Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)

I had just been elected and I had national school principals from Coolock on to me straight away about DEIS Plus, and fair play to them. They were determined to make sure DEIS Plus got off the ground and got funding and support. I was more than happy to raise it in the parliamentary party and directly with the Minister, to work with like-minded colleagues to make sure those working-class areas, with great communities but deprivation, would get a shot at DEIS Plus. I am delighted to see €48 million allocated to the programme.

Our Lady Immaculate Senior National School, in Darndale, St. Francis Senior National School in Priorswood and St. Joseph's National School in Coolock are three schools that would really benefit from being in the DEIS Plus pilot. Their principals and staff stand ready to get involved, so I just wanted to call them out.

The increase in education capitation is a huge plus for schools and for primary schools in particular. The more primary schools I visit as a TD, the more they raise the issue of energy bills and other bills and having to rely on parents and fundraising activities to close the gap. The capitation changes are very welcome and I look forward to future increases as well.

Housing supply has got a lot of attention in the Chamber in the last few days. The measures introduced by the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, are a clear signal of intent to start working on supply-side measures for housing. I welcome that. I recently read an academic piece by a learned housing academic and of the five measures advocated, none were supply-side measures.

There are 98,000 apartments with planning permission but no start date yet, with 42,000 of those in Dublin. The VAT change should help increase the viability of those apartments. To be fair to the Minister, he made very clear that he cannot prove that will be the case but the Government is trying to do everything it can to close the viability gap to make sure those apartments can be built.

In relation to VAT, we should look at construction materials and other inputs in future budgets. If we can have a zero or reduced VAT rate on construction materials, that would feed into trying to close the viability gap. I take issue with my colleague, Deputy Ward, on the 9% VAT rate. Trying to target VAT is very hard to do. You may be able to target across sectors but it is very hard to take a sector and try to find ways to target VAT changes, for example, at small, medium or large restaurants and cafés. It is really hard to do and I do not think it is workable.

Cuirim fáilte, ar deireadh, roimh an infheistíocht agus an maoiniú breise do TG4. Chas muid le hionadaithe ó TG4. Déanann TG4 an-chuid oibre ó thaobh an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn agus caighdeán na gcláracha a chuireann sé ar fáil. Tá seans ag TG4 anois seirbhís nuachta neamhspleách, láidir, mhaith a chur ar fáil don tír, don dream ar fad a bhéas sásta éisteacht agus breathnú ar an tseirbhís sin trí Ghaeilge. Fáiltím roimh an infheistíocht seo. Fáiltím freisin roimh an maoiniú breise don earnáil oideachais agus don Ghaeltacht go ginearálta, ach tá níos mó oibre le déanamh againn ansin.

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