Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the increased investment on the part of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. I will outline the tangible result of such increased investment. People never thought that almost 10,000 social homes would be delivered this year, that in the region of 8,000 units would be built and acquired or that we would support over 45,000 people in accommodation while their homes for life are being built. People never talk in those terms. Moreover, they erect billboards and speak negatively about things. I very much welcome the increase in spending. A great deal of funding went into resourcing local authorities and An Bord Pleanála in order to get all of those systems up and running. As somebody who knows a little bit about housing - and I read all of the planning applications submitted to local authorities and An Bord Pleanála - I can attest to the fact that there is a volume of applications coming through that has not been seen in the past couple of years. I very much welcome the investment in the right place.

There has been much commentary on the national children's hospital. While I have a view on the location, etc., I will park the issue for today. As a parent of young children who lives in Dublin, I am acutely aware of the stress and the concern that arises for people who have sick children in hospital and who live outside Dublin. Under the plans for the new hospital, provision is being made for 380 individual en-suite inpatient rooms in order to allow families to stay with their children. There will be a 53-unit family accommodation facility provided so that parents can be on site with their children. When we talk about broad figures, we sometimes lose sight of the emotional support that needs to be given to people who live in this State. I am acutely aware that the inflation in costs as a result of the construction aspect and our skills shortage has given rise to the overspend.

I would like to hear more detail about how closely the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is working with the Department of Health in order to ensure that the latter will not have as big an overspend in the latter part of this year as was the case in 2018.

What impact is the US tax reform likely to have on our corporation tax?