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health. It is, and we have known about it for years. Ultimately it comes back to the failure to treat housing as a human right, particularly for renters. They have a right to live in housing of a decent standard, whether that is social housing or private rental … Government has to take responsibility. We are jeopardising the lives of our children and families growing up. People in social housing have an absolute right to a decent standard of home, just like anybody else. This and previous Governments have failed social housing tenants in this country

that the Ministers are getting together and that a plan is going to be in place, but it takes time to build these houses and deliver these units. If the plan started this year, it would be a couple of years before we saw those units being turned … entire country. It was a pitiful amount. What these people are asking for is their right, as they all have a right to housing. Some of them are well capable of living independently. Some require round-the-clock care. It is that diverse a cohort. There

grounded in facts. People who arrive in Ireland from abroad through a variety of circumstances do not have an automatic right to social housing. The Deputy knows that too and he knows that in Kerry as well. People from Ukraine contribute very significantly to our economy as well

their local communities are important, and this is something the Deputy is passionate about as well. We will continue to engage right across the House. I will always listen to any proposals to see where we can make changes and continue to evolve our policies

next budget and we have also expanded grants for shop conversions. The issue of vacancy and dereliction in the housing emergency is rightly identified by the Deputy as a key issue on which we want to make more progress

decorator to care for her. As they battle one unimaginable crisis, another has now emerged: homelessness. Their landlord is selling the house, as is their right. However, the Government classes Ciarán and Jessie as too rich for social housing - they are above the low threshold - but too poor

Second, we need a rebalancing towards more placements with non-profit providers and social housing and away from privately funded housing. The Deputy's point is right. If it is a criticism, it is right. We are using quite a lot of private for-profit providers … best way to do this, whether it is at an Oireachtas committee or in this House, I am happy to have debate on how we get this right. This group is putting it up to us as a country to do better, and we simply have

published. The Deputy referred to protection for renters. He knows, because he voted against them, that we took measures in this House to strengthen the rights of tenants. He knows that there are people in his constituency in Donegal who are now covered by rent pressure zones … right to buy their own home. More than 27,500 people bought their own home in 2025, which was the highest number since 2007. More than 500 first-time buyers buy a first home every single week. When it comes to helping people in need of social housing

where the duty has been violated in the gravest way imaginable, but the principle that guardianship carries responsibilities as well as rights is one this House should be willing to examine across the spectrum, not only at the extremes. There is a real concern in communities across … also welcome the continued funding of the Greentown programme, which targets children subject to coercive control by criminal gangs. These are the right investments. They must continue and they must reach communities such as those in Dún Laoghaire and across the country. However, intervention works best when responsibility

Governments. So bad were the failures that in 2014, residents from 20 council housing estates supported by the Community Action Network and others took the Irish Government to the European Committee of Social Rights. After listening to all the evidence and hearing the weasel words of Government, that … Article 16. It was failing to protect the rights of families to social, legal and economic protection, including the right to provision of adequate family housing by the State. That decision in 2017 finally meant Dublin City Council started to take action, with a report

done to address vacancy and dereliction. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The Deputy rightly said we want less bureaucracy and more assistance. Working to end dereliction and vacancy is a key priority … implementing the programme by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Housing Agency. These measures are proving effective in reducing vacancy levels and there is real momentum developing right across the country in bringing empty properties back into use as homes. The Deputy also talked

House, including on the Government benches, for raising this issue. We will reopen the portal. The Deputy is right; on occasions we can agree in this House. This is a vital programme that plays a very important part in the lives of children with additional needs, be they … huge benefits for children in their social and emotional well-being. We are absolutely committed, as I believe everybody across this House is, to growing and supporting that summer programme. You only have to look at the numbers to show the growth in the programme

point is that this legislation is on the books right now, ready for the House to debate it. The Minister said that it needed to be debated in other chambers. Where are those chambers? This is where it needs to be done. It needs to be debated

Decent housing is enshrined as a human right in Article 25 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It should also be enshrined in Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Irish Constitution. A referendum to that effect should be called immediately. The policy of successive Governments has been … well over 17,000 families who are now homeless, including well over 5,500 children. Thousands more are living in substandard council houses and flats all over the country. Housing rents, including council rents, have skyrocketed and are being further substantially increased by the new rents regime introduced

going up with a population increase of over 500,000 in recent years. This is putting pressure on house availability. With many vacant houses, there is no real incentive available to owners to rent them out but there is an incentive there that is working for the Ukrainian … coming here to work but it should never be the case that they can come in here, get a payment right away, get on the social housing list and compete with our own people who were born and reared here. We must look after our own people first

hurtful. That was the reason. I voted against that because I feel very strongly about democratic rights. I always believed that if someone owns a house, if they bought it, if they got it or if their name was on the deed of it, they were entitled … only permission to be allowed build their houses. That is another thing that is happening. All along our national routes, the secondary routes and the national primary routes, people cannot access if they are coming out of even a public right of way that

same in Cork. The conditions are horrendous. These are proud people from proud communities who keep their houses immaculate. They try to do everything right but if the windows are falling out, the doors are loose and there is no insulation or proper heating, what are they supposed … never voted for them. They have abandoned and betrayed them for years. I live on Cathedral Road. Behind me is Mary Aikenhead. The houses are freezing cold. In Blackpool, Castleknock or Baker's Road, there are freezing cold homes. What is the Minister doing? He is blaming everyone

there are jobs, but a lot of people are struggling more than ever. There are empty houses on a huge scale but there still are ghost estates, including in Carrignavar and right across the State. There is a site not far from here in Dublin Central that … because they cleaned out NAMA. Deputy Doherty will soon table amendments, which we believe are fair and right, to protect workers. I know people who lost their jobs and houses and whose marriage or relationship ended. They lost everything. I know people who died by suicide

that. The review provided 75 recommendations to be worked through. Most do not require legislative change. It is important that the House receives an update on the steps the Minister is taking to improve services, to ensure access to services through community providers and to ensure hospital-based … leaves the philosophical question of life and the balance of probabilities entirely to clinicians, which is not right and an abdication of our duty in this House. Most problematically, the amendment ignores the intention of a clear and tight definition and the process recommended by the review

would give greater transparency and oversight to the process, and put more confidence into it. The Oireachtas, Members of this House and the general public have a right to know why these decisions have been made, why certain projects have been prioritised, and why certain projects

drafting. I have done what colleagues opposite are doing, namely, brought something forward to be debated, which is the purpose of this House in many ways. However, it is also its purpose to enact legislation and I must point out the difficulties in that regard. The first … having a termination. If the Social Democrats Members are on the progressive left, then I am on the progressive right. However, there are other Members of this House who take a very different view and I do not want any of them being Minister for Health and having

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's agenda during the EU Presidency. It is right that we acknowledge the work the European Union does and the benefits of our membership but, to some in this House, it seems that any criticism of EU policy amounts to an attack … means standing apart when faced with repugnant behaviour that you simply cannot stand behind. While some in this House today will speak about the EU's contribution to human rights and the rule of law, the fact of the matter is that across great parts of the world

post-crisis economic journey. It is a moment that deserves to be acknowledged and understood and not just processed quietly through this House. NAMA was born in crisis. It is ending in recovery. That arc from emergency to resolution is a demonstration of this State's capacity … without its difficulties along the way. Questions were raised at various points in this House and before the public accounts committee, and that scrutiny was appropriate and right. No agency operating at this scale under this kind of pressure and over this length of time could expect

March 2026 are a damning indictment of this Government and the previous Government's effort to address of the housing emergency. A record 17,517 people were living in homeless emergency accommodation, including 5,571 children, which is another shocking record. The record shows that evictions result … local authority rent increases and exclude carer's benefits from rent determination. We also need to legislate for the right of tenants to remain in situ during house sales. Emergency legislation, as the Minister of State will know, is provided for in Bunreacht na hÉireann and by precedent

People in social housing homes are paying rent. They have a right to have that money put back into maintaining the properties, but the local authorities are not doing that, which they should

Deputy William Aird asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm if a person who has a right of residency in a property previously owned by them, is eligible for funding under the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability scheme

Deputy Charles Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if landlords with tenancies in place prior to 1 March 2026 will continue to retain the right to terminate a tenancy under section 34 of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2025 where vacant possession

Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out the specific statutory provisions currently used to restrict or prohibit private domestic turf cutting by households, including in cases involving claimed traditional or inherited turbary rights; and to provide the number of instances

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the position regarding any mechanism in place within his Department that allows for civil servants to transfer on secondment to an equivalent role within the European Union, without negatively impacting their pension and other employment rights; his views on the merits

Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the reason the deadline for postal vote and special vote applications for the two by- elections was set only one working/postal day after the moving of the writ; and his views that such deadlines, effectively disenfranchise … persons who qualify, contrary to their constitutional rights under Art 16 of Bunreacht na hÉireann. [33939/26