Some counties have their development plans finished and they may not come up again for another four or five years. In the meantime, this land may well be suitable for housing. How can they go about it rather than the local authority CEO bringing forward a variation of the plan? Would the Department have an input into it?

I welcome the Minister back to the House and I wish him well with this legislation. It is very welcome and it will give some certainty to people who find themselves renting. It also has safeguards for students. I agree with Senator Malcolm Byrne on student accommodation and the need for campus accommodation. I would hope new campuses would be built in all of the new technological universities. It is important, as Senator Malcolm Byrne has said, that those technological universities would have the power and the mone…

On the day the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, said we will not meet our 2013 to 2020 emissions reduction targets, I would like to support my colleagues, Senators Chambers, Blaney and Dooley, in calling for people whose homes are affected by pyrite or mica to be able claim Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland grants. It is ridiculous to think they should take out the windows and doors of their houses that may be ten, 15 or 20 year old and hold on to them. There appears to be some shift in Government policy…

Two minutes is a short time to speak on anything.

The Minister stated that every place and person matters. If he takes that sentiment with him, it will be a great place to start from with this Bill. If he meets the farming organisations, I have no doubt he will bring them with him and win the day. They know there is going to be change. It is ironic that we are debating this on a day when two important reports came out. One is a report by Dr. John Bradley on the Atlantic rail corridor from Galway to Mayo, which is 50 km in length and would cost €154 million, includ…

I wish to share my time with Senator Ahearn. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and welcome this opportunity to say a few words on this important topic. There is no need for me to explain to her the impact that the pandemic has had on the aviation business. There is also no need for me to tell her how important Ireland West Airport Knock is to our region of the west. The airport is a huge addition to the west of Ireland and to the whole region of the west and the north west in terms of connectivity from t…

I welcome the Minister back to the House and thank him for appearing before us so often. I agree with the Bill. It is important legislation, which I suppose is the reason it is being rushed through both Houses. I agree with Senator Fitzpatrick that a simple majority is required. A two thirds majority would be difficult. As other Senators have stated, considering a development plan over Zoom is not ideal and is difficult. I heard of a case where a person was on Zoom, went to answer a call at the door and missed the …

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I welcome his statement that affordable and cost rental will be in place this year, with the passage of this Bill. That is great news and the quicker we can get this Bill through, the better. It is great news to see that will be in place. There were people who fell through the net before this. I refer to people who were working and did not qualify for social housing and were not earning enough for an affordable house. I hope and presume that with the passage of this legisla…

I join other Members of the House in congratulating the former Senator, Pádraig Ó Céidigh, for starting and bringing forward this legislation, which has gone through the other House with amendments, which are now before us. I would like to ask the Minister of State about some of the issues that were mentioned by Senator Martin. I agree with the Senator that perjury is already there. The courts knew and know that perjury is committed in lots of cases. How come action has not been taken before now? According to amend…

Does this deal with Schedule 1? That is in the next one.

I welcome what the Minister of State has said and I welcome him to the House as well. A number of Acts relating to bodies are listed under Schedule 1 in respect of which there may be proceedings. Some years ago the Government proceeded with a referendum to give more power to Oireachtas committees to carry out inquiries. Are Oireachtas inquiries covered under this Bill? The banking inquiry was a significant inquiry that brought many witnesses before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Are Oireachtas committees covered und…

I ask the Leader to arrange for the Taoiseach to come to the House to discuss the pyrite and mica crisis. This issue was raised in this House by former Senator, Michelle Mulherin, week after week for four or five years. The current scheme is not adequate and as others have said, it does not even cover people's costs. We must meet 100% of the costs involved. A number of other issues must also be addressed when the Taoiseach comes in. There is pyrite in many council buildings in County Mayo. What is going to happen t…

I welcome the Minister of State and wish him well with this legislation. It is a very short Bill but it is very important. I am disappointed by some aspects. It does not go into great detail on benchmarking. I was a Member of this House when benchmarking was introduced. It was supposed to be the bee's knees for the way forward but we have not done any analysis of where we are with benchmarking or what we achieved with it. It gave huge pay increases, not least to us in this House and to the Members of the other Hous…

I presume the question Senator Warfield is asking is will the houses in question be sold in a turnkey state, as opposed to dwellings without any furniture or fittings. However, there are different levels of turnkey. There could be an upgraded turnkey or a lower standard of turnkey. Additional costs could amount to €10,000 or €100,000, if we are talking about an exclusive development. "Turnkey" is a loose arrangement.

I agree with Senator Cummins. It is very clear from section 12 of the Bill that amendment No. 47 would not be suitable at all. It refers to a 20% equity stake. Who decides on the equity stake? In a housing estate of 100 houses, some houses may be slightly more valuable than others. They could be end houses, corner houses, houses with bigger gardens or houses that face south, for example. There might only be small differences in value, amounting to €5,000 or €10,000, but it would mean a difference in the equity stak…

Section 34 is the kernel of the Bill. It goes to the heart of it all. I fully support everything Senator Cummins has said. He has explained in great detail why we have gone down the route of cost-rental dwellings. The kernel of all of this is taxation. When the crash happened, developers and builders were demonised. We arrived at a situation in which we had no builders and no developers. Nobody was willing to take on big projects like the Ballymore Group and Michael O'Flynn had. They were demonised during the crash…

I do not think anything I am saying is outrageous. What I am saying is a fact. Some people find themselves as landlords accidentally.

To the amendment, I support everything my colleague, Senator Cummins, has said in respect of cost rental.

There will be no housing in the country-----

I will share time with Senator Ahearn. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, back to the House and compliment Senator Fitzpatrick on introducing this important motion. I fully support the right of everyone to have a house. There are different forms in which people can have a house, whether that be full ownership, long-term rental with security or public housing. The Rebuilding Ireland plan mainly provides for building around cities. Some of the land zoned industrial in smaller towns could be rezoned …