Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Éireoidh teipeanna tithíochta an Rialtais níos measa mar níl sé in ann infreastruchtúr bunúsach a phleanáil agus a bhainistiú i gceart. Tá fadhbanna ann inár ngréasán uisce agus leictreachais ag cur moill ar na mílte tithe agus á gcur i mbaol.

For years we have listened to the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, say that housing is their number one priority yet every single day we get headlines about Government's failures and incompetence which is putting the delivery of thousands of homes at risk. Let us take this week alone. First, we had the Central Bank and the ESRI telling the Oireachtas housing committee that the Government will not meet its housing targets this year or next year and that without a major policy change, it will not meet its targets out to 2030. Roll on to Tuesday and on RTÉ's "Prime Time", the Irish Council for Social Housing and the State's largest approved housing body, AHB, Clúid, confirmed that thousands of much-needed social and affordable housing projects have been delayed because of Government red tape and bureaucracy. They say this means that 3,000 fewer social and affordable homes will be delivered. For months, the Minister, Deputy James Browne, denied that this was a problem but he has now been found out. If all that was not enough, we come to today and two senior civil servants have sounded the alarm over serious infrastructure deficits impacting disastrously on housing delivery. First, the chief executive of Uisce Éireann has told the housing Minister that all households in Dublin face water shortages in the next five years. This is due to significant delays in delivering major water supply projects in the capital and the Government's failure to invest properly in our creaking water network. The inability to guarantee a water connection is jeopardising the delivery of thousands of new homes. Then we had the Secretary General of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications issuing another stark warning that housing delivery is at risk because of electricity supply shortages. Data centres are soaking up electricity put in place for future housing and this problem goes right back to the failure of the Government to build capacity in the grid and to modernise the network to meet the challenges of today.

What we are talking about here, in simple terms, is the inability of the Government to ensure the very basics - water and electricity connections for houses. These are some of the most basic needs in any society and people are scratching their heads because this State has record surpluses. Money is not the problem so the problem must be the incompetence and bad decisions made over and over again by the Government. This is a Government that cannot plan or get the job done when it comes to critical infrastructure and this is strangling housing delivery.

For the life of me I cannot fathom how the Government can say - and I am sure the Tánaiste will say it again with a straight face - that it has turned a corner on housing. The truth is that it is going around in circles. All Government members are going around in circles on this issue. Their failure to get the basic rights, to future proof infrastructure development is coming home to roost and it is impacting hardest on housing delivery.

A few weeks ago the Tánaiste made a TikTok video. In it he said that we have a housing emergency and that he wanted the Government to start acting like it. That raised some eyebrows. He has been a Minister for 11 years and his party has been in government for 14 years and yet he is doing TikTok videos saying that the Government should act like there is a housing emergency. It has been put on the record over and over again. Uisce Éireann, the Secretary General of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, and the largest AHB are all telling us of the Government's failure to plan and the fact that the Department of housing is stalling and has now put at risk thousands of social and affordable houses.

Does the Tánaiste accept what the Central Bank and ESRI have said, that the Government is going to miss its targets for housing this year? If so, what is the Government really going to deliver this year? Does the Tánaiste accept that 3,000 fewer social and affordable homes will be delivered because of delays in the Department of housing? What is the Government going to do about the water and electricity supply that is so vitally needed?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Doherty. Housing is the biggest domestic challenge that this country faces and the people in this country face. It is the biggest societal challenge on a domestic level and it is now a real economic challenge as well.

We have to do more when it comes to housing. We, the parties that formed the Government and the Independents who support it, were very clear that if returned to office, we would work to increase the scale of housing delivery. The Deputy's party put forward its plans as well, which I do not think convinced many.

Deputy Doherty talks about record surpluses, and I am glad he does, but he just kind of brushes over them as though they happened by accident. The reason we are in a position that we have record surpluses, the reason we are going to be able to spend a hell of a lot more money on water, energy, housing and putting in place the services people need, is because of the way we have managed the economy of this country, working with the Irish people, over the past number of years. These things do not happen by accident.

There has been, objectively and factually, a significant increase in the progress of the delivery of housing in recent years. We have seen more than 133,000 new-build homes delivered between 2020 and 2024. A total of 92,500 of those homes were delivered just between 2022 and 2024, which is up nearly 50% on the previous three years. It is objectively true that we saw a significant uplift in housing. It is also true that it is not enough, and it is also true that it has somewhat stalled or reached a plateau. Therefore, we now have to look at what we can do to take it to the next level and be able to achieve the ambition we have of 300,000 more homes being delivered in this country by 2030.

We are very clear in regard to what we need to do, and many of the issues the Deputy highlighted are key parts of that jigsaw. We need planning reform, making sure, and we would appreciate the Deputy's party's assistance on this, that people do not keep objecting to the delivery of housing in their communities, saying they are in favour of houses here but against them in their own communities. We need to resource An Bord Pleanála-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Talk to your colleagues before talking about objections. Talk to the Minister of State sitting beside you.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We can come back to that in a moment. Other actions needed include: resourcing An Bord Pleanála properly; enacting and commencing the various provisions of the Planning and Development Acts in order that we can speed up the delivery of planning, because planning decisions are holding back the delivery of homes and infrastructure; increasing the zoned land for housing, and that is what the national planning framework the Minister for Housing brought before this House was all about - making sure we have enough zoned lands to deliver the homes we need in each of our communities; and providing more funding and a better way of delivering key infrastructure like water and energy.

It is hard to take a lecture from Deputy Doherty in relation to water after his party politicised the issue of water so much to try to stymie progress in recent years. His party continues to mislead people about the Government's intentions in respect of Irish Water.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is always somebody else's fault.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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No, just yours. The misleading of people in relation to Irish Water is your fault.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We have been very clear that we are going to have to spend an awful lot more on Uisce Éireann. I met with the chief executive of Uisce Éireann for a number of hours last Friday. Uisce Éireann has presented to the Government real plans that if we can provide it with significant additional capital funding over the summer period in the context of the review of the national development plan, it will be able to, I am sure the Deputies opposite will be delighted to know, provide enough water infrastructure to enable to delivery of the homes we need.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It looked for funding a year and a half ago. It is still waiting.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure who is playing leader of Sinn Féin today, whether it is you or Pearse. I am not sure whether this is the audition for the next leader of Sinn Féin but I would like to speak, if that is okay.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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This is no joking matter.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Allow the Tánaiste to reply, please.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We will publish a new housing plan-----

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Do Deputies opposite want an answer?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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They do not want an answer because they are not about the answer.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Uisce Éireann wants the answer to the funding request it made a year and a half ago.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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May I speak? I am sure Pearse does not need your help.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ó Broin, please allow the Tánaiste to answer.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We are going to produce a new housing plan in July. Deputy Doherty can be quite assured that part of that new housing plan will be significant additional funding and enabling provisions for Irish Water and, indeed, for energy. We have been clear, and we were very clear in the election, about what we would do with the proceeds from the Apple account in terms of how that money would be deployed.

I agree on this point: water infrastructure and energy infrastructure are key enablers if we are serious about reaching the 300,000 homes that need to be delivered in this country between now and 2030. The Deputies will see, week in and week out, actions from the Government to get to that point. They saw just the first in a range of announcements they can expect with the memo we had this week in relation to the extension of planning permissions that were due to expire.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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It is time to get real. The ESRI, the Central Bank, the Secretary General of the Department of the environment, Uisce Éireann and the approved housing bodies - the list goes on and on - all say the Government is failing on the basic issues. As Deputy Ó Broin has rightly pointed out, Uisce Éireann has been looking for money for a year and a half. Across all of our constituencies, projects cannot go ahead because of lack of investment. It is happening in Gweedore and it is happening in Dublin city centre. That is the reality.

After more than a decade of the Tánaiste being a Minister and of Fine Gael being in government for nearly a decade and a half, we have serious issues with water and electricity that are putting the most basic right, namely to a roof over one's head, in jeopardy. To add insult to injury, we have people who want to build homes.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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If they were not objected to.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The woman sitting beside you objected to 8,000 homes. Maybe have a word with her.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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There have been 2,840 objections.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, to show an example.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I have never objected to houses, but the Minister of State beside you objected to 8,000 homes.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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There were 2,840 objections. The truth hurts.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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To add insult to injury, we have a person from an approved housing body, the largest in the State, taking to the national airwaves saying that 3,000 social and affordable houses will not be delivered as a result of red tape, bureaucracy and delays by the Minister and his Department.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I ask Deputy Doherty to conclude. The Tánaiste to respond.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I put it to the Tánaiste that the Government is going to miss its targets again. Does he accept that?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Resume your seat, Deputy Doherty.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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What does he say about the fact 3,000 social and affordable homes will not be delivered, as they should be delivered and as people want to deliver them, because of the delays and red tape in the Department?

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Over the past number of years I have been in government, we have seen a very significant increase in the number of homes delivered in this country. We saw 133,000 new homes delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of them delivered between 2022 and 2024. Deputy Doherty never acknowledges that bit. He never acknowledges that we have rebuilt a construction sector and rebuilt an economy, that we now have a national planning framework, the biggest overhaul of planning legislation in a generation, if not ever, and a real opportunity now-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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We have higher rents and higher homelessness.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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-----if Deputies want to work constructively and not politicise the issue of housing, to actually make real progress in the time ahead. We now have the legislative background-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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There are 4,000 children homeless. That is political and it is happening on your watch.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am not going to be shouted down by the Deputy. I am going to speak, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ó Broin, would you mind listening to the Tánaiste's reply, please?

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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If he answered the questions, I would.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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No, have some manners.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Between now and the month of July, we are going to work on a housing plan; not a glossy document but a targeted list of actions we can take in relation to water, energy and planning that will get us to 300,000 homes. I assure Deputies we have the money and capital to make this happen. What we now need is political support across this House and in communities to drive on delivery.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I asked you twice whether you met the targets.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I hope the Deputy will support the establishment of a housing activation office that will do exactly what he said, which is bring in people from Irish Water and the local authorities and put them in an office working together to break down those silos so we can deliver the homes for our people.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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You do not have the political will to do it. That is the problem.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Cian O'Callaghan.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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It has been 14 years and you have nothing to show for it.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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It is pointless me having to try to shout down Deputies on the Government side, then shout down the Opposition and try to get the business done. If Deputies respect each other and the time they have, we will get on just fine and everyone will be able to make their points adequately.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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Disability services in this country are chaotic and threadbare. Families of children with additional needs have to fight for the very basics. All they want for their children is to be able to access an education and appropriate services and a chance for them to fulfil their potential. The very first step for most is to get an assessment of need and there are now over 15,000 children who have been waiting more than the legal time limit of six months for assessments. I have met children - I am sure the Tánaiste has as well - who cannot yet speak and who are left waiting years for speech and language therapy. Year after year passes and, as they grow older, their isolation from other children grows. Early intervention would make an absolute world of difference.

Routinely, whenever this issue is mentioned, the Government blames a High Court decision from 2022. It is helpful to detail what was in that judgment. It found that an accelerated 90-minute assessment process in which children were diagnosed with a disability but not told what disability they had was illegal. It found a child's needs should determine the nature and length of the assessment. I wonder what part of that judgment the Tánaiste has a problem with. I have heard him refer to it as rigid. The only rigidity in the judgment is its staunch defence of the rights of children with disabilities.

That judgment was delivered more than three years ago. How long more will the Tánaiste continue to blame it for the Government's failure to respond to this crisis? When I asked the Taoiseach about this last week, he let the mask slip. He said the Government had not acted on the judgment because it could not agree what to do. That is quite an extraordinary admission. Is it the case that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael simply cannot get their act together and decide what to do? This indecision on the part of the Government is having a huge impact on children with additional needs and their families. A total of 15,000 children are now overdue assessments of need. That will grow to 25,000 by the end of the year. More and more children are being left behind.

There are actions the Government can take now to significantly boost recruitment in key services. The pay and numbers strategy must go. It is placing a stranglehold on recruitment in primary care. We need proper investment in staff, with secure contracts to boost employment in primary care and children's disability network teams.

Will the Tánaiste confirm the Taoiseach's admission that the Government has been unable to agree what to do over the past three years? At this late stage, has the Government finally decided what it is going to do following the High Court judgment?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is right. This is an area where a significant amount of work is needed to make progress. There is no doubt about that. I would make the point at the outset that I do not think any one strand of work will get us to where we need to get. We will need to do four or five very significant things at the same time and this is the focus of the Government, including the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. The Minister and Minister of State updated the Cabinet sub-committee on disability on this matter in May. We are due to have a further meeting of that Cabinet sub-committee this month.

I agree with the Deputy that the right of a child to access an assessment of need must remain. I really believe that and the rest of the Government believes that. However, I also believe that we need to look at how that legislation works. This has been my view for a long period of time. It is the view of many people who work in clinical practice. It is also the view of many parents, who want clarity and to have a system that can more efficiently but in a clinically appropriate and clinician-led way determine the length of time required for the assessment. I believe in clinicians - not politicians or judges - determining that and that is the piece we want to get right.

From memory, the same article the Deputy referenced concerning the potential number of 25,000 children also spoke about how approximately one third of the children who went through the assessment of need process were determined not to have a disability in that defined sense. We need to give those children that clarity more quickly. Approximately 30% of therapists' time is now being spent on assessment of need. I am not suggesting this is easy, and we want to work constructively to get this right, but I would be misleading the Deputy if I did not say that we were going to bring forward reforms regarding the legislation around assessment of need.

The second thing we have to do - we have made the decision to do it - is establish a national therapy service for education. There are far too many parents who feel such a sense of relief when their children finally get places in education, particularly in special schools, only to then wonder about speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. I think we agree that it makes sense to have therapy services in schools, starting with special schools and then going into special classes and then into mainstream schools. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, has received Government approval to proceed with that and I expect the recruitment for it to be able to commence very shortly, as in, in advance of the new school year.

I hear the Deputy regarding the pay and numbers strategy. I remember checking this out. If there was a piece of paper that said there was a cap stopping speech and language therapists being hired, I would agree with him 100% but the last time I checked this in recent days, there were funded vacant posts in therapies. We have to look at why those posts are vacant. It is not because there is a cap on recruitment. There are funded posts today that are vacant. We have taken the decision to significantly increase the number of therapy posts in universities - the Minister, Deputy Lawless, has led on this - so that we can have a greater pipeline of graduates. I would like to work with people in a collaborative way on this issue, as would the rest of the Government. We need to kick off a number of major bodies of work across this House in the next few weeks.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I asked the Tánaiste whether he would confirm what the Taoiseach said last week, which was that there had been indecision from the Government on this and that it could not agree over the past three years. I believe he implied in his answer that the Government had not been able to agree what to do. He is saying there need to be reforms to legislation but it is three years since the High Court judgment. That judgment was very good in terms of vindicating the rights of children with disabilities and additional needs. If it is the Government's intention to reform legislation, why has it taken so long to even decide what to do? This crisis is getting worse and worse by the day, creating significant stress. Yes, there are vacant posts on children's disability network teams but these teams have also been hit by the number of places they have being capped. Teams that used to have eight or ten people are being told that they are now down to two people and will stay at two people. The remaining people on those teams are saying that they cannot possibly cope with the workload and are asking how they can continue to do this. This has done significant damage when it comes to retaining staff and recruiting staff to fill vacant posts. When is the Government going to get a grip on this? When is it going to make decisions? When will it act? Will the Tánaiste confirm what the Taoiseach said, namely, that the Government had been unable to agree what to do for the past three years?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There is an agreed way forward. We have a very clear view forward regarding amending and reforming the legislation and the model around assessment of need and we want to work with people in good faith to get this right, including, most importantly, parents and those who carry out assessments of need - the clinical professions. The House can expect engagement from us on that very shortly.

We have seen an additional 272 staff in our children's disability network teams in the past year alone. The Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, are actively engaging on further measures about retaining existing staff and attracting new entrants. We have seen that decision regarding significantly ramping up the number of therapy places in third level. Another thing we are working on that probably comes across the Deputy's constituency office desk - it certainly comes across mine - is our engagement with CORU to examine how we can speed up the recognition of qualifications for staff coming from overseas. I want parents looking in to know that, in the here and now, we are also taking action. There were proposals that as we build up capacity in the public sector and bring about reforms, we would also use capacity in the private sector. I assure parents that we have made a waiting list initiative available where there is procurement of private assessments. A further €10 million has been provided this year. This has seen a 30% increase in assessments of need carried out in the past year. In other words, 4,162 were carried out in 2024 compared to 3,205 in 2023.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am returning to the issue of Palestine and the genocide that is going on there. This morning, we listened to RTÉ's report of what the Palestinian ambassador to the UN said. He spoke of how flames and hunger were devouring Palestinian children. We also listened to an eyewitness account of a doctor on the ground. I will provide a few figures, but how have we reached this point? How have we let this happen? A total of 54,000 Palestinians, including 15,613 children, are dead. The Lancet puts the figure for dead and injured much higher. More than 630,000 people have been displaced. At least 28 aid workers have been killed since 1 May, an average of one worker per day. Since 7 October 2023, 452 aid workers have been killed. What did Israel do today? It announced that it intended to establish 22 new settlements.

How have we allowed this to happen? I include myself in that question. We have let it happen because we have bought into a narrative that has been pushed for over 100 years - I would say 140 years at this stage - that the Jewish people were a people without a land and Palestine was a country without a people. Arising from that, the narrative took hold that they were entitled to that land, notwithstanding the Nakba in 1948 or the new Nakba that is happening under our eyes and noses. The narrative is that Israel is the only democracy and the bulwark against the Islamic religion and Muslims. We have all bought into that to a certain extent. When the Hamas attack took place on 7 October 2023, which we are on record for condemning, I also said that history did not start on that day.

I do not have much time, but I will read out some of the bullet points. On 6 October 2023, Israel controlled most of Palestine in complete defiance of international law. The people were kept under a blockade with electricity for less than a few hours per day. It continued the blockade of most of Gaza's population. At that point, Israel had built up an extensive infrastructure in the West Bank exclusively for Jews against international law. On 6 October 2023, Israel had already killed 250 Palestinians by October, including almost 50 children, in the most aggressive settler push across the West Bank for almost two decades. I am quoting from a new book called Catastrophe: Nakba II to be launched tonight by Fintan Drury. I invite all Members to go along to Hodges Figgis. I cannot find a more comprehensive and fair analysis of what has happened except The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.

It is time for us to reflect and stop the cognitive dissonance where we praise ourselves for taking the best action on Palestine and ask how an independent sovereign state - a republic - is standing over a narrative that is utterly false regarding Israel.

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for your forbearance.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We are not standing over any false narrative. We are reiterating long-standing foreign policy and, I think, the long-standing policy of the people of Ireland that there needs to be a two-state solution in the Middle East, that the State of Israel has every right to exist in peace and security and that the people of Palestine have every right to a sovereign state that exists in peace and security. As we know in this country better than many, the only way to get to that point is through political dialogue, not through the genocidal activity we see from the Netanyahu Government.

I am not suggesting the Deputy did not do so but I always like to differentiate between the Government of Israel and the people of Israel because I believe many people in Israel are utterly horrified by the decisions being taken by the Netanyahu Government, which are genocidal, which are war crimes and which are starving children, which is in turn a breach of international law. Nobody in this House comes in and seeks to praise what Ireland is doing. What we do seek to do in this House is outline that, as a small country in the European Union, we are doing everything we can to maximise the pressure on the international community to help bring about a ceasefire. All political parties need to use their own political networks and links in European countries and the United States and everywhere else to try to help amplify that. What we see happening today and what we have seen happening for a very significant period is despicable and is an act of evil. This is evil at work. There is just no other way about that. I say it is evil because the people of this great country have, through their taxes, paid for a very significant amount of aid to get into Gaza, with enough food on trucks paid for by the Irish people to feed at least 6,000 people in Palestine, and for four months those trucks have been parked in Jordan. There is only one reason - no other reason - why those trucks cannot get in, and that is the Israeli blockade. While we want to see an immediate end to the conflict, of course, and we want to see a ceasefire and the release of all the hostages, in the here and now, today, the people in Gaza who are starving could be fed, and it is a political choice of the Israeli Government not to allow that aid in, which is also a war crime.

In Ireland, we will continue to do everything we can and we will continue to work constructively with the Opposition. A very good motion was put down by the Labour Party. Not only did we not oppose it but I will proactively work with the Opposition to advance it. I had very good engagement in the Seanad this morning with Senator Frances Black on the occupied Palestinian territories. We are the first country in Europe to do this. I say this in the hope that other countries now look to Ireland and say, "Hang on, if this little country on the periphery of Europe can pass legislation to ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories, why can we not do it as well?" I call today, as I hope everybody in this House does, for other countries to replicate what we are doing.

On the issue of services, and before I am misrepresented again, as I constantly seem to be, I have no difficulty with services being included if we can find a legal way forward in that regard. There is no policy difference.

We have a lot of work to do on this. I never buy into the "Opposition good, Government bad" narrative. We are all appalled and sickened by the genocide we are witnessing.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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We all may well be appalled and sickened, but the Government is refusing to face the elephant in the room. Israel has an umbilical cord attachment to America. America, followed by the EU, is the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, and the Irish Government is waiting for a morally corrupt and inept EU to take action. The EU is the second biggest supplier of arms to the genocide.

Let us call a spade a spade. We have no difficulty, and the Government has had no difficulty, criticising Russia. The same condemnation has not been used as regards Israel, identifying it as the aggressor that is perpetuating genocide. The Tánaiste's facial expressions do not help in that manner. This is far too serious.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I have just said that. Israel is committing genocide.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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He can say a lot of things, and then we watch Shannon being used, an occupied territories Bill that is going nowhere and trade with Europe. Ours is a small country. It is time we led, given our history. It is time we called for an absolute ceasefire, led in the UN, made our words mean something and called out that narrative for what it is. Israel is a rogue state. It is not a democratic state. That narrative allowed a congressman, who said of Palestine, "Go in there and kick the ... [S-H-I-T] out of them", to come into this room just two months ago. This is a congressman who is fêted by one of the Tánaiste's colleagues and by another colleague in Fianna Fáil. How dare you shake your head? You stand up-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I will shake my head if I want to, Deputy Connolly.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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You have to conclude, Deputy Connolly.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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You stand up-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I will stand up.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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-----and account for what we are going to do when you say there are war crimes and a genocide.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I hope I will get an extra 38 seconds as well-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I would be delighted.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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-----because there was the greatest load of palaver levelled at me there.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Palaver?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Please, Deputy Connolly.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Connolly has such vitriol for and dislike of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that she cannot ever actually come above and rise to the moment. Ours is the first Government in the European Union to say that what Israel is doing is genocide. Do you hear that, Deputy? It is genocide.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Now what are you going to do about it?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Israel is committing war crimes, and we will pass the occupied Palestinian territories Bill.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Good. When?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We will pass that.

Deputies:

When?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We will pass it as quickly as possible.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Before the summer?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It will go to the foreign affairs committee in the month of June. While you are standing here just throwing brickbats at me-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am not throwing brickbats.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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-----we are working to support the people of Palestine. The only Chamber I ever go into in the entire world where people do not acknowledge that Ireland - the Government and the people of Ireland - are standing with the people of Palestine, standing up for human rights and standing up for international law is here, when you get up and distort with your ideology the actions of this Government. I am proud of the people of this country. I am proud that we went into an election and it did not matter what party you were in; you stood up and said, "We are going to support the people of Palestine." Get beyond yourself with this narrative that you have all the moral authority and we are terrible people. I am disgusted and sickened watching children dying on our television screens. Every day I come to work and work with all people in here to do our best to show leadership at a time of horrific conflict.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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Stop our Central Bank selling Israeli bonds then.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There you go. You are at it again. Hold your sign up.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Fitzmaurice.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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You cannot work together on anything.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The clock is going.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We will stop the clock.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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We want you to work together with us on this. You voted against us last night.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Populist.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Tánaiste is well aware that a few months ago, at the end of January, there was a devastating storm in the west midlands and the north west. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, are well familiar with the devastation that has been caused. I know the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, has had meetings with the different communications outfits.

Four months later, however, we see parts of Roscommon and east Galway such as Creggs - I sent the Tánaiste a photo of Creggs this morning - where there are six communication lines for phones. The local people had to get a ratchet strap and tie the pole back. It broke and they had to do it again. This happened four months ago and the pole is still thrown there. Areas like Cloonfad, Ballymoe and a number of other areas are left devastated and without phone lines. It is not about the phone line because in some cases they have gone back and repaired the broadband, but the phone line is a lifeline to the elderly people for when you need your panic button. I know the Minister had meetings with them; I acknowledge that. I ask the Tánaiste and his Government to put the pressure on. I also ask that the communications regulator start taking the finger out to the likes of Eir because they should be ashamed of themselves the way they have treated the people who have been affected in that area.

Following on from that - and I know there are two Ministers here from the Department of agriculture - in Cloonbonniffe, Carrowbehy, the Coney Island area and Gortaganny over the last few weeks a huge amount of forestry has been burned. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, has talked about a reconstitution grant for the windblown timber. A great many people had timber over the last few weeks burned. All you can do is cut it down now because it is smothered after the fires. I ask that when the Government brings in the reconstitution grant for those people who have been affected in the last few months, the Government help those people. After 20 years, there is no insurance on most of this. This has been devastating in that area, and I ask the Government to consider under the reconstitution grant what is only a small token of help because these people have lost everything. Whatever about the people in the windblown timber, at least they can try to cut it now and try to get it to sawmills, but where it has got burned, it is destroyed. You basically bring in a woodchipper and try to chip up whatever is there, but they have lost everything. In the coming months, when the Government is doing the reconstitution grants, would it consider trying to include those people along with the windblown timber?

Those are the two items that I ask that the Tánaiste's Government address.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for raising this important issue and, in fairness to him, for raising it consistently in terms of the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and the impact it has had on people across our country, but most particularly the elongated impact it has had on people living in rural or more disperse communities, many of which I know he represents in his constituency.

I will deal first with the issue relating to Eir. I agree with the Deputy. I do not want to say anything that cuts across the regulator but Eir really needs to step up in how it deals with customers. I have heard this in countless locations. Eir has informed the telecommunications regulator, ComReg, that all storm-related repairs for the remaining affected customers will be completed by 3 June, next week. This excludes 11 cases where there is a third-party constraint like access rights outside of Eir's control. Eir has told the Government that everything within its control will be completed by 3 June. ComReg will monitor the restoration work until it is completed. The Government will continue to ensure that the resilience of the communications network and the capacity to quickly restore services in the aftermath of events such as Storm Éowyn are improved, which they clearly need to be.

As the Deputy referenced, the Ministers, Deputies O'Donovan and Calleary, are engaging intensively on this matter. There was a meeting of the mobile phone and broadband task force last week, convened by the two Ministers. The task force meeting was attended by all mobile and fixed-network operators affected by Storm Éowyn, ComReg, representatives of local authorities and ESB Networks. A key focus of the meeting was issues around network resilience and service restoration with a view to having a firm action plan in place before next winter to reduce the impacts experienced in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. Knowing the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, we can be particularly sure that he expressed his frustration at the meeting regarding Eir's inability to restore services to all customers nearly 18 weeks later. It is farcical. He has also held meetings with individual operators to address network resilience concerns. For example, he met Vodafone last week and will shortly meet the CEO and owner of Eir.

ComReg is the statutorily independent regulator. It is currently reviewing the performance of operators with regard to service restoration in the aftermath of the storm. It is also conducting a review of the applicable regulations to ensure that they are fit for purpose. It is then a matter for ComReg to decide whether action needs to be taken against operators. ComReg will send a report of this review to the Minister. There are a few aspects: looking at the performance of operators after this storm and whether action is needed by the regulator; looking at regulations and whether they need to be strengthened; and from the point of view of the Government and operator working together, what more we need to do in terms of resilience in future storms.

The Deputy also raised the broader issue of forestry and timber and considering changes to the various schemes. I thank him for the photographs he sent my office this morning. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, are here today and will have heard the Deputy. I am sure they will reflect on the constructive suggestions he made.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I know a small bit about civil engineering work, and it will be a miracle. The photo I sent was taken this morning. If all the infrastructure will be in place by 3 June, with Monday a bank holiday, I would be amazed. I hope the Tánaiste is right and that what Eir told the Government is correct but I do not think it will come true. I ask the Government to keep the pressure on. For a lot of the people waiting on these phone lines, it is their only contact with the outside world and the panic button is of huge importance to them.

On the fires that broke out in the area, I ask the Government again about the reconstitution grant. Those people need help. In fairness to the Minister and Minister of State, they met forestry people and went out to sites where there was wind-blown timber. This is a different scenario, though. If they are available, I ask them to come down and look at it. In my opinion, it was probably recklessness by someone passing a road that set a fire going.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Deputy conclude, please?

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The fire burned a heap of forestry. The Government knows as well as I do that, after 20 years, it is not insured and these people are left high and dry. All that can be done is to woodchip it. That is all that is left.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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They need help to replant. The Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, spoke about the reconstitution grant for wind-blown timber. I ask for those people to be included to give them a small token of help.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We will keep the pressure on for those who do not have service. The Deputy's second point is one of the real learnings of the storm, that when the network goes down, it is not just the loss of the phone - I do not mean to be flippant - but also the loss of all contact and connection with the outside world. For older or vulnerable people or people who live in isolated rural areas and their families, the impact, stress, mental health impact and worry going on 18 weeks later are a cause of significant concern. ComReg as the regulator and the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, will continue to intensively monitor this situation until it is fully resolved. Then, as I said, there will be a broader piece of work on what, if anything, needs to change from a regulatory point of view and definitely from a resilience building point of view.

On the reconstitution grant and the difference between the issue the Deputy raised about wind-blown timber, the Minister and Minister of State are here today as those with responsibility. They will engage with the Deputy and keep in touch with him about it.