14. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [71606/25]

Sentiment score: 0.00

The housing crisis has had varied and wide ramifications in Irish society. One of them is a serious fall in the fertility rate in this State. There has been a 30% fall in the number of births annually. There has been a 20,000 fall in the number of births annually since Celtic tiger times. Some 69% of people aged 25 years or under are living with their parents. Well over 40% of adults who are under 30 are living with their parents. That is changing the very nature of Irish society. The ability for adults to form relationships to have children is being deleted for hundreds of thousands of people. This is having massive ramifications. Schools are now noticing that there is a fall in the number of children being enrolled. An unbalanced demographic structure has serious consequences for our workforce and our pensions. Planning, permitting, licensing, tendering and judicial reviews here are among the slowest in the whole of the European Union. While the Taoiseach's Government has announced plans, they are not ambitious enough and I do not believe they will be implemented in a timely fashion.

Sentiment score: -0.01

They are; 30 schools are falling this year. And childcare.

Sentiment score: -0.08

23. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent attendance at COP30. [71607/25]

Sentiment score: 0.00

Today the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, stated that the Mercosur deal held many benefits for the Irish farmers and the wider economy. He said that for Ireland, Mercosur could be a significant beneficiary. This is incredible. It is the Minister of State putting up the white flag of surrender in terms of Mercosur. It comes just a few days after the Government put up the white flag in terms of the Irish fishing industry. Make no mistake about it, the Mercosur trade agreement will damage the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers in this country. All the fine words about COP mean nothing if we are going to facilitate or allow Mercosur to go through. It beggars belief that at a time of climate crisis, we will be bringing in Brazilian beef, which is produced in an environmentally unfriendly way, by which forests are burnt down and land is overgrazed, not to mention the environmental cost of transporting all that beef from South America to Europe. Will the Government stop speaking from both sides of its mouth in terms of Mercosur?

Sentiment score: -0.01

What is our position?

Sentiment score: 0.00