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many deaths. In particular, several very high-profile women were on the national airwaves and leading campaigns here at the front of Leinster House right up to their final hours. It has taken many deaths to get cancer care further progressed and it is still not where

ignores the market continuously. We need to have a viable housing market that allows small builders and developers to deliver housing right across our economy

than pandering? The stakes are very high, particularly for the communities I represent in Dublin Central. It is like Fort Knox outside Leinster House right now. The barricades are up to protect us against protestors. We talk about the far right but the reality is there are people

found the Irish State to be in violation of human rights and failing to take sufficient and timely measures to ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for families living in local authorities housing. Seven years ago, the committee found against Ireland on the basis … their education, mental health and life chances. It is a breach of their human rights. We are breaching the rights of children who are growing up in social housing because of the State's failure to act. This is the State's responsibility; that

were campaigning in the general election, so many parent whose children are in Australia would tell me to make sure we get affordable housing right in this Government

green society, a just transition, while they are very much left behind. I want to talk about the idea that housing is a human right, which is accepted internationally. Indeed, the Irish State accepts it although it does not apply it. The housing plan did not reference housing … being a human right once, which is deeply disappointing. Central to housing being a human right is the quality of accommodation and that it be of a standard that ensures people live a healthy life. Much of our social housing and private rental housing, and indeed homeownership

investment asset for global financial funds. There is a contradiction at the heart of its housing policy. It cannot be a public good, a social good, a human right on the one hand, and an asset that is essentially there to be sweated on the other. There … Minister has seen, at what point they get enough. They never get enough. This is why we have to treat housing as a human right. We will bring forward a Bill to treat housing as a human right, which the Government has failed

speed up such investigations, thereby assisting victims and bringing criminals to justice more quickly. I am also aware that Deputies across the House recognise the right to privacy and the importance of data protection in modern society. These are not hollow aspirations but rather are legal requirements … Commissioner and laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. Approval for the code is dependent on positive resolutions being passed in these Houses. Human rights and data protection impact assessments will be required as part of the procedure for drafting the code of practice. The Bill also includes

built there in 20 years. The first problem we had was there was not a treatment plant. You could get one-off houses all right, or the local authority got permission to build a few houses but because of our treatment plant being overburdened, there was no permission … look at this because there is any number of vacant houses out there and any amount of people could be housed if we went at it right. I am asking the Government to look at this because the houses are there, which is half the battle, but getting

that. The State is doing more than it ever has before. An unprecedented level of public resources is being directed at housing. That is the right thing to do and the Government will continue to do it. However, we cannot do it alone. We need more housing … firmly focused on the delivery of more homes for families, individuals, those who need support from the State, private owners, renters and right-sizers. Housing needs are varied and we have a multifaceted response to them. We have seen much progress in the delivery of homes; however

peaceful assembly, the right to express disagreement with the people who govern, is a central right. It is a right that all of us in this House support and the Constitution of this country expressly guarantees it. I have no doubt there are many people from across … respected. The Government has now acted to seek to address those concerns. However, let us get one thing straight in this House; the right to protest is not unlimited. Our Constitution states, "The right of the citizens to assemble peaceably" is subject to public order. What we witnessed

previous Governments. Housing is a human right and is enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Housing Commission deals with this housing emergency and says, "It is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action." Successive governments have failed

housing emergency. Housing is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A housing emergency exists in this State. The Government's own Housing Commission asserts that "Only a radical ... reset of housing policy will work". It further asserts that

move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — a housing emergency exists in the State; and — housing is a human right as enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; further notes that: — 15,286 homeless people, including 4,603 children, were in emergency accommodation … another and they can do little or nothing about it. There are huge frustrations among TDs about this. Housing is human right and thousands of families are being denied that right by this Government. They are being denied a roof over their heads. The evidence for that

spending €500 million on dealing with its own failure as somehow a good thing. Last night, the Government voted against making housing a human right. We in the Social Democrats believe that housing is a human right. This is the difference between us and the Government. We have

attention. The programme for Government and the Government's new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, commit to maintaining the right of social housing tenants to purchase their home. The aim of the tenant incremental purchase scheme was to try to strike that balance but balance is always … subjective term that requires constant monitoring to ensure the balance is always right. That balance is between increasing the scope for those who are in receipt of long-term housing support to purchase their local authority home and doing it in a way that does not unduly diminish

North. I wish him very well. The programme for Government contains a number of commitments in relation to this. The Deputy is right that housing is the biggest challenge that our country faces and it is the biggest priority that the Government intends to address. As he also … rightly highlighted, there is a number of enablers to build housing. It is not just about housing construction capacity but also about water and wastewater treatment facilities. We are going to significantly increase the amount of money available to Uisce Éireann through the capital budgets that we will

rather than it has not provided enough social and affordable housing or it has failed to take measures that would prevent people ending up homeless. That leads into the racist narrative being pushed by the far right, which ends in the sort of stuff we have seen … problem we need to tighten up on here, suggesting that people who are not eligible and do not have a right to social housing might be getting it, so we have to tighten it up. That certainly is not happening. Asylum seekers are not being housed in social

investment asset for the vulture funds and corporate landlords. We need to treat housing as a home and as a human right. The housing disaster can be solved. We in the Social Democrats have put forward policies that can achieve this. We can look to our past, which

coming out to demand action on funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht as well as action on education, the housing crisis and language rights. The turnout speaks to, on the one hand, a moment for the Irish language of a renewal or resurgence from below, with … funding has grown significantly over the same period. Does the Government agree that Foras na Gaeilge needs to be properly funded? The housing crisis is right across the country, but it is particularly acute in Gaeltacht areas. The figures are striking. There are approximately 1,000 Airbnbs available

need. It is ignoring the Housing Commission’s estimation of the housing deficit, the amount of homes that are needed to meet housing demand right now, by a factor of about 20%. That is why the Department of Finance has said that even if the Government meets these … Minister and his predecessor. The Opposition, including ourselves with a fully costed housing plan, over and over again has set out exactly how it can be done. Unless there is greater State intervention and the right kind of private sector supply to meet the needs of buyers

house this minute, the council would not take it because there would be the handle of a door or something not right. These houses have to be perfect and you will get €11,000 once. If you have to go to the full extremes of putting in electric … building this amount of houses. Anybody who knows anything about building knew that it was not going to happen. Those are the two spikes which happened last year. We need to move on from that. It is all right blaming everyone but we need to decide

them. This needs to be reviewed. The whole planning process regarding accommodation needs to be relaxed. When it comes to right-sizing in local authority housing, there are too many people waiting for a right-size to get a house that is smaller than the one they … there is no management and there are people in flats or apartments or groups of houses who are experiencing the sale of drugs on a daily basis, the abuse of their rights as a tenant or antisocial behaviour. It is shocking that tenants are forced to continue

capital should be allowed to come in here and buy up and bulk-purchase houses from under the noses of first-time buyers. Young couples who have scrimped and saved and done everything right and everything they can to be able to purchase their forever home find international … option to ban it and vote to say that it will end this practice. There may be little else we can get right on housing, but we can do this. With the stroke of a pen, we can increase the stamp duty to 100%, 200% or whatever

policy that has driven house prices to sky-high or record highs. The Government has not been able to get the supply right in housing. It has driven house prices up. The market is now running unchecked, charging whatever it wants. There are people living in the family … Government and Opposition sides of the House. In County Cork, the local property tax is going to increase this year. People are paying this unfair tax but they cannot even get the local authorities to carry out work. This happens right across the State, not just in Cork