I thank Deputy Doherty for his question and I thank the Oireachtas committee on housing for its work. The committee report published this morning makes 14 recommendations. Of course, we will work our way through the report and consider all of the recommendations, as we do with all committee reports. Page 5 of the report states that these committee recommendations arise from hearings held on 16 December last year. A number of decisions and actions have been taken by Government since then. As I look through the recommendations, I am pleased to say that many are in train or in place. The report calls for a greater focus on prevention and for increased funding, which we are providing. Very importantly, the committee recommends that the best interests of the child must be a key priority in addressing homelessness, and I believe everyone across the House can agree on that. We agree and that is why legislation is being brought forward to amend the Housing Act 1988 to ensure that consideration is given to the best interests of the child in the process of making decisions on accommodation for households. This is a key ask of many of those who work with homeless families across the country. The report also seeks a child and family homelessness prevention plan. I am pleased to tell the House that this plan will be published before the summer recess. It is important work. We do not want to see anybody homeless in Ireland but we all particularly want to see progress made on children in homelessness. This plan is intended to drive a real focus on preventing children and families entering emergency accommodation while also providing enhanced supports for children who do experience homelessness. It will also include measures to accelerate exits and to reduce the time children and their families spend in homeless emergency accommodation. This was also a recommendation of the report. The committee also recommends engagement with stakeholders. There has objectively never been more engagement but Government is always open to hearing any ideas from across this House as to what more could be done. Since this committee hearing in December of last year, we have seen the legislation come into effect on 1 March 2026. That puts a range of protections in place in respect of tenancies. As the Deputy will know, we have extended the rent pressure zones nationwide. These now include the Deputy's own county of Donegal, which was previously not included. We brought in six-year tenancies. That is very important. We now live in a country where the majority of tenants are covered by an effective no-fault eviction ban. There was a debate in this House as to the right way to do that and there was debate about making sure that policies did not result in smaller landlords, those with one or two houses, leaving the market, causing a supply challenge. However, it is a statement of fact that there is now an effective no-fault eviction ban in place for the majority of tenants in the country. That also acts on a recommendation of the report. We are also continuing a record level of investment in social housing, with €2.9 billion in capital allocated to support the delivery of social homes. We will continue to do that. The report is welcome. I take the Deputy's raising of the important issue of housing in the spirit intended. There is no more important domestic issue. However, it is not true to say that this cross-party report says that the Government should bring in a no-fault eviction ban. The cross-party report says "The Committee urges the Minister to keep all options under review including an emergency ban on no fault evictions". Of course, the Government keeps things under review. Let us not misrepresent the good cross-party work that was done in relation to this report.
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While Deputy Doherty can speak for Sinn Féin, he certainly does not speak for Fine Gael backbench TDs or Senators.
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I speak for the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party.
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It is not helpful for the people at home or those in the Gallery for people to shout me down. The reality is that I speak for the Government in his House today and, as its leader, I speak for the Fine Gael Party. We will follow our policy agenda, which is clearly published, while the Deputy will come into this House and continue to oppose and object every positive measure that we bring forward. Of course, the comments that I have made in relation to no-fault evictions apply to tenancies in place since the legislation came in. How could it apply to anything else? We have put that in since the legislation in March. The Deputy knows that------
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-----to be true. We have also taken a number of other measures, including this week, with more than €800 million through the housing, activation and infrastructure office to help counties right across this country to put in place key enabling pieces of infrastructure that are required to deliver more homes. Housing is an emergency in this country. Housing is a real challenge. The cross-party committee has done good work. Do not misrepresent what it has said, though. It has not said to bring in a no-fault eviction ban. It has said to keep all things under review. It has made 14 recommendations. Many of them are under way. Many of them merit further consideration. They will, of course, all be taken very serious.
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. At the outset, I agree with him on the importance of the public-only consultant contract. It is something that arose from one of the better days or better periods of time in this House where the Government and Opposition worked together on a vision for the future of the health service called Sláintecare. I was the Minister at the time. The Deputy's former party leader, Róisín Shortall, chaired that committee. It has produced a good blueprint that we are all working our way through. It has taken some of the day-to-day politics in terms of policy direction out of health. That is a good thing. I want everybody who works in our health service, no matter what role they play, to understand that this Oireachtas speaks with one very clear voice when it comes to public health policy and we all expect it to be followed. I also agree with the Deputy that there has been progress. We see the benefits of the public-only consultant contract. I will not go through them all, but as an example, St. Vincent's University Hospital has brought about a Saturday hub with participation by 40 consultants. In Wexford General Hospital, we now have weekend consultant cover in emergency medicine, surgery, paediatrics and gynae services. In University Hospital Waterford, we have seen a minimum of 26 consultants rostered at the weekend with outpatient diagnostics running until 8 p.m. during the week and on certain weekends. I use these as examples of where when this is applied correctly, we can see the real benefit in terms of public healthcare. In relation to some of what has emerged, I acknowledge the Deputy and Deputy Rice's work on this. The idea of anybody being given a gift or paid to do a nixer effectively is not in line with the contract. It is not an improved HSE arrangement. It is not something that the Department of Health, the Minister for Health, the HSE or the Government would condone. Measures are now being taken to ensure that this practice ceases with immediate effect. My understanding is that the HSE chief executive is currently engaging with all the regional health areas and the regional clinical directors in relation to this practice. I wish to make a couple of other points because people - certainly not the Deputy; quite the opposite to him - sometimes try to muddy the waters in relation to this. As would be the case in all specialties, the maternity consultant on duty in any hospital is responsible for the care of all patients requiring attention regardless of whether they are private or public. This idea that if a consultant is on call, they have to be given some sort of gift or payment is not how it works. Doctors know that, too. Cross-cover between consultants is routine. It is an expected part of how our public health services are delivered, ensuring continuity of care. Any suggestion of private financial arrangements in this context is inconsistent with contractual obligations, raises concerns and risks diverting time and resources away from treating public patients. We have seen no tolerance from the Minister for people who sign on the dotted of a contract and do not adhere by it. The Deputy can be sure that the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is working intensely on ensuring the full implementation. Speaking as the Minister of Finance, and lest anyone be of any other view, I wish to say that any income, be it direct or indirect, gained from employment is taxable. Revenue has standard audit compliance procedures that it operates across all sectors. Whether it is payment in the traditional way, a gift or a nixer, please be aware of the taxable obligations on any income derived through that.
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I assure the Deputy that there are few more proactive Ministers than Deputy Carroll MacNeill. She is fully committed to the implementation and enforcement of the public-only consultant contact. We have already seen strong national uptake of the contract, with 3,416 consultants signed up as of the end of May, including 1,220 new entrants. There are over 2,000 consultants who switched from the older contract as well. We now have a health service where 69% of all consultants working in our hospitals are now on the public-only consultant contract. This represents a lot of progress in the time between now and 2023 when it was introduced.
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I know. I will get those. Consultant numbers have also increased significantly. Regarding any breaches, the Minister for Health and the wider Government have shown that they simply will not be tolerated. There is a process under way - I have briefed on this at the Cabinet subcommittee on health - within the HSE and led by the chief executive, regional health area by regional health area and hospital by hospital, to make sure there is full compliance. The Minister is very eager to keep engaging with the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Rice, as Chair of the Oireachtas health committee on this. That committee is a useful place to continue monitoring progress. This can be a game-changer for the delivery of public health. When someone signs on the dotted line and takes the larger salary, they are expected to deliver on those terms just like anybody working in the public service.
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I agree with a variety of things the Deputy said but I fundamentally disagree with the baloney and spin coming from some local authority officials in relation to dereliction. Deputy Sheehan represents a county and city with an excellent record in tackling dereliction. Last time I checked this country has one national set of laws. It is quite simple; I am not buying into this idea that all local authorities are performing equally well when it is simply untrue. Eleven did not bother collecting a cent. I can find more derelict properties in County Wicklow on my nightly walk than the entire local authority can find in the course of a year. We have to take this deadly seriously, speak with one voice as an Oireachtas and when we say dereliction is a scourge, put in place a variety of measures to help people fix it such as the living city initiative, croí cónaithe with the vacancy grant and CPO powers. Some local authorities are doing a bloody great job and we thank them for that. Some are not treating this like an emergency. It is as simple as - no one is going to change my mind on this but we are going to change the law because they cannot be trusted or depended on to deliver on this so we will bring in the powers to rectify this through the Revenue Commissioners. I know this from my own councillors. They tell me they raise it week in, week out at council meetings across the country. Councillors are frustrated about this as well. Dereliction is a scourge. Everybody needs to take it much more seriously including local authorities. Some like Limerick are doing great but some are not doing well at all and it is not on. In relation to the best interests of the child, I agree with the Deputy as does the Government. We will amend the Housing Act 1988 so that it will be very clear that in the decision-making process on accommodation for households the best interests of the child are included. I also agree with the Deputy and the committee on the child and family homelessness prevention plan. It is committed in the Government's national housing plan. It will be published before the summer recess. I will make sure the points in that committee report, if they are not already encompassed, are given further consideration because it is an important area we all want to make progress on across parties. We made changes on the no-fault eviction ban in March in relation to new tenancies and a no-fault eviction ban except for some small landlords. That was an attempt to get the balance right between increasing renter and tenant protections and supply. We also expanded RPZs and brought in six-year tenancies. They are practical measures. Next week we will see the rural planning guidelines to help make it easier for people to build in their communities. In the budget there will be dereliction taxation to help to tackle dereliction. This week saw housing activation funding to try to get housing going. Every day, we take more measures together to try to make a real difference. We saw in the past that a blanket no-fault eviction ban resulted in a significant spike in notices to quit when it was lifted. We need to be careful. That is why the wording of the report is quite careful in asking that we keep matters under review.
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I am really confused with the Deputy's position on dereliction because he is defending the system rather than the people the system is meant to represent. People are being let down by inactivity on the derelict sites levy. I gave the Deputy an open goal and said his own council is doing a great job. Limerick is one of the best. It has no superpowers the rest of the country does not have except maybe on the GAA pitch. There are 11 local authorities that did not collect anything. It is not good enough. Deputies can come into this House, kick me around and say the Government needs to do more on housing; that is fine. The Government has a major role to play in housing but so does local government. It is unacceptable that more than €26 million could have been collected was not. We saw in the excellent journalism of "RTÉ Investigates" bizarre baloney in the excuses why this had not been taken more seriously. I am not commentating on this; I am acting. That is why this week I brought forward proposals to bring in a derelict site tax because if they do not take it seriously we will. The Deputy is defending the system but it is letting young people down. I have the table here; it is available. Look at the local authorities that did not collect any money and did not think there was any dereliction in their own county. It is not good enough. This Government is not living by arbitrary deadlines of what more are we going to do by this or that date. Every day we come to work we take more concrete actions help to tackle homelessness. This week it was the housing activation funding across the country including the Deputy's county. The child and family homelessness action plan is the next major step we will take before the summer recess.
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I thank Deputy Stanley. Firstly can I say, because fair is fair, that Laois is a good performer when it comes to housing. I have my sheet here. There is nowhere to hide here, by the way. The data is there. It shows who is doing a good job and who is not doing a good job. Laois has actually done quite a good job in relation to dereliction. I think there were 13 derelict sites levied during the year 2024. Laois has performed pretty well when it comes to housing delivery. It has done very well on the housing delivery targets and in relation to zoning. I acknowledge that and I thank the county council for its work in relation to that. I am told by my colleague and friend Deputy Aird that this week Laois did receive good news in relation to funding, I believe it is €10 million, for the new road in Portlaoise. I think it was successful in two projects in relation to the housing activation and infrastructure office as well. The Government is doing its part. One of the reasons we set up the housing activation office - Deputy Stanley does have a valid point in relation to this - is that infrastructure is a key enabler for housing, 100%. That is why this week we allocated more than €800 million in funding to projects right across the country. We intend to build on that. The Deputy might that remember call 1, which is the round we have just given out, was only open to local authorities to apply for funding. In the future I think we will look at going beyond local authorities to give opportunities for partnership with private industry and with developers as well. The Deputy mentioned sports clubs. The sports capital funding will be opening very shortly and I expect clubs in the Deputy's own county and right across the country will benefit. The Governmental will receive an update on that this month. That is important too. We have a lot of funding. The Deputy said to get the chequebook out. We have a lot of funding allocated in relation to infrastructure. We intend as a Government to spend €275 billion on infrastructure between now and 2035. One of the collective challenges that central government and local government will have is speeding up delivery. This is why getting the Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026 passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas before the summer recess is a key enabler of delivering on some of those projects. Schools are a real issue, 100%, and I know there are a lot of pressure points, particularly in high-demand population areas. There will be further allocations in relation to school funding from a capital point of view in the time ahead. The list that has been published is not the final word on the matter. There will be a need to do more and the medium-term fiscal plan the Government has published has unallocated capital that we will be able to return to again. I hope education can benefit from that. I push back slightly when I hear this idea that the councils are willing to build a few more houses if we are willing to give them A, B or C. It is not that. It is not binary. There is a housing emergency and everybody has a responsibility to do everything they can to build homes so our young people can get out of the box rooms and into their own homes. It is not the case that they will do it, but they will only do it if they are given us this. They need to do it. They need to do their job. It is a national emergency and they should get on with it. However, they will find in partnership a Government willing to work to put in place that key infrastructure to make sure we do not just build homes but also build sustainable communities.
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I think my friends in the Labour Party are suggesting they were not in government then.
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Yes. Neither Ged nor I were born so we cannot be held responsible for that one.
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There are a couple of serious points there. This is the first time I have ever been in this House while somebody seems to be bemoaning so many Ministers coming to Laois. Deputy Stanley obviously has not met Deputy Willie Aird. It is easier to go to Laois and try to deliver. We intend to continue to visit. Deputy Stanley is right that there is no election for quite a number of years, be assured of that, but there is a hell of a lot of work to do. We intend to be out and about on the ground in communities, including the Deputy's good county of Laois, working with communities and trying to deliver. We are delivering. We are delivering a lot when it comes to infrastructure. There were two announcements of projects this week for Laois through the housing activation office. Every €3 we are going to spend on capital over the next number of years is going to be spent on housing or infrastructure to enable the delivery of housing. That is an important thing to say. I want to acknowledge that there is good partnership. I get a bit spiky every now and again when there are different parts of the system that needs to do more. I think that is part of our job. In general there is good partnership between the Government, local government, approved housing bodies, the LDA, and bringing in Uisce Éireann and the ESB. Everybody has to work together if we are to rectify these issues. I take the point that Deputy Stanley makes about water and the like. The change we have made to allow developer-led infrastructure in smaller communities will make a difference in County Laois, as will the rural planning guidelines, which I expect to go to Cabinet next week.
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