Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not be going back and forth. I will just run through my questions as quickly as I can. I welcome the progress on homelessness and I believe the affordable housing Bill has the potential to be a game changer when it comes ramping up the much-needed delivery of affordable homes. The sum of €468 million being provided for affordability will make a real difference to people in their 20s and 30s who want to own their own home. For me, that is key. I believe we need to drive home ownership and enable young people, young couples and young families to reach that milestone of owning their own place. The Land Development Agency will be a catalyst for the construction of those affordable homes and much-needed social homes as well. One concern that the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and many councillors expressed was that the Land Development Agency might dilute their powers. Will the Minister confirm they will still have reserved functions when it comes to local authority-owned land?

In terms of planning, I know the Minister has committed to strategic housing developments, SHDs. In my own local authority area of South Dublin County Council, there are about 30 SHDs. I know many of my rural counterparts are working without updated rural housing guidelines and with insufficient water and waste water capacity. Against that backdrop and in the context of Covid, would the Minister consider bringing forward legislation to enable local authorities to pause the making of county development plans if they so choose?

Just before this meeting, we had our select committee meeting and I noticed I was the only female on the call. That is quite a visual reminder of the fact that only 22% of our Deputies are women. Given that the obvious career path for any aspiring female politician is to stand for local election first and to learn the trade in the council chamber, there is a real opportunity to make local government more attractive to women. The first step is proving that local government is inclusive by facilitating maternity leave for councillors. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and Lorraine Hall have done a lot of work on this. I would welcome an update on when maternity leave will be provided for councillors.

With regard to the electoral reform Bill, there has been much talk in the media about the potential for mining of data from social media websites. This has exposed a huge weakness in the Bill. Social media platforms have replaced the platforms politicians used to stand on outside church gates but its power is not just what politicians say; it is how often messages are shared and how much money goes behind them. Social media allows for viral spreading of disinformation, the generation of patterns of online hate messages, bots created solely for political gain and, as uncovered by Senator Cummins, the potential for international interference in our democracy. Government legislation clearly cites regulating political advertising as a way of reducing the advantage that access to money brings to political competition. That statement is true year-round. Whether we like it or not, all of us politicians operate in an era of constant electioneering yet this Bill proposes to only monitor and regulate social media politics during a window of about five weeks about twice every five years. That is a very short window given that social media provides political opportunities every day of every year. Right now, all of us can use money rather than message to influence the national discourse and to shape democratic decisions. All of us can, and I am sure many of us do, take out advertisements on social media, as I have, and that is allowed. However, what should not be allowed is political weaponising of social media. Will the Minister strengthen this legislation to strengthen our democracy?