Micheál Martin

-----in terms of the housing issue and the housing market.

One of the challenges we have, and it will remain a challenge irrespective of what gets said, is how we balance the unprecedented level of State investment in housing with private sector investment in housing, because if we want to get to 50,000 homes per year, we are going to have to do that. That will need fairly focused, specific change in what we have been doing. I acknowledge that. I have sa…

-----at all of the initiatives that have happened in recent years and where we have to do more. I would respectfully suggest it is not in opposing every initiative the Government comes forward with. It is not taking safe options such as saying it all has to be social housing on one side or nothing, which delayed housing schemes-----

You did - which delayed housing schemes for years in this country. Absolute fundamentalism in respect of how things should happen has held back housing growth in this country. I am going to put it to the Deputy that we are going to take initiatives here and I would welcome his support for them, instead of what has happened over the past four years, where you have opposed every single progressive m…

First of all, as I said to the Deputy, and I will say again, there was no attempt to mislead the public on this. That is the first point. I will make another point. We used ESRI data for our election targets in housing, which the Deputy's party did and everybody did. The fundamental question is how the targets are achieved. That is the core question. What the Social Democrats put forward on its e…

One of your main contributions to that meeting, and I remember it well, was you looking at your watch: nudge, nudge, time to get out to make the 6 o'clock news for the soundbite. That was your contribution to Government talks.

That is what happened. We saw it on our side: nudge, nudge, look at the watch, we better get out and get the 6 o'clock news.

The Social Democrats had no commitment to going into Government.

On the Sinn Féin strategy, I believe the party did tell journalists that it was going to bring a new aggression in its Oireachtas strategy. I think it has decided to import the total opposition approach which has now become the norm in many parliaments that are dominated by populists.

On the issue raised by Deputy McDonald, we have the largest population in our history. By the way, we have the largest Dáil in our history. We have gone from 160 Teachtaí to 174. I do not see any 14 volunteers who want to resign their Dáil seats. We have a growing agenda and I would argue - I will be clear about it - that the legislation governing Cabinet and Secretary numbers and all of that is o…

-----or not. We have just-----

We have just discussed climate and the storm. The storm is a consequence of climate change. These are issues that were not there when the Constitution was enacted, in terms of the number of Ministers and so on. There is a whole range of new areas: energy, offshore renewable and so on. We need a Minister of State for the marine. We need a Minister of State for migration. Of that there can be no que…

-----in terms of security and defence, marine security, subsea cables and cybersecurity.

The issues are growing and the agenda is growing. We either want to be realistic about it or we do not. The larger Dáil reflects a larger population and that has to manifest itself as well in terms of the structures and size of Government. On the storm, my understanding was that agreement had been reached yesterday with regard to arrangements for the storm. I hope I am not now going to begin a ne…

The more fundamental reform that is required is to the ratio of costs or the manner in which they are dealt with under our regulatory framework, the role of the CRU and so forth. In our view, that must be reformed. There is no question but that repairs will be necessary. We will then look at how those costs can be apportioned. A more fundamental point is that we are going to need very significant …

The Deputy's party put forward a very poor housing programme.

There was no fleshing out of the national State construction agency it proposed. There is no blueprint and no paper. It would have had disastrous results given the length of time it would have taken to establish and how out of touch it is with working practices and the norms within the construction industry today. It was an ill-thought-out and very poor approach. That is why people were not persua…

I am intrigued by what you are saying.

I am absolutely intrigued. By the way, the economic relationship between the US and Ireland is absolutely vital for hundreds of thousands of workers in this country.

I do not take that lightly, which is what you are suggesting.

I am not doing that-----

-----but I just want to make that point because these kind of remarks get thrown out as if they are of no consequence. Our fundamental duty as a State is to protect our people in a turbulent world. We will do that. That means protecting the enterprise economic model we have. We will do that while also maintaining our values, our foreign policy values and our interests as a nation. That is what we …

Do you want it done immediately?

The Government has made commitments in the programme for Government in respect of VAT and costs that small- to medium-sized businesses are incurring. We want to consult business because it not just hospitality; the retail sector is feeling the pressures as well. We want to consult and come up with a package that will involve VAT in the context of the next budget. Public expenditure increased last …

The entire assessment of need process has to be reformed. That may involve and necessitate legislative change. The Government will work on this and will consult the Minister for disability and children on that issue. In addition, we have fairly set targets and objectives in respect of disability across the programme for Government, in particular with regard to developing an education-based approac…