Micheál Martin

The Deputy just said the Minister said something at the committee yesterday which the Minister has just very clear said he did not say at the committee yesterday. I cannot respond-----

I cannot respond. I am not responding to assertions by the Deputy that are not soundly based. Deputy McDonald just pointed to Deputy Carthy, so she clearly did not hear the Minister saying that yesterday.

Yes but the Deputy said it as if she knew it - as if she had heard it.

She said it as if she had heard it.

Deputy Carthy was Opposition spokesperson for defence. I know how he can exaggerate and how he can spin and he can do a lot of things like that.

No.

The Minister for justice has made it clear to me he did not say that yesterday.

He is saying it here and I am saying it here in the House now. I am simply saying Deputy McDonald did not hear that yesterday.

I just want to make the more fundamental point-----

The Deputy is not the leader yet.

I want to make the more fundamental point, if I may-----

On the recruitment numbers, we are recruiting gardaí at record numbers-----

In Dublin city the gardaí have increased significantly and people have seen that.

You are not allowing me to answer the question.

First, may I extend my deepest sympathies to the family of the late Brian O’Shea and to his wife, Eileen. I served with Brian in the House. He was a thorough gentleman and a wonderful parliamentarian. He was always calm and always thought of things in perspective. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. I find the Deputy’s presentation, if she does not mind my saying so, somewhat incoherent and a bit …

She cannot have it each and every way. We will now have national rent control over the entire country and the Deputy calls that deregulation. We will strengthen the protection for renters through the introduction of tenancies of minimum duration, which is an effective end to no-fault eviction. We are establishing a rent price register. In fairness, the Deputy acknowledged that but at the same tim…

The feedback from our budgetary measures is positive in terms of getting more apartments going in that particular sector.

The case the Deputy just outlined would be covered by these regulations and she is opposing them. There is no point in raising individual cases here, with the correct empathy and so on like that, if she then proposes to oppose the very measure that would prevent three such evictions in a short number of years.

That is exactly what this regulation is trying to counteract and deal with. More importantly, I take issue with the Deputy's construction company in terms of the substance behind it. Is she saying we are going to have direct labour in every local authority or direct labour by the State? Is that the model?

We have delivered 53,000 social houses since we came back in 2020 through local authorities and through approved housing bodies. That is a good mechanism for social housing and it is working. We need more affordable housing and we need more apartment building in addition to what we are doing on social housing. We are getting results on social housing, no question, where construction is at its high…

First of all, the Government did discontinue the specific measures that we had introduced for the previous two years to deal with inflation across the board. It was not any one particular sector. The Deputy continually and disingenuously narrows it down and say we made cuts. We got rid of the one-off payments. They were not fiscally sustainable and they are not fiscally sustainable. That is the bo…

We did not cut anyone's income by €1,400.

Hold on now. We brought in emergency one-off payments for two years for a whole range of sectors. The Deputy knows that well. Fine, he is in opposition and has to spin it in the way that he is spinning it.

What we did in the budget was to introduce record increases in investment in services for people with disabilities-----

------in education, in health and in areas like respite and residential where we have to substantially increase provision. The way to do that is to allocate funding on a sustainable and permanent basis. The additional needs payments are there and that is what the Minister is referring to as well. They are there for people who are in difficulty in terms of heating and food. Those payments are ther…