Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The great difficulty is that under the Government's two-tier economic recovery, increasing numbers of people are being left far behind. There is a fuel allowance but it comes nowhere close to covering the rising cost of fuel. Retrofitting of local authority stock is ongoing but one must wait for two to three years to get one's windows or doors replaced. The new standards for building are very much in question when local authorities are not being funded by the Government to adequately inspect private rental tenancies.

Local authorities have a role to play but let us not forget that, thanks to the Government and its Fianna Fáil predecessor, local authorities lost 25% of their staff during the recession. That was the single greatest loss of staff in any sector of the public service.

I ask the Taoiseach to carefully study the report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and its seven recommendations, and then come back to this House to tell us which of those recommendations should be implemented. I also ask the Taoiseach to respect the democratic decision made by this House in November 2017 and to implement fully the recommendations of the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion to ensure that all private rental properties are fully inspected and all minimum standards are fully adhered to in order that no child is living in energy poverty because of the failure of the Government to fund adequate enforcement of inspection of properties in the private rental or local government sectors.

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