Mary Lou McDonald

I can only surmise that the Taoiseach wishes to deflect and comment on Sinn Féin's policies because he knows he has been caught out. He has been found out. He spoofed during the election campaign. He presented a work of fiction. It was fact flexibility from Fianna Fáil. What a novel thing - not. Now he is in the hot seat again and there is an expectation of delivery and he is showing no serious in…

The Government has missed social and affordable housing targets every single year on the Taoiseach's watch and the typical home, as I told him, is €200,000 more expensive than it was over a decade ago.

The Taoiseach claims progress but the residential property price index demonstrates-----

-----prices are up by 8.7% in the last 12 months.

You are failing, Taoiseach. Why do you not just stand up and accept that fact?

Who is in government?

How long is the Taoiseach in government?

I wish to raise the issue of staffing levels at the children’s hospital. A serious letter has been written by all 12 surgeons at the department of paediatric surgery and urology at Children’s Health Ireland. I believe it has gone to the Minister for Health. In this letter, the surgeons outline bizarrely that the plans for opening the new children’s hospital will see it understaffed from day one. T…

Dublin city centre is no longer safe. That is a statement of reality. People who live, work and visit our capital city have been robbed of their sense of safety and this has been the case for some time. Ask anyone who walks through the city centre and they will tell you they do so either with their heads down or looking over their shoulder. Those who live in the inner city could write the book on …

Aontaím leis an Taoiseach gur olc an scéal é gan dabht. Cén plean atá ag an Rialtas? Tá sé soiléir nach bhfuil an plean ceart aige. Dithering in the face of all this is not a sufficient response from the Government. I could write a lengthy thesis on the underlying causes of crime - the poverty, the lack of investment and the lack of opportunity. We could all do that but we are facing a situation n…

Hear, hear.

Nothing is good-----

The Taoiseach was very evasive on the issue of tax reliefs for private developers when he was asked repeatedly here today. Can he be clearer? Can he give the clarity that was given by the Minister, James Browne, that, in fact, those reliefs are being considered? Will the Taoiseach also clarify for me the €450 million that arose from a memo that went to the Cabinet committee on housing? The Governm…

-----on tax reliefs and on those 3,000 homes.

So, tax reliefs. Okay.

But they are captured within existing targets.

8. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the implementation of the Dublin city task force recommendations through his Department. [6073/25]

If take Moore Street as an emblem and an example of the interest of the State and successive governments in the regeneration of Dublin's north inner city, I can tell the House that it tells a very depressing tale. It tells a tale not just of indifference to those families and communities in the here and now, but also of utter and gross disrespect for the history and the historic nature of the Moor…

The coalition the Taoiseach leads was put together on the back of a grubby deal with Deputy Michael Lowry and his group of Independents. Since then, he and Simon Harris, the Tánaiste, have been found out for misleading the public on housing delivery figures during the election campaign. Now, he announces he will remove rent pressure zones in order to encourage private investment in housing. In oth…

Let me assure the Taoiseach that I pay the very closest attention to the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of people who live in rental properties. I pay particular attention to those who are literally ripped off month in and month out and really struggle to meet their rent. I pay more attention again to those who have lost their homes because they simply could not make the rent or because …

Nowhere in his pronouncements has there been any concern for renters-----

-----or control of rent. The Government ought to cut rents and freeze them.

It will not do that. Instead it proposes to remove the single protection renters are currently afforded.

On a point of order-----

On a point of order.