The food regulator asked for these powers over a year ago. Why is it taking the Government so long to give it the powers it needs to do its job? When we go into a supermarket, we see people at the checkout not being able to buy items and having to return them or leaving the supermarket stressed and worried about how they are going to meet their other bills during the week. This has gone on for well over a year without the Tánaiste's Government acting. Is the Government going to sign these extra powers in this year?…

I thank the Independent Deputies for tabling this motion. This is a very important area that needs proper scrutiny and debate. I very much welcome the whistleblowers who are with us today in the Public Gallery. I thank them and indeed every whistleblower for the service they have given to the country. Their bravery and courage should be supported by all of us. They act in the public interest and their role in democracy is incredibly important. I do not think that was recognised sufficiently in the comments made by …

The level of unemployment among disabled people in Ireland is among the worst in Europe. I recently met with a number of disabled people in my constituency who have excellent qualifications and skills and who are willing and eager to work but who are stuck in unemployment. There are a number of barriers to employment that need to be removed. We are far behind other European countries in this regard. In 2021, the OECD released a report that made a number of recommendations as to how to tackle this. Those recommendat…

I briefly want to speak in support of this amendment. As the Minister knows, Irish start-ups receive a huge amount of support through Enterprise Ireland and through mentoring. A massive number of the founders of Irish start-ups put up a massive amount of their heart and soul into building up an enterprise, company or business. There are huge success stories from that. Then what happens is they get to a certain scale after maybe 20 years of doing that and it is no longer sustainable for the person who founded it to …

I wish to speak in general support of the amendment. This is a dire situation families are in due to a lack of regulation and oversight. There is nothing more traumatic than for people to see their homes crumbling in front of them and to go through all this stress over years. They need somewhere to live when these works are taking place and their houses are being demolished and rebuilt and I do not hear from the Tánaiste what the Government's solution is. If the Government is not supporting the amendments, what is …

I welcome that the Tánaiste has brought forward this amendment. I ask for a couple of clarifications. First, why has it taken this long for Russia to be taken off the list? Why did it remain on it in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, given the invasion of Ukraine started in 2022 and there have been brutal attacks on civilian populations there? Second, does the amendment the Tánaiste has brought forward mean people will still be able to claim the relief until the end of this year? Why is 2025 included for claims? I acknowl…

I move amendment No. 24: In page 64, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “Report on tax expenditures for property developers 42. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the fiscal and housing-market effects of tax reliefs and incentives available to property developers, and on alternative approaches to achieving housing-supply objectives without such tax expenditures.”. The situation with tax expenditure for property developers is t…

On the spending reviews that have been stopped, we need to do something to fix that because those reviews are important in terms of value for money. I understand there is work going on, but that the results of that work are not being published to the same level as previously. As a result, we are not seeing the benefit of that analysis publicly. Of the 90,000 planning permissions that are not being built out, more than 40,000 are in Dublin. The latter mainly relate to apartments. The one thing that has worked in the…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

It is my amendment.

I welcome what the Tánaiste said about spending reviews. On the profits, profit levels are 20% and 21%. The Minister's predecessor is on record saying that this will increase viability and output, and increase profits. That is what we were told in Committee. How high does he think the profits have to go? Profit levels of 20% and 21% are double what they were in the previous year for one of those companies. How much higher do they need to go to make this viable? Does the Minister accept that these measures will incr…

The situation in Gaza remains dire. The attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have been relentless. A year ago, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised to pass the occupied territories Bill. The Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, promised it would be brought to the Dáil by the end of November. It is the end of November and there is no sign of the Bill. When is it going to be brought to the Dáil?

These resolutions are to fix the serious flaws in the financial resolutions brought forward on budget night. Those mistakes the Government made just a few weeks ago were highlighted to it on budget night but it ploughed ahead regardless with its flawed financial resolutions. The effect of the resolutions before us today will be to put more money into the pockets of developers. This is another example of the policy capture of the Government by developers and their lobbyists. People are struggling to keep food on the…

This is quite extraordinary. A tribunal was set up in 1997 and millions of euro of public money is going in to paying expenses related to that tribunal in this Revised Estimate this year. The person responsible for answering questions to the Oireachtas about this, the Taoiseach, refused to come to the finance committee to answer questions. He did refuse, because we wrote to him and we said we would accommodate him at any time or date that suits him. The Taoiseach has not come to our committee. He has declined to co…

Yes, and the Taoiseach should have come to the committee to do that. I have asked the Minister of State my questions on it and I want answers on it.

That is exactly correct.

It was never made by the committee.

There was never any decision.

What is the detailed breakdown?

It is a fair question. We asked for a detailed breakdown.