Conor D. McGuinness

You are benchmarking against your own failures.

Where is the 40,000?

Throughout the State, families are crying out for housing. If they are not crying out for housing, they are in our clinics crying to us because they are facing eviction or watching their children raise their families crammed into their childhood bedrooms, sometimes multiple families in the one home. They are the hidden homeless who are never counted in the figures and never make it into the headli…

Hear, hear.

36. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the contact that has been made with the Israeli Government after Irish peacekeepers in southern Lebanon having most recently came under fire from the Israel Defence Forces, IDF, at the end of May, which followed on from attacks by the IDF on Irish diplomats; how the Israeli Government has sanctioned the IDF soldiers involve…

100. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Education and Youth following her announcement that she will give €65 million in minor works and ICT funding for schools, if she will explain the rationale for providing the same minor works grant to all schools when older buildings need increased funds to be maintained; if older school buildings will receive increased minor works funding; and…

The Minister of State and I have had a number of engagements at the committee and at a number of different events. I echo Deputy Mac Lochlainn's wishes for him. I do not think I could wish more for success for him. This is crucial. Our industry and the coastal communities it sustains are facing existential crises. I really hope the Minister of State does well and succeeds, and that he can deliver …

I speak in support of the amendment. Both the Minister of State and I have dealt with situations where people have sought the help of mental health services and have been effectively told they need to address the other issue, go elsewhere before they go to them or not to come to them at all. That is not good enough in the modern age. As Deputy Clarke said, there should be no wrong door. When someb…

I support Deputy Clarke. This is an issue that mental health professionals and gardaí are bringing to us regularly. I know last year, in response to a parliamentary question, as the Minister of State knows, there was only one authorised officer between the city and county in Waterford. I have a number of questions submitted but I do not know if that situation has improved. I hope to God it has, bu…

It is being gutted.

Your delivery on the supply side has been weak.

There is no time.

17. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Disability will next meet. [30139/25]

September is just around the corner. Despite a flurry of announcements earlier this year, there is still no sign of delivery on special education. I say that because Knockmahon National School in Bunmahon in my county, Waterford, received approval from the NCSE in 2023 to provide an autism class but was refused funding this April. St. Mary's nationals school in Grange also in County Waterford was …

Sustained political will is needed. It will not happen by itself. The announcements are great but on their own they are nothing. I mentioned seven schools in west Waterford which have written to me in the past two months. We need to see concerted political action from the Government to ensure those spaces are available in September.

31. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Taoiseach for a report on new shared island projects. [30140/25]

The snail's pace at which vacant council homes are being brought back into use is a disgrace and it tells a wider story about the Government's other failure in housing delivery. In communities right across the State we see the consequences of this every day in vacant homes gathering dust while families sit on waiting lists, dereliction, antisocial behaviour and the crassness of people walking past…

-----press release issued by his own Government today and had to consult-----

-----the Minister across the Chamber in answering questions. The Minister and this Government need to do better.

It is all about the Taoiseach.

I see we have skipped over the Government slot. Time and again, workers in the State have been left high and dry when companies collapse, not only through sudden unforeseen insolvency but, all too often, through a deliberate and tactical decision to shut down, to strip assets, to walk away from obligations to staff, to hide assets in corporate mazes, to deny workers what they are owed. Workers, w…

63. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the work he has undertaken to date to address the crisis impacting on rural communities where young families are unable to find a home in the area they were raised in; and if he has met the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to discuss the matter. [26532/25]

Rural communities are in crisis. Young families who cannot find homes in their communities are being pushed into larger urban centres, which are already under pressure. Rural communities, ár gceantair Ghaeltachta san áireamh, are facing an existential threat. What specific steps are the Minister and his Department taking to support rural and coastal communities facing decline due to the total lack…

The Minister mentioned Our Rural Future. While I am glad to hear that the next iteration of the Government's rural development policy will look at housing, the previous one did not do so in any meaningful sense. In fact, it had more to say on rural broadband than on rural housing. I believe that is part of the fundamental problem. This Government and its predecessors have wasted years when housing…

I look forward to having those discussions with the Minister both at committee and in the Chamber and, indeed, offline because this is an issue that is not going away any time soon. Much time has been wasted over the last five to ten years when we should have been developing housing, but it is never too late to start doing the right thing. It needs to be focused on keeping rural communities alive …