The tenant in situ scheme has been one of those successes with regard to preventing homelessness. We need that circular or the criteria to issue as soon as possible and, obviously, the funding to be provided to local authorities. We have had a huge number of cases. Louth County Council made a large number of purchases that saved an awful lot of people from dreadful circumstances, but a huge number have been stalled within the last period. I accept checks and balances with regard to purchasing houses that are up to standard are needed but there have also been times when the local authority is not looking at old local authority housing stock and is literally looking at what are almost brand new houses, and I have spoken to the Minister before about how there needs to be flexibility with regard to the money from, let us say, a maintenance point of view. While I accept they need to be up to a certain specification, there needs to be flexibility. That needs to be built into the system. I can think of one young woman in a house in a local authority housing estate that should be bought even from an estate management point of view. It would be a win all round, including for her, for that particular estate and so on. That flexibility needs to be in place but we need this to happen as soon as possible.

Sentiment score: 0.33

In the context of what I said earlier, we all get that the tenant in situ scheme absolutely worked and saved people from homelessness. We are very worried about the tighter criteria. I am specifically asking for some flexibility where local authorities have for the past while been almost only looking at brand-new purchases, or close to that, because they were afraid of getting caught, for want of a better term, on the hook from the point of view of maintenance. There is a problem with maintenance in general. We have all dealt with those who work in maintenance and know that at times it is a question of robbing Peter to pay Paul. We need to look at this particular solution. Estate management issues can often be addressed where it makes sense to buy back the house in a local authority housing estate that is occupied by a very good tenant. We need situations like that to end in success for all in order to remove the threat of people falling into homelessness.

Sentiment score: 0.18

We are dealing with major infrastructural issues with regard to Uisce Éireann. There are housing developments in respect of which there are plans to put in initial water treatment schemes on the basis that there is not capacity in the rest of the system. In the part of Dundalk I live in, we have an issue in removing wastewater. We have had near flooding incidents on multiple occasions. We have had a long-term issue with brown water and manganese reacting with chlorine. Pilot schemes are in operation and seem to be successful, but we need to see all this working as soon as possible. I concur with Deputy Ó Broin and welcome the fact that there seems to be opposition across the board at this stage regarding the return of water charges, because they are not the solution. A major part of that has been the reaction of the public over the past while. That is what will determine that there will be no return of water charges. We would like absolute support for Deputy Ó Broin's legislation.

Sentiment score: 0.09

We have to be absolutely straight in the sense that Ireland at the minute is absolutely awash with cocaine and we are dealing with addicts who would previously have had an issue with heroin. We are probably talking about crack cocaine and that obviously leads to a particular set of issues particularly as regards crime and the impact on the wider community. I agree with Deputy Smith. He is probably talking about the family addiction support network that we have both engaged with and that deals with families who are suffering because of the issues caused by addiction. We could not have enough resources for youth diversion projects such as those being operated at The House in Cox's Demesne Youth and Community Project, Muirhevnamore and beyond at this time. We need to get absolutely real. We are talking a multiagency approach. We need to deal with the fact of ongoing criminality, the bad examples that exist that we are all aware and know of. We have seen examples of where the Criminal Assets Bureau has taken action. We need to see more of that. I have seen drug dealers who have had houses taken off them. It is just the cost of doing business and then they are back in action again. I have spoken to the senior Minister before about the chaos caused by drug addiction and by criminality and pointed out that we do not have the powers, whether we are talking about Tusla, the councils or right across to An Garda Síochána. There needs to be a real conversation. We need a real plan to deal with all of us.

Sentiment score: -0.11