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530. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the legal or policy basis for local authorities for refusing adult children, returning to the family home due to the housing crisis, permission to be added to the rent book. [65757/25]

531. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when the income eligibility limits for social housing in Cavan and Monaghan will be increased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65796/25]

535. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether there are plans for the threshold for social housing to be increased. [65914/25]

540. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to clarify the role State savings play in housing delivery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65919/25]

545. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider introducing a dedicated rural housing strategy to support population growth in villages, including incentives for young families and remote workers to settle in rural areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54982/25]

549. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will support the development of a national requirement that all developers constructing new housing estates provide an automated external defibrillator (AED) within the estate; and if he will consider incorporating such a requirement into planning or building regulations in the interest of public heal…

560. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will report on retrofitting for local authority housing; the status of progress; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66128/25]

561. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he has engaged with the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to address the impact of electricity grid constraints on housing targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66129/25]

563. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide affordable housing in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66144/25]

572. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social housing projects sanctioned above basic unit costs in 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025; the reasons for the higher approval levels in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66204/25]

575. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he will publish the first consolidated national report on housing delivered under the Town Centre First policy, including the number of units delivered in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66207/25]

577. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social housing units in Cork city and Cork county that currently remain below BER C; the number upgraded in 2023 and 2024; and the projected number that will remain below BER C in 2030 on the current delivery pace; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66209/25]

578. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of heat pumps installed in social housing in Cork city and Cork county in 2023 and 2024; the target for 2025; and whether these installation levels align with national climate commitments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66210/25]

582. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department tracks reductions in energy poverty among social housing tenants following retrofitting works; and when such tracking will be published on a national and local authority basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66214/25]

584. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social housing retrofits completed in smaller Cork settlements including Blarney, Tower, Glanmire, Grenagh, Whitechurch, Mayfield and surrounding areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66216/25]

370. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if his Department has met with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or the Housing Agency to assess whether increased LPT liabilities for homes valued between €200,000 and €500,000 could affect supply decisions by small landlords, and if so, to detail the outcome of such engagements. [64963/25]

495. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total allocation of funding provided to each local authority in 2024, 2025 and 2026 for change of tenancy works in their housing stock, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65018/25]

160. Deputy Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the supports available to people awaiting a division of assets, for example sale of a jointly owned home, through the courts for a legal separation/divorce who require social housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64244/25]

161. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will introduce legislation or support the progression of the Housing (Homeless Families) Bill 2017 which proposes to place a statutory obligation on local authorities to consider the best interests of the child when responding to families presenting as homeless; and if he will make a statement on the mat…

166. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the assessments his Department has carried out on the impact of students studying English language courses on housing pressures in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64303/25]

167. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline his Department’s strategy in relation to the housing needs of students studying on English language courses in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64304/25]

169. Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when the updated code of practice for local authority approved housing bodies nominations will commence. [64364/25]

170. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the supports being provided to local authorities to ensure value for money in delivering social and affordable housing; the budget oversight mechanisms applied; and whether each authority is meeting its cost-control requirements. [64408/25]

420. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment in light of recent concerns regarding fire safety and defective materials in housing construction, the assurance he can give that A1-rated materials (details supplied) are being objectively assessed and fairly considered for specification in both public and private housing schemes. [63868/25]

538. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide the current allocation for housing-linked infrastructure in Cork City and Cork County for 2026, including roads, drainage, water and schools, and to state whether these allocations meet the projected population growth in the region. [63984/25]

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to be bringing the Statute Law Revision Bill 2024 to the House today. The Bill was introduced in the Seanad on 23 October 2024 and it passed Report and Final Stages in that House on 5 March this year. The Statute Law Revision Bill 2024 is the latest in a series of measures that have been enacted to modernise and improve public access…

The programme for Government commits to delivering more than 300,000 houses between 2025 and the end of 2030, an average of over 50,000 per annum. Delivery over the period will need to rise incrementally to 60,000 homes per year by 2030. This target of reaching an annual average of over 50,000 homes is both ambitious and credible. It is drawn from the work done by the ESRI in 2024 on population gr…

The Department never makes projections of what housing delivery will be. We have heard in the past number of weeks everything from 30,000 to 40,000 through different sectors in terms of various projections for completions. The outcome will be what will be. My intention will be to maximise the delivery of housing over the next 12 months and, indeed, over the next number of years. As Minister for ho…

This year the Government has already committed €6.5 billion towards delivering housing in this country. We need probably a minimum of €20 billion spent on housing to deliver the necessary housing. The rest of that money has to come from the private sector. Financial firms, whether national or international, are a key part of that because you need that private funding to deliver those properties. …

I am very familiar with his passion for affordable housing. He was always an advocate for social housing of all sorts and in Cork county in particular, he has been one of the key voices in ramping up the delivery of different affordable housing solutions. There is a project to deliver 60 cost-rental homes in Kilnagleary, Carrigaline, which is very close to the Deputy's home area and is something h…

I will try to be constructive but, following on from my colleague, €11,000 is a joke of an amount of money. I appeal to the Minister of State to increase that amount. A local authority that has a property that will cost between €50,000 and €80,000 to fix will leave it idle and fix the voids that are cheaper. The Government is only giving €11,000 plus the grant for the retrofitting, so call it €25…

The tenant in situ scheme has been one of those successes with regard to preventing homelessness. We need that circular or the criteria to issue as soon as possible and, obviously, the funding to be provided to local authorities. We have had a huge number of cases. Louth County Council made a large number of purchases that saved an awful lot of people from dreadful circumstances, but a huge number…

I welcome this opportunity to brief the House on matters relating to international security and international trade. With the agreement of the House, I will share time with the Minister, Deputy Burke. The two issues we are discussing are at the core of Ireland’s foreign relations at a time of great turbulence and change in the world. We are at a critical juncture in terms of the trajectory of the…

I welcome these statements. I made a request for them at the Business Committee two weeks ago and they were very quickly put on the agenda, which highlights the regard in which we hold this issue in the House. The 1989 academic paper "The End of History?" by Francis Fukuyama, and the subsequent book, The End of History and the Last Man, 1992, make the central argument that Western liberal democrac…

I am raising the issue of the need for a new fire station in Rathdowney. This has been sought for a number of years now. The current station was built to house a jeep and the small mobile pump they used to pull behind them. I do not know if the Minister of State would remember them, the old Land Rovers. Smaller towns had them and that is what the station housed. There are three vehicles there now,…

My focus now, fundamentally, is to work on a whole set of policies that can get us more houses built faster for young people in particular, so that they can afford to either buy or rent homes. There is a range of issues we have to examine in that regard and continue to develop. As I said, we have already allocated an additional €800 million in respect of housing in the first two to three months of…

The Taoiseach told the electorate a few months ago that the housing target for this year was 41,000 homes. Is he now saying that target is gone? Is he now saying that he has no housing target for 2025? What is the Government's housing target for 2025? The Taoiseach was explicitly clear a few months ago with the electorate that it was 41,000 homes. Is that still his target or has he ditched it? Why…

The Central Bank in its latest quarterly report issued another damning indictment of the catastrophic failure of Government housing policy. One aspect of it that relates to this subcommittee is the fact that deficits in water infrastructure are now a major impediment to delivering the volume of housing necessary to address the housing crisis. I wonder if there is any joined-up thinking going on in…

That we are having statements on housing is another example of the fact that we are not functioning properly as a Legislature. The very fact we are having statements instead of pushing through legislation is basically a Dáil trying to look busy instead of doing the work it is meant to do. It is a disgrace that, week after week, we have statements on this, that and the other. It is showing the Gove…

We have come to this housing debate God knows how many times now. I think we have had about six or seven debates on housing. In one sense, it recognises the importance of the issue. However, as Deputy Tóibín said, we are having a lot of statements. We are going around in circles without actually moving forward. The Housing Commission's report, for example, has been going for some time at this stag…

I wish the Minister well in his post . I commend my colleagues on bringing forward this motion. The tenant in situ scheme, as many have said, worked very well for many people who were under serious pressure. Since last summer, however, we have seen decline. Now, it has ground to a halt. Many people in my constituency have been affected. I am aware of the case of a young woman who has four children…

-----from Goleen all the way up, so there is no need to panic or worry. I jest. I know what a good worker the Minister of State is. I praise the Sinn Féin organisation for tabling this motion. The tenant in situ scheme has been a great success but the changes the Government is proposing mean it is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is working very well, but since last October we have h…

It is a great honour to stand here today, ahead of International Women’s Day, as the newly appointed Minister for children, disability and equality. Throughout my career, it has always been incredibly important to me to ensure that women and girls of all ages have the same opportunities as their male counterparts in all aspects of their professional and personal lives. Equality of opportunity has…

Today I stand before the House representing the voice of the Irish taxpayer who is rightly appalled by the flagrant waste of public money on this and the previous Government's watch. Where is the accountability? Where are the checks and balances in the public procurement process? The buck stops with the Minister and his Government. Today my party has shone a light on what is an embarrassing lack o…

Excuse me. They talk about the security hut. Let me remind everyone in the House, some of whom sit on the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, that nothing can happen around the Houses without the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission knowing. It in the framing of the House. Nobody asked a question about security. The hut cost €300,000 but what goes on as part of security to protect the people in th…

That is only on one road. It is something we need to tackle. We have the croí conaithe grant. That was an effort to bring more of those properties back into the rental market, but clearly we need to do more. My answer covers many of the situations where a house can be taken back from a tenant and covers some of the taxation, but obviously a lot of the tax matters the Deputy mentioned would be for …

I also wish the Minister and Minister of State well. There has been abject failure. There was an abject failure to reach 40,000 houses, which we all saw coming, unfortunately. The Government would say it did not, but either way we need to see success here or every Member is going to be inundated – as I and many others already are – by representations from those who are suffering due to the housing…

I thank the Minister for being here this evening for this debate. Dublin Bay North is the area that I represent and it has a very mature population, so this topic is directly relevant to us on the northside in that constituency. During the election campaign, we campaigned on this issue in terms of positive ageing and it got good traction with those mature communities. People in Ireland are proacti…

I am pleased to take part in this debate on the future of healthcare for longer and healthier lives. I will touch on two topics, one of which, the statutory home care scheme, came up in the debate. I will give Members an update on that and then I want to speak about right-sizing, which falls under my brief as positive ageing, and housing options for people to age positively. The programme for Gov…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Daly agus lena chomhghleacaithe i Sinn Féin as an rún atá á phlé againn. I welcome the opportunity to address the House and update it on the national driver testing service. I acknowledge the concerns that have been raised by Deputies. I also note the lack of some constructive points on what we would do. To leave that aside, it is an issue and unquestionably waiti…