Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Gould, Ward and Paul Donnelly. I am taking six minutes of that time, three of which I will give to the Minister of State to answer questions, if that is okay with my colleagues. They will look after their own time.

I will ask three brief questions before I ask climate-related questions that are relevant to the Minister of State's Department. I am aware that either this week or next week, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, intends to bring to Cabinet a proposal to extend the ban on rent increases, notices to quit and evictions. Will the Minister of State confirm whether that will happen this week or next week? Renters and landlords are obviously keen to know when that decision will be made

There is also the broader issue of the rent arrears debt burden that is building. I note the Department has asked the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, to produce some research on this issue. Will the Minister of State tell us when that research is expected and, if he is still in government at that time, will he give a commitment to work with those of us in opposition on the crafting of those solutions?

I turn to the issues of mica in County Donegal, pyrite in County Mayo and latent defects more generally. My colleagues, Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Conway-Walsh, and I have twice written to the Minister of State seeking a meeting to discuss some issues related to those matters. Will he give a commitment to meet us?

On issues around energy efficiency, will the Minister of State give us an update on the monitoring of the near zero energy building, NZEB, regulations? The regulations are good but I am not clear as to who is to monitor them to ensure compliance. I would greatly appreciate any information the Minister of State has about that. There are guidelines to ensure the highest levels of energy efficiency in our local authority stock. There are some really good practices in our local authorities but is the Department actively considering going beyond NZEB to have, for example, passive plus or forms of design for social housing that treat embedded carbon as well?

Can the Minister of State give us an update on the regulations for offshore wind energy which the Government was working on before the election?

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