Simon Harris

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that has not come to my attention before and for bringing it to our attention. A broader point I will make, while not taking away from the seriousness of the issue, is that people generally view a house before buying or renting it, obviously. That is not the point the Deputy is making, though. It is misleading to people, it can waste their time and so on. I …

This is an area I really want to get right. We have a very strong culture of saving in Ireland but not a strong culture of investment. That is not a criticism of anyone; that is just a reflection of the reality. We have €169 billion or €170 billion on deposit today in Ireland. Lots of people, despite the challenges families face, are trying to put a few bob away for their future, for a rainy day, …

There is indeed a commitment in the programme for Government to look at this. In that context, we will look at it, and I thank the Deputy for raising it with me. It is a fine balance and we have to consider all these things in the round, in terms of the quantum that may be available for a tax package in the budget and how we wish to deploy that while also making sure that we do not cause undue inf…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know how serious these issues are. The context in which I mentioned not being on the streets was not to suggest that people with a disability do not feel extraordinarily strongly on these issues or want to ventilate that. The point was that the consultation for the new cost-of-disability payment will open tomorrow and I want people to be in rooms and eng…

First, in relation to the housing assistance payment and the Dublin Simon Community report that the Deputy referenced, I thank the Dublin Simon Community for the work it does. I thank it for the recognition in its commentary in relation to the tenancy protections we are putting in place in the legislation that passed in this House last night and now goes to the Seanad today. I thank it for the wor…

I have told the House quite clearly what we are going to do. We brought in a higher rate of stamp duty. We increased it further. We are seeing the number fall. We brought in specific planning guidelines that are having a very significant effect. We are now seeing more homes actually being sold than bought up by institutional investors. That is a very significant change. We gave a commitment, we ac…

I thank Deputy Bacik very much. I take the point about having enough time in the Oireachtas to tease through things. I would also balance that point with the fact that there is a housing emergency and every day matters. Every day we do not take a decision is a day where progress is not being made at enough speed or enough pace in relation to housing supply. We have been very clear as a Government …

Yes.

I did acknowledge it. I acknowledged during the election campaign and in the potential programme for Government talks after the election that the Labour Party had put forward constructive proposals. I do acknowledge that. We have a different landing zone, in that I think the Labour Party wanted a new State agency. I am not trying to misrepresent its position, but our view was to evolve the Land De…

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for raising this very important issue. I will begin where he began by absolutely acknowledging that the priority in all of our discussions, and I know this is something we all share a view on, must be, is and must remain the children and their parents. Deputy O'Callaghan did not do so, but it is often easy to talk about reports and everything else in this House. We are t…

I find myself in broad agreement, as, I think, does the House, with the Deputy. I do not think there is a huge difference of opinion here, but I take the point. The only reports that should not be published are those where there is a legal issue with publishing. I also take the Deputy's point about circumstances where there are legal issues and trying to identify if there are ways of overcoming th…

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett. I say to Michael and Shannon and to all people across the country in need of housing that every action we take is to increase the number of homes that are available to rent or buy. That is not just one type of home. It is more social homes, more affordable homes and homes through the Land Development Agency, LDA. Quite an incredible the number of homes are now receivin…

That is a good thing.

It is not at some point that supply will come on stream. Supply is increasing despite the Deputy's best efforts, whether it is objecting in his constituency to housing developments. That is a cause and an effect-----

-----if you object to a house, Deputy O'Reilly does too. I know Mary Lou does. If you object to houses, and I have never objected-----

I have never objected to a home and nobody in this House should. I do not care what party they are in. They should stop objecting to houses. Everybody should stop. There is a housing emergency, end-of.

Surely to God we can agree on that.

That is my political point which I am entitled to make. Nobody in this House should object to housing. I feel very strongly on that. I hope we can all agree on that. I am not sure whether Deputy Boyd Barrett is upset that there are more landlords in the market or not by what he just said. If we were to see an increase, that is a good thing but his figures are not comparing like with like because,…

In relation to Shannon and Michael, I hope Deputy Boyd Barrett's office and everyone in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will engage very proactively to assist them.

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for raising this issue. All of us on these benches agree with him because, thankfully, we are now in a position where we can provide a significant level of capital funding. Roughly speaking, we are planning on spending €275 billion out to 2035. That is badly needed for housing, for the enabling infrastructure for housing and a growing population and for the delivery of mod…

I do not disagree with anything Deputy McAuliffe said. It is now about delivery. The Minister for Health is very committed to it, as are the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, and the Government. We all identified in advance of the previous election that our challenged is to put the resources our country has to work in terms of getting these projects moving. There are encouraging s…

Ideally, we stick to not making extraordinarily charged comments about people that are not backed by any evidence. The Deputy can debate me any time in relation to this matter. He should not interrupt me again. He should not do that again. I am not taking this bully-boy attitude. I am speaking; it is my go.

The programme points out very serious issues. This Government, through the leadership of the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, is absolutely committed. None of us wants to see a scenario-----

Those families deserve answers.

The mental health service will continue both the investment it needs and be the subject of the reform that Deputy Mary Butler is working tirelessly on. She has my full support for that work.