I do not need to dismiss the Sinn Féin housing policy because the people of Ireland did.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Sinn Féin must be one of the only Opposition parties in the European Union to actually see its vote collapse in the general election, down by 5.5%. It lost the election.
Sentiment score: -0.22
This is a very serious issue, and I repeat that an issue that is serious deserves a serious response. When I was elected leader of my party and then Taoiseach less than a year ago, I made it very clear that we all needed to work together to fix housing for once and for all. At the start of this new Dáil, we should not seek to divide on this matter. We should actually seek to come into these Houses with constructive ideas as to how we can do more together to ensure the aspiration of people wanting to own their own homes is realised for more and more people, that we get people out of the box rooms in their mums' and dads' homes and we give them the ability to own their own home. That is what we have to do. Just over 7,000 homes were being built after the financial crash. Working together with colleagues in the previous Government, we increased this to more than 30,000 per year. Let us be very clear. The Deputy is correct.
Sentiment score: 0.14
The completion figures for last year are disappointing; that is true. When we look at the past three years together, however, we have significantly exceeded the housing targets that were set. We significantly exceeded them in 2022 and 2023. We now have good momentum, with in excess of 60,000 commencement notices over the past year. This will, of course, as night follows day, translate into increased completion figures in the time ahead. It appears there was some displacement in the market as a result of development levy waivers and water connections, where commencements increased at a higher rate than completions have so far. Under the scheme we put in place and the measures we took to reduce the cost of building a home, a significant pipeline of homes have been commenced and must be built under the scheme by the end of 2026. That is good news for young people and their parents watching these proceedings today. Of course, we have published a new programme for Government. It commits to publishing a new fully funded, radical and realistic housing plan to get more homes built. We are going to ramp up construction capacity to reach 300,000 homes by 2030, and we are placing a special emphasis on supporting homeownership. Not all of the recent housing figures are bad. Banking and Payments Federation Ireland confirmed last week that first-time buyer activity is now at a 16-year high, with more than 500 individuals or couples buying their first home last year. These are real people, in the Deputy's constituency and mine. The outgoing Government met and exceeded plenty of other targets in housing and many other areas, including employment and job creation. I assure people listening at home that we are going to continue to adopt policies that ramp up home building. I understand that a lot of people are not happy with progress in this area. We have a lot more work to do. The Housing Commission has said that, and it is right on that point. Rather than point scoring or throwing rhetoric around the Dáil, we need to continue to work collectively for better solutions for housing. The Deputy can play a constructive role in that work or he can come in and throw brickbats. That is up to him. The Minister wrote to me last summer in good faith outlining what a number of projections available to him, including from Deutsche Bank, said would happen. Of course, that did not materialise. The new Government is more determined than ever to deliver for the people of Ireland. Sinn Féin's alternative policies did not convince the people at all.
Sentiment score: 0.15
I have already made very clear to the Deputy about the programme for Government, negotiated by parties who won a clear majority in the last election and working with Independents, and what we have agreed to do in the programme for Government. That is what our focus is on; moving forward with the delivery of homes with real solutions for people. If the Deputy is seriously suggesting housing statistics cost his party the election, that is a bit ridiculous. People looked at their policies; that is what cost them the election. You would not really own your own home under the proposed Sinn Féin leasehold plan. Does the Deputy remember that? His leader could not answer a simple question - will the banks lend to buy a home? People right across the country-----
Sentiment score: 0.12
Ceann Comhairle, I have to be allowed to speak in this House. We are not getting back to last-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
She could not clarify that you could even access a loan or a mortgage under Sinn Féin's plan. The banks have still not confirmed that. His party would have pulled away the first-time buyer scheme-----
Sentiment score: 0.13
-----it would have scrapped the help-to-buy scheme and it would have ended the first home bridge the gap scheme.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Deputies do not like it. They seem to think their job is just to critique.
Sentiment score: -0.14
Their job is also to put forward alternatives-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
They put forward alternatives that were emphatically rejected by the people who interpreted them-----
Sentiment score: -0.51
They failed to deliver, they lost the election and we are getting on with the job.
Sentiment score: -0.68
I thank Deputy Connolly for raising the issue of infrastructure and I want to get straight to that. I acknowledge the huge impact the storm has had on people right across the country and most particularly, people in the west and the north west. I am very conscious of the fact we can read out figures showing how many people have been reconnected to power and very good progress has been made, but that is obviously cold comfort to the 12,000 premises that remain without power today. As the Deputy rightly says, 2,750 of them are in her own city and county of Galway. I want to obviously thank the over 3,000 ESB workers who are working on the front line in very difficult conditions repairing power and I want to thank our European and British colleagues who joined in that assistance. The phrase "lessons learned" is a bit of a hackneyed phrase in politics but never has it been more true in terms of the preparedness that we need to carry out now for adverse weather events. It is absolutely clear that we see a very significant change in the climate and we see a very significant increase in severe weather events. That resilience and preparedness that we need to build up nationally and locally is so important. The Deputy's question today specifically follows on from that because adverse weather events highlight the vulnerabilities we can experience in certain parts of the country and, indeed, in all parts of the country in infrastructure as well. I am pleased that meeting with the city council took place; I know my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, was there as was said and I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, was there too. We stand ready as a Government at the start of this new mandate to work with Galway City Council and Galway County Council on those infrastructure projects and the list they provided to Deputy Connolly. I understand when it comes to things like the flood defence scheme, Corrib go Cósta, the funding is in place. The frustration that often drives people crazy in this country is the length of time it takes from an announcement of a scheme or a planned scheme to the delivery on the ground. That is why, as we negotiated our new programme for Government, we have placed a very strong emphasis on infrastructural delivery. We will see a very significant uplift, Deputy, in capital spending. That is objectively true and I think it will reach €95 billion by the end of this Government's term. What will be key for our citizens is whether they get value for money and whether the projects are delivered in an efficient and timely manner. I know that will apply to Galway as well. That is why we have plans to expand the role of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, with a particular focus on infrastructure delivery and a new division will be established within that Department to drive that forward as well. I am very happy to work constructively with the Deputy and other Galway TDs on those infrastructural projects, be it the wastewater treatment plants or the flood defence scheme. I also point out, and the Deputy would expect me to, that Galway has obviously seen a significant amount of investment over the last number of years in the train station, URDF funding, the new facility at the hospital, the plans for further developments and our commitment to try to get this ring road project moving too. I accept there is a lot more we need to do.
Sentiment score: 0.40
I hear the Deputy and I hear her advocacy for her county and her region, and for good reason. We will review the national development plan and our capital plans. We intend to publish that as a Government in the summer period. This will be an opportunity to map out what the increased level of capital funding will mean for the lifetime of this Government and provide that pipeline of capital funding. It will absolutely allow us to not just deliver on the capital commitments that have already been made for many projects across our country, including in Galway, but it will also allow us to add new ones. I want to re-emphasise a point that I genuinely feel very strongly about and it is an honest point to make. It cannot just be about the level of funding, although that is important and we will increase it - take that bit as read - we will also have to look at how we can make sure approval processes are efficient. The word "simplification" needs to be put up in lights here. We need to be able to work in partnership with local authorities and State agencies. I do not level this at Galway county or city council but we do not need buck-passing or saying that something is for another agency. We need to come together and deliver these projects. I do not believe funding will be the challenge.
Sentiment score: 0.27
I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for the constructive way he is engaging on this issue. I am very conscious that this is still a very real issue in his own constituency. While we talk about the next steps, and he rightly talks about the lessons learned, I am conscious we are still seeing in many parts of the west and north west a significant number of people - around 12,000 premises - without electricity. It is down from 13,000 this morning and 22,000 yesterday. This is going on a very long time for people and I genuinely appreciate that. I thank the Deputy for his comments about the work of the Minister, Deputy Calleary. We are grateful to him for the work he has been doing and being out on the ground engaging with communities. So far in that humanitarian assistance scheme more than 4,000 claims and, I think, in excess of €800,000 have been paid out to date. We have been prioritising and putting a particular focus on those who have been without power or indeed those who are most vulnerable. Households who lost power and submitted claims for costs will have those claims dealt with as soon as possible. I provide the Deputy's constituents with that assurance. I take the point the Deputy makes in the way he subtly but rightly differentiated between the ESB and the ESB crews. I thank the ESB crews, the more than 3,000 men and women out doing incredible work. There are absolutely lessons to be learnt for the ESB and for Uisce Éireann, Departments, agencies and local authorities. There is just no doubt about that. Even in a country as small geographically as Ireland, the response varied very significantly depending on which county people happened to live in. We need to look at that and look at how there can be a much more standard and consistent approach. We need to look at how we can support the communities to be more resilient. I take the Deputy's point. I was in Monaghan recently engaging with the Civil Defence and others. The phone network had gone down there as well. They were dusting off old phones in the Civil Defence. Old technology, if you like, was the only technology left working. What do you do when the technology goes down? If we can manage to do this in many parts of the world, surely we can manage to do it in this country as well. I think the Deputy is right on trees. We are going to have to make big calls in this situation. He has spoken to me about this before. The idea that we are spending millions, and in this storm a hell of a lot more than that, restoring power lines that have been knocked down by trees and then putting the lines back up among the trees again does not make any sense. It is a danger and Government is considering all options in this regard. The ESB already has significant powers and we need to consider if there is a need for any further clarity on this. My colleague, the Minister for agriculture, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, had a specific meeting yesterday on that issue of windblown wood. I am conscious the TAMS scheme is available for farmers too but we need to see if there are gaps there that need to be plugged. We remain engaged. I am ruling nothing out, nor is the Government. We are keeping an open mind and engaging constructively. There will be task forces and reports to review, but that is separate to and distinct from helping people in the here and now with the emergency they are feeling in their homes, their businesses and on their farms.
Sentiment score: 0.12
The Deputy is speaking a lot of common sense on this. The Government is going to engage with the local authorities regarding generators for communities. One of the most obvious things we should be doing is making sure there are more generators available in communities for when things like this happen. The Deputy is right that nobody can storm but we have to be better prepared in terms of resilience and infrastructure at that local level. Of course we look at national response, but it is important in any review that we look at the on-the-ground response. The Deputy mentioned the word "community". One of the good things we have seen from this very difficult time is community coming together. I am delighted we have been investing in things like sports capital grants because thank God we now have more GAA clubs and football clubs with showers and changing room facilities that they have put to use for communities at this very difficult time. The Minister for communications, Deputy O'Donovan, who is here beside me, is bringing in all the telecommunication companies next week to specifically engage on a number of those issues. My understanding is the vast majority of NBI customers now have their connection back but we will engage with those companies.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I will come back to the Deputy on each of the specific matters, including on the agriculture point he made.
Sentiment score: 0.03