Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I welcome the Taoiseach to the House.

The private rental market is broken. It is dysfunctional and everybody knows it. People are paying sky-high rents and in return they are getting absolutely no protection. Renters have no protection if the home is sold, if the landlord decides to move in, or if a family member of the landlord decides to move in. These cases amounted to 70% of all notices to quit and of evictions. How can the Government claim to be introducing tenancies of indefinite duration when it refuses to protect renters in the overwhelming majority of eviction cases? I put it to the Government and to the Taoiseach that they should stop claiming to be introducing tenancies of indefinite duration until they give renters genuine and real protection.

The Taoiseach will be aware that one of his Ministers of State, Deputy Troy, recently guaranteed confidentiality when he met with Facebook and other tech giants. These discussions included legislation which will come before these Houses. What exactly is being said in these meetings that Facebook and others do not want us to search for under the freedom of information Acts? Time and again, Facebook says one thing in public but quietly lobby against it behind closed doors, spending millions of euro in the EU institutions in doing so.

It is the job of the Irish Government to get tough on social media companies, to hold them to account, to stand up for our protection and safety online and that of our data and privacy, and to stand up for our precious democracy. It is unpalatable that an Irish Government Minister would grant tech giants confidentiality and deny our ability to FOI these meetings. I wonder if the Taoiseach agrees with this.

There have been 13 different reports into Seanad reform. I was a very active member of the Seanad Reform Implementation Group, as was Senator Ó Donnghaile, set up by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, to look at how we implement the report of the Seanad Reform Implementation Group, or the Manning report. The Bill that was produced by that group is on the Order Paper in this House. Will the Taoiseach commit to supporting that legislation which the Government has delayed for 12 months? Let us open up the democracy or the electorate of this House to include Irish citizens in the North-----