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

-----and, second, the safety of our troops on the border with Lebanon and on the Golan Heights. As Taoiseach, I have a responsibility to think about the safety of our citizens and our troops on the borders of Israel.

Arson is a serious crime that is punishable by up to ten years in prison. Garda investigations are under way and we expect there will be prosecutions. I agree that we need to see prosecutions and convictions. It is deeply ironic that people who oppose migration and connect migration with criminal activity are the criminals themselves who are carrying out the very serious crime of arson. While I believe that many protestors may very well be decent and good people, I do not believe that protestors who spent the entire day and night outside a building did not see anything before the building burned down. They need to be held accountable for their silence and complicity.

It is our intention to have the Planning and Development Bill enacted before the summer recess. This gives us four to five months to do it. I would hope that is enough time for us in this House to deal with the matter. It is linked to the housing crisis and should be doable in that time schedule.

On the query about statements, I am happy to have statements on any of the matters Deputies raised. I do not think we can have a statement on Garda strategy but we certainly could have a statement on the issue of arson and the attacks on buildings more widely. I will not even say proposed migration centres because some of them were never even proposed for that purpose. That should be agreed by the Business Committee, however.

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