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49. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Taoiseach in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill in either Hous…

62. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was…

92. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the…

109. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used o…

141. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Transport in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill …

142. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Transport in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill …

199. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Finance in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill in…

216. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative St…

240. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotin…

282. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Education in respect of each Bill for which her Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill …

328. Deputy Tom Brabazon asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if funding will be made available annually to the Department of Rural, Community Development and the Gaeltacht to operate the Gaeltacht housing grants scheme again, pursuant to the Houses (Gaeltacht) (Amendment) Act 2001, to provide support for Irish speakers who would like to build or renovate a hou…

336. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill…

406. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Social Protection in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on t…

435. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Justice in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill in…

481. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotin…

535. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in respect of each Bill for which her Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the B…

624. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Health in respect of each Bill for which her Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill in …

719. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage…

734. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine…

133. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the engagement his Department has had with officials in Údarás na Gaeltachta, Waterford City and County Council, and Rannóg Gaeltachta of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media regarding the development of affordable housing in Gaeltacht na nDéise, given the pressing need fo…

569. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to abolish the means testing for the housing adaptation grant for disabled persons, the mobility aids grant, and the housing aid for older persons' grant; if he will ensure that all adaptations, appliances, new improvement works, and so on, are affordable to all persons with a disability in the State; and if h…

590. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of new homes granted planning permission in Dublin city in each of the years 2020-2024 inclusive, by local electoral area and type of dwelling (whether apartments or houses), in tabular form; the number of these homes that will be affordable-purchase homes, as well as the number that will be allocated …

591. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of new home completions in Dublin city in each of the years 2020-2024 inclusive, by local electoral area and type of dwelling (whether apartments or houses), in tabular form; the number of these homes that are affordable-purchase homes, as well as the number that are allocated for social housing; how m…

598. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he is aware of the proliferation of log cabin/wooden residential structures for on sites, in back yards and gardens throughout the country arising from the housing crisis demand; if he will introduce whatever legislation is necessary to provide a reprieve for these dwellings and their occupiers from a req…

722. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide additional funding for affordable and social housing in County Kerry; if he will introduce a scheme of low-cost sites in all towns across the county such as Killarney, Killorglin, Cahersiveen, Castleisland, Tralee, Dingle, Listowel and Kenmare as such a scheme will help address the housing crisis; a…

The Minister has received about €100 million in additional money specifically to deal with the issues affecting families in emergency accommodation who require housing that the Deputy has referenced. The Minister is working on that. To respond to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, yes, there is a delay. I am pursuing that with the Minister of State responsible for post offices, the Minister for Transport a…

The housing completion figures announced earlier show that we are thousands of homes short of the target the Tánaiste set. The number of homes is almost 5,000 short of the 41,000 that he promised to deliver. Of course, the Government is trying to run away from that target now. The housing Minister has decided that annual targets are a distraction. A distraction from what? This is the number of new…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following: Dáil Éireann resolves that the Regulation of Drones Bill 2025 be read a second time on this day 12 months, to allow for the actions set out in the National Policy Framework for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and agreed by Government to be progressed and to allow for a full examination of the legal and policy implic…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — disabled people in Ireland are among the most socially excluded and disadvantaged in the State, with some of the highest poverty, deprivation, and unemployment rates in Ireland; — one in five disabled people live in consistent poverty, nearly four times the national average, while nearly 40 per cent live in enforced deprivation; — in the context of esc…

Like my other colleagues around the House and from the Government benches as well, I want to congratulate Deputy Ward on this Bill, which is well put together. I accept, as the Minister said, that a little bit of tweaking here and there and a little bit of change to X, Y and Z needs to be done. That could be achieved by leaving this Bill go forward to Committee Stage. I cannot help but think there…

Over the negotiation of our capital plan, the Government took a view that we have clear priorities. Critically, we know that if everything in an economy is a priority, nothing is a priority. In the €19.1 billion that we are going to spend this year, there are four clear priorities. Housing is number one, along with the enablers of housing in water, wastewater, energy costs and transportation, whic…

I thank my staff, especially my PA, who have done a tremendous amount of work on this legislation. I also thank the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, which has assisted me in bringing in this legislation. The Minister might criticise it but it is right and has gone through the whole process. As a back bench TD, I am limited in the legislation I can bring forward. I would love to go muc…

As we close out the year, I thank those who keep the Houses running every day, including the ushers, administrative, catering and maintenance staff, and I express solidarity with the Oireachtas broadcast staff in particular. We appreciate all of their great professionalism and patience. I want to end the year by raising an issue I have raised throughout 2025, which is housing – the civil rights i…

The Minister has inherited responsibility for dealing with this deep scandal and crisis. Even if he does not accept our amendments, I ask him to please listen and reflect on everything we will tell him because they are absolute facts from the ground. I can speak with authority about Donegal and other colleagues can speak about their counties. I know for a fact that some of the Minister's colleagu…

I move amendment No. 8: In page 5, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: “Report on supportive measures for rental property activation in areas impacted by defective concrete blocks 2.The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on supportive tax measures for rental property activation in areas impacted by defective con…

I move amendment No. 20: In page 7, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following: “Damage threshold for attached dwellings 7. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 15: “15A.(1) Where a determination is made under section 15(1)(b) that a relevant dwelling does not meet the damage threshold, the relevant owner may make a notification under subsect…

This is one of the amendments that was announced after we finally got our hands on the legislation. There was the heads of Bill as presented to the committee on housing and then there were these amendments that were added on. Here is the problem. We have a scheme that tells people they should knock down half of a semi-detached block. We have a scheme that tells you that you should pick out a terra…

I thank the Deputy. First of all, I will state the facts around what we are doing to invest in housing throughout our country. On the capital side, approximately €7.2 billion is being provided in the recently-published national development plan for 2025 with an additional €4 billion around current expenditure. That is more than €11 billion of State investment for the provision of housing, supporti…

Coming from the committees, it is hard. Deputy Quaide has outlined our many concerns in relation to CETA. Today, my inbox has been flooded with messages from constituents encouraging me to vote against amending the Arbitration Act. As pointed out, there is no EU deadline that requires this Government to ratify the Act. The Government is jumping the gun and no one is asking it to do so. It is anoth…

This latest housing plan is not worth the paper it is written on. Like all other failed plans from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, this will only make the housing crisis worse. It will only make people's lives harder. It will lead to more misery for anyone trying to put a roof over their head so that a small few can make bigger profits. Smaller, darker, more expensive homes; that is this Government's p…

I spoke before on this. I hope this solves the housing thing, that is being honest. I do welcome the likes of the modular on it and different steps where we are going to go designing the same type of house and all of those things. These are things that should be have been done years ago but I welcome them. I cannot see a lot on rural housing. I believe that family members should be allowed build h…

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft: Planning and Development Act 2024 (Modification) Regulations 2025, a copy of which has been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 18th November, 2025. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the draft regulations and set out the rationale and reasoning behind their development. First, I wish to take this opportunity to pro…

I welcome this Bill. It will deliver some much-needed changes to the original legislation. It is unfortunate it has taken a year to get to this point. That is longer than it should have taken. I worked hard at Cabinet on securing the decision in October 2024 that whenever the new rates came in, they would be applied retrospectively. It has taken 12 months for that to come to the Dáil in this legis…

Yesterday, we had the publication of the National Development Plan Review 2025 - Securing Ireland’s Future Sectoral Investment Plan: Transport. A number of bypasses are needed in County Laois but it looks like the whole county was bypassed for funding. The Tánaiste was down there this week last year, exactly 52 weeks ago, canvassing for the general election. Huge housing developments are needed in…

I thank Deputies Ó Broin, Hearne and O'Gorman for their support and speeches. I am obviously very disappointed, not shocked, given the oral responses we have had over the last couple of weeks, by the Government's response. The Minister of State says that he agrees with the aim that renters should not be living in cold, damp, mouldy accommodation but he does not agree that this is the way to do it.…

In the lead-up to the last general election, the Taoiseach cynically misled the public about how many homes would be delivered. This was a blatant attempt to give the impression he was turning the corner on housing delivery. In reality, he was driving it off a cliff. We were told 40,000 homes would be delivered in 2024; in fact, it was 30,300, nearly 25% short of the target. The Taoiseach and Gove…

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk again on this social welfare Bill and auto-enrolment. We are hoping that in a very short time, the means test for carers will be abolished altogether. As I understand it, if you are caring for someone with a disability you are actually living their life. That is what many loved ones are doing. They have no choice in the matter. They do not think about it; t…

I thank the Minister of State for mentioning my late colleague on Kerry County Council, Jim Finucane. Jim was a great Kerry man. He loved his county and his town of Tralee. He was involved in everything. big and small, in Kerry. I extend my sympathies to his wife and family and his wife's nephew, Councillor Mikey Sheehy. I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear this news late yesterday evening. H…

The updated rural housing guidelines in the form of a national planning statement will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in the local authority development plans for rural housing on a consistent basis based on the high-level policy framework set out by the national planning framework and recognising that obligations under European directives and international agreements relating to…

I agree with the Deputy about the importance of housing. My Department works closely with colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage across a range of areas. Officials in both Departments are in regular contact about a number of areas that cut into housing, including town centre first, local economic and community planning, planning for and the provision of housing for …