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very pleased that the House agreed to take these statements at this very appropriate time, namely prior to the run-in to the December Council and the negotiations that will take place, particularly in respect of coastal states, over the coming weeks. I have been in this House … Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006 needs to be redrafted from scratch. I remember when I was on the other side of the House. It was the first time in the history of the State that a statutory instrument was rescinded in all those years

promote investment. The changes provided for in the Bill also seek to address the many challenges facing our society, including those of housing and climate change. It also contains a number of administrative changes to the tax code to reflect recent international developments and seeks to protect … further 63,500 jobs by the end of next year, with the economy remaining at full employment in the coming period. Housing continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing our country. In preparing for the budget, the challenges facing people seeking to access housing - either

cuts to developers rather than finance local authorities to build. There is a document from Fingal County Council about section 28 guidelines and housing growth requirements in Fingal County Council. It mentions a land bank, which the Minister knows well, in Dunsink, Elm Green and Scribblestown that could … house 20,000 people. It is the most strategic land bank in the whole of Dublin. It is on a rail line, close to the city centre and it would cater for the homeless epidemic in Blanchardstown, Finglas, Ashtown and many other places and would provide affordable homes

hope, comfort or change for those who are facing this awful future. Sinn Féin has consistently called for a radical overhaul of housing policy, arguing for an increased investment in affordable and social housing. However, budget 2026 is like every other opportunity this Government has let slip through … fingers. It fails to adequately address this problem in any meaningful way. The Government has made promises of more funding for housing construction, but we have heard that before. Sadly, the scale of new builds remains inadequate to meet the demands. The housing waiting list continues to grow

society benefit from investment in infrastructure, in education services and special education services, in health services and in more housing. Housing is the biggest single issue facing us, and the budget puts extraordinary resources into housing on top of what was provided in the national development plan. Most … young people, irrespective of where they are in the income brackets, want either to be able to afford a house to buy or to rent or, if their incomes are within a certain bracket, to get a social house. We provided enough resources for over 10,000 social

answer my question on when the Government will produce its housing plan. It is still delayed. There is acknowledging the role of the private sector, which we do, and then there is completely and utterly relying on it, which is what the Government does. The Government goes … paying private developers to build luxury apartments it has already built. It is quite simply unbelievable. The dominance of private developers in the housing sector keeps housing prices high because, of course, they demand large profits. That is the nature of the private sector. To build affordable housing

about securing our future. Investment in key infrastructure is central to the budget, particularly infrastructure that will enable a continued supply of housing to be activated and progressed. That is critical. Also, we are securing our future by continuing to invest in two long-term funds, namely … Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, which are critical. Specifically on housing, this is an area in which I, as spokesperson for my party, have a great interest in. Again, there is record funding going into housing as part of budget 2026. There

thank the Deputy for the question. Significant progress has been made on establishing the housing activation office. Senior specialists from Uisce Éireann, ESB Networks, the NTA, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the local government sector are in place. In addition, senior staff from my Department with expertise in planning … appointment of a head of office is also being progressed as a priority. The office is actively engaged in identifying barriers to housing delivery and is co-ordinating with local authorities and infrastructural agencies to address these barriers. This includes engagement with the 31 city and county councils

question. Both the Minister, Deputy Browne, and I, and the Government as a whole, are fully committed to ensuring the delivery of housing at scale. Part of that is the continued acceleration of delivery of affordable housing. Over 14,500 affordable housing solutions have been delivered … range of delivery partners since the launch of Housing for All, including 850 in County Meath. Meath County Council has received funding approval for nine schemes to deliver 131 affordable purchase homes with the support of the affordable housing fund, of which 83 have been delivered. Furthermore

pathway to that. That was the right thing to do. Broken promise number five is that the Government will fix housing once and for all. How many times have we heard that pledge? The Government has caused record rents that keep going up and up. House prices … emergency accommodation with nowhere to call home. It is shameful. In the election campaign last year, the Government deliberately misled the public about housing delivery figures and since then its own officials have rung the alarm bell about missing its housing targets every year

examples where Ministers and probably senior civil servants sitting around a room late last week realised they had done nothing in respect of housing and needed to provide some form of a fig leaf to suggest that they were actually going to do something to address the housing … decided to introduce another tax break for the people who had got plenty of tax breaks and who had yet to deliver affordable housing at the required scale. Every option and every policy proposal needs to be examined in detail in order to resolve the housing crisis

rent apartments that they will then charge absolutely astronomical rents for, which will now have no rent controls under the Government's new housing measures. I will give examples of the companies the Government is bankrolling. Kennedy Wilson, a $28 billion US real estate fund with thousands … creaming huge amounts of money from this. While one in five of our children is in poverty after the family pays their housing costs, in this budget the Government is going to give €500 million to global and Irish investor funds to build even more extortionate rental apartments

many go to try to get accommodation. I would advise that when they get to Australia they will find there is a similar housing issue there. Accommodation costs and the price of housing in Australia are exceptionally high. The good news, however, is that people are returning. People … tried to introduce many measures to facilitate the young people the Deputy is talking about. He spoke about cost rental and affordable housing. Another great measure introduced by the Government is one he should tell his constituents about, namely the help to buy scheme. We know that scheme

learn something new about your colleagues every day in this House. Every euro spent on sports funding is money well spent. At a time when there is a housing emergency, the Government must concentrate on the provision of the largest number of houses possible, but as I have … said before in the House, this cannot be done without the proper social infrastructure, including sport. By investing in sport as one of the pillars of any social infrastructure, this will allow new houses to become inclusive communities, something which must become a target

This means that, in the 14 years that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in one shape or another have been in charge of housing policy, tens of thousands of children have been forced into homelessness. The impact on these children is enormous. It has impacts on their physical … think this is blaming the victim of Government policy because child homelessness is not complex. It is a direct result of bad Government housing policy. There is a refusal to provide an adequate supply of social homes, particularly for those in or at risk of homelessness

means of a cross-government approach. For example, this includes focusing on targeted measures in relation to homelessness and housing. The additional €15 million that I allocated to my Department in the past few weeks for a second-hand acquisitions budget is a clear and unambiguous reflection … ring-fenced and targeted at acquisitions that support families, primarily those larger families with children, to exit long-term emergency accommodation into housing. Together with income supports and measures relating to homelessness and housing in budget 2026 and beyond, I will continue to concentrate on expanding the vital

homes with multiple generations all under one roof. The Minister may not be the Minister for Finance yet, but his party has the housing portfolio and he is the TD for Dublin Bay South. Across the communities that the Minister and I represent, multiple generations and branches … family trees are crammed into one tiny space because of the housing crisis and disaster. At the hardest edge of the crisis are those children in housing insecurity, who are facing the awful prospect of eviction. The thought of that resonates with all of us. Families

Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, will jointly open this debate with me. It is particularly welcome that we are discussing in this House the issue of migration. It is an extremely important national and international issue that requires policy decisions and the expression of values by political leaders … such as ourselves in this House. When we are discussing migration it is important to note that we are not simply discussing emigration or immigration; we are talking about both. If it was the case that we were here 60 years ago and the topic of migration

thank the Deputy for raising this matter in the House today. As he is aware, capital acquisitions tax is a tax on inheritances or gifts on an amount over a particular tax-free threshold. It is a beneficiary-orientated tax, which means it is payable by the recipient … circumstances of the case, some of which do not require that any specific family relationship applies. One such exemption is the dwelling house exemption. Where a person takes an inheritance of a dwelling house, that person may be able to avail of the dwelling house exemption. I know

name but he will understand why I use it when I tell her story. In 2010, she joined the Dublin City Council housing list. She was eligible then, as she is today, for social housing. In 2015, she was viciously assaulted by her partner. He was sent … north County Dublin where she felt safe and could raise her children in peace, and she remained on the Dublin City Council housing list. She is now in the range of being offered a house she has waited 15 years. She will get an offer but she cannot

facilitate the delivery of in excess of 50,000 additional new homes per annum, there is an urgent need to ensure the updated housing requirements can be incorporated into the planning system as quickly as possible. Local authorities will be required to update their current development plans over … permissions. Section 16 amends the Act of 2000 to enable an extension of duration of up to three years to permissions for housing developments that have not yet commenced and have less than two years remaining on the duration of permission. To encourage activation of housing development

speak on this Bill. By and large, the Bill is necessary. Some would say there is a magic wand for solving the housing crisis. I certainly believe that a whole lot of magic wands are needed. There are a number of components that are needed, and this … step it out, 32 sq. m is six by five. It is a small space. I lived in a two-bedroom house that was 56 sq. m, and that was small. The sitting room was 8 ft 4 in. by 8 ft 6 in. as I recall

forward 24 or 25 amendments to make sure it did not go through the Dáil. It might have resolved the situation around housing and the situation we keep talking about, year in year out, month in month out. To be honest, the root of the problem, which unfortunately … crisis thanks to those people because they were clueless. They did not understand how planning worked. They did not understand how the housing crisis was going to develop if they continued to refuse and refuse. They were de-zoning land that was zoned. They were stopping development from

stairs for five years. There is no reason or rationale for that to be the case. On the rest of the housing plan, we will have this housing plan done as quickly as possible. We have gone back to building social houses. We are encouraging local authorities … build as much social housing as possible. Today we published the delivery rate of various local authorities. It is extraordinary to see with some local authorities, even side by side to each other, how some can deliver as little as 3% own-build housing while others are above

Minister talks about local authorities delivering on target and delivering social housing and cost-rental and affordable housing. Cork City Council is probably one of the best local authorities in the State for delivering social and cost-rental and affordable housing, and yet the housing list goes … that even when local authorities do hit the targets they are supposed to hit, the numbers of people looking for social housing are going up. The homelessness figures are going up every month. I believe the figure we are at now is 4,844 children

whether her Department has undertaken any review of financial barriers faced by victims of domestic abuse when seeking access to emergency income supports, housing assistance payment supports or social housing. [38584/26

Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the supports that exist to replace windows in a private dwelling housing a young autistic child (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38304/26

Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider reviewing the legislation around the approved housing bodies' ability to sell properties to tenants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38038/26

Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of times the working group established by his Department to review the code of practice for pets in social housing and AHBs has met. [38130/26

Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on the progress of the working group established by his Department in reviewing the code of practice to allow pets in social housing and AHBs. [38131/26

Flynn asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration whether his Department operates a policy of acquiring or utilising standard residential housing stock within existing housing estates for international protection accommodation purposes. [37951/26

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the regeneration of Oliver Bond House following his meeting with the regeneration forum. [37767/26

Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the voids programme review committed to in the Government's housing plan. [37768/26

Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will introduce regulations setting a minimum timeframe for local authorities to ensure that casual vacancies in social housing are re-let or occupied; and if he will make a statement on the matter

Deputy Catherine Ardagh asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the way in which his Department is supporting a holistic approach to a regeneration project (details supplied) to ensure it provides not only high-quality housing, but also the essential community infrastructure and public realm improvements

Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he has any plans to scrap development levies for one-off housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37318/26

Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a list of all social housing projects that have been completed in Kildare in the past year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37568/26

Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline any proposed new social housing developments for Kildare in the coming year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37569/26

Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the provision of allocated housing for those that work in frontline public sector jobs including teachers, nurses and members of An Garda Síochána; if this is under review within his Department

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an updated timeline for the delivery of the retrofit scheme to all social housing units in County Louth and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37523/26

Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when updated rural housing guidelines will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37216/26

Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline a timeframe for the upward revision of social housing qualifying income limits. [37496/26

Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the up-to-date position on the review of the housing assistance payment scheme; when it will be concluded and the report published; how quickly the report’s recommendations will be implemented; and if he will

Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the measures he is taking to mitigate against the impact of the Iran war on the supply and price of housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37567/26

Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the measures he is taking to address the lack of affordable housing in County Meath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37326/26

Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the position regarding the tenant in situ scheme for Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council; if he can commit to multiannual funding of this scheme; if allowances for the increased cost of housing in Dublin

Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of affordable homes delivered by the LDA since June 2025; the efforts being made to enhance the delivery of affordable housing and rebalance the tenancy mix for LDA developments; and if he will

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if it will be ensured that the current rezoning project being carried out by local authorities will result in the social and affordable housing that is needed across the State; and if he will make

Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on plans for housing options for older people properties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37522/26

Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the plans for social and/or affordable housing for Arklow, County Wicklow, with projected completion dates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37477/26