Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the 15 Members of the House who contributed to the Order of Business. I am happy to take Senator Mark Daly's amendment to the Order of Business, which he articulated yesterday. The Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, will be in the House after the Order of Business. To be fair, let us be clear, the Minister is a person of probity. He is a man of great integrity. The matter is before the courts, as the Senator knows quite well. I think we would all prefer if the conversation had not taken place but it is important to recognise that the Minister made a purely personal comment on a matter that is in the public domain and, as he said in the Lower House yesterday, the outcome was well known.

If the Senator wants to have the Minister come in, he is coming in. He will make a statement as part of the debate later. To be fair to him, he explained yesterday and he was supported by Eoghan Ó Neachtain, who said that he would not change an ounce of what the Minister said. This goes back to what we all said yesterday on the Order of Business. Everybody wants to have an independent free press which is not, as Senator Coghlan said, controlled by a few. It should be open to everybody to be involved in buying and ownership. The Minister gave his answer to the Dáil yesterday. He will be here later on and will answer again. I am quite happy to have him do that, but to be fair to him he acknowledged what happened.

The other point that needs to be recognised is that there is an onus on those who lobby to register and to be held to account for their actions as well. That also needs to be looked at.

Senators Victor Boyhan and Mark Daly raised the issue of social housing. Let us make it quite clear, the Government has committed €6 billion to support the accelerated delivery of 50,000 additional social housing units by the end of 2021 through building, acquisition and leasing. To clarify for Senator Boyhan, I was not disputing his figure in respect of building, I was saying that he was being selective in how we deliver. Social housing is about building, acquiring and leasing. If the Senator takes the page he has, the figure for Cork including all three aspects is 4,221. That was the point I was making. I was not disputing his figure for building. I was saying that he was being selective in arriving at the point.