Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

Consensus should be an area where bridges can be built and common themes found. It is disappointing to hear from the Government side nothing but divisiveness and personal attacks, which does nothing for building bridges and consensus. If we are genuine about this, there has to be a real engagement from the major party in Government - that is how it will be judged. It is only two short years since I heard the Taoiseach say "We will do it our way and no other way". That kind of language must be left to one side if we are talking of building consensus. Let us see genuine and constructive themes being built. I am sure we can properly debate the issue at that stage.

I agree with speakers who called for the protection of the integrity of the Irish passport. It is wrong to see passports being passed around by criminals as if they are Christmas cards. The Irish passport is a valued and internationally recognised entitlement of Irish citizens. It behoves the Minister for Foreign Affairs and all citizens of this country to protect its integrity. I ask the Leader to pass on those sentiments to the relevant Minister and Department.

I have called on a number of occasions for an updated debate on the state of our housing sector. Thousands of people are still on local authority housing lists while thousands of private houses have been built, resulting in an overhang in the Irish property market. Over the summer period, an instruction was issued by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to local authorities that they would no longer build houses. This is a major shift in policy for social housing and it is important that it is properly analysed by the Oireachtas. The "one size fits all" approach will not fit every local authority. While there is an overhang in much of the commuter belt around Dublin and in Dublin itself, there is still a need for local authorities to build houses to meet housing lists and social demand. I want to know the position of the local authority in regard to the provision of social housing. I ask the Leader to provide an opportunity at an early stage to debate the housing sector and the position of those on housing lists.