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been the story in Fingal east for many years - huge residential developments with no proper infrastructure, schools, healthcare or transport and no building of communities. Some 58% of short journeys are still made by car. This is a major issue in our area where transport is not factored … east. When I first moved to Swords the MetroLink was soon to follow. It was a selling point for me in buying my home but 35 years later, almost €500 million being spent and basically nothing has happened. It is yet another staggering failure of public spending oversight

local shop. You build around that area. They withdraw that in the next county development. That was a negative move to make because it was killing rural Ireland. There are communities out there losing their post offices, little creameries and churches because communities are dying. They are losing … focus back on how we build small rural communities. That is how we do it. If there is a local school bus service or local rural transport service passing these doors, that is how you build around a community and that community grows. That is an area that

been over €1.5 billion in support to homeowners to enable over 228,000 home energy upgrades, including over 30,000 fully funded upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty. Local authorities have delivered a further 14,300 upgrades, including over 7,250 heat pump installations. These … Over 76,000 B2 level upgrades have been supported to date. For 2025 we have allocated over €550 million for SEAI residential and community energy upgrades, including solar PV. This is the highest ever. Budget 2026 provides €558 million from carbon tax receipts and an €89 million increase

elderly, ill or disabled family members. Their hard work saves the State billions and allows their loved ones to remain in their homes or communities. Make no mistake that this is work and all carers should be paid properly. The means testing of carer's allowance based … fall. This should involve fully implementing Sláintecare - a single-tier, free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare system - building a public model of childcare, building a sustainable home care service and ending the current postcode lottery, more direct State involvement in the building of affordable homes for rent

opinion, but it is shared by a lot of people out there, that budget 2026 failed to deliver any real hope or pathway for the families and individuals left behind by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. Every week, new families or individuals who are homeless … builds remains inadequate to meet the demands. The housing waiting list continues to grow and the affordability crisis continues to worsen, especially for low- and middle-income families. Rising rents and house prices continue to push working-class families further away from home ownership. After almost 15 years

what we can to work with the communities that live nearby in terms of designing a prison that can fit in well with the community that is already there. My real motivation for raising this is to hammer home the community benefit side of things. It is imperative … hammer home that the community needs to see a dividend out of that. I would hope the Minister's words here will be passed on to the people who will be designing the scheme when it is put forward. It is about something substantial for the community

longer rely on private companies to deliver care. The current service providers are only motivated by profit, which is evident in the constant cost-cutting measures that are used. We need serious investment into the creation of public nursing homes with community beds. I support this motion … been locked out of home ownership and forced to emigrate. We need to ensure that we have enough residential homes to cater for our ageing population and that these homes are well-staffed, comfortable and safe. I also highlight the fact that residential homes are not covered under

taxpayers' money. The Government's inaction is robbing the taxpayer blind. Think about what €26 billion would build in this country. It would build tens of thousands of affordable homes. It would pay for the schools, hospital beds, renewable energy infrastructure and public transport that we desperately need … road cannot be justified and the repercussions are far too serious. Sláintecare was meant to build a single-tier health service, with people kept well in their own communities and homes, but this Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Government has slowed its delivery to a glacial pace

transformation under way with the establishment of the six new health regions. These regional structures aim to deliver more integrated care closer to home and tailored to local needs, a key ambition of Sláintecare. The Bill reflects the values of the Government more widely and of Fianna Fáil … also complements the work of the productivity and savings task force, which is delivering efficiencies across the system. Last year alone, and as the Minister alluded to, €251 million in savings were delivered. A further €382 million is targeted this year. These are not abstract numbers; they translate

about the kind of people and communities we build. Too often, especially in north Dublin, as I have seen time and again, including in the examples of Belmayne and Clongriffin, we have built thousands of new homes but we do not have public amenities to match them … short walk or short cycle of their homes. That is not an aspiration but a requirement. Planning is the most powerful tool we have. It is proactive rather than reactive. It looks ahead and is a framework that delivers, not just for housing but for better communities

through sport, culture, stronger communities, public services or modern infrastructure, the purpose of public investment is the same: to improve people's lives. The choices we have made in budget 2027 reflect our determination as a Government to ensure that public investment delivers real benefits for people … people's lives and in their pockets and improve how public services are delivered. Public Service Pay None of the ambition I have set out today can be achieved without the people who deliver our public services. The State is and will continue to be a good employer

have to put our gardaí and Defence Forces into very difficult situations. I have great sympathy for them. They are members of those communities they had to go into and they found themselves in such difficult circumstances. We cannot ignore what is driving this. Families across this country … home heating oil. It means reducing energy costs and ensuring excessive profits are used to support households. Fuel may be the spark to these protests but this has exposed a deeper pressure on working families. People are looking for leadership, fairness and the chance to build a decent

from planning. We have introduced and passed a new national planning framework so we will have enough zoned land to build the homes we need. Next week, the Deputy will see a major capital plan that we have all been working tirelessly on for a number of months … record levels of investment in key infrastructural areas like water, energy, housing and also the social infrastructure that is needed in our communities. We have established a national education therapy service for the first time in the history of our State to put therapists in our special schools

that. There are going to be many transients in a lot of areas and a lack of community building. We need to build housing, build communities and put the infrastructure in place alongside that. I have mentioned these examples previously but I will go through a few ideas … house. There is nowhere for that person to go to access the services and community network. However, there is an opportunity to release some equity by turning the upper floor into a starter home and letting the person already living in the property have the lower floor. That

strategy is that of waiting lists in primary care services. The strategy aims to "Deliver actions to ensure more timely access to primary care therapy". There is also reference in the document to building capacity in primary care but, crucially, there is no commitment to staffing targets … very briefly to the over 1,200 disabled people aged under 65 who are residing in nursing homes due to a lack of specialised residential services, rehabilitation and statutory home care supports. There is no indication, however, of how the Government will commit to the findings

delivering over 50% of all of the homes in the State. We will deliver more social and affordable homes, but if we are going to reach a target of 50,000 homes and more, we need private investment. Nobody in opposition has said where we are going … work quickly in those areas. We can get planners to focus on the big decisions they need to make in terms of delivering homes. We are reforming the Land Development Agency. One of the key aspects will be having a master plan for key areas. The housing activation

planning framework, which also aims to tackle vacancy and dereliction. Town centre first also seeks to achieve balanced regional development and support local communities. We have aligned major funding streams with town centre first, including the rural regeneration and development fund, the town and village renewal scheme … development fund and the THRIVE scheme. The rural regeneration and development scheme is a major capital investment programme supporting large-scale, ambitious projects delivering sustainable economic and social development in rural areas. The town and village renewal scheme, introduced by my Department in 2016, is designed to rejuvenate

authorities nationally are being funded by the Department to support social housing delivery; in addition, over 140 professional/technical and administrative posts dedicated to delivering affordable housing are being funded by the Department in local authorities to strengthen their capacity to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects … Development Regulations provide for an exemption from the need to obtain planning permission for the change of use of certain vacant commercial buildings, including vacant above ground floor premises, to residential use such as 'above shop' living for up to nine units, subject to conditions and limitations

recruitment and retention crisis in the education and disability sectors; and — expand the Educational Therapy Support Service, to help build the capacity of school communities to meet student's needs. I am sharing time with colleagues. I welcome that the senior Minister is joining us now. We were … failure to plan, a failure to prepare, a failure to invest and more than anything a failure to deliver. There has been a failure by successive governments to deliver for children with special educational needs. It is not just Sinn Féin that has identified these failings - they have

impact on their homes, property values, the quality of life, the local landscape and environment, whether their children will be able to build there in the future, what the future of farming will look like in the area - this is prime agricultural land that has been taken … these developers to come in, to land these proposals right on top of homes and to change local communities beyond recognition with no real input from the people who live in those communities. These people are being treated with contempt and it is completely unacceptable. I am fully

Europe’s purpose which is to bring peace, stability and democracy to all its peoples. At the heart of the EU is a community that values of democracy, equality, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. These principles are enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty … minority rights, the credibility and cohesion of the entire Union are at risk. Ireland is firmly committed to upholding these values at home and abroad. We support strong EU mechanisms to monitor rule of law compliance and to act decisively when necessary. We owe it to our citizens

they will have those gaps filled. For at least another 25 years, we will have the absence of water infrastructure preventing the building of homes in Ireland. The housing crisis is going on so long that people have nearly become used to it. However, it is still shocking … therefore business rates that go into the development of community facilities, including such things as playgrounds. Even in places like Enfield, Ballivor and Summerhill we have had tanks of water being driven into those towns to deliver water to individuals. We have had cafes, shops and restaurants closing

families but local communities as well. We can have that conversation in a very constructive way that can benefit everybody. We are seeing more employers, including in the public sector, forcing workers back into offices, regardless of whether their work can be done from home. That … working remotely and flexibly has meant more time with their families, less stress, better mental health and, often, higher productivity. Yet, instead of building on what works, the Government is pushing people back onto roads that are at breaking point. Dublin is the eleventh most congested city

development of the statutory home care scheme in the 2025 Programme for Government, and the first element in delivering this is the Health (Amendment) (Licensing of Professional Home Support Providers) Bill 2024, which will establish a licensing framework for professional home support services and provide for regulation … immediate focus on delivering the highest quality of care to the residents of nursing homes in Ireland. Responsibility for the safety and care of residents ultimately rests with the individual provider of each nursing home and its staff. The governance and management of nursing homes is a critical

community. We want to see childcare fees that are affordable for families. To do all that, we need the State to take the lead and not just leave it all to private providers. In my constituency of Dublin Bay North, we have seen a lot of new homes … underpaid. The programme for Government gives a commitment, for the first time ever, to public provision in this area. It promises to build or purchase State-owned childcare facilities. That is a huge step forward but we need to see the action plan urgently. We need commitments