I join with Deputy Doherty in extending my sympathy to all of those caught up in the very tragic and horrific plane crash this morning. We think of all of them and their families in what is an evolving story with, no doubt, more information to come. I too want to extend my sympathies to the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, on the loss of her mother. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis. We think of her at this time. I thank Deputy Doherty for raising the important issues of rent, renters and housing supply. The Government took a number of decisions this week to extend rental supports and protections. Let us not forget that, prior to that decision, rent pressure zones were due to expire at the end of this year. Rental protections associated with that were due to disappear. The Government worked intensively to come up with a package that is balanced and provides an extension of the rent pressure zones. Many parts of the Deputy's county - I think the entire county - including Carndonagh, Buncrana, Lifford, Letterkenny, Milford, Glenties and Donegal town are not protected by rent pressure zones as of today. Under our proposal and the emergency legislation that we will bring forward next week, which I heard the Deputy's party leader say she will support, we will extend rent pressure zones to people living in Donegal and other parts of the country, including Carlow, Cavan, parts of Cork, Clare, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and elsewhere. We are extending rent pressure zones nationwide and we are also keeping, for existing tenants, the 2% rate. It is important to recognise that the Government proposals did not fall from the sky. They are grounded in the Housing Agency's review of this matter. For those looking in at home, the Housing Agency is the body charged with coming up with ideas and proposals as to how we can accelerate housing supply. That is what it is asked to do. We have published the report of the Housing Agency, which is a detailed document. I am sure Deputy Doherty has had the time to go through it. It outlined a number of findings, including how there has been evidence of meaningful price moderation due to the RPZs. It outlined how institutional investment has reduced considerably since 2023. It has also made a number of recommendations, including based on international literature review. It has come up with concerns around how we would actually go about reference rent and the challenges that would pose. Similar challenges were outlined by the ESRI. This is the latest measure to help to support renters. The Deputy is continuing to misinform people. People in rental accommodation watching in today need to know that we have kept the RPZs for them and extended a protection that was due to end. People in the Deputy's county and in other counties who do not have the protection of RPZs need to know that next week we will bring forward legislation to extend those protections. We also have to look at what we can do in regard to supply. The sons and daughters and other people who want to rent need more accommodation to be built. Therefore, we have taken a balanced approach that supports renters while also providing security, clarity and certainty for those who wish to invest in our country. Of course, this is the latest in a series of announcements to be made, which includes extending planning permissions, expanding exempted developments, extending the role of the Land Development Agency, the new national planning framework to have more zoned land and, very shortly, significant capital investment in water, wastewater and energy so that we can deliver that enabling infrastructure. All these measures need to be looked at in the round to try to get a functioning housing market that can get us to the 300,000 homes we need over the next number of years. The measures in the package we have brought for this week are balanced. I was at the Cabinet meeting this week. It was always the intention that we would bring forward an initial Bill to extend rent pressure zones and then further legislation which we can take the time to tease through in order to get this right in terms of what the new system looks like from March.
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The Government produced a series of measures this week that will extend for the very first time rent pressure zones to the constituency Deputy Doherty represents in Dáil Éireann. Do you not welcome that?
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Hang on a second. In Donegal today there is no rent pressure zone. In the proposals brought forward by the Minister, Deputy Browne, the rent pressure zones will be extended to Deputy Doherty's constituency and we will bring forward legislation next week to do this. Deputy Doherty did not reference the changes in relation to no-fault evictions. He did not recognise the fact that rent pressure zones were due to expire in December were we not to take these measures.
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I will answer it and I will not be shouted down, thank you.
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The only split and confusion that seems to be taking place in housing policy is in Sinn Féin. Mary Lou McDonald, Deputy Doherty's leader-----
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Hang on a second.
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I am answering the question, thank you.
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Mary Lou McDonald said she is in favour of rent pressure zones.
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Eoin Ó Broin said he is not and that he is in favour of reference rent. Reference rent would see people's rents being pushed up.
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Mary Lou McDonald said she does not want institutional investment in Ireland.
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Eoin Ó Broin said he and Deputy Doherty meet them regularly. Sinn Féin is all over the place on housing. Its policy did not work so it does not have a housing policy now. All it has is noise and street activism. We will be taking specific measures to support students; do not worry we will, because we have their backs.
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We will expand the rent pressure zones and Sinn Féin needs to work out why it wants to bring in reference rents and push up rents and why it wanted to abolish the rent pressure zones. Shame.
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You are in favour of reference rents.
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I thank Deputy Sherlock for highlighting this really important issue. The short answer is that I believe the State is too reliant on the private market when it comes to nursing home provision. This is why we established a commission of care. We need to look at the entire model of how we care for older people in this country. I also think the fact we have one statutory scheme as to how we care for older people, which is nursing homes, and we do not yet have a statutory scheme for home care, is another issue. I will commit with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, to work constructively with Deputy Sherlock and her party on this issue. I will also ask that consideration be given to some of the issues Deputy Sherlock has referenced with regard to the 2022 report. I want to make the point that we need to get the safeguarding legislation in place. This has been very apparent in what we have seen in recent days with RTÉ's very excellent work. The Minister will bring to Cabinet within the next month the adult safeguarding policy and seek Government permission to draft the safeguarding Bill. We will then work intensively and constructively with Members across the House to get the right piece of legislation passed in a timely manner. This is really important. I have been reflecting on this. I fully accept that people work in very demanding environments but I also believe that what stems from what we have seen in our television screens in recent days are real questions of personal accountability. There are laws in our land today in relation to assault and how we conduct ourselves. I urge that a referral is made to An Garda Síochána with regard to the footage we saw. What I saw with my own two eyes were haunting scenes of people being, in my view, physically assaulted in their home. The Government has a responsibility to do things absolutely but so too do people who carry out those actions. There is a need for a Garda investigation into what we saw with regard to the individual actions of people in relation to that. HIQA also has questions to answer and I welcome the fact that the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is due to meet it, along with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. HIQA is good organisation in many ways. I have known HIQA for a long time and I think it has done good. There are good people in HIQA. There were serious shortcomings also in this regard and there can be no doubt about that. There are actions that should have been identified and acted upon at a much earlier stage. Yes, we need to have a much broader discussion about the model of care we have for older people in this country. That work is under way. Of course pay and terms and conditions, just as Deputy Sherlock rightly says are factors in other sectors such as childcare, are factors in this also. We also need to get the legislative basis right. We need the safeguarding legislation. We also need to make sure that HIQA understands its role and has all the tools it needs. I also think we should look at statutory home care as an alternative legal basis for how we care for older people. These are the three areas where I would like to see action shortly.
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I agree with Deputy Sherlock's earlier point that there are many good nursing homes in this country. There are many good public nursing homes and many good private nursing homes, big and small, throughout the country. I do not have an ideological view in that regard. I just want older people to have a choice in their care, I want their families to be supported in making those decisions and I want to know, whether it is a public or private nursing home, that everyone is safe and is being treated with dignity. I also believe we should be more ambitious about care in the community and that far too many people in Ireland go into a nursing home far too early. I can think of good examples of where we have housing alternatives in place and home care opportunities, but they are far too rare. That is why the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, became the first Minister of State with responsibility for older people ever, based between the Department of Health and the Department of housing, because we must get this model right. There are also genuine, serious issues of personal accountability. There is no law, ideology or model of care that can excuse away, either in its existence or its absence, the conduct of people who decided to physically manhandle elderly people with dementia. I want them held accountable and the Garda to look at the matter.
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I thank Deputy Coppinger. First, I do not think that is a fair portrayal of the Government's record, Fine Gael's record or the Government's position regarding this issue. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, is sitting beside me and I challenge the Deputy to name any Minister who has done more-----
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-----regarding domestic, sexual and gender-based violence than she has. She worked on a cross-party basis at every opportunity to make progress. The Deputy does not need to take my word for that; victims' groups and survivors' groups acknowledge that. I saw it with my own two eyes as well. Not every issue has to be partisan, or Government-----
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This is a very sensitive issue. I am just making the point that every time Deputy Coppinger stands up it does not have to be a case of the Government being a terrible bunch of people and that she is great. Sometimes, perhaps there are just some issues that are so important that we should actually work together to try to make progress on them. The reason we are delaying the Deputy's Bill, to use her phrase, is not out of disrespect for her Bill; it is actually out of respect for what she is trying to do and in recognition of the fact that we have our own Bill. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, received Government approval to bring forward legislation in this area last month - in advance of the Deputy's Bill being tabled for discussion in this House - building on the Minister, Deputy McEntee's work to make sure that we rectify the exact issue she rightly highlighted. I too have met victims. I am horrified; how can anyone not shudder when they hear what the Deputy said about the survivor of child abuse and the impact it has had on the survivor in accessing CAMHS. The Deputy is not wrong on this; this is a very serious issue that has a real chilling effect on victims and how our criminal justice system and courts system interact with them. It is our intention to legislate, or it is not just our intention in that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, already has Government approval for the general scheme of the criminal law and civil law (miscellaneous provisions) Bill 2025. That is the vehicle through which we intend to address this issue. The Government will not vote down the Deputy's Bill because it is an honest effort to make progress on a very important issue. Therefore, we are saying that the Deputy's Bill will be read today and the Minister's Bill will be brought forward. Let us try to get progress on this on a cross-party basis and work together in this regard. For the record of the House, there was an effort in 2017 to reform the law in this area and put in place a process through which the courts would assess the relevance of counselling record. I am not saying it is perfect; it is far from it, but my understanding is that this legislation has not operated in any manner or means as it was intended to. Therefore, we have listened very carefully to the views of victims and survivors. They have made clear that they felt compelled to agree to waive the disclosure hearing in order to not put a successful prosecution at risk or to risk delaying their trial. That is an appalling vista and was never the intention of the 2017 provision. Records are routinely being released. That was not the intention of the 2017 provision. We are fully aware of the stress and revictimisation that the disclosure of personal records can have on survivors of sexual violence, including counselling records. We are not waiting for a year to do anything. The Minister has approval to draft this legislation. The Deputy will bring forward her legislation today and we will work constructively to pass a good, robust Bill as quickly as possible.
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Let me be clear: domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is still an epidemic globally, including in Ireland. We are not immune to it. That is not to say that the work that has been undertaken has not brought about real assistance. I refer to the expansion of refuge places, the establishment of Cuan, record funding for groups working with people in this area and training now being in place, which is a key part of the zero-tolerance strategy. That includes training for people in the public service and for our courts system. Our courts system, however, is not where it needs to be. I think members of the Judiciary have recognised that too, and that is why we are changing the law, so on this issue I plead with the Deputy not to start telling people we are blocking her Bill and doing nothing for a year. That is called misinformation. It is called fake news. We are not blocking her Bill. We are passing a timed amendment that means her Bill will move forward in 12 months if we have not got our act together, and we will get our act together. That is why the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, months before Deputy Coppinger's Bill got permission to draft his own Bill. Victims and survivors do not care whose Bill it is; they care about action. This Government will take action to protect victims and to make sure we do it in a way that is compatible with our Constitution but protects victims and survivors in a way they are not today. That is what we will do, and we will get it right.
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There was quite a lot in that, so let me endeavour to get through it. To start where the Deputy finished as regards the issue of accountability and the safety and well-being of people in our nursing homes, I reiterate that it is the intention of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, along with the Minister of State, Kieran O'Donnell, to bring forward adult safeguarding policy proposals within the next month or so and to seek permission from the Government to draft the general scheme of safeguarding legislation. This is badly needed, it will make a big difference and I know it is something on which many experts and others who contributed to the RTÉ programme commented, including the acute need for it. It is a priority for the Government and we will make progress on that. The Minister will also meet with HIQA herself in the next week and there will be an opportunity, I am sure, for a full and frank exchange of views on this. The establishment of HIQA was an important step. There are good people at work in HIQA, and HIQA does a good job, but no organisation is beyond reproach or beyond questioning as to what happened in specific cases. There are legitimate questions that the Government will want to ask and explore with HIQA. As regards the issue of dental legislation and the likes, I will need to be careful in one matter because I believe the case referred to in the article is perhaps before the courts and subject to in camera proceedings. That does not prohibit me from answering the broader point, which relates to the practice of dentistry and the reforms on which the Minister for Health intends to lead. My understanding is that dentistry is currently underpinned by a range of legislation, the Dentists Act 1985 being just one piece. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is committed to reviewing and updating that Act, and the continued protection of the public and high oral healthcare standards will be a priority in that regard. In the meantime, I am very pleased to say that the Minister signed a commencement order relating to certain provisions of the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Act on 30 April 2025. I think they came into effect on 6 May of this year. That requires dentists to make statutory declarations as regards any disciplinary proceedings or any judicial proceedings in the State or in another jurisdiction which may directly or indirectly result in the dentist being prohibited or restricted from providing one or more kind of health or social care. It has also broadened the grounds for inquiry to include matters which might be declared by a dentist or where a dentist fails to comply with the declarations requirement. This important provision is intended to ensure that the Dental Council becomes aware much earlier. Reform of the Dentists Act is planned for and those new regulations are in place. Finally, on the issue of regulation of financial advisers, I am pleased that the Central Bank of Ireland met with the Deputy and his constituents, as he says, I think in May of this year to discuss issues he has raised in this House and to advise on the roll-out. I think he and his constituents found that meeting to be helpful. We are very happy to engage with him constructively on any lacunae or areas where he believes there is a need for improvement from a regulatory or legislative perspective.
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I am very conscious of not wanting to say anything that cuts across any legal process or court process. I know the Deputy is as well. I will therefore refrain from going any further on that issue other than to reiterate that the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, who is here with us, is committed, as is the programme for Government, to reviewing the dental legislation more broadly for the reasons I have outlined. A number of regulations have been commenced recently, since the Minister took office, that became effective in May and that I think are positive developments in modernising the regulatory structures that underpin the work of our dentists. On the issue of the Central Bank and financial advisers - I ran out of time a little the last time - we are eager to continue to engage on this. When it comes to the protection of retail investors, the Department of Finance and the Central Bank work in tandem. The Central Bank regulates firms that operate in Ireland, including those that provide investment advice and sell investment products. I would also flag the role of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. If, however, there are issues here, because we should always strive to do better, we are very happy to engage further on this.
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