Micheál Martin

In terms of real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries. The recent ESRI publication comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that on a per capita basis, Ireland and Northern Ireland had the highest rate of house building and Ireland and Scotland had the highest rate of publicl…

You can smile all you like but we need to be real with people here. It seems to me that what the Opposition really wants is for us to stay static in policy terms so that we end up not actually making the step change that is required on housing.

Parallel with sustained investment from the public purse, the Exchequer, we will need a significant increase in private sector investment. We need to be in line with the Housing Commission and we will see what the review brings forward but we most certainly need to create a secure investment landscape for investment in housing into the future on the private side to supplement the record levels of …

Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Níl an ceart aici. Níl mórán déanta aici maidir le fadhb na tithíochta. Tá sé sin soiléir.

The Deputy has not addressed the core point I made. We need private sector investment. The Deputy used the phrase "vulture funds". I believe-----

We are back to the heckling because the Deputies do not like the answers. I believe in public sector investment. We have provided 48,000 social houses alone in the last four years. We have the highest level of social housing provided by any Government in over 20 or 30 years. That is a fact.

We exceeded our targets in Housing for All, with more than 30,000 houses over the last three to four years. That is a fact, but it is not enough. We need private sector investment. Deputy McDonald calls it vulture funds. We need institutional funding in the country to supplement the State-level investment. That is the problem. In the last election, Sinn Féin had proposals that would screw first-ti…

Those proposals are why the people did not give Sinn Féin any ringing endorsement of its housing promises. It failed to convince people about them.

Aontaím go hiomlán leis an Teachta. Is uafásach ar fad an méid atá ag tarlú i nGaza leis an gcogadh uafásach agus na mílte daoine, leanaí go háirithe, ag fáil bháis de dheasca polasaithe Rialtas Iosrael. I agree with the Deputy's presentation of what is an absolutely barbaric and appalling situation in Gaza. There is absolutely no justification in any shape or form for what is occurring. The prose…

It is absolutely unacceptable that innocent people were abducted and have remained hostages for so long after 7 October. That was also an appalling, barbaric crime by Hamas, which needs, in my view, to stop the war and disband, because it has caused nothing but misery to its own people. The Israeli Government needs to stop what is happening right now. We need a ceasefire. We need a restoration of …

To be fair, it is more than just words from Ireland. We have contributed significant funding to Palestine, to the Palestinian Authority and to UNRWA, which has been much maligned but is the only UN agency that has the capacity not only to facilitate the surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza but also to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza. Most people will admit that privately if they are not prepa…

We also intervened in the South African International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. Now we will work very hard in respect of the EU-Israel Association Council-----

-----where there has been a significant shift in opinion in the European Union, which is important.

I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's sentiments when he says we do not see the problem. Of course we see the problem and we have made it very clear that we see the issue here regarding assessment of need. I am not making any excuses; I am just focused on solutions. I have heard precious little from anybody here on the Opposition side in terms of a solution-driven approach.

I have heard a lot of rhetoric but have heard little on the solution front.

Equally, the Deputy referenced the High Court decision. I have no intention of going back on the standing operating procedures, but I believe that when the High Court makes a decision, it is clinicians who should ultimately decide on the nature and type of provision of therapy, medicine or anything. The last Government did not follow through for different reasons. There was not agreement in respec…

This Government is adamant it will deal with that aspect. It is only one aspect, one strand of it. It needs to be looked at because there needs to be a framework that allows therapists to intervene more quickly in providing services to children. An assessment of need, by the way, is not a static thing nor should it be. As a child develops, the child needs ongoing review. That is why the Government…

The Health Service Executive has been highlighting the court decision for quite some time. That is the answer to the Deputy's question on that.

The Deputy is not correct in that at all. He asked specifically about the law and I gave him a straight answer that this Government will deal with that aspect of it. However, the outgoing Government dealt with a whole load of other issues pertaining to this. For example, 4,162 assessments were completed in 2024, a 30% increase on 2023, and that upward trend is continuing with the assessments that …

I thank the Deputy for raising a very key issue. He began by speaking about the septic tanks that are largely associated with existing housing stock across the length and breadth of the country. It is important that we improve upon them and refurbish and develop them and provide grant assistance to enable people to replace septic tanks that are old and not performing to the optimal level. There a…

I have met them. We discussed one of the critical issues in towns and villages across the country, which is the need to free up capacity, for example to local builders if they are developing a housing estate of 20 houses or 50 houses so that they would be able to develop their own treatment facility according to the specifications set by Uisce Éireann. That would then be subject to inspection. I t…

I suggest that maybe if you guys have a monopoly on it over everybody else-----

I will say no more than that.

I was not in government in 2013.

What is the Deputy saying about Askeaton?