Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They have confirmed that they have never been supporters of Cuba. It is on the record of the House today. I have no problem or objection and I welcome peaceful protest.

A number of Deputies referred to the motion of confidence. I note that we won by a margin of almost 20. We did not need the votes of Independent Deputies, but we had quite a lot of them, which is very welcome, and I thank them for it. Given the margin of victory, it is difficult to understand why some commentators seem to be thinking in the past week or two that the Government was ever under pressure or that there was ever any possibility of us losing that vote. There was not. This Government has a comfortable majority and it has a super majority with the help of a number of Independents. This is the fourth Dáil of which I am a Member, and I have not seen Governments win votes as big, with the exception of the time we were in government with the Labour Party and we also had a super majority because the two biggest parties in the Dáil were in the same coalition. I can give people the assurance that this Government is built to last. This is a government that can go full term.

On the idea of establishing a public building company, we have established a new public company, the Land Development Agency. It was opposed by most of the left-wing Deputies in this House. In fairness, it was supported by the Labour Party, but not the Social Democrats. I am glad that company exists and that it is now building housing not too far from the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, in Shanganagh. I believe in time it will be as big a game changer as the IDA, Aer Lingus and the ESB were. It is a public house building company that is going to build homes on behalf of the State. It is a really positive development. It got off to a slow start. I am disappointed about that, but it is getting going now. We need to give it the capital it needs to do a lot more.

I think the suggestion from the Deputy is a slightly different one, that there should be direct labour, and that such a company would take on construction workers. Like any idea, I think that it is worthy of being scoped out.

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