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393. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 372 of 26 February 2026, if he will confirm that Lough Corrib is listed under SI 293/1988 (details supplied) as salmonid waters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17923/26]

395. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 620 of 27 January 2026 and Parliamentary Question No. 200 of 18 February 2026 if a qualifying interest SAC species is declining and failing to meet its detailed site-specific conservation objectives, if he will consider that an appropriate threshold point to draw up an SA…

396. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will review the CAS scheme to allow it to be used for the purchase of second-hand properties for the disability sector which could then be retrofitted to suit the needs of the sector; if he will consider increasing the financial threshold so it would meet the cost of the adaptations required to meet fi…

400. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department plans to engage staff from the private sector who work in accountancy and corporate law firms to work in his Department during the course of the upcoming EU Presidency term; the terms under which such staff will be engaged; the number of staff his Department plans to hire; the measures planned to g…

403. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the status of the retrospective defective concrete blocks scheme; the timeline for full sign off, assurances that once signed off, funding will be made available without delay; to ensure commitment that the team are resourced and ready to process payments the moment approval is in place; and if he will make a st…

404. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the overall cost of the payment and availabilities agreements with AHBs in each of the past five years; and the number of homes these have covered respectively, in tabular form. [18152/26]

405. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the overall average cost of a payment and availability agreement with AHBs over the 30-year contract. [18154/26]

406. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm whether the Department operates any formal or published criteria for the designation of city status; if not, to outline the objective benchmarks used in advising Government on such matters; and if he will publish the basis upon which existing cities were designated. [18202/26]

407. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the current population of each designated city in the State at the time of its most recent legislative confirmation; to specify the population threshold, if any, that would trigger consideration of city status for another urban area. [18203/26]

408. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to clarify whether the Government has considered the designation of Dundalk as a city in the context of its strategic role within the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor; and whether any cross-departmental discussions have taken place on this matter. [18204/26]

409. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the Department has examined the establishment of a Dundalk metropolitan district with enhanced urban governance powers; the legislative steps that would be required; and to confirm whether this has been considered as a precursor to city designation. [18205/26]

410. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a comparative analysis of Dundalk and the five designated cities in terms of population size, economic output, higher education provision and regional strategic role; and to indicate in which areas Dundalk falls short of city designation criteria, if any such criteria exist. [18206/26]

411. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the Government has any intention within the lifetime of the current National Planning Framework to designate additional cities; and if not, to state the policy rationale for maintaining the current structure. [18207/26]

412. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline whether a boundary review of Dundalk has been considered in light of sustained population growth; to state the mechanism by which such a review could be initiated; and whether the Minister will commit to examining this matter. [18208/26]

610. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht to introduce housing incentives for Irish language speakers to live in Gaeltacht regions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18109/26]

74. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Transport whether his Department has established specific recruitment criteria, qualification requirements, or technical training programmes for staff in its Aviation Division who are responsible for oversight of organisations (details supplied); if so, to provide details of same; if not, the reason no such standards have been established given the…

94. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department has assessed the impact of the deemed disposal regime on the concentration of Irish household wealth in residential property relative to diversified investment assets; whether the regime has been considered in the context of any government policy document addressing wealth concentration in property, housing a…

95. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether he accepts that the deemed disposal regime, by making long-term diversified investment in EU-regulated fund products uniquely punitive relative to property investment, actively disincentivises the exact savings and investment behaviour that government policy in areas including housing, pension adequacy, and financial resili…

169. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on plans to amend planning exemptions for modular homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17243/26]

170. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he expects to announce the Historic Structures Fund; and if he will consider the applications made by Clare Tourism Development (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17248/26]

171. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of community and voluntary organisations currently in receipt of core funding under the REGEN programme; to provide a breakdown of those organisations by county; the total annual amount of REGEN core funding allocated to community and voluntary organisations; the arrangements in place to ensure contin…

172. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if regeneration funding will no longer be made available to local authorities to support organisations such a co-op (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17351/26]

173. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to review a case (details supplied); if he will provide an update on the working group; the stage at which their works are at; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17386/26]

174. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to consider the introduction of a stage payment plan option for the vacant property refurbishment grant; and to assist individuals who are unable to meet the full cost upfront. [17458/26]

177. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when Part 4 of the planning and development act 2024 will be commenced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17708/26]

What is important for us is actually making progress on endometriosis and there is some progress taking place. The first major difference we have, and this does not account for the many years of underinvestment in and under-recognition of women's health, is that we have a dedicated women and infants health programme. That has made some difference to how maternity services are conceived. We have mo…

The Minister's response is not good enough. It is as plain and simple as that. She should hear the stories of all the women in the Gallery. I am proud of my party colleagues, particularly Senator McCormack and my party president, Deputy McDonald, for bringing this motion before the House. It would never be brought to the House by the Government. Since the beginning of the Sinn Féin campaign to ac…

I welcome the motion brought forward by Sinn Féin. I also welcome the visitors in the Public Gallery. Aontú has done quite a lot of work on this issue. It is really important that the lived experiences of so many women across Ireland are brought to the floor of the Dáil and put in front of the Minister. The fact is endometriosis is not a minority condition. It affects one in ten women. There are m…

In light of the urgent issues in housing supply, IBEC recently proposed that the Government address apartment construction viability directly by reducing VAT on new-build apartments by 5% and discontinuing development levies on such projects. Its analysis suggests these actions would reduce direct State-imposed costs at a cost of about €86 million, which is less than the shortfall between VAT rece…

The Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage has completed its consideration of the following Revised Estimates for Public Services for the service of the year ending 31 December 2025: Votes 16, 23 and 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Select Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs has completed its consideration of the following Revised Estimate for Public Se…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, for coming into the House at this late hour to deal with this issue. I very much appreciate it. As the Minister of State knows, this is an extremely important issue. It is to ask the Department of Health whether it intends to put in place a national nursing home care policy following on from the recent publication of the new ESRI report, which proje…

As Chair of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, I met the ambassador recently. I am a little concerned that so much time in the House is spent on Gaza, which I understand, particularly as Chair of the committee, is justified, that Ukraine has slipped down the agenda and we need to keep it up. The continued acceleration of attacks by Russia poses a significant threat to the European U…

I deplore antisemitism, as does everybody in this House. We should speak with one voice in condemning antisemitism in all its forms. It needs to be called out and we all need to do more, as countries, as the European Union and as a global community, to stamp out antisemitism. That is beyond doubt. Separate and distinct from what I just said, we will continue, as a country, to speak up for our val…

I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Shea, for raising this question. I am pleased to say the passport service is delivering passports to our citizens within advertised turnaround times and, in many cases, well before their due date. More than 580,000 passports have been issued this year to date. The public offices in Dublin and Cork operate an urgent appointment service for renewal applications. The D…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 16, 23, 46, 48, 55 and 73 together. I thank Deputies Ward and Ó Murchú. As the House is aware, as far back as 14 February 2024, the then Taoiseach and the Prime Minister of Spain wrote to the President of the European Commission, requesting an urgent review of whether Israel was compliant with its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel association agreement.…

I thank the Deputy. If we look at the example and model we have here in SICAP, which is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention, it supports communities. I am well aware of Cleveland and Preston. I am not aware of the Ayrshire model and would be happy to discuss that further. I have looked at Cleveland’s model in particular. To give the House an example, €48.9 million in funding was i…

Absolutely, I agree. The cost base of every business is of concern to the Government. With regard to the small rural regionally based builders, we made it very clear that they need to be given support from the banking system to allow them to make the kinds of developments in rural areas the Deputy has spoken about and that we all want to see. The Minister, Deputy Browne, will be writing to every …

Yesterday, Uisce Éireann announced that areas in 12 counties, from Donegal to Wexford, are officially suffering a water drought. This is at a time when we have seen tragic flash floods in Texas, wildfires outside Marseilles and an extended heatwave in many countries across Europe that is about to hit Ireland. Before I came in here, I got an alert on my phone from Met Éireann that it has issued a h…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht an eolais sin. I acknowledge, as the Minister has outlined, that these regulations will not in any way limit the rights of citizens. They will, in fact, place greater obligations on related offices in terms of the circumstances in which they may limit the right of citizens to information. The limitations the regulations place on organs of the State to limit c…

I thank Deputies Carthy and Gannon for their contributions. Deputy Carthy was correct in stating that these regulations are not seeking in any way to restrict the rights of a data subject. In fact, they are seeking to add protection to the rights of a data subject by ensuring that the three agencies that are the subject matter of the regulations act only where necessary and in a proportionate way …

I am going to read out some statistics from last year. There were over 45,000 reports of domestic abuse to Women's Aid, over 22,000 contacts to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, over 49,000 domestic abuse incidents recorded by gardaí and over 65,000 domestic abuse calls recorded by gardaí. Behind every single one of these statistics is a person and they are mainly women, like the women who are here i…

I am conscious we are discussing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence on the day we learned George Gibney will be extradited from Florida to Ireland to face 79 charges of sexual offences against children. Gibney was a high-profile Irish Olympic swimming team coach in the eighties and nineties who abused his position of power and trust. He was previously charged with, but not tried for, numer…

I welcome the Minister today. It is great to have an opportunity to speak on this matter. I stand in full solidarity with every single woman, survivor and child who has been torn apart and asunder, often physically and emotionally, by domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. Every single day of the week, we are confronted by harrowing stories, brutal killings, names of women we read in the newsp…

Today, I speak not only as a TD for Roscommon-Galway but as a GP with over three decades of experience. In that time, I have witnessed the hidden trauma of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I recognise what Deputy Connolly has said that in some way, the term domestic has minimised what in fact is assault within the home. "Domestics" were sometimes minimised because it was simply "a domes…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for public expenditure and reform, Jack Chambers TD. The community and voluntary sector plays a vital role in delivering public services across Ireland. Various organisations in the community and voluntary sector are contracted to provide services on behalf of the State and are provided …

I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 1: After "compare prices and make informed choices" to insert: "calls on the Government to: — commit to passing the Competition and Consumer Protection (Unfair Prices) Bill 2023; and — instead of using over €700 million to cut the rate of Value Added Tax on hospitality in Budget 2026, to use these hundreds of millions to reduce child poverty with a targe…

I am responding on the motion on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon. I thank the members of the Social Democrats for their contributions this morning and thank all Members of the House for their varied and interesting comments. I begin by reiterating that the Government fully acknowledges the concerns raised in this Private Members' motion regarding the rising cost of groceries and th…

I have just said it to the Deputy. It will be laid before the House but there will be no accompanying motion to the House to approve. However, this is something that the Oireachtas in its entirety has to reflect on. There will be implications in that decision for the Personal Injuries Assessment Board because essentially now we have a vacuum here in terms of personal injury awards. There is a legi…

Rachaidh mé tríd na hábhair faoi mar a bhí siad i ráiteas an Taoisigh. In the first instance, I will say again that we abhor the Russian Federation's criminal invasion of Ukraine. It is a war of aggression that has caused untold human suffering. It is very clear from the events of recent weeks that Vladmir Putin has no interest in peace and that he is using opportunities of discussion to stall and…

The first thing I want to do is wish Kerry and Meath the best of luck next weekend. I thank all the Deputies for their contributions during this afternoon's debate and also last week's debate. They can see from my record and my opening statement that there is a continued commitment in investment in public transport with the significant progress that has been made over the last few years in our rai…