2026-01-15

Seacht mí ó shin, cuireadh Rialtas an Aire ar an eolas go raibh Airí, daoine atá íoctha suas le €200,000, i bhfad níos mó ná gnáthoibrithe na tíre seo, tar éis an iomarca pá a fháil. Seacht mí ar aghaidh, tá a fhios againn anois go bhfuil deichniúr Aire sa Rialtas seo nach bhfuil tar éis pingin rua den airgead sin a thabhairt ar ais. Ba chóir dúinn a bheith ionraic faoi cad go díreach atá i gceist anseo. Ní airgead an Rialtais ná airgead na Roinne é. Is airgead an phobail é, airgead cáiníocóirí na tíre seo. Seven months ago, the Government was informed that Ministers, people who are already handsomely paid - far more than average workers - have been overpaid. Seven months on, we now know that ten serving Ministers have not paid back a single red cent. They have not arranged a repayment plan, settled their account or even taken the most basic steps of returning money that never belonged to them in the first place. On top of that, we know that 17 former Ministers have not repaid what they owe either. A total of 27 individuals who have held high office, some of whom still hold high office, who know better, who earn salaries and pensions far out of reach of the ordinary person, are still sitting on taxpayers' money. Let us call it what it is. This is not the Government's money. This is not the Department's money. It is the public's money. It is taxpayers' money. The shocking thing is that the public only came to learn about this yesterday after my question to the Minister, Deputy Chambers, in the finance committee. His explanation, if you could call it one, is that there is ongoing follow-up with the Ministers. Seven months later, and there is ongoing follow-up. Only in this Government could a phrase like that be used to justify a complete absence of urgency, discipline, accountability or consequence. Let us be clear about the contrast here. If ordinary workers or pensioners are overpaid by the Department of Social Protection, through no fault of their own, they are not given seven months to agree to pay it back. What happens in the real world is very simple. The Department acts without delay. That is the experience of ordinary people right across the State. Why is it one rule for ordinary people and another rule for Government Ministers? Why is the ordinary worker or pensioner given little or no time, yet the Ministers, some of them on up to €200,000, think it is okay for them not to repay the public the tens of thousands of euro they were overpaid? These are not trivial sums. We are not talking about small numbers. We are talking about amounts of up to €30,000 that are owed by individual current Ministers and still, they could not be bothered to pay back even one red cent. These are the same Ministers who decided the recent budget, a budget that left ordinary, working people worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. All the while, they are sitting on public money that does not belong to them, that they were asked to repay seven months ago, and that they have not repaid. These are the Minister's colleagues. God knows, they could be sitting beside him. What exactly are these Ministers waiting for? What is the Government going to do about this scandal? Will the Minister tell us today when every single cent of this public money will be paid back? There must be no vague assurances and no ongoing follow-up. Crucially, will the Minister please tell the Irish public what defence the Government offers that ten current Government Ministers have neither paid back this money nor even made an arrangement to pay back this money seven months after they were requested to do so?

I thank the Deputy for his question. I want to clearly point out that the underpayments and overpayments in question have come about through a series of administrative errors in the National Shared Services Office, NSSO. Critically, the cohort of people who are affected include, first, retired civil servants who previously work-shared and whose pensions were undercalculated and, second, current and former Ministers and officeholders and retired civil and public servants. Those are the cohorts who are affected by the error in the NSSO. Primarily for Government Ministers, what has happened is that, through a series of Government decisions where Ministers took a deduction in their pay, a salary sacrifice, the question was posed of whether the pension deduction calculation should be on the gross salary or on the net amount that was sacrificed. This was obviously brought to the attention of the Minister for public expenditure and reform last year. Unlike what the Deputy said, there was a public statement on the matter and the Minister answered questions at that time. This was not the fault of any politician or former civil servant; it was an error by the NSSO. The Government immediately committed to having a review carried out by Derek Moran, the chairperson of the NSSO. That will report in March to ensure that something like this does not happen again. Regarding the ten Ministers the Deputy cites who currently have not concluded the pay agreement to repay moneys owed, a number of clarifications have been sought about the calculations that were brought forward. I know that everyone has the right to ensure that they are paying the correct amount and every single Minister wants to ensure they are doing that. That is very important. The Government is crystal clear that any retired civil servant or Minister who does not comply or pay back what is due to the Exchequer will not receive their pension because this is a key requirement in funding their pension. I also robustly challenge what the Deputy says about the social welfare protection code that we have in this country. I, like many politicians, do weekly clinics, meeting constituents who are very vulnerable. The Department of Social Protection does not demand a repayment immediately. It works out payment plans that respect vulnerable citizens throughout the State.

Not seven months later.

There are limits on the gross threshold that is deducted every single week, bearing in mind the vulnerable situations that families find themselves in. I have worked with the Department in representing people who, sometimes through no fault of their own, have an overpayment to the Department of Social Protection.

Did you ever get seven months of a window for them?

The second point I want to robustly challenge is that there is nothing in this budget for workers or those who are most vulnerable in society. We have put forward a €300 million package for people who are vulnerable and to ensure that those who are working on lower incomes are rewarded. We have increased the minimum wage by 40% over the last four years. Deputies will see from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, returns that real growth in wages in our economy has come through over the last number of years, with 13 sectors growing. We have also protected the most vulnerable by reducing the VAT rate on gas and electricity to 9%, which is €100 a month, implementing the free schoolbook scheme and increasing social protection payments by €10, which amounts to €520 for families every single year, as well as making improvements to the hot meals programme. There is also the public service pay agreement, which gives an increase of 17% over the lifetime of the agreement to those who are most vulnerable, in particular, a 3% top-up for incomes under €50,000. That is how the Government is delivering and protecting the most vulnerable. To do that, we need to have a strong engine room, a strong economy, about which Deputy Doherty would know absolutely nothing.

Hear, hear.

Give the Minister a wee clap there because he defended some of you anyway. God knows, it may be the people beside you who owe the tens of thousands of euro, money that is still resting in their accounts no doubt.

There is a lot of dodgy money around-----

The Minister doth protest too much.

How did you buy your constituency office? Yourself and Pádraig bought it for cash, did you not?

Let me make the point. Maybe the Members heckling have the most to answer for in relation to this. The core issue is that Ministers were overpaid tens of thousands of euro. Some Ministers paid that money back. In fairness to the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, he called on all the Ministers to pay it back. The Minister, Deputy Burke, did not even have the audacity or cop-on to do that. This money is not the Ministers' money. It is the public's money. These are Ministers who are paid €200,000, senior Ministers who are holding on to this money seven months later. There are clear rules in relation to this. The money has to be paid back within 12 months. Deductions of at least 8% have to be applied in relation to salaries and Ministers are holding out. It is absolutely unacceptable. These are the same Ministers who stand in front of me and tell me they did not leave people with disabilities high and dry even though we know they are €1,400 worse off. I do not know to this day whether the Minister in front of me today, yesterday or last week-----

I ask the Deputy to conclude.

-----owed €20,000 or €30,000 to the public purse and has been refusing to do it over the last seven months.

I call the Minister.

I ask the Minister to do the decent thing and-----

Please conclude Deputy Doherty.

-----call on the ten Ministers and his former colleagues, the 17 ex-Ministers, to immediately engage in a repayment plan to pay that money back without delay. It is now seven months on. Nobody else gets that latitude.

Deputy Doherty, please conclude.

These Ministers think they are above the rules and it is not acceptable.

Hear, hear.

I robustly challenge that Ministers are not engaging with the NSSO and are not going to pay this money back.

They have had seven months.

This has a huge net in terms of the number of people affected. I listed the three cohorts that were affected by the NSSO, through no fault of any public representative or anyone who was in-----

Should they pay it back?

-----or anyone who was in receipt and was overpaid or underpaid in relation to a pension deduction for the NSSO. I am making quite clear that all Ministers are engaging with the NSSO, all Ministers will bring this to a conclusion and will ensure-----

When? Will it be next year?

When they get the clarification.

Allow the Minister to answer.

People are fully correct and entitled to seek clarifications from the NSSO, which has made a series of errors in this regard over a number of years. People are entitled to seek clarifications right across the public service, and people are doing that. I can absolutely assure the House this will be brought to a conclusion. I can also say that in terms of our budget, we have protected the most vulnerable with a €300 million package to ensure the most vulnerable in our society - our carers and those with disabilities - are protected and, critically, that our lower paid workers are getting an increase that is outpacing the rate of inflation in our economy.

Should the Ministers pay the money back?

The Government has not protected the most vulnerable. In the last hour, the consumer price index came out and it shows families had to pay more for basics like clothing, footwear and education costs over the past year. Inflation may be slowing but prices are still rising. The Minister knows this because under his Government's watch, the price of beef has increased by 44% in the last five years. It has gone up 24% in the last 12 months alone. Butter and milk prices have risen by 45% in the last five years. In the last year, the price of butter has risen by 10% and that of milk by 5%. In real terms, diced beef prices are up €4.10 in the last five years alone. This is the economic cut of beef to make a stew or a casserole and its price is up by that amount. The price of two litres of whole milk has increased by 73 cent in the last five years. This impacts everyone who has to go to the supermarket to feed a household. The average price of a pound of butter has increased by 55 cent and that of a kilogram of cheddar cheese by 62 cent in just one year. These price hikes are hitting people really hard, especially now when we know from research that one in five people planned to borrow money just to get through the short but expensive Christmas period. It is not just the everyday costs that are going up. This week, we saw Diageo, a multibillion-euro company, announce that the price of a pint of Guinness will go up by 20 cent. An Post has announced that the price of a stamp is going up by 20 cent. This is just to send a simple letter. These increases are constantly chipping away at people's disposable income and their sense of financial security. The most recent data we have on motor insurance costs show a rise of 9%. The cost of health insurance has risen by almost 10%. As we know, Irish households are paying more than most in Europe for electricity. People are getting hit in every single direction. The Government is even piling on the direct pain. The cost of third level education rose by €500. Road toll prices are going up. Energy prices go up while the energy support payments are gone. Hope that this Government has any interest in tackling the affordability crisis has all but disappeared. A recent study by Core Research shows the cost of living remains the defining concern in 2026, with 74%, three quarters of the population, not expecting it to ease. Of adults surveyed, 72% are unconvinced that housing affordability will improve. Some 52% of adults also now expect Ireland to face a recession in 2026. This is a damning indictment of the Government's ability to tackle the affordability crisis and to provide hope and confidence to people. The question that has to be asked is whether the Government has just given up. It has no answers for increased grocery prices, no answers for increased insurance costs and no answers for increased utility bills. When is the Government going to step up and provide direct supports for those working people, vulnerable people, who need them? Is it prepared to look at such measures as windfall taxes on the big energy companies and the big supermarket chains to target supports at people struggling to pay their bills?

I thank the Deputy for his question on a very important area which is very much to the fore in the mindset of the Government, namely, the cost of living and how vulnerable families grapple with the weekly shop and the price of groceries. In the context of budget 2026, I want to outline how we as a Government are supporting people who are the most vulnerable. We came forward in budget 2026 with a €9.4 billion package. This is about 3.25 times the size of the pre-pandemic package. In terms of wages, if we look at the CSO data, which is the gold standard, it shows a 45% increase in weekly wages since 2015. The average wage is over €1,000 a week. All 13 sectors of our economy are growing evenly. Critically, regarding real wage growth, we are outpacing the rate of inflation. To assist the most vulnerable families, we extended the clothing and back to school footwear allowance to two- and three-year-olds. We increased the child support payment by €16 for over-12s and €8 for under-12s. We brought forward the reduction to 9% in the VAT rate and extended it to the end of 2030, saving people €100 a month on utility bills, at a cost of €254 million. We brought forward a number of changes to the social welfare code. We brought the fuel allowance to help 46,000 additional families. At this point, one in four households gets the fuel allowance. We have increased the allowance by 15%, which is well above the rate of inflation. Again, we are looking to prevent poverty and fuel poverty over these critical periods. We have also increased the basic rates of social welfare and the thresholds for the carer's allowance, bringing us on a pathway to abolishing the means test. Again, this is rewarding carers and trying to assist those who are protecting the most vulnerable and doing the State a huge service in keeping people in their homes and living independently. We have worked very hard in increasing the basic social welfare payments by €520 per year. This, again, is a great assistance. We have extended the thresholds of the working family payment for those who are working and on lower incomes. In the public sector pay agreement, we can see how we have ensured that people on incomes under €50,000, those who are under the most pressure, get the greatest increase. Over the lifetime of the agreement, as I just outlined, the increase will be about 17.3%. This demonstrates what the Government is doing and the action we are taking to respond to the challenges. This year, I will enhance the powers of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, the key agency that looks into competition in our sectors, to ensure we are getting fair competition in the grocery sector. We have seen a number of investigations to date in this regard. We have also seen the work the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is doing in meeting the energy companies. They are very clear. They have hardship funds, and anyone who is in danger should liaise with their energy company. There is assistance there. We want to work to ensure that everyone is protected in society. That is what you do when you have a strong economy.

Has the Minister dealt with anyone who has tried to apply for hardship funds for a utility company? It is an absolute nightmare. None of these measures, unfortunately, are working enough. Why are people stopping me in JC's supermarket asking why I cannot reduce the price of groceries? Why are people turning up to my clinic, Deputy Wall's clinics and my colleagues' clinics with utility bills that they cannot pay? It is just not enough. That is the reality of it. The people who cannot pay their bills this month will not get any comfort from what the Taoiseach said yesterday about the Minister, Deputy O'Brien's affordability group that is being set up. No one is going to get any comfort when they cannot pay their bills this week and are going to have to go to St. Vincent de Paul or their community welfare officer and beg, plead and borrow. These are working people who are doing everything they can to try to keep a roof over their head. This Government does not do legislation. That is clear from last year. It does task forces and working groups. It does not even do them well. What it does is procrastination and inaction, or, when it can, it does deflection. It is very hard to do deflection on the cost of groceries. The Government can do it on housing when it tries to blame immigrants, but it cannot do it on groceries or utility bills. When is the Government going to take on the big utility companies? When is it going to take on the big conglomerates? When is it going to provide targeted payments to those who need it, those workers who are doing everything right and are being let down by the Government?

I have pointed out a series of actions that the Government has taken to protect the lowest-paid workers in our economy, those who are on disability and those who are caring for the most vulnerable in our society. There is a €300 million package aimed at child poverty, for which we have a unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, trying to ensure that families are protected through what we see is a significant challenging period through inflation. Families are now in receipt of all of those actions throughout 2026. We want to do more as a Government. That is why we have set out a pathway that is sustainable. Some of the calls made in this House weekly are not costed and are not sustainable. Our job is to protect the most vulnerable in society through the social welfare code. As I said, one in four homes in our country is now in receipt of fuel allowance. We have seen improvements in terms of social welfare being linked to work with the back-to-work allowance, all those key areas that we need to do more on. If the Deputy looks at the warmer homes scheme, there has been an elevenfold increase since it was brought in in 2020 to future-proof homes throughout our country to ensure that we bring costs down and make our households more sustainable.

The issue I am raising with the Minister is house prices and the availability of housing. In County Laois, house prices are up, rents are up, homelessness is up and notices to quit are up. Despite the best efforts of the council, which has a good active housing programme, the homeless figures increased by 60% when you compare December's figures with those last year. The Government's social housing target for 2025 was 10,000 - a low enough, modest target. In the first nine months of the year, just 3,143 were constructed - 31%. Cost rental and affordable to buy targets were not met, with just 925 cost rental and 563 affordable purchase delivered. Rents in Laois on new tenancies are up by 12.1% in one year according to Daft surveys. A small house in Kilminchy, a suburb of Portlaoise, is advertised for €2,100 per month. That is more than €500 a week. Workers cannot afford that. It is way over what people can budget for. House prices are up 60% on average compared with 2020. Notices to quit are being issued every day. I do not know if the Minister is getting that in his office, but I am certainly getting it. There has been a sharp rise in the number of notices to quit since Christmas. Some rental housing is not yet registered with the RTB and there is no tenancy agreement in place. A notice to quit can just be verbal. I saw one last week that was sent to a girl by text. Before the Minister tells me this is illegal, I know it is. The tenants know it is illegal, but tenants cannot complain because they are in such a vulnerable position and are trying to get permission to stay there longer. Renters in some areas are going to face a 10%, 20% and 30% hike on 1 March and after 1 March. Laois will be one of those areas. Rents on new tenancies can be then set at the highest rate of the market - I just read out one case to the Minister - and thereafter 2% every year on top of that. There is a particular cohort of low- and middle-income workers, workers who are generally earning between €35,000 and €65,000. They cannot keep up with the rent hikes and cannot get on a local authority housing waiting list because they are over the income threshold, but they do not have sufficient income or savings to get a mortgage. Delivery of cost-rental and affordable purchase homes are key to sorting this out. We need to be able to get them into a situation where they can either buy an affordable home or rent one. The Government needs to scale up affordable and cost-rental housing. Will the Government now take action to head off the inevitable sharp rent hikes on 1 March and thereafter for workers and families who will not be able to afford them? Will the Government and the housing Minister increase the number of cost-rental and affordable to purchase homes being constructed in County Laois and other counties? Can the Minister's Department and the Department of local government review the income thresholds for rented council housing to allow more low-income households to get on that ladder?

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, which are key to unlocking housing. For every single person in this State, it is one of the critical things. You have to see a trajectory for owning your own home, for getting the keys to your own home or to be supported in accommodation if you do not have the means to do so. That is why this Government has worked to ensure we are prioritising housing. If the Deputy looks at the CSO data that was published at Christmas, apartment completions are up 30% year-on-year for the first three quarters of 2025 compared with the previous year. Other scheme dwellings have seen a significant increase, with 12,200 for schemes and single dwellings, one-off houses, at about 4,136. The first-time buyer rates are at record levels. A total of 27,000 drew down mortgages to September - 60% of the market share. That is the balance we have had a huge challenge in reversing over the last seven years. We now have first-time buyers at that level of drawdowns in the market share. At this point, we have 29,000 social housing units that are at varying stages of completion in the cycle that will be coming into our economy. We also know in terms of our first-time buyers that we have 24,335 in the first three quarters of the year, which is up 13% year-on-year. That is why the Government is really focused on making the changes that are going to bring more affordable housing into the economy, to ensure that we have options for people who want secure tenure for renting in terms of our cost rental model, for those who are most vulnerable in social housing, and also the opportunity to buy and own your own home, like the first home scheme, which gives that opportunity, as well as the help to buy scheme, which has helped thousands of families across our economy get the keys and realise their ambition of owning their home. I assure the Deputy that this is one area that is being supported by record capital on behalf of the Government to ensure that people get that opportunity. Year-on-year, the Deputy will see huge improvements, as the data shows. The Deputy only has to look at the CSO data. It is the gold standard. If you go around the country and look at the construction sites, people can see diggers on the ground, builders there and housing being delivered which is of the highest quality it has ever been in the State.

I thank the Minister for his reply. He quoted different sets of figures from the CSO. I am quoting figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Yes, it has to be a priority, but the Government needs to scale up the delivery of cost rental and affordable to buy for that wedge of people, workers and families, who are caught just above the threshold for social housing but below the level of income that would make getting a mortgage achievable . One of the things I would say to the Minister, and I have said it to successive Ministers for housing, is that we need to reduce the bureaucracy around the construction of social, affordable and cost-rental housing. We need to work to standard plans. This is how the big developers are doing it. They are doing it and they are selling the houses like hot buns. There is no problem with that. People do not mind if their house in Laois looks the same as a house in Cork. The Department insisting on councils starting with a blank canvas for every scheme is not the way to go because it is costly, with architects' fees, etc., and it slows the production of houses. We need to mass-produce affordable to buy and cost-rental housing. That is the message I am giving the Minister today. It will save money and time and it will get people housed. We need to house those people who are squeezed in that middle cohort.

The Government has taken a number of actions across 2025 and into 2026 to try to speed up construction while ensuring that we are getting high quality housing into the marketplace. We have revised the national planning framework which ensures that we have the infrastructure matched with the zoned land to ensure that we are getting those high-quality houses. We have increased the amount of funding for the purchase of local authority housing. This is key to ensure security of tenure for those who fall into a position where their property is being sold. We have also increased significant investment in our State utilities, such as Irish Water, to ensure that we have the infrastructure and allowing developer-led initiatives. Again, this is trying to speed up the timeframe in which we can deliver housing. I absolutely assure the Deputy that, in terms of cost rental, affordable housing and social housing, it is a fact that we are at record levels. These have not been seen since 1970s in terms of social housing and also since the records go back to 2007 in relation to first-time buyers coming into the economy. This Government is critically supporting first-time buyers to get their keys to a new home. This is vastly different from what other politicians offer in this Dáil. They want to pull the rug from under them. We want to support them.

Hear, hear.

The stated purpose of the Government rental reform package, including a six-year minimum tenancy to give tenants security and certainty, is something that we in Independent Ireland very much support. However, these measures now have produced seriously undermining consequences for families dealing with homes tied up in the fair deal nursing home scheme. Under the fair deal scheme, a loan secured on the family home generally has to be repaid within a one-year process. That would be the standard up and down the country dealing with nursing homes and the fair deal scheme in general. The practice is often required that they have to sell the property to pay for the bills that are there for the fair deal patient. The new requirements under the new laws that the Government has brought in that offer a six-year tenancy directly conflict on some occasions with the obligations placed on the executors and executrices of these wills. It puts them in impossible illegal and legal positions. The executors have a duty to repay debts, administer estates promptly and protect asset values for the benefit of the beneficiaries. While it is technically possible to sell those properties that have a tenant in situ in that timeframe, it often reduces the sale price of the property and undermines the duty of, and conflicts with the burden that is on, the executor or executrix. The Government has accepted that these reforms will change landlord behaviour. We welcome that but, in these cases, there is probably something that we did not look at or did not think about. In the case of families who are having to choose, they are in a situation where they are leaving the homes vacant rather than renting them out, which runs against the entire housing supply goals. These are the goals that were set up by the Government. Will the Government commit to reviewing the conflict and providing a targeted exemption or flexibility where property must be sold or repaid under a fair deal loan and settlement to allow the executors and executrices of those estates to administer within the law?

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important matter. It is a priority of the Government to get as many rentals as possible, cost rental and indeed in the private rental market, particularly those mom and pop landlords who have one and two houses, of whom there are about 85% in terms of those who have the market share. It is critical for a functioning economy that we bring in further supply into rental accommodation which is so important. That is why we have also been supporting renters by increasing the rental tax credit. This is critical to assist them and ensure that 320,000 people who are renting get that key support. If renters are jointly assessed, they get €2,000. It is so important that would continue. In relation to the changes that the Deputy mentioned, I understand that the Bill is coming before the House shortly. It is critical that if there are any issues or unintended consequences, we can put forward amendments in relation to that. The pre-legislative scrutiny report has concluded. That is being presented to the Minister and the Department. They will take into consideration some of the issues that have been raised by the Deputy and at the committee. It is important that we look at how we can get more rental properties into the market. That has to be the first objective here. Second, how do we protect those who are vulnerable and renting in our economy and ensure that we have and continue to have the security of tenure that we have done over this current Government? This is key to ensure that people have that certainty in the rental market. That is why there are so many forms of cost rental of rental options now which are critical for renters. As the Bill comes forward, it will be up to the House to scrutinise it. The pre-legislative scrutiny report from the Oireachtas joint committee will also provide recommendations to the Minister. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, is working very hard on it. There was strong collaboration with all the bodies in this sector in trying to ensure that there are no unintended consequences and that we get those key rental properties into the marketplace. This has been a challenge, if we are being honest, over the past number of years because of either the regulatory burden or the supply issue. That is what we are committed to resolving.

I thank the Minister for his reply. It is fair. There was no intention from anyone in any place to say that this was just overlooked. We in Independent Ireland will be tabling a couple of amendments when the legislation hits the floor. I am quite happy to meet with the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, about this and bring to him a small delegation who have a number of concerns about the fair deal scheme. There are an awful lot of houses in Ireland that are sitting idle at the moment under the fair deal scheme that people are not renting out because of the situation. They are anticipating situations like this that are not currently being looked at in the legislation. Roughly 8,000 houses around the country are currently vacant due to the fair deal scheme.

The fair deal scheme has its own primary legislation that underpins it. Any unintended consequences can be looked at through that prism. We absolutely do not want any policy that would go against the Government's incentivisation with regard to dereliction and vacancy. One can see the very significant moves we have made by bringing 20,000 homes back into use, supported by the vacant property refurbishment grant. We can see the extensions of that, particularly for over-the-shop living and through the croí cónaithe scheme where people can get a grant to bring a derelict property back into use, as well as grants from the SEAI. There is €100,000 collectively between both grants to bring derelict properties back into use. For those who are in a situation where they are embarking on drawing down the fair deal scheme, we will also have to look and ensure that we do not see properties vacant for a long time. We have to respect the wishes of relatives too. This is very important in that process. We will work with the House in the context of the pre-legislative scrutiny report and when the legislation comes before the Dáil.