Micheál Martin

What the Deputy is ignoring is that half a million people currently renting in Ireland today will not be impacted by these measures because there are a lot of protections built in here. A national rent protection zone is there at 2%. The ESRI recommended 4%, actually. These are modest measures designed to get clarity and stability but, above all-----

-----to bring supply. If you do not have supply, prices will rise, without question, and Sinn Féin has never answered the question of supply.

You are just barren in terms of any ideas-----

-----or any substance around that issue.

First of all, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is éard atá i gceist ag an Rialtas ná i bhfad níos mó tacaíochta agus cosanta a thabhairt do na daoine atá ag íoc cíosa faoi láthair. Sin bun agus barr an chinnidh atá déanta ag an Rialtas. I do not agree, fundamentally, with the Deputy. Again, this is being portrayed as the Government wanting to undermine renters. That is such a ridiculous assertion. The …

We want to deal with it and we want to take this issue on. I have read and looked at the Social Democrats' policy proposals-----

-----on a State construction company, which is about social housing, I think they would acknowledge, and would take a minimum of two years to establish. We already have the Land Development Agency, which is doing social housing and affordable housing and will also be doing private housing and doing that mix. The Social Democrats want to create a new agency on top of that just to do social housing,…

There is a lot of absence of feasibility. There is a real feasibility issue with its proposals. On the SSIA, we did an SSIA in the past but that will be another number of years before the funding comes on stream.

There is huge public money going into housing. There is €9 billion this year and there is multibillion-----

-----going into infrastructure. The issue is we do need private sector investment, which the Deputy's party has a huge problem with. It just hates the private sector.

The Social Democrats hate the private sector. They do not believe it has any role in housing.

That is another fundamental difference. The Department of Finance says we need about €20 billion a year to get to 50,000 to 60,000 houses per annum. We have a clear pathway to doing that. We need private sector investment to create additional supply. Does the Deputy accept that or does she not? Her spokesperson does not seem to accept it.

Again, the Deputy comes in with the usual soundbites and trot them out-----

-----and make assertions about the bona fides of people on this side of the House, which I think are unworthy. Everybody in this House wants to resolve the housing crisis. We have a clear view that it has to be a combination of public and private sector investment.

The Deputy did not respond to my positioning. She is opposed to private sector investment.

I think that is a real issue in terms of getting supply. I did not interrupt the Deputy. She and her party have a habit of continuing interrupting when we try to respond to their points. I have no issue with a debate in the House, but I am making valid points. I have read her party's housing construction policy. In my view, it is not going to add value in the next two to three years. It could not.

The Deputy has not explained how it would deal with the existing Land Development Agency, which we have now provided billions for in terms of doing the work that it has to do. It has a pipeline of about 11,000 to 12,000 houses. Her proposals are fairly weak, if I am honest, in terms of dealing with the thing

I am not blaming her for anything. I am simply saying what she is coming up with is not that effective or does not really have the capacity to solve the housing problem. There needs to be more scrutiny of what her party is coming up with.

Our military neutrality is defined as not being a member of a military alliance and we are not members of a military alliance.

We do not intend to be. We are not a member of NATO, fundamentally. The triple lock relates to our participation in peacekeeping missions. We want to continue the tradition of Irish participation in peacekeeping missions. It has been a very noble one. It is probably one of the defining qualities of Irish foreign policy. People accept our bona fides in the international field, whether it is militar…

It is because my party introduced the concept of neutrality during the Second World War that I have the self-confidence to deal with this and to be absolutely confident that this is not about ending military neutrality. I make that point more generally. We have evolved independent Irish foreign policy-----

-----ever since in a manner that has been respected around the world. The UN Security Council is a post-war creation and is ridiculously outdated. Five members of the Security Council do not represent the world any more. Africa should be on the Security Council.

Latin America should be on the Security Council. It should be expanded and reformed, but we cannot get reform. We support reform of the UN Security Council. That is a problem in itself. There is no sense of Ireland being a warmongering nation in any shape or form, nor do we have the capacity to be one. What we have capacity for is being professional peacekeepers, where we have made a significant …

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am absolutely at one with him in terms of a commitment to investment in renewable energy. Ireland put a lot of eggs in that basket over the past decade and is continuing to do so. In 2023, Ireland was ranked second in the world in onshore wind energy generation. I am not too sure that is appreciated even in Ireland. We will continue to build o…

I thank the Deputy for his commitment and interest in this. Certainly, I will talk to the Minister and the Cabinet subcommittee dealing with this issue in terms of the hydrogen innovation fund, the network co-ordinator and the establishment of a hydrogen hub. There is a lot of potential here. We should be in earlier, and we should increase our research capacity in that field.