The RTB rent index is the most reliable indicator for rent prices. It was published on 15 May and, according to the RTB, the standardised average rent for new tenancies rose nationally by 5.5% year-on-year to €1,680 in quarter 4 of 2024 while the rents for existing tenancies rose by 4.6% year-on-year to €1,440. These are high rents. We are under no illusions about that. Even if those figures represented a decline in rent levels from the previous quarter, quarter 3 of 2024, and continued the downward trend in the growth rate of rental levels observed since early 2023, of course, the rents are too high. The fundamental issue is supply. Deputy McDonald said she had never seen a Government like this. I have never seen an Opposition so bereft of ideas and so lacking in conviction of the housing issue. That is the bottom line.
Sentiment score: -0.02
Look at it overall and look at the context. Across the European Union and many western economies, they are having this dilemma in the mismatch of housing demand and supply. In a European Union context, Ireland is probably doing more than most in increasing housing supply.
Sentiment score: -0.11
In terms of real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries. The recent ESRI publication comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that on a per capita basis, Ireland and Northern Ireland had the highest rate of house building and Ireland and Scotland had the highest rate of publicly built housing. That is against the backdrop of a very significant population increase, persistent strong economic growth and income growth and huge pressures on housing. The Government is spending very significant amounts of public capital money on housing. We need more private sector investment. The Housing Commission, which Sinn Féin supported, called for a review of the rent pressure zones. The rent pressure zones are effective in terms of protecting renters and rent increases. However, all of the established literature, and the most recent quarterly bulletin from the ESRI, says that long term, we are restricting the growth of supply in the private market. By the end of 2025, State investment will certainly go close to €9 billion. We are at approximately €8 billion at the moment for State expenditure on housing. The Department of Finance says we need approximately €20 billion to get to the targets of what we need and the targets that everybody in the House is agreed on. The Opposition is so lacking in any initiative in terms of how we bring private sector investment in. It is a serious issue.
Sentiment score: 0.18
You can smile all you like but we need to be real with people here. It seems to me that what the Opposition really wants is for us to stay static in policy terms so that we end up not actually making the step change that is required on housing.
Sentiment score: 0.18
Parallel with sustained investment from the public purse, the Exchequer, we will need a significant increase in private sector investment. We need to be in line with the Housing Commission and we will see what the review brings forward but we most certainly need to create a secure investment landscape for investment in housing into the future on the private side to supplement the record levels of public sector investment in housing that we currently have in this country. The first quarter of this year alone in terms of housing supply is the highest since 2004 - bar 2008 - bar the Covid bounce in 2023 that came up.
Sentiment score: 0.36
Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Níl an ceart aici. Níl mórán déanta aici maidir le fadhb na tithíochta. Tá sé sin soiléir.
Sentiment score: -0.14
The Deputy has not addressed the core point I made. We need private sector investment. The Deputy used the phrase "vulture funds". I believe-----
Sentiment score: -0.11
We are back to the heckling because the Deputies do not like the answers. I believe in public sector investment. We have provided 48,000 social houses alone in the last four years. We have the highest level of social housing provided by any Government in over 20 or 30 years. That is a fact.
Sentiment score: -0.11
We exceeded our targets in Housing for All, with more than 30,000 houses over the last three to four years. That is a fact, but it is not enough. We need private sector investment. Deputy McDonald calls it vulture funds. We need institutional funding in the country to supplement the State-level investment. That is the problem. In the last election, Sinn Féin had proposals that would screw first-time buyers.
Sentiment score: -0.14
Those proposals are why the people did not give Sinn Féin any ringing endorsement of its housing promises. It failed to convince people about them.
Sentiment score: 0.14
Aontaím go hiomlán leis an Teachta. Is uafásach ar fad an méid atá ag tarlú i nGaza leis an gcogadh uafásach agus na mílte daoine, leanaí go háirithe, ag fáil bháis de dheasca polasaithe Rialtas Iosrael. I agree with the Deputy's presentation of what is an absolutely barbaric and appalling situation in Gaza. There is absolutely no justification in any shape or form for what is occurring. The prosecution of this war is causing immense death, destruction and suffering to an entire population. I have said recently that it is simply wrong in principle and in law to inflict hunger and suffering on a civilian population, whatever the circumstances. This behaviour clearly constitutes a war crime. It is also wholly unacceptable to contemplate the mass displacement of people in Gaza or to talk of permanent occupation. Not only is it an affront to decency and international law, but history tells us it offers no solution. I strongly welcome the decision to review the European Union-Israel Association Agreement together with Spain. As the Deputy said, Ireland first called for this. I believe the agreement should now be suspended pending the review. Yesterday evening, I saw comments from the minister for finance of Israel, Minister Smotrich, speaking openly about conquering Gaza and, with God's help, pushing the population south and into third countries. This is a senior minister of the Israeli Government articulating, in no uncertain terms, what the agenda is. It is absolutely reprehensible. We also need to say consistently that the hostages need to be released.
Sentiment score: -0.15
It is absolutely unacceptable that innocent people were abducted and have remained hostages for so long after 7 October. That was also an appalling, barbaric crime by Hamas, which needs, in my view, to stop the war and disband, because it has caused nothing but misery to its own people. The Israeli Government needs to stop what is happening right now. We need a ceasefire. We need a restoration of discussions towards a political pathway. Fundamentally, we need a massive surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza. What is happening is incomprehensible. It is beyond any moral compass. I have consistently called for an international delegation, both political and journalists or media, to be allowed into Gaza to see the enormity of the destruction that has undoubtedly taken place. The world has to press to be allowed into Gaza to see what is going on.
Sentiment score: -0.17
To be fair, it is more than just words from Ireland. We have contributed significant funding to Palestine, to the Palestinian Authority and to UNRWA, which has been much maligned but is the only UN agency that has the capacity not only to facilitate the surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza but also to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza. Most people will admit that privately if they are not prepared to admit it publicly. I am talking about international opinion. Regarding the UN, Ireland has been very active with other countries. We recognised the State of Palestine with Norway and Spain back in May last year. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice delivered an advisory opinion on that and the Attorney General on behalf of the Government made an oral submission to the court in respect of this. We then co-sponsored a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 September which seeks to implement the court's advisory opinion.
Sentiment score: 0.25
We also intervened in the South African International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. Now we will work very hard in respect of the EU-Israel Association Council-----
Sentiment score: 0.46
-----where there has been a significant shift in opinion in the European Union, which is important.
Sentiment score: 0.38
I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's sentiments when he says we do not see the problem. Of course we see the problem and we have made it very clear that we see the issue here regarding assessment of need. I am not making any excuses; I am just focused on solutions. I have heard precious little from anybody here on the Opposition side in terms of a solution-driven approach.
Sentiment score: 0.26
I have heard a lot of rhetoric but have heard little on the solution front.
Sentiment score: 0.37
Equally, the Deputy referenced the High Court decision. I have no intention of going back on the standing operating procedures, but I believe that when the High Court makes a decision, it is clinicians who should ultimately decide on the nature and type of provision of therapy, medicine or anything. The last Government did not follow through for different reasons. There was not agreement in respect of it after the High Court decision.
Sentiment score: -0.20
This Government is adamant it will deal with that aspect. It is only one aspect, one strand of it. It needs to be looked at because there needs to be a framework that allows therapists to intervene more quickly in providing services to children. An assessment of need, by the way, is not a static thing nor should it be. As a child develops, the child needs ongoing review. That is why the Government has already taken a decision to have a national in-school therapy service, something I campaigned for during the election and said would be a red line for me in the programme for Government. Our partners in government, the Fine Gael Party and the Independents, are fully aligned to that objective and the Minister for education, Deputy Helen McEntee, has initiated that process for a national in-school therapy service starting in the special schools, which is absolutely essential. We are increasing the level of assessments but we need more than the approximately 20% increase that happened last year. We need to recruit more therapists and we will also do that. We need to engage with CORU on faster recognition of qualifications for those who come in from overseas to work in our services as therapists. Far more flexibility is required there to supplement and add to the therapists who will come through our colleges. We will also increase the places in third level colleges, but all of that takes some time and we will be procuring additional capacity from the private sector. There is a fundamental point about ensuring there is early intervention with children by therapists, and then a problem arises. If every therapist is going to spend 90 hours assessing children, there will be precious little resource for actual intervention. We need to get that balance right. That is something on which the Government is focusing and something we need to work on in respect of the legislative provision. We have asked for ideas and proposals around that.
Sentiment score: 0.18
The Health Service Executive has been highlighting the court decision for quite some time. That is the answer to the Deputy's question on that.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Deputy is not correct in that at all. He asked specifically about the law and I gave him a straight answer that this Government will deal with that aspect of it. However, the outgoing Government dealt with a whole load of other issues pertaining to this. For example, 4,162 assessments were completed in 2024, a 30% increase on 2023, and that upward trend is continuing with the assessments that were completed in the first three months of this year. There was a 65% increase in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year. It is not as if nothing is being done or the issue is being ignored. That is just a deliberate distortion by the Deputy's good self. He also needs to look at the reality and see what he is saying we should do about the balance between assessment and direct intervention with the therapists we have, be they those in the private or the public sector. There is a finite capacity. Maybe we can get more out of the entirety of that capacity of therapists in the country, be it private or public, but the Deputy needs to come clean as well and not just take the comfortable position of saying that whatever we produce on this side of the House, he will simply condemn and have a go at it.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I thank the Deputy for raising a very key issue. He began by speaking about the septic tanks that are largely associated with existing housing stock across the length and breadth of the country. It is important that we improve upon them and refurbish and develop them and provide grant assistance to enable people to replace septic tanks that are old and not performing to the optimal level. There are a lot of engineers in Uisce Éireann and a lot of them would argue that they know what they are doing.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I have met them. We discussed one of the critical issues in towns and villages across the country, which is the need to free up capacity, for example to local builders if they are developing a housing estate of 20 houses or 50 houses so that they would be able to develop their own treatment facility according to the specifications set by Uisce Éireann. That would then be subject to inspection. I think that would help to create additional housebuilding in towns and villages throughout the country where currently, because of the absence of capacity or because there is no further capacity, such projects cannot get off the ground. A memorandum of understanding is being developed by Uisce Éireann in respect of that issue to set out the proposals to enable it to happen. On the separation of storm water from sewage, I will not profess I am not as technically competent as the Deputy in this area. Likewise, the Deputy mentioned the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. All of Uisce Éireann's work is subject to compliance with the EPA, which is one of the regulatory authorities that govern Uisce Éireann along with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities and others. There has been a lot of progress made; of that there is no doubt. There has been a dramatic increase in water quality across the length and breadth of the country over the past decade or so. Local authorities did a lot of that work initially prior to the establishment of Irish Water. I think we need to maintain or retain local competence and knowledge in our local authorities on water, sewerage and so forth. There needs to be good partnerships between local authorities and Irish Water in that respect. I visited Arklow recently where a first-class state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant was provided by Irish Water six months ahead of schedule and on budget. A lot of progress is happening. I will relay what the Deputy was saying to Irish Water. I do not know whether the Deputy has engaged with its representatives, or others, as a Dáil Deputy. I note that the most favoured words among Independent groupings in this House are "common sense".
Sentiment score: 0.17
I suggest that maybe if you guys have a monopoly on it over everybody else-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
I will say no more than that.
Sentiment score: -0.30
I was not in government in 2013.
Sentiment score: 0.00
What is the Deputy saying about Askeaton?
Sentiment score: 0.00
I have spoken to Uisce Éireann representatives about this and they have a national mapping exercise already. With the best will in the world, if we want to build 50,000 houses per year and if we give an extra couple of billion euro to Uisce Éireann over the coming years, it will have to concentrate that spend on the big cities and big areas of population. Therefore, for smaller villages and towns we need an alternative system which allows for the provision of sewage treatment plants by the builder in accordance with detailed specifications by Irish Water, which has agreed to this now. It is my understanding that this will happen. That would help the Askeatons and Cloughjordans of this world and all of those who have been waiting for quite some time. If we look at the enormity of the investment required for every village in the country, we will see that it cannot be done centrally by Irish Water alone. The capacity just does not exist to do it.
Sentiment score: 0.16
I accept the Deputy's good wishes.
Sentiment score: 0.73