Conor Sheehan
Limerick City · Labour Party · Ireland
“If a student does not have access to one of these devices or access to one at home, there is often no alternative and that could leave them excluded. Many families are forced to pay hundreds and thousands, particularly with the rising cost of microchips, for these devices.”
“I thank the Minister for her considered response. We need to get rid of voluntary contributions and move to generic school uniforms. This is something that has been done in the UK.”
“This digital divide is resulting in a severe and growing level of inequality where so many communities, students and families are unable to purchase the devices they desperately need for their children's education.”
“I raise the issue of the community access support team, CAST, in Limerick, which has prevented 133 detentions under section 12 of the Mental Health Act and reduced the number emergency department presentations. It has responded to over 1,000 incidents.”
“Do not worry. We need to have a debate this week before the House rises about the imminent report on Aughinish Alumina. There are up to 2,000 direct and indirect jobs at stake in Limerick. We cannot have a situation where the State is inadvertently complicit in the export of alumina to Russia. Where there is a will, there is a way.”
“It is absolutely reprehensible that planning permission has been granted for apartments on the site of the former mother and baby home at Bessborough. We have 19 mothers and 859 infants associated with Bessborough still missing. Now 140 apartments are going to be built on a mass grave. We need statements on this next week.”
The complete record
Every one of 808 lines we hold for Conor Sheehan, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 17.
“Last week, Limerick Chamber contacted the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, about the Mackey roundabout and the safety issues there to formally request €2.2 million in funding to advance the next stage of improvement works to the roundabout. This is a critical priority for the safety of people in the mid-west but also for our economic development. It is a key interchange in the east of the city, connecting the M7 motorway to the R445 Dublin road. It is a primary gateway to Limerick, including into the University of Limerick, UL, and National Technological Park. There is a huge volume of traffic there and it frequently causes persistent backups right up the motorway. It is a car park at peak times.”
“They want the Department to engage with them properly and work with them constructively, not to stand in their way. They are very keen to get on with the job of building the homes we need.”
“In his reply, the Tánaiste did not address any of the specific questions I asked. The fact of the matter is that there are elements in this plan that I welcome. Some of those elements are things that we already proposed, such as amending the law to ensure the best interests of children are taken into account by local authorities when families become homeless. Former Deputy Jan O'Sullivan had that in a Bill in 2017. The fact is that the State is not doing enough in terms of directly building social and affordable housing. Most of the homes that the LDA delivered in recent years were turnkey units. The State is investing significant sums in housing but a lot of it is going into inflationary schemes. When I talk to local authorities, they do not want financial incentives.”
“There is nothing in this plan to show how the Government will build the tens of thousands of extra affordable homes we need or how house prices will come down, which they need to do. We are told the LDA will have an expanded role but only €2.5 billion of additional funding is being provided and there is no clarity around what specific powers the agency will have. What is needed is a massive ramping up of State capacity to directly build social and affordable homes. I have several questions. Why has the Government abandoned its annual targets? What is the Government's measure of success for this plan in year one? Will homelessness fall? What new specific measures are in this plan to make home ownership affordable again? What does the Government say to any young person, to people my age?”
“The target of 12,000 social units is only a 20% increase on current targets when what is needed is closer to 15,000, as we proposed in our manifesto and as the Housing Commission, which the Government continues to ignore, stated. In the section on promoting affordable ownership, there are no new measures, bar prize bonds, to make ownership a reality for people my age. In fact, the Government talks about new schemes but what it has done is mainly just a PR exercise of repackaging existing supports or renaming them. The Government's previous plan for affordable homes never delivered on its targets and its solution is to effectively put all of the supports together and rename them.”
“They are too low and do not consider inbuilt demand due to the housing deficit. The previous target for over 40,000 homes this year was a fiction so how is anyone expected to believe the Government will deliver 300,000 homes by 2030? The Central Bank projections are clear that only 36,000 homes will be delivered in 2026 and 40,000 in 2027. That leaves 200,000 homes to be built in the second half of this plan. That is a doubling of current delivery, with no sense that the private sector can or will do it. Construction activity is falling month on month. Developers are on the go-slow because they know they have the Government on the hook.”
“I do not want this plan to fail. The future of our country, particularly for people my age, depends on it. At last this morning, we have a new housing plan but I have never seen any government take so long to come up with so little. This time last year, the Government deliberately misled the electorate in terms of the housing targets. During the election, the Government never publicised its plans to hike rents, change the rental rules and shrink apartment sizes. This new plan tells us that the Government will deliver 300,000 homes by 2030 but it will need a minor miracle to deliver that. The Government has abandoned targets for the private sector and it is very clear that it has done this to shield itself from accountability because what one cannot count, one cannot measure. The overall targets for this plan are wrong.”
“Deputy Séamus McGrath - To discuss the new school building project proposed for Ringaskiddy and Shanbally national schools, County Cork. Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss health, safety and welfare concerns arising at a school. Deputy Thomas Gould - To discuss the escalating issues with reliability and punctuality of public transport in Cork city. Deputy Louis O'Hara - To discuss the need for a 24-hour rapid response vehicle at Tuam ambulance base. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú - To discuss car parking provision at Ardee Educate Together School, County Louth. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh - To discuss the proposal from An Post to move operations within Mayo. The matters raised by Deputies Michael Cahill, Colm Burke, Pearse Doherty, Gary Gannon and Danny Healy-Rae have been selected for discussion”
“Deputy Maurice Quinlivan - To discuss wandering and malnourished horses in urban areas of Limerick. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae - To discuss the cut in the rates for the sheep welfare and beef welfare farm payment schemes. Deputy David Cullinane - To discuss pension concerns for former Waterford Crystal workers. Deputy Mark Wall - To discuss ongoing traffic issues facing commuters using the M7 and N7 routes. Deputy Paul McAuliffe - To discuss Garda resources and heightened antisocial behaviour in Dublin North-West. Deputy Pearse Doherty - To discuss the need for capital works to be carried out at Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola in County Donegal. Deputy Ryan O'Meara - To discuss ambulance wait times in north Tipperary. Deputy Colm Burke - To discuss increasing the percentage of dentistry places for Irish students in UCC.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss a dedicated pilot study on all aspects of the health service in the Iveragh and Dingle peninsulas. Deputy Ciarán Ahern - To discuss issues on the BusConnects F spine and S orbital routes affecting Dublin South-West. Deputy Eoghan Kenny - To discuss the urgent need to fund renovations and refurbishment of Mayfield sports complex. Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss overcapacity issues on the E1 and E2 routes operated by Dublin Bus. Deputy Catherine Ardagh - To discuss the introduction of a national lung cancer screening programme using low dose CT scanning.”
“What would the Tánaiste say to any LGBT person who is afraid to live their life in the fullest sense, to walk the streets of this country and hold the hand of a partner to express a symbol of love in public? This is a very real problem and it is getting significantly worse.”
“We have a number of attacks on LGBTQI+ people and community in recent months. In Cork, there was an assault on two drag performers, Krystal Queer and Lucina Schynning. In Limerick recently two young students were hospitalised after they were set upon in a homophobic attack. As a gay man, I would not feel comfortable walking the streets of this country holding the hand of a partner. I do not think many LGBT people would. Homophobic violence is a crime; we know that. It is under-reported and significantly on the rise. We know Government has the LGBTIQ+ inclusion strategy. Will it commit to a national action plan to address hate in all of its forms, particularly hate against LGBT people?”
“While we have a recovery worker and a dual diagnosis team, we need much more. People from the most deprived areas are disproportionately impacted by this. We need an all-of-government approach to this issue. That starts with taking it out of the courts and into the healthcare system. Nearly 100 people in our prison system nearly died last year due to problematic drug use. That is shocking. It says clearly where we are going wrong.”
“When it comes to treatment, bar the 30 detox beds in Bruree, people are often forced to travel to Dublin, Carlow or Athy, if they are lucky. When they finish treatment, they are often back into the 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. hostel in Limerick and the vicious cycle begins again. Drug use and problematic drug use are changing. The level of poly drug use in Limerick is incredibly worrying. There are certain treatment centres you cannot get into if you are in benzos, methadone, etc. That needs to be radically changed. That change starts with language. Calling sick, vulnerable people the j-word or "druggies" should not be considered acceptable. This comes from social inequality across the board. We have no psychiatric service in Limerick Prison. We had 92 drug overdoses in our prison system last year.”
“I have even seen the effects of problematic cocaine use knock on my own front door. It destroys everything. It destroys people financially, relationally and sexually. Crack cocaine is the most evil and insidious of all drugs. Limerick, as I said, has unfortunately become the crack cocaine capital of Ireland. People travel to Limerick because the crack is cheap and they can buy it in some of the poorest estates in this entire country. There is a house in St. Mary's Park that the locals refer to as Aldi because people are bussed in from outside Limerick. We have another issue because we have an epidemic of sex work. Crack cocaine is so addictive that women are forced into sex work to pay for it. Now, we have an issue with a lot of pregnancies resulting from that.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that response. I am glad she acknowledged we need a step change in how we treat problematic drug users. I represent Limerick city, which the Minister of State knows well. Our city has been absolutely destroyed by drugs, whether the drug barons who prey on vulnerable communities or the crack cocaine epidemic that has ripped through our city. Limerick is unfortunately the crack cocaine capital of Ireland. It has ravaged so many people, even people I went to school with. When talking about drugs more generally, my colleague, Deputy Kelly, referenced cocaine. I cannot go on a night out without seeing people off their heads on cocaine. In fact, I have been routinely offered cocaine in pubs in my own city of Limerick. You see people filing into cubicles. They are not going in there to use the bathroom.”
“Ultimately, it also a cost-saving issue because it reduces the cost of investigation, it reduces the cost to the Courts Service because we have a higher than average guilty plea rate and it takes bad faith actors off the street. I always think of a woman in her late 70s called Rose Hanrahan who was murdered in December 2017 in Thomondgate in Limerick. If it was not for these cameras, Rose's murderer would not have been apprehended, charged and convicted. It was done because the vile individual who set upon Rose that night was caught on this system of cameras. At the moment, I am very worried there are the seeds of a feud in Limerick again. We really need these cameras to deal with that properly. We need a proper, long-term funding solution from Government.”
“I thank the Minister of State. It might seem like it takes a lot of money to run the Limerick scheme compared with community CCTV schemes, particularly in more compact areas. However, Limerick is a unique place and not just because I am saying it is. It is unique because, unfortunately, we have eight of the top ten most deprived areas in the State. We have some of the best but poorest communities in the entire country. Those communities need extra support. They got that extra support through regeneration, which is now being wound down. There must be a mechanism devised by which the funding that was in the Department of housing, and it is not within that Department's competence to be funding CCTV, can be transferred to the Department of justice because this is a policing and public safety issue.”
“Without Department-led funding, the council will be forced to reduce the monitoring and maintenance and eventually will be forced to turn off some or all of the cameras. This is a big policing and public safety issue.”
“My colleague Senator Dee Ryan has raised this issue in the Seanad as well. We need a permanent solution because the safety and well-being of the people of Limerick are at risk if the scheme is wound down or the cameras have to be turned off. We also have CCTV approved for the Castletroy greenway, for Garryowen and for Rathkeale in the county. Garryowen is one of the biggest policing blackspots in the city. These schemes are in jeopardy if the Department of justice does not put a permanent funding solution in place. We are talking about €600,000 or €700,000. We are not talking about millions or billions of euro. The Government put billions of euro into regeneration. If this funding is refused, we will be put back years. Limerick is a special case. If a fund does not exist , the Minister needs to find or create one.”
“I cannot overstate how revolutionary the network of CCTV cameras has been in policing terms. We have a 70% prosecution rate for a couple of thousand serious incidents and a very high rate of guilty pleas and convictions. I am very worried that we have had several serious incidents in Limerick in the past year alone. I am really afraid that we are going backwards. There have been 17 shootings in the past year and 11 very serious violent incidents on the south side. We had a welcome allocation of 20 extra gardaí in the August-September allocation. However, if this scheme is wound down, it will, in effect, nullify that allocation in one fell swoop. I am not the one saying this; it is coming from senior gardaí. The Minister for justice said earlier that he hopes a solution can be found after meeting with the Mayor of Limerick.”
“The framework and governance are widely acknowledged to be quite good. It was funded by the Department of housing, which gave €880,000 in 2024 for regeneration area CCTV. We acknowledge and accept that regeneration is being wound up. In 2024, Limerick City and County Council made a formal approach to the Department of justice to seek replacement funding, but no allocation was secured. In 2025, Limerick City and County Council and An Garda Síochána submitted a joint business case via the Garda Commissioner for inclusion in budget 2026. To date, no replacement funding has been approved. Due to the ongoing uncertainty, the company that runs the CCTV has now issued its staff with protective notice. The implications of this are really grave for us in Limerick.”
“I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. There is a comprehensive network of CCTV cameras in Limerick. It was established as a direct response to a number of public order challenges in the city. The CCTV is a key pillar in the Limerick regeneration framework implementation plan, LRFIP, which followed on from the Fitzgerald report. This was the flagship Government programme to deal with the significant issues that existed, and still exist, in Limerick's regeneration communities. In essence, it was devised as a consequence of the Fitzgerald report, which was commissioned after some depraved individual burnt out a car with two children in the back of it in Moyross in 2006. Limerick city's CCTV system is one of the very good and positive outcomes we have had from regeneration. It is one of the best in the country.”
“I wish to talk about the CAST pilot project in Limerick, which is ten months operational. Much credit goes to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for this. To date, this project has recorded 80 diversions from Mental Health Act detentions as well as incidents of criminal diversion for minor offences. It ensures that people get the right care at the right time in the community. The CAST support forum has 14 partner agencies working together on a periodic basis to help frequent users of unscheduled emergency services. When will the internal and external evaluation of this project be conducted? Will the Minister of State confirm, subject to the evaluation confirming what we have been told on the ground by An Garda Síochána and the HSE, that this pilot will be continued and mainstreamed in Limerick and, hopefully, rolled out nationwide?”
“CHI waited for her to age out because her case was too complicated. She is a wheelchair user and she has multiple complex health programmes. This Government has little to offer people - nothing, in fact - unless they are a property developer or happen to own a big American fast food chain. Instead, all this Government offers young people, people my age in particular, is a rent hike, a hike in college fees, a chance to emigrate or maybe a tiny, expensive and dark build-to-rent apartment.”
“----- in August of this year. I was struck by her strength and her determination to get the answers she needs in order for her and her poor husband to have closure. We need accountability. The public inquiry into this must be wide enough. It must be statutory. It must get the parents the answers and the children the treatment they need. Accountability starts with political accountability and it starts here. I have no confidence in this Government. It is a hollow husk of a Government that offers the people of Ireland little hope. I got to know Orlaith Maher-Lalor and her daughter Caoimhe, who has spina bifida, in my constituency very well in recent months. I was shocked and horrified by the way Caoimhe was dumped by CHI when she turned 18 in the middle of a healthcare crisis with no proper transition to adult care.”
“It is amazing what the Government can find time for when it wants to. The Government could not set aside time for the Tánaiste to take questions on children on waiting lists for spina bifida, yet it can find time for this motion. It is a complete waste of time designed to shield a clapped out Government from political accountability in the lead-up to a presidential election. I spoke to Gillian Sherratt-----”
“These families have been let down by the State, left to languish in houses that were once treasured family homes. I recall Deputy Charles Ward, in his maiden speech, which has stuck with me ever since, saying their houses were like Weetabix. We need urgency from the Government on this. We cannot continue to fail these people. I am really disappointed by the countermotion. It is absolutely unacceptable and I urge the Government to rethink it.”
“We have situations there now with this scheme where people are sitting behind desks inside in the Housing Agency, downgrading people at the stroke of a mouse or a pen without even going out to see the house. That is disgraceful. When we consider the difference with the pyrite scheme, is it any wonder people all along the west coast are looking on with envy and anger? The motion points out the terrible psychological effects of the trauma and stress these families have gone through which would not have been as bad if the State had responded appropriately without making them, as it always does and always has, prove they are not lying. Why would you lie about something like this? Their homes are crumbling around them. I welcome the fact this motion recognises the need for mental health supports.”
“Families who received grant approval under the old Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland costings are faced with tenders from contractors that obviously reflect current market conditions and are way above what they were. People cannot find tens of thousands of euro, if not hundreds of thousands of euro to plug the enormous gaps in what they are required to pay. This is not their fault. These homeowners must have their grant award increased in line with current costs. The Minister, in particular, needs to come in and accept his predecessor's scheme does not work. We need a new end-to-end scheme and we need 100% redress. We have the model with the pyrite scheme in Fingal. The pyrite remediation scheme is structured on an end-to-end basis. It is not a grant scheme and it does not ask homeowners to be project managers.”
“The lack of regulation on behalf of Fianna Fáil Governments at the time in particular, does not just relate to this. We see it in apartments and in various aspects of bad housing policy. I am afraid this new Government, given what the Minister is doing with apartment standards and VAT cuts, has not learned a single lesson. The proof is in the pudding with this scheme. Just over 220 dwellings were completed nationwide up to mid-2025. A year ago, the Government promised to extend the increase in the cap of everyone availing of the scheme. Where is the legislation? This is just another delay and more mental anguish and mental torture that these poor families and individuals are being put through by the State. The Government must fast track the promised legislation for retrospective payment.”
“We have discussed this many times in this Chamber, and we are five years on from the opening of the scheme and two years on from the enhanced scheme. The scheme is deeply flawed and as per usual with schemes in this State - and this is always the way we treat victims of abuse, with institutional Ireland doing this for generations - the burden of proof is always put on the victim and the victim has to prove that he or she is not a liar. That is the way this scheme operates. We are at the tip of the iceberg in the city of Limerick, which I represent, on this. There is a Roadstone quarry in Bunratty where these defective concrete blocks Olivia Sheil has in her house came from in the early 1990s. The fact of the matter is we do not know yet how seriously we are genuinely affected by this.”
“I had Olivia Sheil, cochair of the Limerick Defective Blocks Action Group, in my constituency office on Monday nearly in tears as she described how the house she bought little over a decade ago is falling down around her. She first discovered this when she went to get the SEAI grant to pump the walls, which exposed all the cracks. Her mortgage is going to be doubled and she is a working, lone parent. There will be an extra €125,000 or whatever added onto her mortgage because the scheme does not fully cover the breadth of work that needs to be done to her home. Her home is semi-detached so she has to put a wall inside a wall, essentially, inside the house because they will not test the house next door.”
“I would like to thank Deputy Ward for all his work on this motion. It is very technical and I was proud to cosign it on behalf of Labour. I heard the response from the Minister for Housing, Deputy Browne, earlier and to be honest, I was shocked - even by my standards - at how bland and unresponsive his response was to the substantive issues raised in the motion. The Government has designed a scheme that is so rigid it cannot respond in real time. This is not a grants scheme; this is redress. There is no acknowledgement in anything anyone in government has said about the harm this scheme is doing to people, the stress it is causing and the real mental anguish. There is a misconception out there that this is just an issue, say, on the Inishowen Peninsula; it is not. This is an issue in Limerick.”
“Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discuss ongoing human rights abuses against the Uyghurs. The matters raised by Deputies Michael Collins; Paul Murphy; Marie Sherlock; Cian O'Callaghan, Naoise Ó Muirí, Barry Heneghan, Tom Brabazon and Denise Mitchell; and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire have been selected for discussion.”
“McGuinness - To discuss the provision of home care supports in Waterford. Deputy Louis O'Hara - To discuss the imminent closure of a creche in Tuam, County Galway. Deputy David Cullinane - To discuss investment in Waterford Port to unlock offshore renewable energy potential. Deputy Marie Sherlock - To discuss the new school building project for a school in Dublin 1. Deputy Paul Murphy - To discuss repeated fires at Ticknock and resulting air pollution. Deputy Thomas Gould - To discuss special school transport in Cork. Deputies Cian O'Callaghan, Naoise Ó Muirí, Barry Heneghan, Tom Brabazon and Denise Mitchell - To discuss the new school building project at Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire - To discuss the availability of therapists and SNAs in special schools in Cork.”
“Deputy Darren O'Rourke - To discuss the need for additonal SNA support at Scoil Cholmcille, Skryne, County Meath. Deputy Aidan Farrelly - To discuss the need for a statutory inquiry into Childrens Health Ireland's care for a specific cohort of children and related matters. Deputy Albert Dolan - To discuss the biodiversity and environmental impact of windfarms. Deputy Tom Brabazon - To discuss the school building project at Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss the progression of the Sutton to Sandycove, S2S, cycleway. Deputy Erin McGreehan - To discuss water quality issues in north Louth. Deputy Colm Burke - To discuss a shingles vaccination programme for people who are over 65 or immunocompromised. Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher - To discuss the overfishing and setting of unilateral quotas for mackerel. Deputy Conor D.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Collins - To discuss flooding in the Bantry, Ballinascarthy and Ballylickey areas. Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss use of the Pretty Polly site in Killarney, County Kerry, as a centre for training and education. Deputy Joe Cooney - To discuss the HIQA report into urgent and emergency healthcare in the mid-west. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil - To discuss the lack of critical infrastructure and investment in Kildare North. Deputy John Connolly - To discuss the ongoing redevelopment works at Ceannt Station, Galway. Deputy Joe Neville - To discuss issues concerning the Ryevale House IPAS centre in Leixlip, County Kildare.”
“It is a change that we in Labour will support, but without looking more broadly at the housing landscape and finally delivering the radical change that we have been crying out for for years now, it will be a mere drop in the ocean.”
“We know that there is enough public land in the State to go a long way toward building the homes we need, but a lack of vision from this Government has seen the LDA become nothing but a lame duck agency, sitting on lands without powers or the capitalisation to deliver and using turnkey to reach its targets. The Government must fully capitalise the LDA and give it the power it needs to acquire, activate and develop public land. We in Labour have spelled out our plan to transform the LDA so it can finally deliver the radical, State-led solutions we need, but in the interim we simply must ensure that it is able to do the job it needs to do. That is another task that the Government has not done. We are today looking at a change which is one small lever in housing delivery.”
“By lumping in vacant property grants and approvals that had yet to be completed, the Government attempted to massage the figures and pull the wool over our eyes. In that context, while Labour supports today's Bill and its aim of resourcing the Housing Finance Agency to better support social and affordable housing delivery, it is difficult to be optimistic when we see this Government's record. As we consider the sustainability of one pillar of housing policy, I would like to go back again to what I raised with the Minister last week in relation to the LDA and its sustainability and impact. The Department of Finance's recent report made clear that under its current mandate, the LDA will not be able to make a meaningful contribution toward solving the housing crisis that it should be making and that it was set up to do.”
“How can we scrutinise the Government's approach, either on the specifics or in the broader sense, without sight of what will be in its new flagship housing plan? The Housing Finance Agency says that this change could facilitate the building of over 5,600 units. That underlines why we need to pass this Bill, piecemeal as it may be. We should be clear: the Government's record on delivering its own unambitious housing targets gives real cause for concern. Its new-build social housing target was missed by more than 1,400 units last year. That number has fallen short by an average of 15% every year since Housing for All was published. Meanwhile, earlier this year, the Government put forward figures that could charitably be described as "misleading" to try to give the impression that it had delivered on its affordable housing targets for 2024.”
“The Government's lack of ambition and its failure to even begin to get to grips with the crisis at hand goes much deeper, of course, but at its heart is the same absence of long-term, joined-up thinking. Now, here we are two years later, again raising the limit once more. This time we are asked to do so in the absence of a plan. The Government's new national housing plan was due for publication in July. It was delayed. Four weeks ago, the Taoiseach said it would be ready in the next month, but we have still not seen sign of it. I expect we will not before the presidential election. This Bill makes only a small change, but nonetheless, it is incredible that we are being asked to pass primary legislation on housing policy without the Government having spelled out its broader plan.”
“Why is this change being made in this fashion, rather than taking a more bold step to ensure that the HFA is put on the sustainable footing it needs to deliver for years rather than months into the future? We have all watched on in dismay as the Government has repeatedly failed to deliver on housing over recent years. Its record on housing over the last decade is one of repeated failure. The previous increase to the Housing Finance Agency's statutory borrowing limit came in early 2024 and was a commitment under Housing for All. The fact that less than two years later we are taking the same step again is perhaps yet another small illustration of the failure of the plan and of the Government's wider piecemeal approach.”
“We all know that bold change is needed to tackle the housing crisis. My own party has repeatedly put forward the bold steps that we believe the Government needs to take. Today we are devoting significant time to a change that, while undoubtedly necessary, will simply paper over one crack in one agency for less than a year. This interim change to the agency's statutory borrowing limit will mean that further legislative change will no doubt be needed in the coming months and years. In a crowded legislative calendar, we might well ask whether devoting repeated primary legislative slots to updating the HFA's statutory borrowing limit will crowd out other important debate.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire agus leis an Rialtas as ucht an Bille seo a chur faoi bhráid na Dála. Aontaím agus aontaíonn Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis an mBille seo. This is not a complicated Bill. It makes a simple change to ensure that the Housing Finance Agency can continue to fulfil its mandate in the months ahead. This is something that we in Labour are broadly supportive of. We all know the importance that the Housing Finance Agency plays as a pillar of Ireland's housing policy. By raising the agency's statutory borrowing limit, as this Bill does, we can ensure that it continues to play that role and continues to issue new lending approvals with the headroom it needs to up to the middle of next year. However, I would question why this step is being taken on an interim, piecemeal basis.”
“These apartment changes the Government has introduced will save a tiny €18,000 on a €500,000 apartment and will not deliver a single apartment extra for the people I represent in Limerick. There is also no mention of UHL in this budget. The additional beds announced fall short of what is required. We are short 600 in the mid-west. We urgently need the Government to make a decision on the HIQA review and to commit to a model 3 hospital in Limerick.”
“It is shameful for this Government to spend €563 million on a direct transfer of wealth to property developers and institutional investors. It is a whopper of a giveaway with absolutely no caveats around affordability or supply. At a time when we have 220,000 children in consistent poverty, 5,000 children are homeless and 300,000 people are in arrears with their energy bills, the Government is spending over €500 billion to subsidise developers it already subsidises through Project Tosaigh, croí cónaithe cities and other schemes. On defective concrete, an issue that has devastated many communities around the country, we have called for funding for the establishment of a building standards regulator and a 10% increase in defective concrete block remediation grants.”
“Most significantly, it stated that the Department highlighted that “there is no obligation for a builder to pass on any VAT reduction.” This is where the crux of the problem is. This measure has been applied to apartments that have already been built but not sold, which will have a significant cost for the Exchequer but absolutely no effect on supply. It is very clear to me why the Government is doing this. It is doing it because it is the latest thing institutional investors and big corporate landlords want. We know this because the lobbying register tells us so. Mr. Pat Farrell, the CEO of Irish Institutional Property, a former Fianna Fáil Senator, has been in to Government Buildings at least ten times since January - ten times that we know of.”
“It says: "Great care would be needed in designing such a policy to prevent inappropriate exploitation of such a measure by the construction sector." It went on to say, in respect of applying differing rates of VAT to different types of housing: Revenue had indicated that this differentiated approach would be difficult to administer and could lead to accidental or fraudulent underpayments of VAT, where an underpayment of VAT may arise, for example, in the construction of an apartment block ... for instance, [when the apartment block is] initially ... purely residential in order to avail of ... [the] 9%, and then subsequently become[s] ... mixed-use [...] Revenue believe that administering and monitoring the measure would be difficult and could result in fraudulent behaviour.”