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

I will start by paying tribute to my colleague, Eoghan Murphy, who was my director of elections in the by-election in 2019. As Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, he initiated an awful lot of the policies that we discuss at this committee. He introduced Rebuilding Ireland, he went for the acceleration of social housing and he laid the foundations for the affordable housing and Land Development Agency, LDA, Bills, about which we are talking at this committee. I wish him well with the next chapter in this life.

The regulations that are before us to support cafés, restaurants and gastropubs are reasonable, sensible and will support small businesses that really need support right now. It is great to see them backed up by Government funding and we are all looking forward to availing of outdoor dining as the country reopens. This move will support us all to get back to normality but it will also support jobs in each of our local areas.