island Lake SAC; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22280/26]

Last week Exchange House Ireland, the national Traveller service, presented to the joint Oireachtas committee on issues affecting the Travelling community, particularly regarding health issues. It spoke about the complexity of issues which determine the poor health outcomes for members of the Travelling community. I acknowledge there is complexity in resolving those issues but immediate improvemen…

I did not. This pejorative language, this attempt to label people, is a problem in the House. The left will condemn the far right and so on but it is not even prepared to allow people to have a discussion in the House on these issues. I think what they are doing is counterproductive, that is all I would say. I think it is counterproductive to shut down debate. I believe debate should be informed a…

This Government has had every warning and every opportunity to act yet it continues to ignore the depth of poverty and social exclusion growing across communities and the State. The measures in this Bill fall far short of what is needed. After years of record surpluses and headline promises, families are still being left behind and are struggling with food, energy, housing and transport costs whil…

They start here and finish there and go nowhere. We can have cycling and walking lanes and we cannot have money to improve low-cost accident schemes and very important life-saving measures. They showed me a cantilevered part of that greenway today. It was in the Minister's own county, I think. I could be wrong. It may be Galway. They were putting in this massive cantilevered walkway costing billio…

We are having that impact. We are also looking at a pay-related approach in a number of other areas. The increases in PRSI that are contained in the PRSI roadmap are to address the future sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund, as well as pay-related benefit schemes. I remind the House that we are paying up to €450 per week to recipients under this scheme, which is €200 more than jobseekers'…

I am delighted to be able to speak on this motion on the costs of motoring. There is a fair dollop of hypocrisy in it when we talk about carbon tax because there were only a handful of us who opposed it when it was introduced here in a sneaky way that involved ten years of annual increases without ever coming back before the House. Sinn Féin and others wanted higher carbon taxes. That can never be…

I need not put on the record of the House how important childminders are to the childcare sector in this country. It has been the subject of many conversations we have had here. The Minister is right to say there are concerns among childminders right across the country as to what this new regulation will mean for them. Many of them are minding two or three children in their own homes and have done…

I thank the Deputy for raising these matters. As we said previously, they are matters that are of enormous concern to all of us in this House and, indeed, right across government and I would say right across society. I want to say sincerely that I am deeply saddened by the very tragic cases that have come to light, and I extend my own sympathy and thoughts and those of the Government to the famili…

87. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the engagement she and her officials have had in 2025 with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage with respect to changing or improving planning rules to ensure delivery of childcare facilities in housing developments; the progress she can report on this; and if she will make a statement on the ma…

One of the most infuriating experiences parents desperate to get a childcare place for their kid have is to be told the building designated as a creche on the plans they bought their new home from actually is not going to be a creche. They are told it has been too expensive to fit out, it is because the developer wants to rezone it as a house and sell it as such or, most infuriatingly of all, the…

I agree with my colleague on the provision of childcare places and crèches, specifically the right type of building. I have areas in my constituency where massive private housing estates are being built and the childcare centres are not and have not been built at all. I have queried them with Cork City Council regarding one estate in Glanmire where 500 houses are being built with no parks, no play…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 4 together. The committee did a very good job. The timeline for pre-legislative scrutiny is set down by the Standing Orders of this House, to the best of my knowledge. The committee kept to those timelines and produced a comprehensive report, and I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire and all members of the committee for their work on that. As the Deputy rightly recall…

No, but I have a mandate to bring forward legislative proposals. I have a mandate to table draft laws, as do the Deputies opposite. I have a mandate to debate and discuss those laws, and my mandate is perfectly valid, as is the mandate of every Member of this House. The Deputies cannot pick and choose which mandates they like. We tend not to talk about the President in this House. I will not do so…

Yes, we do. I take the point on the value for money or good value for the taxpayer. I will update the House once we get to the point where we place contracts and the like. Obviously, securing value for money is important. The only priority above that is securing this. That is why I think wise decisions were taken in years before my occupation of this office to put in place structures where we coul…

I thank Deputy Heneghan for continually raising this matter since his election to the House. My colleague the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has the lead role for cyber security and the Department receives inputs in the security domain from An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. The National Cyber Security Centre, which, as is appropriate, is now part of that Department, is th…

I thank the Tánaiste for his kind words. Back to the same point, I am delighted to hear about the investments going into protecting our offshore infrastructure. However, in relation to the benefits of private wires not only will it help the investments the Government will be making but it will allow critical infrastructure, businesses and communities, to generate and use power locally. By creating…

I agree entirely with the policy principle and I will work with the Deputy and everyone in this House to fix it. I am very clear on that. To flag some information that may be of use to the House, we probably will need to change legislation but we are legislators and there is no reason we cannot do that. At the moment, chaplains are free to join almost any union or representative association of the…

Regarding the shadow fleet, I also remain concerned, as do European and international counterparts. As we continue to sanction Russia to get it to end its brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine, these sanctions need to capture the activities of the shadow fleet. What I would say, and say to those outside this House too, without commenting on important national security issues, is that we are obvi…

That is encouraging. There are many big decisions coming up that the report could inform. It is there to inform future climate action plans, some of which we have been looking at and reviewing recently at the climate committee. It strikes me it is also relevant to the nitrates derogation negotiations. It seems, based on leaks from the report, that there is talk of intensification of dairy farming …

I acknowledge that the Deputy is not opposed to renewable energy. I note the recent High Court rulings related to private nuisance claims and related awards of damages connected with noise from particular wind farm developments. We currently have over 5 GW of onshore wind generation and in 2024, wind accounted for 33% our electricity demand. This is related to the previous question on pricing whi…

I did a fair bit of it in your own constituency. It was good to be in Donegal. The Deputy persists in trying to misrepresent the budget. Week in week out, he comes in here and says that €9.4 billion more is being spent etc. and then he tries to pivot to suggest it is all being spent in a certain direction. He ignores the fact and does not tell people at home that the bulk of that money went to inc…

No. The people you like to describe as elites and everything else are the people we rely on to build homes in this country. The measures we have taken are making a real difference. I do not think when you, Eoin Ó Broin and others meet these lads, you use the same sort of language towards them as you use in this Dáil. The lobbying register shows you are meeting most of them. I do not think when you…

We do need to look at the facts, and the Tánaiste knows them well. The Government published a report this week saying that to meet housing demand alone, we need at least 50,000 additional construction workers. The Tánaiste also knows the facts about our ageing population. Again, the report pointed to the situation that we will soon have a reduction in the numbers in our workforce who will be able …

I thank Deputy Ward for raising this matter. Before I address the specific issues he raised, I want to say the Government is acting in good faith on the complex issue of defective concrete blocks. However, this is nothing compared with the stress and trauma being experienced by people in the Deputy's county and others. I have visited them. Over the summer months, I met some of the people and sat w…

I will speak directly to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill on this matter. We have made good progress on cancer care and cancer treatment in recent years in this country and it is important we build on that. We have a national cancer strategy. We are increasing our capital investment in health as well. I will try to understand the rationale around those timelines and whether there is anything …