Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Cathaoirleach, the Leader, the staff and everyone here a very happy St. Brigid's Day. I believe this day is going to become a very important one on the calendar and, it is fair to say, that St. Patrick will not have it his own way from here on in, and will have a little competition.

I support the Order of Business as outlined by the Leader. I refer to a big ongoing debate on home vacancies throughout Ireland. This is particularly bad in the west of Ireland when one looks at places like Leitrim, Roscommon and Mayo, where this is at levels of 10%, 11% and 12%, as the Leader knows.

I have always stated regarding home vacancies that there were always issues which will not be easily solved. I never believed the figure up there in red lights and that there were all these vacant homes. There are still, nonetheless, a substantial amount of houses there. That is why I welcome the recent initiative by the Government of €150 million for local authorities to get working on this, once and for all. The money is there now. It will not happen overnight but I hope that all local authorities over the coming months will get their act together on this issue and, where possible, that houses which can be reconstructed and brought into the housing market are put there. The Government is trying to do everything it can in respect of housing, which I accept. The money and the commitment are there, together with the Minister and his junior Ministers who are committed. It is not an easy task at the moment.

When one looks at other countries, such as England, for example, it is having very significant problems with housing at the moment also, as is the case with some other European countries. We were talking to a Turkish delegation here yesterday and discussed their housing policy. It is remarkably simple and Turkey does not have a housing problem. We will talk about that another day. I welcome the Government initiative and it is a good one. It will bring a certain amount of houses back into use and that is what we all need.

There are indications also that the present Government policy on housing is beginning to work. Some material was brought out yesterday showing that we have a very significant amount of first-time buyers coming into the market. New builds are way up and the Government has reached and overshot its targets in respect of the number of houses, overall, that have been built. However, that needs to increase more, which I accept. We need more houses but we will get it right.

I want to return to an issue I have spoken about here in the past week with regard to respect for front-line workers and, in particular, An Garda Síochána. I briefly mentioned that there have been a number of vicious attacks on members of An Garda Síochána but I mentioned in passing that day also the effect this has on the families of members of the force, male and female.

These types of incidents, where their children are at an age where they know what is going on, have an appalling effect on their mental health. There are situations where gardaí have been followed home from work by alleged criminals who say that they know where these Garda members are and where their children are. Every one of us needs to stand and support all front-line workers but, in particular, An Garda Síochána, who are the people we all call for when we are in bother and when we need them. I know that they cannot be there for everything and do everything but, in general, they do a good job. People say that there is a bad apple here and a bad one there. Yes, there is but, in general, we have a good Garda force, we need to support them, and the money is there for more recruits. Let us get it done but let us get everybody supporting all front-line workers and not accept any sort of abuse, which is just not on.