Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

I will talk about the programme of Government 2025 vis-à-vis my city and constituency of Cork North-Central. To my mind, this plan does not go far enough. With the exception of Luxembourg, Ireland is the richest country in the European Union but the plan does not show ambition. It does not go far enough for the people of Cork and certainly does not go far enough for the people of Cork North-Central.

Regarding the housing crisis and the housing emergency we are in, this Government says it will build 300,000 houses by 2030. That may sound good but where is that plan, as my colleague has said? Where is the infrastructure? What about the people who are homeless, the 15,000 people who are sleeping rough in this country tonight, 4,500 of whom are children? This plan is farcical.

From Little Island to Ballincollig and from Blackpool to Mallow in my constituency, people cannot afford to rent properties. You are talking about €2,000, €2,300 or €2,700 to rent a property in Cork if you are lucky enough to find something to rent. That not has been addressed in this document.

The Government has not addressed the cost of living either. We all accept that everything, from fuel to food, is getting more expensive but this Government is doing nothing. It will say in the programme for Government that it will increase by €12. The Taoiseach then came out yesterday and said he would cut the cost-of-living supports. The Government is doing exactly what it has done before - robbing Peter and paying Paul - but it has not mentioned the northern ring road, the Cork to Limerick motorway or the Mallow relief road. My colleague spoke about Shannon Airport but what about Cork Airport? What about the commitment to provide money to remove the old terminal and expand the airport to open up flights to the United States? What about the commitment that was given over and over again by the Cork politicians on the southside of the city who occupy the Government benches to knock the building and extend the runway to be able to berth more planes overnight? That has not been fixed.

We now recognise that over €500 million has to be spent on the drinking water system in Cork city. Water in the northside is brown. This has been discussed in the House by my colleagues on a number of occasions and it has continuously been ignored. It is not mentioned once in the programme for Government. How can we have a situation where we have drinking water that people cannot drink in the northside of Cork city? We need a commitment of €500 million for that and the Government is simply ignoring it. If it happened on the southside of the city, would it have been ignored?

We also have the event centre. We have had five taoisigh since there was a sod turning.

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