I want to thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion before us this evening. I welcome the gentlemen from the Gaeltacht here too this evening. I know housing is a serious issue in Dingle. I have people onto me nearly crying trying to source a house to rent. It is a fact that many people are going through this day after day. A lot of houses are taken up by tourists. The tourism sector is very important but I am telling the Minister that if we are serious about maintaining and preserving the Irish language, we need to build more houses in these places, such as in Dingle, so people can stay there. I am asking him to get after Kerry County Council to build social houses in Dingle. If people want, after a time, they can use the tenant purchase scheme to purchase these houses. There are many other villages, like Dún Chaoin and Ballyferriter in the greater municipal area, as well as Ventry, Lispole, Annascaul, Camp, Brandon, Cloghan, and Castlegregory. We have no plan to build houses in these little villages to maintain their identity and the culture. Likewise, in the Iveragh Peninsula, we have places like Ballinskelligs, Portmagee and Waterville. We need to build houses in those places. I ask the Minister of State to get the council to build those. There are many vacant houses and people who have vacant houses who are doing nothing at all with them must be given some incentive to do up the houses and rent them out. The Government has a good scheme for the Ukrainians. It pays €600 tax-free. I do not mind that going to them but we should do the same thing for our own Irish people. That would tempt people who have vacant houses into renting them to our own people because they are having severe difficulty, as I outlined. It is impossible to get planning along the Dingle peninsula because of the beauty of the place. People need a roof over their heads. There was the cheek of the planning regulator, when councillors in Kerry County Council voted to zone a bit of land for Mick O'Connell on Valentia Island, and he stuck his nose into and dezoned it. That is the kind of thing that has been happening to us. I have been asking the Government day after day to do something about the planning for one-off houses to allow people to build a house for themselves. They are asking for nothing else but to build a house and to ensure they get planning permission. I ask the Minister of State to get the local authorities into building houses because they are after giving up and there is no sign of them. It is about time the planning guidelines that we have been waiting for for the past six or seven years appeared. The Minister of State has not yet addressed that issue and I ask him to do something about it.

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