Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The "degree of looseness" in the run-up to the election of 2024 was mentioned. I like it. It is a nice, polite phrase. Coming from an Opposition party, I would call it a sweetener for getting votes. It was also trying to pull the wool over people's eyes, which sometimes they do successfully.

The population is set to increase, they reckon, almost to 7 million, on a good day or a bad day or whatever you want to call it. The infrastructure is not there even for the population we have now.

The biggest one is housing. Some 60% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 want to leg it out of here. They want to go somewhere else a bit a more secure because they have no chance of ever owning their own home, never mind the high rents they are paying for box rooms all over the country. This is a very depressing situation. They want to go.

We have migration in for healthcare, tech and construction. They stay around five years and that is concerning given that the healthcare sector requires a massive input. We saw Nursing Homes Ireland in the news this morning and Dr. Barrett referred to the need for an increase in the number of nursing home beds. There does not seem to be a plan for recruiting, training and retaining people. People are deciding to leave or to come and then to leave again. I do not know if Dr. Barrett has any answers to these issues or how we can hold on to these people.

There are also problems with homelessness and housing. In Dublin, some 75% of housing is bought by the so-called "vulture funds" or corporate investors leaving nothing for the ordinary folks. I do not know if he has any magic insights into these issues. That is one of my questions.

Dr. Barrett is very concentrated on the €9.4 billion, and rightly so. It is too much of a package and this was confirmed by the Central Bank yesterday. What proportion of that is going to go to those in the disability sector who are already in need? In Dublin South-Central, we have one of the highest percentages of people living with disabilities. We already know there are struggles with that, including struggles with poverty, as well as child poverty. Does Dr. Barrett have any specific budgetary recommendations to alleviate the continued financial crush on the disabled population, especially for constituencies where a high percentage of people are living with disabilities?

On the issue of childhood poverty, there has been talk of a second-tier child benefit payment. Has Dr. Barrett got his head around that one and, if so, could he explain it to me?