Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Renting has never been more expensive or less secure than under the Taoiseach's Government. This week, daft.ie published its figures for the rental market for the start of this year. Rents are now climbing faster than at any point in the previous 20 years. Average new rents are now over €2,000 a month. That is an eye-watering €24,000 a year on rent. In Dublin city, new rents now average €2,500 a month. That comes to a €30,000 yearly rent bill. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, how can working people afford these rents? How an earth could anyone save for a home while paying such extortionate rent? People are getting ripped off and they are sick of it. It is no surprise that young people are going to Canada and Australia. What chance do they really have to make their life here?

It has never been harder to rent a home, buy a home or get a council home. We are in the middle of a housing emergency. It is a crisis that requires emergency measures but there is absolutely no sense of urgency from the Government. I have never seen a Government move so slowly or achieve so very little. In six months, the Government's most significant piece of legislation was to increase the wages for the biggest ministerial team ever seen. We have seen week after week of statements and committees limping into place. It is a real do-nothing Government. Of course, it blames everyone else for its failures. It is the Opposition's fault. It is the local councils' fault. Now, the Taoiseach's housing Minister is blaming the one modest protection that renters have; the rent pressure zones.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the Minister for housing, Deputy James Browne, said that rent caps were "significantly inhibiting the delivery of apartments in Dublin.". To decode that, what he actually means is that vulture funds are telling him in order to invest, they want to charge even higher rents. The Minister said there has to be change. He said there is no question about that. What does he mean? Does he mean the rent pressure zone cap is to be raised? Does he mean that landlords can reset the rent between tenancies to new market rents? Does he mean that new rental properties will be completely exempt from control? Renters need to know what the Taoiseach's Minister means because any of these measures will mean even higher rip-off rents for tenants.

Tá an cíos ag méadú níos tapúla anois ná ag am ar bith le 20 bliain anuas. I lár ghéarchéim costas maireachtála ina bhfuil an praghas ar gach uile rud ag dul in airde, conas atá oibrithe in ainm is a bheith in ann €2,000 a íoc in aghaidh na míosa mar chíos? Tá a fhios ag daoine go bhfuil drochmhargadh á dhéanamh leo agus tá siad braon de.

In the same interview, the Minister, Deputy Browne, promised to protect renters. That is gaslighting renters - he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He tells landlords they can jack up rents while at the same time, he promises tenants protection. Of course, that is not possible. He cannot do both of those things at the same time. Can the Taoiseach and his Government come clean? Are they caving into the demands of vulture funds for even higher rents or are they going to give renters a break and stop these rip-off rent increases once and for all?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The RTB rent index is the most reliable indicator for rent prices. It was published on 15 May and, according to the RTB, the standardised average rent for new tenancies rose nationally by 5.5% year-on-year to €1,680 in quarter 4 of 2024 while the rents for existing tenancies rose by 4.6% year-on-year to €1,440. These are high rents. We are under no illusions about that. Even if those figures represented a decline in rent levels from the previous quarter, quarter 3 of 2024, and continued the downward trend in the growth rate of rental levels observed since early 2023, of course, the rents are too high. The fundamental issue is supply. Deputy McDonald said she had never seen a Government like this. I have never seen an Opposition so bereft of ideas and so lacking in conviction of the housing issue. That is the bottom line.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Listen to the defensiveness.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Look at it overall and look at the context. Across the European Union and many western economies, they are having this dilemma in the mismatch of housing demand and supply. In a European Union context, Ireland is probably doing more than most in increasing housing supply.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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No.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Is it 40,000?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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In terms of real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries. The recent ESRI publication comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that on a per capita basis, Ireland and Northern Ireland had the highest rate of house building and Ireland and Scotland had the highest rate of publicly built housing. That is against the backdrop of a very significant population increase, persistent strong economic growth and income growth and huge pressures on housing.

The Government is spending very significant amounts of public capital money on housing. We need more private sector investment. The Housing Commission, which Sinn Féin supported, called for a review of the rent pressure zones. The rent pressure zones are effective in terms of protecting renters and rent increases. However, all of the established literature, and the most recent quarterly bulletin from the ESRI, says that long term, we are restricting the growth of supply in the private market. By the end of 2025, State investment will certainly go close to €9 billion. We are at approximately €8 billion at the moment for State expenditure on housing. The Department of Finance says we need approximately €20 billion to get to the targets of what we need and the targets that everybody in the House is agreed on.

The Opposition is so lacking in any initiative in terms of how we bring private sector investment in. It is a serious issue.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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He is blaming the Opposition again, the local authorities, anyone but himself.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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You can smile all you like but we need to be real with people here. It seems to me that what the Opposition really wants is for us to stay static in policy terms so that we end up not actually making the step change that is required on housing.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Protect people. That is the job the Government is meant to do.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Parallel with sustained investment from the public purse, the Exchequer, we will need a significant increase in private sector investment. We need to be in line with the Housing Commission and we will see what the review brings forward but we most certainly need to create a secure investment landscape for investment in housing into the future on the private side to supplement the record levels of public sector investment in housing that we currently have in this country. The first quarter of this year alone in terms of housing supply is the highest since 2004 - bar 2008 - bar the Covid bounce in 2023 that came up.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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In summary, I want the Taoiseach to stop screwing it up. That is actually what I want. I want the Taoiseach to take account of the fact and accept the fact that he is presiding over an emergency and a catastrophe. There are record levels of homelessness. This society is now so numbed to your failure that record numbers - there are almost 5,000 children in homeless accommodation - do not really cause a ripple in the public conversation. The Government has normalised its catastrophic failure. An entire generation is locked out of any prospect of homeownership and they cannot afford the rent.

They are voting with their feet. They are in Perth and Toronto. They are not in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, where we need them and their skill, energy and vitality. I asked the Taoiseach to explain comments from his housing Minister. I want him to answer straight. What did the Minister mean in respect of the one modest protection the Government has afforded to renters, in the rent pressure zones? What are his intentions? Is the Government siding again with the vulture funds or will it finally side with tenants?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Níl an ceart aici. Níl mórán déanta aici maidir le fadhb na tithíochta. Tá sé sin soiléir.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Ní sé sin soiléir.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has not addressed the core point I made. We need private sector investment. The Deputy used the phrase "vulture funds". I believe-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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We are back to the heckling because the Deputies do not like the answers. I believe in public sector investment. We have provided 48,000 social houses alone in the last four years. We have the highest level of social housing provided by any Government in over 20 or 30 years. That is a fact.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Government never built any.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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That is not enough.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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We exceeded our targets in Housing for All, with more than 30,000 houses over the last three to four years. That is a fact, but it is not enough. We need private sector investment. Deputy McDonald calls it vulture funds. We need institutional funding in the country to supplement the State-level investment. That is the problem. In the last election, Sinn Féin had proposals that would screw first-time buyers.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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In the last election, you told lies. You lied your way through the election.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Those proposals are why the people did not give Sinn Féin any ringing endorsement of its housing promises. It failed to convince people about them.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach lied his way through the election.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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The United Nations warned this week that 14,000 babies will die in Gaza if humanitarian aid is not allowed to enter. Last night, there were more child casualties, including a week-old baby. There are no words to describe the horror that Israel is inflicting on the people of Gaza. The wickedness of using starvation as a weapon of war against children cannot be overstated. It is a weapon of genocide. Human suffering at this scale requires us to do all in our power to stop it.

Ours is a small country but we have fierce diplomatic power. We know that Ireland and Spain led calls for a review of the EU-Israel trade deal. That is welcome. It is welcome, too, to see growing opposition to the deal among other member states. That was a change we led on, but we have a moral obligation to do more. Countries around the world - our British visitors may hear this too - have an obligation to do more. The Taoiseach has a moral obligation. The world is failing to stand with Gaza. Ireland must stand with Palestinian children and civilians. We must stand up for humanity because the response of the world would be very different if the headlines read that 14,000 babies in Ireland, Britain or any EU country would starve to death by the weekend. Every step would be taken to stop the preventable deaths of infants. Their suffering would not be treated with indifference, yet in Gaza it seems the world is going to stand by while 14,000 infants perish. History will not forgive us for it.

António Guterres has said the floodgates of horror have reopened and Gaza is a killing field. Civilians are in an endless death loop. Netanyahu's campaign was always driven by a plan to displace and exterminate. Josep Borrell has said, "Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide." More and more people, even within Israel, are recognising this. I heard from an Israeli citizen this week who said, "As a human being, I hate this government with all my heart. They are willing to sacrifice innocent lives, Palestinians and our own hostages. This madness has to end."

President Michael D. Higgins is right. The UN Security Council has failed in carrying out its primary responsibility to maintain international peace, and at what cost of failure? More than 55,000 people, including 15,000 children, have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. Nearly 300,000 more children are on the brink of death and thousands are injured. This is devastation, and the UN is failing in all of our names. We must do more. Next week, we in Labour will bring a motion to the Dáil to mandate the Government to table an emergency resolution at the UN General Assembly to note the failure of the Security Council and to call for collective measures to secure a lasting ceasefire, a sustainable peace agreement and an international peacekeeping force for Gaza, to allow humanitarian aid to flow and to save lives. Our colleague Deputy Duncan Smith and I will be looking for unanimous support across this House for all our proposals. Will the Taoiseach pass the occupied territories Bill at home and, abroad, will he work to table that emergency motion at the UN?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Aontaím go hiomlán leis an Teachta. Is uafásach ar fad an méid atá ag tarlú i nGaza leis an gcogadh uafásach agus na mílte daoine, leanaí go háirithe, ag fáil bháis de dheasca polasaithe Rialtas Iosrael. I agree with the Deputy's presentation of what is an absolutely barbaric and appalling situation in Gaza. There is absolutely no justification in any shape or form for what is occurring. The prosecution of this war is causing immense death, destruction and suffering to an entire population. I have said recently that it is simply wrong in principle and in law to inflict hunger and suffering on a civilian population, whatever the circumstances. This behaviour clearly constitutes a war crime. It is also wholly unacceptable to contemplate the mass displacement of people in Gaza or to talk of permanent occupation. Not only is it an affront to decency and international law, but history tells us it offers no solution.

I strongly welcome the decision to review the European Union-Israel Association Agreement together with Spain. As the Deputy said, Ireland first called for this. I believe the agreement should now be suspended pending the review. Yesterday evening, I saw comments from the minister for finance of Israel, Minister Smotrich, speaking openly about conquering Gaza and, with God's help, pushing the population south and into third countries. This is a senior minister of the Israeli Government articulating, in no uncertain terms, what the agenda is. It is absolutely reprehensible.

We also need to say consistently that the hostages need to be released.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I said that. We said that.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is absolutely unacceptable that innocent people were abducted and have remained hostages for so long after 7 October. That was also an appalling, barbaric crime by Hamas, which needs, in my view, to stop the war and disband, because it has caused nothing but misery to its own people. The Israeli Government needs to stop what is happening right now. We need a ceasefire. We need a restoration of discussions towards a political pathway. Fundamentally, we need a massive surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza. What is happening is incomprehensible. It is beyond any moral compass. I have consistently called for an international delegation, both political and journalists or media, to be allowed into Gaza to see the enormity of the destruction that has undoubtedly taken place. The world has to press to be allowed into Gaza to see what is going on.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I have acknowledged Ireland's leadership at EU level on Gaza. That is welcome but we can and should do more. The Taoiseach used strong words, which I welcome. He acknowledged that what Israel is carrying out is a war crime. Of course, like the Taoiseach, I have condemned Hamas outright. Of course I have called for the release of all hostages. What Israel is doing now, with impunity, while we see 14,000 infants on the brink of death through starvation, has to stop. Ireland has to do more at international level and here at home to use every lever in our power to stop what Israel is doing. If the Taoiseach fears that the occupied territories Bill will be struck down, let us test that and take that risk, because across the Opposition, there is support for the occupied territories Bill. We have all been pushing for it to be passed. The Taoiseach told me yesterday that there would be progress on it. If the Taoiseach fears that the General Assembly will vote the wrong way, let us find out. Let us take that bold and brave step at a United Nations level. I call on the Taoiseach to do that. Our motion next week will call on all parties in this House to support that step.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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To be fair, it is more than just words from Ireland. We have contributed significant funding to Palestine, to the Palestinian Authority and to UNRWA, which has been much maligned but is the only UN agency that has the capacity not only to facilitate the surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza but also to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza. Most people will admit that privately if they are not prepared to admit it publicly. I am talking about international opinion.

Regarding the UN, Ireland has been very active with other countries. We recognised the State of Palestine with Norway and Spain back in May last year. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice delivered an advisory opinion on that and the Attorney General on behalf of the Government made an oral submission to the court in respect of this. We then co-sponsored a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 September which seeks to implement the court's advisory opinion.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you Taoiseach.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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We also intervened in the South African International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. Now we will work very hard in respect of the EU-Israel Association Council-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you Taoiseach. I call Deputy O'Callaghan of the Social Democrats.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----where there has been a significant shift in opinion in the European Union, which is important.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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Cara Darmody is continuing her protest outside the Dáil today because nothing she has heard from the Government has convinced her to end it. Asked repeatedly yesterday if the Government would stop breaking the law, the Taoiseach could not even give that assurance. The Government does not seem to see the problem with this. It has access to State resources, can direct policy and can authorise hiring. It can fix this, yet despite having all these tools and resources at the Government's disposal, all the Taoiseach could offer yesterday was the same old tired excuses. I want to examine some of those excuses now.

The Taoiseach said yesterday that, fundamentally, we need to change the legislation when it comes to assessment of need. When exactly did he arrive at this decision? The High Court struck down the accelerated assessment procedure more than three years ago. The Government has had all of that time to act but it did not. The procedure was struck down for a good reason. It consisted of one hour of observed playtime and a 30-minute discussion with a parent. Children were then diagnosed as having a disability but not told which disability they had. It was a completely inadequate, box-ticking exercise. Is the Taoiseach telling us that this is the system to which the Government will return or is its plan to get rid of assessment of need altogether?

The Taoiseach also said yesterday that he was in the process of setting up a disability unit in his Department. It is now nearly six months since the election. How far along in this process is he? What is the delay in setting it up? If the issue is really a priority, why was it not done on day one? The reality is that successive Governments have claimed disability is a priority. Endless waiting lists for assessment of need and vital services tell a very different story. Parents know that early intervention can make a world of difference to their child. It could be the difference between learning how to speak or getting left behind. Imagine what it is like to see your child placed on an endless waiting list as they miss key milestones.

As Cara has learned, when it comes to this Government, talk is cheap. Last year, when she met the Taoiseach's colleague Simon Harris, he made commitments to her. Instead of keeping those promises, they were broken. Cara has said it does not matter what age someone is; anyone who makes a promise should keep it and if they do not, their credibility will be gone. The credibility of this Government is already in tatters, with a list of broken promises, but there is an opportunity now for the Government to rebuild it. Following the Taoiseach's meeting with Cara this morning, will he now tell us when the Government is going to stop breaking the law?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's sentiments when he says we do not see the problem. Of course we see the problem and we have made it very clear that we see the issue here regarding assessment of need. I am not making any excuses; I am just focused on solutions. I have heard precious little from anybody here on the Opposition side in terms of a solution-driven approach.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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That is wrong.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have heard a lot of rhetoric but have heard little on the solution front.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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You have been in government for five years.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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You are breaking the law.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Equally, the Deputy referenced the High Court decision. I have no intention of going back on the standing operating procedures, but I believe that when the High Court makes a decision, it is clinicians who should ultimately decide on the nature and type of provision of therapy, medicine or anything. The last Government did not follow through for different reasons. There was not agreement in respect of it after the High Court decision.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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That was you. You were in the last government.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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This Government is adamant it will deal with that aspect. It is only one aspect, one strand of it. It needs to be looked at because there needs to be a framework that allows therapists to intervene more quickly in providing services to children. An assessment of need, by the way, is not a static thing nor should it be. As a child develops, the child needs ongoing review. That is why the Government has already taken a decision to have a national in-school therapy service, something I campaigned for during the election and said would be a red line for me in the programme for Government. Our partners in government, the Fine Gael Party and the Independents, are fully aligned to that objective and the Minister for education, Deputy Helen McEntee, has initiated that process for a national in-school therapy service starting in the special schools, which is absolutely essential.

We are increasing the level of assessments but we need more than the approximately 20% increase that happened last year. We need to recruit more therapists and we will also do that. We need to engage with CORU on faster recognition of qualifications for those who come in from overseas to work in our services as therapists. Far more flexibility is required there to supplement and add to the therapists who will come through our colleges. We will also increase the places in third level colleges, but all of that takes some time and we will be procuring additional capacity from the private sector.

There is a fundamental point about ensuring there is early intervention with children by therapists, and then a problem arises. If every therapist is going to spend 90 hours assessing children, there will be precious little resource for actual intervention. We need to get that balance right. That is something on which the Government is focusing and something we need to work on in respect of the legislative provision. We have asked for ideas and proposals around that.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you Taoiseach.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Service Executive has been highlighting the court decision for quite some time. That is the answer to the Deputy's question on that.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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That is an astonishing answer. The High Court judgment was more than three years ago and the Taoiseach has just now told us that the reason it has not been acted on or that the Government has not got its act together on this is that the previous Government could not agree on what to do. Is that the case? We have more than 15,000 children waiting for an assessment of need that they desperately need, beyond the six-month limit, and the Government is breaking the law because for the past three years, the Taoiseach and his Government colleagues have not been able to get their act together and agree on what to do. Is that the case? What we need from the Government now is detail on how it is going to fix this. It has been talking around changing the law and hiring more people but when will it actually stop breaking the law? It is not acceptable if the Taoiseach and his Government colleagues have been breaking the law for more than three years and letting down children and their families who desperately need access to services and assessment of need simply because they could not agree among themselves what to do.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is not correct in that at all. He asked specifically about the law and I gave him a straight answer that this Government will deal with that aspect of it. However, the outgoing Government dealt with a whole load of other issues pertaining to this. For example, 4,162 assessments were completed in 2024, a 30% increase on 2023, and that upward trend is continuing with the assessments that were completed in the first three months of this year. There was a 65% increase in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year. It is not as if nothing is being done or the issue is being ignored. That is just a deliberate distortion by the Deputy's good self. He also needs to look at the reality and see what he is saying we should do about the balance between assessment and direct intervention with the therapists we have, be they those in the private or the public sector. There is a finite capacity. Maybe we can get more out of the entirety of that capacity of therapists in the country, be it private or public, but the Deputy needs to come clean as well and not just take the comfortable position of saying that whatever we produce on this side of the House, he will simply condemn and have a go at it.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is outrageous.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Every day we come to the House, we are hear about housing, housing, housing. During the week, the EPA released a report on the inspections of septic tanks by local authorities. Areas were targeted where septic tanks were near rivers. The councils completed 1,390 inspections of tanks and found that 82% of the tanks were inadequate. We are talking about meeting housing targets here. What the EPA has not done is look at the treatment systems going straight into rivers, which we have been looking to have upgraded for decades.

I have been working in construction all of my life and I still am. We have given ideas to the likes of Uisce Éireann about how they could have more sewerage capacity in towns or villages on the same systems they have already if they separated the storm water from the sewage. In all towns, villages and cities, when they are piped from the houses out to the main street they all go into the one pipe. We gave Uisce Éireann the idea of putting in separators for water. At the moment, our treatment systems are working at their best during the summer because they are not dealing with water and are way below capacity. Some 25% to 30% of our sewerage systems are working perfectly during the summer. During the winter, what we are now treating is approximately 70% water. When the sewage comes in with the water and comes to a certain level in the treatment system, nothing gets treated because it goes out over the baffle wall and straight into the waterways around Ireland. This means that all the rivers and streams, and all the sewerage heads all around the country, are untreated because we do not have the proper people dealing with it.

Uisce Éireann, to me, is a runaway train. It is not giving value for money. It is not listening to anyone. There are solutions for our systems in this country to give us clean water by putting in different systems in order to deal with the equipment we have at the moment. Then we can upgrade as we can afford to do so. Uisce Éireann is not listening to common sense or to other engineers who say the technology is there to do what we need to do.

What we have to do is very simple, but Uisce Éireann tells us that this system is broken and that system is broken. Uisce Éireann is not listening to an engineering solution to help to build more houses with the same systems we have at the moment by just separating the storm water from the sewage. That is what I am asking for.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising a very key issue. He began by speaking about the septic tanks that are largely associated with existing housing stock across the length and breadth of the country. It is important that we improve upon them and refurbish and develop them and provide grant assistance to enable people to replace septic tanks that are old and not performing to the optimal level.

There are a lot of engineers in Uisce Éireann and a lot of them would argue that they know what they are doing.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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A lot of them.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have met them. We discussed one of the critical issues in towns and villages across the country, which is the need to free up capacity, for example to local builders if they are developing a housing estate of 20 houses or 50 houses so that they would be able to develop their own treatment facility according to the specifications set by Uisce Éireann. That would then be subject to inspection. I think that would help to create additional housebuilding in towns and villages throughout the country where currently, because of the absence of capacity or because there is no further capacity, such projects cannot get off the ground. A memorandum of understanding is being developed by Uisce Éireann in respect of that issue to set out the proposals to enable it to happen.

On the separation of storm water from sewage, I will not profess I am not as technically competent as the Deputy in this area. Likewise, the Deputy mentioned the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. All of Uisce Éireann's work is subject to compliance with the EPA, which is one of the regulatory authorities that govern Uisce Éireann along with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities and others. There has been a lot of progress made; of that there is no doubt. There has been a dramatic increase in water quality across the length and breadth of the country over the past decade or so. Local authorities did a lot of that work initially prior to the establishment of Irish Water. I think we need to maintain or retain local competence and knowledge in our local authorities on water, sewerage and so forth. There needs to be good partnerships between local authorities and Irish Water in that respect.

I visited Arklow recently where a first-class state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant was provided by Irish Water six months ahead of schedule and on budget. A lot of progress is happening. I will relay what the Deputy was saying to Irish Water. I do not know whether the Deputy has engaged with its representatives, or others, as a Dáil Deputy. I note that the most favoured words among Independent groupings in this House are "common sense".

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Taoiseach.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I suggest that maybe if you guys have a monopoly on it over everybody else-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I call Deputy O'Donoghue.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I will say no more than that.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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In the first part of his remarks, the Taoiseach said he had met with representatives of Irish Water. Maybe he needs to bring me with him to teach them a bit of common sense and give them some ideas and solutions. The Taoiseach mentioned the EPA and septic tanks. Yes, there are grants but the problem with the grant system for septic tanks is that in 2013 the Taoiseach brought in a system where people got €5,000.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I was not in government in 2013.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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In 2013 there was a system whereby people got €5,000 to upgrade their septic tanks. They registered their tanks and if they qualified for the grant due to their tanks being defunct, they received the grant. The problem was that nobody qualified for the grant because the tank had to be tested first and only a small number of people got them tested. Now the grant is up to €12,000. There is a mapping system now, and three quarters of people do not qualify for that grant either. There are grants available for defunct tanks but people cannot get the grants. I ask the Taoiseach to look at the mapping system that has been introduced by the EPA. I am asking about equal opportunities for towns and villages. I am offering to help the Government. I am not going to criticise; I am offering to help.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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We have tanks in Oola for 15 years. Askeaton is waiting 46 years for its treatment system to be upgraded. This is what I am talking about.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I am offering help. I will meet Uisce Éireann representatives along with the Taoiseach and we will ask them how we can improve the system.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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What is the Deputy saying about Askeaton?

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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It has been waiting for 46 years for a sewerage system.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have spoken to Uisce Éireann representatives about this and they have a national mapping exercise already. With the best will in the world, if we want to build 50,000 houses per year and if we give an extra couple of billion euro to Uisce Éireann over the coming years, it will have to concentrate that spend on the big cities and big areas of population. Therefore, for smaller villages and towns we need an alternative system which allows for the provision of sewage treatment plants by the builder in accordance with detailed specifications by Irish Water, which has agreed to this now. It is my understanding that this will happen. That would help the Askeatons and Cloughjordans of this world and all of those who have been waiting for quite some time. If we look at the enormity of the investment required for every village in the country, we will see that it cannot be done centrally by Irish Water alone. The capacity just does not exist to do it.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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It can be done by separating the water. I said I would help.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Taoiseach.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I accept the Deputy's good wishes.