Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Mar is gnách, más féidir, iarraim tacaíocht na dTeachtaí ó thaobh srianta ama de.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We have had a housing crisis for more than a decade. It is a social catastrophe driven by the political choices made by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in that time. The situation is especially acute for our young people, for public services and for business. It is crystal clear that the Government does not appreciate the scale of the challenge. What is needed is a major step change from the Government to deal with the crisis. The measures the Taoiseach announced earlier today see Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil continue to tinker around the edges of this emergency. Their big idea is to hand private developers €1 billion in public money, with absolutely no detail. This is back-of-the-envelope, threadbare stuff. Worse still, there is no guarantee that it will deliver genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy. There is not one extra cent for local authorities or approved housing bodies.

Let me be very clear: we need private builders building homes that ordinary people can afford to buy, but Government overreliance on the private sector is not the answer. The answer to the housing crisis - the game-changing answer - is for the State to intervene directly to build thousands of homes on public land. What we need is for the Government to initiate a massive scaling up of affordable and social housing; what we get is a Government scrambling about, clutching at straws and trying to save a failed housing plan. It is doubling down on failure. Rents are extortionate, house prices are through the roof, and rising mortgage interest rates put the possibility of buying a home beyond the reach of so many first-time buyers. The only defining decision the Government has taken, at a time when people struggle to put a roof over their heads, is to have lift the eviction ban. It still cannot answer the question as to where are people to go.

I will tell the Taoiseach about one of those people, a woman with whom I am dealing directly. Her name is Jasmine Graham. She is a retail worker and the mother of two young children. The family have been evicted and now share one small bedroom in a bed and breakfast. She has searched desperately for an alternative place to live but to no avail. In fact, the council asked her if she had a car to sleep in. Jasmine's youngest child is four and half and has been waiting three years for a diagnosis of autism. He finds it really hard to cope in a cramped space. Her other son, who is nine, is suffering stomach pains as a result of anxiety. Jasmine says it is hard for her but that it is especially hard for the boys. She tries to stay strong for them. "I have no other choice", she says.

Inniu, feicimid an Rialtas ag athdhearbhú plean tithíochta atá teipthe. Seo an réiteach mícheart. Tá athrú ó bhonn ag teastáil. Ní mór don Stát idirghabháil a dhéanamh le méadú ollmhór ar thithe ar phraghas réasúnta agus tithíocht shóisialta a bhaint amach. The Taoiseach's decision to subsidise private developers to the tune of €1 billion is simply the wrong call. It will not solve the housing crisis. What does the Taoiseach say to Jasmine and the many families who cannot find a place to live? Where are they to go? When will Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil finally learn the lesson that what we need is a massive scaling up of affordable and social housing and the State to intervene to build thousands of homes on public land?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Housing for All, which is the Government's housing plan, has had a really good start. At the moment, 300 to 400 people are buying their first homes every week.

That is the highest number since the Celtic tiger period. It gives me a lot of hope and confidence that we are going to be able to turn the tide on home ownership into the future. Some 30,000 new homes were built last year, and we expect a similar number to be built this year. That is more than have been built in over a decade. We are building public housing. We built more social housing last year than in any year since the 1970s, and more than Sinn Féin has ever built in Northern Ireland. We are going to build more again this year. That is our commitment. We are doing all of those things. After a slowdown last year in commencements, we have seen the number of commencements bouncing back in the past three months. The number of new homes being started is increasing again, which, I imagine, is a matter of concern for Sinn Féin. We are also likely to meet our overall supply target again this year, with more than 29,000 new homes expected to be built. That does not include student accommodation or derelict homes being brought back into use.

We need to do more. We understand the scale and depth of the crisis. We understand that people are suffering. That is why the Government decided earlier today to do more. As I have said many times, our mission is to restore the social contract and make home ownership affordable again. What we have decided to do today flows from the interim advice given to the Government by the Housing Commission in February, the housing summit I hosted with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in January and the ideas that have come from the three Government parliamentary parties. First, it is about reducing the cost of construction - the cost of building a new home. Second, it is about increasing the pace at which derelict and vacant properties are brought back into use. It is also about the Government co-funding the construction of apartments for affordable rental and cost rental, which is a new form of public ownership brought into existence by this Government.

The Deputy's charge is predictable but it is not true. One of the things we announced earlier is that we are going to increase the grants we give to people to enable them to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use to €50,000 and €70,000, respectively. That is not giving money to developers; it is giving money to young people and not-so-young people to bring vacant properties back into use in order that they can live in them or, in some cases, rent them out. I cannot believe Sinn Féin is against that. The Deputies opposite should not be against that; they should be supporting us in respect of it. Another decision we made today is to waive development levies for a year. This move is designed to stimulate and bring forward construction. Among those who will benefit from that are people throughout urban and rural Ireland who are building their own homes. I cannot believe Sinn Féin is against those people, as appears to be the case. When it comes to removing the development levies for schemes, the effect of what we are doing will be that instead of the cost of public infrastructure - footpaths, roads, community centres, playgrounds and open spaces - being imposed on developers and home purchasers, it will be socialised instead. We are saying that this is a public good, that this is public infrastructure and that we are going to pay for it out of taxes because we can afford to do so. It is remarkable that a party that claims to be what Sinn Féin claims to be could be against all those things.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Of course the removal of the development levies is a viability measure. It carries with it no guarantee of a reduction in cost to the end buyer. In other words, it does absolutely nothing in terms of the affordability dilemma. I do not know whether to be more taken aback by the Taoiseach's sense of self-congratulation or the obvious inertia in which he wallows at this point. Where I come from, Housing for All is more popularly known as housing for no one. That is the experience of people on the ground. The Government has set targets that are too low and it does not even meet them. There are sky-high house costs and sky-high rents, Today, the Government has come forward and, with a whole fanfare, announced its big idea That big idea is actually a very small idea that is not going to have the required impact to ensure that people will be able to access homes at an affordable level. The Taoiseach clearly has no answer for Jasmine or other families as to where they might go. I ask the Taoiseach why there is no additional money for local authorities and approved housing bodies in the Government's big idea.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Because only a few weeks ago we provided funding to local authorities to purchase 1,500 homes where landlords are selling up. That money has not yet all been drawn down.

If they draw it down, there will be more. Only a few weeks ago, we announced an increase in the amount of social homes we will provide this year through long-term leasing. The announcement today is not the totality of what we are doing on housing. Only a few weeks ago, we announced that additional money for local authorities. What we announced today is additional funding to bring derelict properties and vacant properties back into use. That is going to make a big difference all over Ireland and I hope the Deputy will support it. What we have also announced today is a removal of development levies for a year, designed to encourage and accelerate the amount of new building happening, saying that the taxpayer that can afford to will cover the cost of that public infrastructure with a view to bringing down the cost of construction and the cost of new housing. That should be the kind of thing the Deputy should be for. A much better Opposition party would be saying, "We welcome all the things you are doing but we would like you to do these as well."

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

You will have your chance soon enough.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin is not doing that, however. It does not have a housing plan. Its only housing plan is a change of Government and that is totally vacuous and empty.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This country is facing a housing disaster of epic proportions, with a shortage of homes that is exacerbating generational divides and inequality, affecting health outcomes and the education system and stifling job growth. Today, the Government is casting more money into yet another package of additional measures on housing which the Taoiseach says will deliver results but which represents the latest in a series of desperate efforts to kick some life into the Government's housing policy. It is yet another attempt to tweak the Housing for All policy which the Taoiseach must accept is failing. Indeed, it is a tacit acceptance that Housing for All is failing and has not delivered results, that the Government is out of its depth and lacks ambition, urgency and, crucially, any impact on the housing disaster. We have not seen the delivery and results that people require. Instead, the Government continues to throw good money after bad while nothing changes for those who are desperately seeking a home, confined to childhood bedrooms because they cannot afford to move out of their parents' homes or stuck paying exorbitant rents in tiny cramped bedsits. Since the indefensible lifting of the eviction ban, many more people are now facing the abyss of homelessness because they have been served an eviction notice and there are no contingency plans in place from the Government.

Among the tweaked measures announced today is a temporary waiver of development contributions. In effect, it is yet another unconditional subsidy for developers. I listened carefully to the Taoiseach's response to Deputy McDonald. He referred to people building their own homes but it is not limited to people building their own homes; presumably it will apply to all developers. The Taoiseach described it as socialising community cost, which is an extraordinary way to characterise what is an unconditional grant and subsidy to developers. Over-reliance on the private sector has simply failed, so why is the Government continuing to throw good money after bad in this way? Why is it not committing massive State investment in local authorities and approved housing bodies? Why is it not committing State investment in the delivery of social and affordable homes? Does it believe developers will pass on the benefit of this new subsidy to first-time buyers? Will the Government be requiring them to do so? Will a condition be placed on this subsidy? That is the sort of measure that should be introduced by the Government in this housing disaster. Today's package also included grants intended to tackle vacancy and dereliction but, again, this is tweaking. I presume the vacant housing plan launched in January has also failed and that is why these measures are being tweaked again.

What we are seeing is a series of piecemeal additions to the failed housing policy from this Government. Does the Taoiseach accept that the new package of measures amounts to no more than tweaking the edges of a plan that has no proven success and has certainly not delivered for the more than 11,700 people who are now in homelessness?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy on this. We have a very deep housing crisis that is affecting individuals and families in so many different ways. It is not about public versus private or people who want to buy their home against people who are in social housing.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Deputy Bacik did not say that.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If we are going to solve the housing crisis, we need to maximise the amount of public housing we build and we also need to maximise the amount of private housing we build. It is not an either-or situation. Only in the past few weeks, we announced increased investment for local authorities to provide more social housing and to purchase houses off landlords who are selling up, therefore making it social housing.

We only announced that a few weeks ago. What we have announced today is increased grants for people who bring vacant and derelict properties back into use and a temporary waiver of development levies to bring down the cost of construction. All those measures together make sense. It is not what the Opposition thinks: public versus private-----

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is not what we think.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----and pitting people who want to buy their home against people on the housing list. We need to help everyone. The plan is Housing for All; it is public and private and involves us doing as much as we can possibly do on both tracks.

I disagree with the Deputy's analysis. Housing for All has had a very good start. More social housing was built last year than in any year since the 1970s. Surely that is significant. We need to do better again this year. The thing that encourages me most is that about 400 people are buying their first homes every week. That is probably an underestimate. I can go into detail on that if the Deputy wishes. We have not seen that since the Celtic tiger period. Surely the Deputy should be welcoming that. Why not acknowledge progress when it is being made? It is fair enough to say that we need to do more or that we need to be quicker about what we are doing. Why try to pretend or gaslight people into thinking that no progress has been made? There is a record level of social housing – the highest since the 1970s. Some 30,000 new homes were built last year, and now we see 400 people buying their first homes each week. Surely this is progress that should be acknowledged.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach can dress up the figures any way he likes, but we are in housing disaster of epic proportions.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

They are facts.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt about that. Can the Taoiseach say how many new homes will be delivered as a result of today's latest series of tweaked measures? The Taoiseach has accused the Labour Party of lacking confidence. With a fifth Fine Gael Deputy announcing earlier today that he is jumping ship, it looks like there is a lack of confidence on the opposite side of the House.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Let us see how many of Deputy Bacik's Deputies run.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is certainly a lack of confidence in the capacity of the Government to deliver on housing. We have seen no ambition, no sense or urgency and, to date, no results. We have seen no evidence basis for decision-making. I got figures by means of a freedom of information request last week which show that the Residential Tenancies Board data on notices to quit, which were supposed to be supplied on 10 March, were delayed for a few weeks until after debates in the Dáil on the lifting of the eviction ban and the no-confidence motion. Was political pressure applied to the Residential Tenancies Board to delay publication of those data? Why is the Government so averse to evidence-based decision-making? Why can it not simply devote and commit the massive resources of the State, which is running a budget surplus of more than €5 billion, to an ambitious housing plan that will see delivery for the more than 11,700 people who are homeless?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There was no political pressure applied. I am happy to confirm that once again. The Labour Party has six or seven Deputies. She may not know this yet, but I imagine she will find that two of those will not be contesting the next election. That is roughly a third, which is quite a lot. People move on and retire, and they have the right to do so.

Tá an plean Tithíocht do Chách ag obair. Tá os cionn 400 daoine ag ceannach a gcéad teach gach seachtain, an líon is airde ó thréimhse an tíogair Cheiltigh. Tá an uimhir tithe sóisialta is fearr againn ó na seachtóidí agus tá tosaigh ag preabadh ar ais arís, Tá a fhios agam go gcaithfimid níos mó a dhéanamh. Baineann an pacáiste tithíochta atá aontaithe ag an Rialtas inniu le Tithíocht do Chách a luathú. Tagann sé ón gcomhairle don Rialtas ón gCoimisiún Tithíochta agus ón gcruinniú Feabhra tithíochta, a tharla siar i mí Eanáir. Tá sé faoi thrí rudaí: an costas tógála a laghdú; an luas a dhéantar athchóiriú ar fhoirgnimh atá folamh a mhéadú; agus maoiniú Rialtais chun árasáin a thógáil ar cíos inacmhainne.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The OECD stated earlier today that Irish households experienced a massive drop in living standards last year. Under the Government, people have got poorer in the past 12 months. The amount of money that workers earn, adjusting for inflation, fell last year. Of course, people did not need the OECD to tell them this. Many of them have felt it as a result of their own bitter experience of rising prices. Many families are going from overdraft to overdraft at the moment. That is if they can get overdrafts. Many families are forced to go to moneylenders. Many families are maxed out. They are going without food and heat on a weekly basis.

I speak to many people who tell me that they are lying awake at night wondering which bill they can afford to pay this month or which bill they are going to have to put off until the next month. This State is now the sixth most expensive country in Europe. As a result, many people are being left behind. Some 20% of people here are living on the margins and below the poverty line.

The annual cost of food shopping for families is €1,000 higher than it was last year, and the food inflation rate is at 16.5%. That is incredibly difficult for families.

The worst part is that the Government is making money out of this. It is quids in on the back of the price increases families have been experiencing over the past while. We in Aontú have found out that the VAT yield on fuel and energy has never been as good for the Government. Last year, the VAT on electricity was at record height, at €381 million, representing an increase of 40.4% on the figure for 2021. The Government has taken in more money in increased taxes and profits from energy semi-States than it gave back through the electricity credit. Can you believe that? The Government is taking more out of people’s pockets while giving some money back and then expecting a clap on the back for doing it.

Today, we learned the shocking news that the price of electricity in Ireland is the highest in Europe at the moment. That is a disgrace. It is an indictment of the Government. The unit price of electricity in this State is nearly double the European average. Gas prices in Ireland are also among the highest. Therefore, rip-off Ireland is back with a vengeance, and it is being brought to us by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. The most frustrating element of this is that the Government is standing idly by in terms of solutions. The Italian Government has brought in a windfall tax and has collected €4 billion, and Germany and Spain brought in windfall taxes in December. Even the British Tory Government brought in a windfall tax and is deriving revenue from the super-normal profits, yet we have nothing but tumbleweed from the Irish Government on this issue. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, committed to a windfall tax six months ago in this House. Practically every fortnight since, a Minister has stood up and said it was on the way in a matter of weeks, but these are very long weeks. What steps will the Government now take to lower the cost of electricity, and when exactly will it happen?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Under the current Government, and indeed the previous one I led, living standards rose and poverty rates went down. This is a simple fact that the Deputy can check if he chooses to do so. In most years since 2014, we have seen incomes or wages rising faster than inflation, or faster than increases in the cost of living, and as a result we have seen incomes and living standards rise and poverty rates fall. This may not be the case every single year for every single data point, but the general trend since 2014 has seen falling poverty, rising living standards and wages rising faster than the cost of living.

Yes, there was a significant setback last year. We know why that happened. It happened because of the invasion of Ukraine and an international inflation crisis, which we had to deal with. The Government took numerous measures to help people with the cost of living, and I will not go through them today. They were taken before the budget, at the time of the budget and since the budget. They are being taken even this week. This week, people in receipt of pensions and weekly social welfare payments will receive the bonus payment of €200 per month to help them with the cost of living. All families with children under 18 will receive a child payment in June. The supports we are providing to people to help them with the cost of living will continue throughout the summer, and, of course, there will be a budget in the autumn.

There will be a windfall tax. The Deputy will know from the legislative programme published by the Chief Whip only yesterday, or last week perhaps, that it is on for this session. We will raise the windfall tax, and that will yield money we can use to help businesses and families with the high cost of energy. Also, we have taken a special dividend from the ESB. The ESB made extraordinary profits because of the increase in the price of gas in the wholesale markets. The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, worked together to make sure the ESB would pay a special dividend. That, again, is money we can use to help people and businesses with the high cost of energy.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach can argue with the OECD about the facts on whether incomes are falling. Incomes are falling, and that is what it is saying. The question to be asked is why the Government has allowed the highest electricity prices in Europe to exist in this State. Why is it that the Government has allowed some of the highest gas prices in the whole European Union to exist in this State? Why does Mr. Gerry Clarke, 77, from Meath, have an electricity bill of €1,700? Why does Kitty from Trim, who is 100 years old, have an electricity bill of more than a grand? These are the questions the Government needs to ask. The fact that its Bill on a windfall tax is still at general-scheme stage is incredible. People cannot eat a general scheme.

Some people believe it is incompetence and some believe it is by design. There is a lot of good argument for incompetence. Just look at housing and health for examples of that, but I believe there is an ideological reason prices are so high here. It is in the Green Party's interests to have high electricity and energy prices because high energy prices actually reduce consumption. It is its policy to look for high energy prices. I think the Green Party tail is wagging the Government dog on this issue and, as a result, many families throughout the country are literally unable to live. When will the Bill on the windfall tax be in place?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Bill will be published and enacted before the summer recess, with the co-operation of the House, and will raise money we can use to help families with the high cost of living. I expect to see energy prices fall. We are already seeing petrol and diesel prices fall and I expect to see electricity and gas prices fall throughout the course of the year.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach has said this for months.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am not arguing with the OECD. The OECD report says that incomes rose last year but the cost of living rose faster. However, that was the first year where that was true since the crash about ten or 15 years ago. Under this Government and the previous one, almost every year, incomes have been rising faster than the cost of living and poverty rates have been falling. There was a significant setback last year because of international factors well beyond our control. We will be back on track this year. I expect that, this year, we will see incomes rise faster than inflation.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If it is down to international factors, why is the cost of electricity higher here than in another country?

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Members of Macra na Feirme, an organisation of which I was proud to be a member many years ago, are leaving this evening to march to Dáil Éireann be here tomorrow. I earnestly request that the Taoiseach be there to meet them at the gates. It would be a good and proper gesture for the Taoiseach and Government to make.

I want to speak about young farmers and the difficulties, trials and tribulations they face. Only 6% of farmers are under the age of 35. This is a telling story about how young farmers feel in Ireland today. I want to see an Ireland where young farmers feel confident about their future instead of worried. At present, they are worried and I will tell the Taoiseach why. They are looking at the Green Party tail wagging the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael dog and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael dancing to a tune that is being merrily played by the Green Party. They are looking at decisions the Government has taken. I am very worried about the future, for example, when I hear about things like rewetting land, and I would really appreciate it if the Taoiseach could take this in.

Regarding rewetting land, we have to look at what happened to make it dry in the first place and what brought it back from being heavy and wet brown ground, things the Taoiseach might not know much about although, as Taoiseach, he should. He is very educated in other ways but I want to tell him a bit about land. It takes a lot of work, effort, determination and money to dry ground that is wet and heavy. People who did this slaved to make their ground dry. We are talking about places you could not walk on. I was and still am to this day a contractor. I drove machines and drained ground. All I can tell the Taoiseach is that there is work in it but there is also satisfaction in it. I worked in places like the Black Valley where we changed brown ground into green fields. It was a lot more sensible to turn a place near you green than to try to buy land somewhere else. It is outrageous to suggest rewetting land like that.

These are the type of things people are worried about. Twenty years ago, we had good schemes that were sensible in bringing young farmers in and helping the older generation to retire. The schemes that are there today are heavy with red tape and bureaucracy and the actual financial benefit to the farmers is minuscule. I want to highlight one point. I am so proud of our beef, dairy, sheep, pig and poultry sectors. We do it better than anywhere else but what are we facing now? We are facing reductions one way or another. The Government denies it wants to reduce the national herd but it will do it by stealth. It seems to be okay for us to watch the Brazilians chop down rainforests and make their ground green and maybe then they will be able to increase their herd and export their produce to us.

Is that what the Taoiseach wants for our young farmers?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I think Macra na Feirme is a very impressive organisation. I have met Macra on many occasions. I have had them into Government Buildings and I have met them at the Ploughing Championships. It represents roughly 10,000 people in rural Ireland, some of whom are farmers and some who are not. I would be very happy to meet them again. I understand they expect to be at the Dáil around 1 p.m. tomorrow. As the Deputy knows, I will be here in the Chamber from 12 noon until 3 p.m. so I may not be able to meet them tomorrow but I certainly would like to and will make arrangements to do so in the very near future.

This is a Government that is committed to rural Ireland and to making rural Ireland a better place to live. I am encouraged by the census to see that the population of every county in Ireland is now increasing again. That is something I believe should be celebrated. We are investing in the national broadband plan, which was opposed by a lot of people in this House. It is a €3 billion investment in rural Ireland, the biggest in the history of the State. Under the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, and her predecessor, Deputy Ring before her, we are investing €1 billion in towns and villages and rural communities all over the country. In addition to that the whole technological universities programme has also been of great benefit to regional Ireland.

I looked at the issues that Macra wants to raise with us. They are all valid issues and ones on which we would be happy to engage with them. The first issue is accessing affordable housing. I hope the decision we made today, which I hope the Deputy will support, to increase the grants to bring vacant homes back into use and to get rid of development levies for people building their own home, will be welcomed by Macra today. I am pretty sure it will be. It will help people building their own home in rural Ireland or seeking to bring a derelict property in rural Ireland back into use. The second issue is disjointed and sparse healthcare services for rural communities. Healthcare is complicated. I come from the time when the local GP could do everything for you: suture your wounds or deliver your baby. That world has changed. Health services are more specialised and they function differently. We are investing in doctor-on-call services and in primary care centres all over the country. We have increased the rural practice grant. Macra raises issues such as the lack of public transport in rural Ireland. We acknowledge that is an issue and we are expanding it. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has increased the routes in rural Ireland by 25%. There are 60 new routes in the recent period alone. It also raises rewetting parts of rural Ireland. There has been a lot of scaremongering about that. We know from our projections that between now and 2030 we can do all the rewetting on publicly owned land, mainly the Bord na Móna lands, and we are looking at what we need to do beyond that. There has been a fair bit of scaremongering around that. I hope we will be able to dispel that as the directive is refined and negotiated at European level over the next couple of months. Macra also raises the need for a farming succession scheme to help young farmers, which the Deputy also mentioned. That is a valid thing. We would be keen to talk about that. Becoming a farmer is not the same as setting up a business. You cannot just set up a farm; you need access to land. That is why it makes sense to engage with them about a succession scheme.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I certainly hope that the Taoiseach would not accuse me of scaremongering on any issue because what I talk is facts; hard, cold facts. The Taoiseach spoke about housing. I want to highlight one of the main things that young farmers want when it comes to housing. All they want is to be given a piece of paper called a planning permission. It is something that can be extremely difficult to get in rural Ireland at present and indeed in the past and perhaps also the future. I would like to see measures being taken to ensure that young people who want to live in the countryside and rear their families in the countryside will be given the opportunity to do so.

On rewetting, I want to highlight what I said already about Brazil. It is going ahead and increasing its output and capacity at a time when the Government is looking to reduce our capacity. It is not long ago that a Minister here spoke about liquid gold, that is, milk. Talk about a see-saw. One minute the Government is encouraging people to produce; then it says: No, pull back. Give the young people the encouragement they need for the future. The Taoiseach mentioned the Minster for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys. Maybe if some more members of the Cabinet pulled a leaf out of her book we might have a better Government. The Taoiseach should think about that.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the compliments he has bestowed on the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who is certainly one of the stellar members of my Cabinet.

In relation to rural housing, I do not have the exact figures, but I remember discussing this issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, not too long ago. I think approximately 1,000 one-off rural homes get planning permission every year. This figure has not gone particularly up or down, but it has been a pretty steady figure across the years. Yet, we need some rules around planning. There are real costs to dispersed development and real problems arise from that, so we need to make sure we balance that so that people who have a genuine local need get planning. However, it cannot - and I know the Deputy would not want this - just be the case that everyone gets planning permission. There has to be some sort of rules and regulations around that.

In relation to Ministers taking a leaf from the Minister, Deputy Humphreys's book-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

A shamrock. A three-leaved shamrock.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----in fairness, we have the Minister, Deputy Foley, who has taken enormous action on school transport, which is of particular benefit to people in rural Ireland. I mentioned the actions that have already been taken by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to improve public transport in rural Ireland-----

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

And more than his book.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----and I know the work that is being done by other Ministers in that regard.