Pearse Doherty

The Minister promised us he was going to end this practice. He has just told the House that nearly 300 family homes were bought up by vulture funds last year, and he is going to keep it "under review". Under his watch, the Government is sitting by and allowing vulture funds to buy up family homes, a practice he promised over and over again that he would end. A total of 293 homes that should have b…

The stamp duty measure was introduced back in 2021. Does the Minister know that vulture funds purchased more homes last year than they did in 2021? He said the trend is going down every year. That is not true; the figure actually increased in 2022. The 293 homes purchased are homes that people are queuing for and want to have as their family home, their forever home, and vulture funds are buying t…

160. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will bring forward a cost-of-living package, considering inflation is far higher than projected on budget day, at 2.8%, and given the findings of the ESRI that the budget has resulted in income losses for the average household; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10451/26]

Inflation is 50% higher than what the Government had forecast. It claimed prices were stabilising and that was the basis for the Government pulling the cost-of-living supports in the budget. The ESRI said that the budget resulted in income losses for the average Irish household. Will the Tánaiste accept he got this badly wrong? Will he bring forward a cost-of-living package that so many families d…

The latest increases in food prices expose the Government's bogus justification for ripping away the cost-of-living supports. The ESRI was very clear: lower-income households felt worse off as a result of the budget. We can argue over and back all the time but the lived experience is very clear. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald stood here earlier today and outlined that 70,000 more households cannot pay t…

I accept the Government did all those things; that is a statement of fact. However, if the Minister thinks that people are not worse off this year than they were last year, he is living in a bubble and that is the problem here. The facts are clear. As I said, energy is just one example where 303,000 people cannot pay their bills and that is only electricity. Another 170,000-plus cannot pay their g…

Is iomaí pobail atá ag ullmhú do thuilte anois agus arís uile ina dtithe agus ina gcomhlachtaí. Tá imní orthu ar fud an Stáit agus tá siad ag mothú tréigthe. Tá sé seo ag tarlú roimh súile an Tánaiste agus ní rud nua é. Bhí sé agus tá sé i gcroílár an Rialtais le breis agus deich mbliana agus bhí sé ina Aire é féin le linn eachtraí tuilte arís agus arís eile. Le linn na blianta sin, thug Rialtais …

Let us park the weather forecast to one side because that is not our responsibility.

RTÉ does a fine job with that. Let us deal with what we are responsible for. The Tánaiste has been a Minister through flood after flood. What did the Tánaiste say, sorry?

Let us look at what the Tánaiste is responsible for. He has been a Minister in Cabinet, indeed even Taoiseach, during flood after flood. Each time, communities were told that action would follow. He talks about the new buzzword "the here and now". I am talking about what has happened in the last ten years, because people were promised that there would be action from the Government. Does the Tánais…

What is going to be different this time? Please do not recite the weather again. What is the Government going to do differently this time to fulfil the promises that it made to communities ten years ago that have seen repeated flooding and families having to clean out debris, their houses and their businesses, with no action from Government on the horizon?

I want you to build the flood reliefs. Build the flood reliefs. That is your job. Do you want to tell the families to get the sandbags ready? Protect the communities. You have had ten years to do it.

Answer the question.

Please answer your broken promises. Diversion tactics.

Is the Tánaiste embarrassed?

Seventeen schemes in ten years. Is he embarrassed? He should be. He has abandoned those communities over and over again.

Shame on you. You have left your own communities abandoned. Seventeen schemes in ten years, or do you want to go back 30 years? You should be embarrassed.

The new contract about to be signed by the Government for public service obligation, PSO, flights from Donegal to Dublin will mean a loss of afternoon flights. This is a public service obligation; it is supposed to serve the public but it is not. We know the people of Donegal are rightly outraged at the new proposed contract. Flights from Donegal to Dublin in at 8.30 p.m. and coming back from Dubl…

I will begin, as others have, by expressing my condolences in regard to the person who lost their life in the awful tragedy, the accident on Talbot Street today. Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the deceased. We wish those who are recovering a speedy recovery in hospital. It was a terrible tragedy this afternoon. I also thank the Deputies involved in bringing forward this motion be…

I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach pursuant to Standing Order 187.

While most people are handing over more and more of their wages in rent and mortgage payments, other people are making an absolute fortune out of the misery of the housing crisis. For those people, this is not a crisis; this is a cash cow. For the banks, corporate landlords, investment funds and large developers, the housing crisis is not something to fix; it is something to feed off. It is someth…

This Government has shown us time and again that it is allergic to accountability. The Government has shown us that there is one rule for those on the inside and one rule for everybody else. Larry Murrin is well and truly under the protective wing of the Government. For the head of Bord Bia to be the head of a meat processing company that imports Brazilian beef is simply not acceptable. Surely to …

Is 10% acceptable? What about 20% or 30% maybe?

You sold out a long time ago, Healy-Rae. You will not be standing in any markets much longer. You sold out the farmers a long time ago.

I do not see you standing with them outside Bord Bia. You sold out.