Rory Hearne
Dublin North-West · Social Democrats · Ireland
“I thank you, a Leas Cheann-Comhairle, for your work and support during the year and thank all the staff here. I wish my colleagues in government the best of luck over the summer and respite from our robust engagement. We look forward to going at it again in the autumn.”
“The Dublin public will be very upset when they realise their fire fighters and emergency response service are at risk of being split and downgraded.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is important to have a discussion about the context of education costs and back-to-school costs. Of course, the context is massive inequality in this country.”
“However, what it is actually doing is throwing families into even more stress on top of not being able to pay the basic bills. In my constituency to respond and support families struggling with back-to-school costs, the Finglas voluntary food and family support service, Feed Our Homeless, last year organised help for families with a pop-u…”
“A second tier of child benefit would lift 55,000 children out of poverty but the Government will not do it. It costs the same as what it has given in tax breaks to developers, investor funds and large fast-food giants. Childhoods pass quickly. No child should have their future limited by poverty.”
“The Government is ramming through planning legislation this week that will exempt sheds out the back without proper scrutiny. It is satisfied with handing our young people to vulture landlords. The Government is now offering a future of renting a shed out the back with no rights whatsoever.”
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“The Minister says he is going to war on dereliction. I have to say that from my perspective, the only war he is waging on dereliction is one in his own head. The new dereliction sites tax will not come into place until 2028. Why will the Minister not implement the tax this year? There is a fundamental flaw in his derelict sites tax. It is designed to fail, just like the vacant homes tax. It is a self-assessment tax. We have 166,000 vacant homes identified by the CSO. It is a self-assessment tax but how many of those liable self-declared for the tax? The figure is 2,300. Less than 2% of the total vacant homes are liable for the vacant homes tax. It will be the same for the derelict sites tax. Local authorities are responsible for identifying the sites.”
“Go raibh míle maith agat. We have tens of thousands of vacant and derelict homes up and down the country. It is one of the biggest scandals and failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. Government after Government has failed to tackle this issue. Buildings up and down the country are rotting, falling apart, dangerous and left vacant while we have thousands of children and families in homelessness. In Finglas in my constituency families are being made homeless while a massive building, the Drake Inn, has been left derelict for years. Trees are growing up out of it. How hard must it be for these children and families, and for a generation locked out of a home, to walk past these empty derelict buildings? They have no home and here are these buildings that could be homes left idle because of policy failure.”
“I raise the horrific case of a peaceful working family in Finglas who suffered the terrible trauma of being petrol bombed out of their home. Their house was destroyed in the arson attack and they just made it out alive because of the brave actions of one of the children, Amanda Uwase, who is in the Gallery today. She went back into the burning home and rescued her younger brothers and sister. Her mother works as a carer and was rescued by the fire services. However, the response from the Government and the State to this terrible attack on peaceful working people in Finglas has been absolutely outrageous in its silence. The family has been left homeless. This is not good enough. Where is the response from the Minister for justice to find the perpetrators, bring them to justice and be tough on such a heinous crime?”
“I believe, and the evidence shows, that we are still not fully developing a public water and wastewater infrastructure that meets the needs of the economy and society. This connects back to a Government and to political parties that are still broadly neoliberal and centre right. They have an attitude towards public services that, while they will invest in them, they will not invest sufficiently to ensure people's needs are met. They still believe the market and private sector should be in there making profit where they can.”
“Yes, we are on water infrastructure and this relates directly to it. Why do we not invest sufficiently in our water infrastructure and why do we have these problems? It is not because Uisce Éireann is not doing all that it can because it is doing some work. It is not about needing to get developers in to do the work. The problem is we have a State that does not believe in public services and public utilities and is actually privatising them. I spoke to Irish Water as well and it is still doing public private partnerships and outsourcing the delivery and management of wastewater infrastructure to the private sector. This relates directly to the motion because it is a question on what type of public utilities and public infrastructure we are developing.”
“These issues are connected because we have not developed a State that has funded our public services, including Uisce Éireann, city councils and county councils. This issue is directly connected to the motion because we have a State that does not deliver our public-----”
“These kinds of waiting times for water and heat are not acceptable. It is a fundamental failure of our State that people are left freezing in their homes. I raise this case because I would like the Minister of State to take it up and see what he can do about it. I wrote to the community welfare officer in Finglas to follow up on the case. Niamh and Petria are waiting for this and I am concerned for their welfare. This is just one of many examples where the Government talks about economic growth in this country and the Taoiseach gets up in the Dáil and says the Opposition never talks about all of the great things the Government is doing when that is not the reality for too many people in this country. I was just in the audiovisual room listening to people with disabilities who cannot afford to heat their homes.”
“I will raise a case related to infrastructure, specifically the fact that people who are trying to get services are not getting them. Niamh and her mother Petria have been without heating since before September 2025 and are waiting on repairs. Niamh first flagged this issue in my office in October of last year. Her mother is 84 years of age. They have been without heating and a functioning boiler. They were advised by workers who inspected the boiler that it needed to be replaced rather than repaired. I wrote to the SEAI, the Minister for Social Protection and Dublin City Council raising this issue. The SEAI provided some information about grants and warmer homes and warned about lengthy waiting times. However, it said it will take potentially 14 months from the date of application to the date of delivery.”
“Therefore, Uisce Éireann is left as a kind of commercial body that should deliver key public infrastructure, but does not have sufficient funding, as identified in the motion, to deal with leaks, water being of sufficient quality and infrastructure not being delivered for housing. It is not doing that now and there is no prospect of it doing so sufficiently. The frustrating aspect of this is that the Government has given billions away to developers, investor funds and fast food chains. Yet, our public infrastructure, which needs investment, is not given sufficient investment to ensure it addresses these problems in a reasonable timeframe. The timeframes set out are not reasonable. That is why we need a step-change in how we invest in our public water and wastewater infrastructure.”
“It states very clearly that some of the key structural barriers to delivering infrastructure are Government approval of projects, the time it takes and the funding allocated. It is very clear that the systems the Government has set up are not delivering infrastructure quickly enough. That is the responsibility of the Government. The Minister of State can shake his head, but it is the Government's responsibility. It is a system that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have set up for decades. In terms of Uisce Éireann, there is an issue that these parties broadly do not believe in public utilities. It is about the market.”
“One of the things identified in it, in terms of delays in delivery, did not involve planning, judicial reviews or other issues but, rather, the Government and State and the way they operate. The barriers are a lack of dedicated funding, which is still insufficient, and the systems in place to approve projects. The Minister of State is shaking his head. I assume he has read the infrastructure report.”
“Over the past 20 to 40 years, we have followed a housing policy, and a policy more generally, of privatisation, relying on the market and not delivering and developing public capacity. It is incredible that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil say they are giving Uisce Éireann the funding it needs given that they denied it when it was actually needed and the work could have been done and investment provided. We are playing catch-up in terms of the infrastructure that is needed. Last year, we said Uisce Éireann needed €2 billion to get going. The Minister, Deputy Harris, said the Government was not sure and needed agreements, and the decision was delayed. I read the infrastructure report.”
“The analysis on the website points out that people would be waiting a thousand years in Ballymun, in my constituency, to get keys to a home. In other places around the country, such as Ballyjamesduff in County Cavan, people will wait a hundred years to get the keys to their own home, as will people in Swinford, County Mayo. The website goes through town after town and place after place across the country where there is a generation aged between 18 and 44 who have no prospect of owning a home of their own, renting or living in a social home under the current housing delivery. The reality is that there have been eight months of consecutive decline in construction in the residential sector. This does not involve just the Minister and Minister of State. They are the current Ministers, but the seeds of this problem were laid decades ago.”
“As someone who swims regularly in Dublin Bay, even at the moment when it is freezing, after it rains we can see it is covered in scum. We know there are issues with capacity in the Ringsend treatment plant. We have capacity problems across the country in terms of the delivery of water and wastewater services and, fundamentally, housing. I do not believe that the Government fully takes on board the extent of the housing emergency we are in. I encourage the Minister of State to look at the website onemillionhomes.ie. I do not know whether he has come across it yet. Its information is based on CSO data. It states that there are 1.3 million people aged between 18 and 44 who are waiting to own their home but are instead stuck renting or living at home.”
“I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward the motion. Tá a lán rudaí sa tairiscint that I am go maith with and I think are good. It is important to highlight the issues that have been raised. I am not in agreement with a number of points towards the end of the motion, but broadly it is important. The fundamental questions we need to address are why Uisce Éireann is not working for people, why it is not providing the services and infrastructure that are needed to ensure housing is being delivered and, fundamentally, why it is not sufficiently addressing issues of leakage and poor water quality we know exist in respect of drinking water. People are still living with this issue across the country. There is also the question of the quality of water in our rivers and seas in respect of wastewater.”
“Does the Taoiseach accept that Ireland has to take responsibility and should put affordable housing central to the European Union Presidency?”
“The European Union launched, in December, a groundbreaking affordable housing plan with revised state aid rules and new approaches to delivering affordable housing. Will the Taoiseach put affordable housing central on the agenda of the European Union Presidency that Ireland will hold? Will he take action to ensure Ireland draws down funding that is available through the European Union and new approaches? Does he accept that the Irish Government and governments across the European Union have failed a generation of young people who cannot afford the rents and cannot afford the house prices? We have new apartments being built in Dublin. The rent for a two-bedroom apartment is €3,150. Does the Taoiseach accept that it is not migrants who can be blamed for the housing crisis but it is the failure of governments across the European Union?”
“A lot more funding needs to go into it because landlords say they are willing to sell the property, but the councils are too slow in responding and the issues around eligibility and lack of clarity on funding have added to this problem. I call on the Government to take action, in particular on the issue of maintenance. Councils need to be given a green light so that if a family or an individual is facing eviction from their home, where they are in receipt of HAP, the council can buy the property regardless of what it costs ultimately. It is cheaper to keep people in their homes than for them to go into emergency accommodation.”
“My concern is that thousands of households currently in receipt of the housing assistance payment are facing no-fault evictions, and that will continue even when the changes begin in March. We have a ticking time bomb that is actually exploding now in terms of the mass scale of evictions going on of HAP households that cannot afford the market rent. If they are evicted, there is nowhere they can afford to go. That is ongoing now. It is why we see so many presentations into homelessness but it is going to get even worse in the coming years. There must be more focus on the tenant in situ scheme to prevent households who are in receipt of HAP from going into homelessness.”
“I want to highlight the issue and to really push the Minister of State on it. Could he take it back to the Minister as well? There needs to be a step-change in how this Government approaches the tenant in situ scheme. When we look at the funding that has been allocated, it is €22 million to enable the purchase of homes for those who are in long-term homelessness, but at €400,000 per home, that is only 55 homes. There are 422 families in Dublin in emergency accommodation for longer than two years. The funding is simply not adequate. For the allocation of €95 million, we are talking about maybe 250 homes. The figures might sound like a lot, but it is not sufficient or adequate when we look at it in terms of the number of homes that can be purchased.”
“When the head of housing at Dublin City Council was at the housing committee this week where we discussed homelessness I asked him how the scheme was functioning. He said that while it was back functioning there are issues of eligibility and issues where repairs are required to a home that is currently rented privately and that is not up to standard because there is not funding there to do up those homes.”
“She said she is grateful there is a roof over their heads but she will go to any length so her kids do not end up in a hotel with herself and her husband in the same room for an unknown amount of time where they are even more crowded than they are now. This is an example of the tenant in situ scheme failing to support those families as a result of it being paused. I have been in touch with the council since then. It says the scheme is being operated but there are eligibility requirements, so it is being restricted in terms of who is eligible for funding for it. Will the Minister of State address that and clarify the eligibility changes to the tenant in situ scheme? I am very concerned it is limiting its potential to prevent families like this from being made homeless.”
“They had contacted the council in April when they received the eviction letter to see if the tenant in situ scheme could support them but at that time the council said the scheme was effectively paused until there was clarity on it. As a result, they had to leave their home. The mother was in touch with us. She told us she cries every night. She has started taking antidepressants a week ago and she and her husband break up multiple times a day over arguments blaming one another about who is at fault that they got into this situation. She said she knows many people in the same situation and that they are all living this.”
“It showed the tenant in situ scheme was a really key measure in preventing homelessness in 2024. I will talk about one case which shows the necessity of this scheme. This is the case of a family which was facing eviction. My office has been dealing with the mother. They have had to leave their rental home and are living in the husband’s parents’ house. It is extremely overcrowded with seven people in the house. The eldest daughter sleeps on the couch in the living room. The two sons share a room with their grandmother. The other daughter shares a room with her grandfather. The woman, her husband and their baby sleep in another room. They have been looking for a home for quite a few years and had not found anything suitable before they received their notice to quit.”
“I also wish happy Christmas to all the staff, the Ceann Comhairle and the Ministers. Nollaig Shona. I look forward to continuing our engagement in the new year. I will refer to one case in particular in my constituency but I wish to raise the broader issue affecting people which we are being inundated about. It is the issue of people facing eviction. They are being evicted from the private rental sector. These are families and individuals. A policy brought in after the temporary Covid eviction ban was lifted was the tenant in situ scheme. Everyone acknowledges the tenant in situ scheme has been a very effective homeless prevention measure. The housing committee had very important presentations, which I hope the Minister of State will look at, from Focus Ireland and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive this week.”
“I have a piece of art for the Tánaiste today made by the artist, Asbestos, which sets out that 5,274 children are homeless.”
“A record 5,274 children are homeless along with their families. It is equivalent to a shocking 222 primary school classes of children. These children will spend Christmas in homelessness without a Christmas tree and without a dinner table that they can sit around with their families on Christmas Day. They will wonder if Santa will even find them. Each week we come in here, we put forward solutions and we feel the Government is ignoring them. Why will the Government not implement a temporary eviction ban to stop thousands more children and families being made homeless? Does the Tánaiste really consider what life is like for the 5,274 children living in emergency accommodation and how damaging and traumatising it is to them?”
“In my constituency, the Drake Inn in the heart of Finglas village has been sitting vacant for many years. Trees are growing out of the building and the city council, while it is levying fines on the owner, has not collected all the fines. How is it possible that a huge property in the heart of Finglas village is left vacant for many years to fall into ruin and damage the fabric of the community while the council just sits back and allows it? Councils should be compulsorily purchasing buildings like that but they do not have the funding and they do not have all the mechanisms to do so. When we talk about a commitment to tackling vacancy and dereliction, these issues must be addressed as well.”
“There is a real problem in that we are not investing in our public housing stock and bringing affordable property back into use, while giving property investors up to €140,000 to do up a vacant property and bring it into residential use with no guarantee whatsoever that there will be affordability requirements. The other figure to note is that 28% of all vacant property grants are going to landlords to rent out properties, again with no affordability requirements, yet the Department of housing is declaring, defining and counting the giving of those vacant property grants as affordable housing. It is not affordable housing; it is going to landlords. If we really want to tackle vacancy and dereliction, local authorities need to be compulsorily purchasing properties on a significant scale.”
“We will not be opposing these measures. I want to make some general points, particularly on the issue of tackling vacancy and dereliction. The grants the Minister announced this week are quite frustrating in many ways because there is no guarantee the public funding that is given out will actually go to ensuring the delivery of affordable homes. It is very frustrating because we are now seeing up to €140,000 per commercial property renovated being given to a potential investor, landlord or property owner, yet local authorities get just €11,000 per home they are trying to renovate, which in many cases are voids.”
“Any additional cost could be the one that prevents them from affording food, paying rent or covering basic costs. It is an illogical move because it actually worsens health outcomes. I know the Minister knows this. She knows that the costs of living people face may mean they cannot cover health costs or the cost of heating their homes and that this worsens their health outcomes. Elderly people are living in cold and in fear. They cannot pay anything that would cost another cent. I want to raise the wider issue of the cost of healthcare, in particular for families and children. There was a promise in 2019 by Fine Gael and the Minister, Deputy Harris, to introduce the free GP care up to age 12 by 2022. We will be in 2026 in a few weeks' time and still that commitment to free GP care for children up to age 12 has not been delivered.”
“I support the motion. I highlight the issue of the cost-of-living crisis that is affecting a great many people across this country. In my own constituency, in areas of severe disadvantage like Ballymun and Finglas, people are literally living hand to mouth. Last week, we heard people with disabilities say that they are choosing between eating and heating. That is not just a phrase and it does not just affect those with disabilities. It is particularly affecting vulnerable groups, including elderly people. Families are also really struggling. The proposal to add additional costs to blister packs shows a disconnect between this Government and the reality of people's lives. Older people, many of them living with families, are really struggling.”
“I ask for time this week to debate child homelessness. This Christmas we will have a record number of homeless children in emergency accommodation - 5,274. I ask for time to be put aside this week to debate the issue and to discuss emergency measures that could be brought in to stop the number of families and children being evicted into homelessness.”
“I support the comments made on this. Given that the previous Minister and Government had essentially encouraged people to apply and they did that in good faith, it seems deeply unfair that they are now being disadvantaged. I think that is unfair and the Minister should explain why that is the situation.”
“It is not just people who cannot buy a home but the quality of homes. The private sector, the market, does not have the capacity to deal with it. We need an emergency State intervention. I believe that requires a State construction company. It requires State finance. It requires the State stepping in or else we will be left with people living in substandard homes, in dangerous homes and without a home, not just for decades to come but, as I said, into the next century.”
“A factory in Cavan which builds modular homes has shut down because of the lack of work and yet the State would not step in, buy it and start producing modular homes that people could move into and the work could be done. The State has to step in in a way that we have not seen this State do since the 1950s and 1960s. It has to do it in Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Clare, and it needs to be part of us solving our housing crisis. We have a housing crisis in Donegal, as I said, and in these counties where people's homes are crumbling. We also have homelessness there. We have people who cannot afford to rent. We have a generation leaving the country. We have homes that are not up to standard in my constituency, in Ballymun and Finglas. The housing issue in this country is an absolute disaster.”
“One in four is living on a low income. Where will people get the money to cover the costs when it is not 100% redress? In my view, what it shows is the complete failure of a market approach to housing and the complete failure of regulation. There is no prospect of the disaster that is being lived in Donegal right now being dealt with if we rely on the market to solve it. That is where the State has to intervene. It has to intervene to provide 100% redress. It has to start looking at finance and actually supporting homeowners to have the finance to be able to rebuild, including borrowing and low interest rates, to cover the costs. Where are people going to get the money to do the rebuilding? The idea that they somehow are going to front it up is not on. The employment of construction workers was raised. Who will do the construction?”
“Of 3,000 applicants, the number of applicants who have commenced work on both schemes is just 1,000. The number of applicants who have completed the works is just 324. At that rate, it will be next century before the actual issues of defective blocks, defective concrete and defective building materials are dealt with. Donegal is suffering a housing crisis and housing disaster like nowhere else. Where will people go when the work is being done? I just looked on daft.ie . There are just 35 places to rent in Donegal. There were 83 evictions in Donegal in the third quarter of this year. As many evictions will probably happen this year as the number of applicants who have actually had the remediation works completed. There is a cluster of multiple housing crises in Donegal and in the other counties affected.”
“It is the sense that we feel completely secure in ourselves as people and in where we are. In housing, that concept is applied to the notion of your home being somewhere where you feel safe deep inside yourself. It is not just whether you are safe from threat of violence, but whether you can rest and be at peace there. In Donegal, Sligo, Limerick and Clare, people clearly cannot be at peace in their homes when their homes are literally crumbling around them. That is why housing has to be treated as a fundamental human right, particularly the standard of that housing. I referred earlier to the briefing paper provided by the Oireachtas. The figures are stark and show that what is currently being done by the Government about defective concrete is absolutely inadequate.”
“I want to speak to and support the amendments. The starting point is that, as I have said before in this Chamber, housing is a fundamental human right. I do not think it is a coincidence that there is no mention of housing being a human right in the Government's new housing plan, because what is going on in Donegal, Mayo and other counties, including Limerick, Sligo and Clare, shows why housing is a fundamental human right. We have people, children and families living in housing situations that are completely unsustainable, with holes in walls, children crying and worrying about whether the house will fall down, and families and parents crying at night wondering what they are going to do in these homes. They feel completely unsafe. I have written about the psychological concept called ontological security.”
“My concern is that, given what has been put forward, we will see more problems and the scheme not developed properly. I continue to be very concerned about it.”
“I support Deputy Ward in the points he made. The number of amendments that were ruled out of order, particularly in relation to the public inquiry, is disappointing. There is much that we need to learn from what has happened and from what is going on. There is a real lack of accountability in the whole response that we have seen so far. It is very interesting. The Oireachtas Library and Research Service produced a briefing paper on the Bill. It is quite shocking to look at the tiny number of actual applications that were processed by the Housing Agency. There were over 2,500 applications but fewer than 1,000 were gone through. How many years is it now? We are 14 years in. When are we actually going to seriously address this?”
“However, we need to be able to see that in detail to be able to support it. We know there are major problems with building standards and the concern is how we are going to ensure that is not going to continue. In Ballymun, in my constituency, we have social housing that was built not 40 years ago, but in the time of the regeneration two decades ago, and yet there are major problems of dampness and mould and these need to be addressed. We need to be assured that we are avoiding this happening in the future and that the problems that exist are going to be rectified properly. On that basis, the Social Democrats will not be supporting the motion.”
“As Deputy Charles Ward and all of us on this side of the House have raised, the issues affecting the people of Donegal, Mayo and other counties along the west coast that have been affected by defective concrete blocks, as well as the issues affecting those in our own constituencies who have been affected by the apartment dwelling issues and the serious issues we have raised in respect of fire safety and the potential risks to life that are ongoing because of defective building, are matters of life and death. These are matters that determine the ability of people to live in homes that are safe, secure and of a decent standard. There are serious concerns. The Minister has said his intention with this is to improve things. That is his intention and that of his officials and I take that at face value.”
“I do not think he would consider it fair to be thrown into a court and be expected to make decisions without all the evidence and advice to hand. In a way he is asking us to do the same - to make decisions on important, fundamental legislation without having all the information or advice, including the advice from the Attorney General, to hand. We should have it. If we are to take our jobs as legislators seriously then we have to raise these concerns and ask whether we are making decisions in full knowledge with all the information we should have. The reality is the Minister knows we are not and we would not be. On that basis, we cannot stand over supporting what the Minister is bringing forward on this Stage.”
“I also welcome the young people from the Finglas Youth Service in my constituency who are visiting tonight. It is wonderful to have them in and it is interesting because it makes me reflect on this. I have looked at it and I am concerned, as others have expressed, by its rushed nature and the fact that we have not been given the time to go through it in detail. It connects with young people coming in to understand and see our democracy and politics in action and the decisions made. Unfortunately, the measures brought forward in this Bill and the rushed nature of the amendments and what has been done are not the true actions of what a democracy should be. The Opposition should be given the time to go through and understand these measures and amendments. I know the Minister has a legal background.”
“They have to go through the heartbreak of surrendering their family pets. As well as explaining to their children that they have to leave their home, they also have to explain why part of the family - the pets - cannot come with them. This month, I was in touch with a woman who was facing the direct trauma of homelessness. She had been trying day and night to find a home for herself but was not able to do so. They lost their home and they also lost their pets. This needs to be addressed too.”
“I want to flag the issue of housing and the situation whereby we are now seeing mass evictions. Many people are being forced out of their homes and are then having to get rid of their pets because they cannot be taken into emergency accommodation. On top of the trauma of losing their home, families and, in particular, children are going through the trauma of losing their pets because this Government has completely failed to ensure people have a home and to prevent them from being evicted. On top of that, we still have a disgraceful situation whereby most private rental accommodation does not allow people to have pets. Representatives from Dogs Trust say that one of the main reasons people contact them is because they have to move to a rental home where pets are not allowed.”
“One for example is, "Is dána gach madra in ndoras a thí féin", which means "every dog is daring on his own doorstep". Another one is, "Ag cur madraí i bhfuinneoga", which means "putting dogs in windows", which actually is a phrase to describe attempts to distract people. This is a good description of the Government and a lot of its housing policy. More broadly on this, I want to talk about the ongoing issues of animal cruelty that happen and which this Bill addresses. Dogs are part of our families. The idea that dogs and other animals are somehow separate from humans is something that a lot of people are trying to challenge. Many see this separation between us when there is none. They are part of us. We are all living beings on this planet together and of course we should be living together, but there is so much horrific cruelty.”
“I think the lack of seriousness of the Minister of State's response was incredible. I have to say it was quite shocking. He did not even take any significant amount of his allocated time for the response. I am a cat owner, not a dog owner, but I know that many of my fellow cat owners will be very supportive. I was sitting this morning with my cat, listening to Deputy Whitmore on "Morning Ireland", and the cat meowed at me. I think she meowed in approval, though I am not quite sure. I am here anyway supporting this and I want to congratulate Deputy Whitmore for the incredible work she has done and the leadership she has shown on this. Of course, dogs are central to our lives today. They also central to Irish mythology, our language and our history. There are some lovely seanfhocail, drawing on dogs, which give wisdom on life in general.”