Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí as ucht an rúin seo. Ní chuirfidh an Rialtas in aghaidh an rúin seo. Le comhaontú an Tí, leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh le mo ráiteas i mBéarla. The Government is not opposing this motion given the urgent need for housing and the Government's housing action plan, Delivering Homes, and Building Communities 2025-2030, which includes a range of actions aimed at increasing housing supply across all tenures and all parts of the country, including in rural and Gaeltacht areas. This includes financial supports for those seeking to buy or build new homes and to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use as homes, in addition to significant levels of capital investment in State-funded social and affordable housing. Under the croí cónaithe ready-to-build scheme, local authorities make serviced sites in towns and villages available to individual purchasers at a discount on market value for the building of a property for occupation as the principal private residence of the purchaser. This, coupled with the enhanced support under the croí cónaithe vacant property refurbishment grant for vacant or derelict properties and the number of significant investment schemes that are now aligned to advance the town centre first policy approach, will support increased housing supply and respond to the varying housing needs of rural areas, including Gaeltacht communities. In 2024 and 2025, there were 302 approved applications for the vacant property refurbishment grant within Gaeltacht areas. Under the national housing plan, each local authority will prepare a housing delivery action plan setting out its planned delivery of social and affordable housing to 2030 in line with targets that will be set by my Department in the first quarter of this year in order to ensure that 72,000 social homes will be delivered by 2030. In preparing its plan, each local authority will reflect local need to ensure the right mix of homes to respond to local need and priorities. The action plan also sets out the importance of infrastructure delivery in unlocking housing opportunities. The recent launch of the housing infrastructure investment fund by the housing activation office established in my Department demonstrates the Government’s commitment to tackling the barriers to housing delivery. This €1 billion fund will underpin enhanced collaboration and co-ordination across infrastructure providers. These measures help to ensure that essential infrastructure keeps pace with housing needs and supports long-term community resilience. The State has also committed to significant investment in enabling infrastructure such as water and wastewater, underpinned by a record national development plan allocation of €12.2 billion for the water sector over the next five years. My Department’s rural water programme, delivered through the local authorities, provides investment in group water schemes and in water and wastewater infrastructure for rural towns and villages, ensuring safe, reliable and sustainable drinking water and wastewater services. Overall funding of €243 million has been approved for projects, including capital support for the multi-annual rural water programme from 2024 to 2026 to upgrade infrastructure, improve water quality, strengthen source protection and enhance resilience. The next call for applications launches in June, reinforcing the Government’s continued commitment to investment in rural and Gaeltacht water services. In addition, the private well grant and domestic wastewater treatment system grant schemes provide practical financial assistance to all households nationally, including in Gaeltacht areas, supporting one-off housing and ensuring environmental compliance where connection to a public system is not feasible. The supporting people pillar of the plan also includes a number of actions targeted at rural areas. This includes the intention to publish a national planning statement on rural housing in the second half of 2026 in order to provide a more consistent approach by all planning authorities to rural housing. The plan also includes a specific recognition that the availability of an appropriate mix of suitable housing is key to the sustainability of thriving Gaeltacht and island communities. The plan commits to the publication of a national planning statement in relation to housing in Gaeltacht areas in the first half of 2027 to provide clarity and consistency within the planning system in relation to the protection of the Irish language. The development of this national planning statement is being informed by the work of an interdepartmental group. When the statement is finalised and issued, it will be required to be applied consistently by planning authorities and An Coimisiún Pleanála in the performance of their functions under the planning Acts. In advance of the national planning statement being finalised, the development plans guidelines for planning authorities that were issued in 2022 give guidance to local authorities on the preparation of housing strategies with particular regard to the needs of Gaeltacht residents and to ensuring development proposals in Gaeltacht areas have a positive impact on the linguistic and cultural heritage that can be robustly assessed at planning application stage. These guidelines also give guidance on the inclusion of local development policies reflecting language-planning areas, which are a separate designation under the Gaeltacht Act 2012 and relate to language planning, for which my colleague, the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, holds functional responsibility. In addition, the Planning and Development Act 2024, which is being commenced on a phased basis, sets out the obligation for planning authorities to prepare strategies and include objectives, which must be addressed in the drafting of their development plans, governing local development policies in respect of any Gaeltacht area. Where there is a Gaeltacht area within the planning authority’s administrative area, the development plan strategy must include objectives for “the protection of the linguistic and cultural heritage, including the promotion of Irish as the community language”. Where a development plan sets out settlement-specific objectives in respect of any Gaeltacht area, a priority area plan will subsequently be required for that Gaeltacht area to guide its development, renewal or regeneration, and to specify how the relevant settlement-specific objectives in the development plan are to be implemented. My Department is preparing a draft national planning statement which will provide guidance for local authorities when deciding on planning applications for short-term letting. This draft statement will align with the introduction of the short-term letting Bill by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, whereby all short-term letting accommodation providers will be required to register with Fáilte Ireland and to confirm that they are planning compliant. I continue to engage regularly with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, on matters that affect Gaeltacht areas, and my Department works closely with officials in the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, and with Uisce Éireann, local authorities and Údarás na Gaeltachta, to support the delivery of enabling infrastructure and housing in Gaeltacht areas. I acknowledge the importance of delivering on the needs of Gaeltacht communities, particularly through the supply of housing and the protection and promotion of the Irish language. My Department will continue to engage in this important work in conjunction with key stakeholders. Go raibh maith agaibh.
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Maybe the Deputy wants to elaborate on what standard of Irish he wants me to be able to say I have.
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We are getting into gradation.
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