Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with my colleague, Senator O'Loughlin. Andrew was a very fine soldier and his wife, Deirdre, was a very fine soldier. It was very sad being in Kildare on Sunday and seeing a number of people outside his house. It was a massive gathering. I could not make it to the funeral yesterday. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

Iran looks like it is about to make an attack on Israel. It looks like it will be ballistic missiles.My mind is with the men and women of the Defence Forces who are serving out there in this most intolerable situation. I know the Tánaiste has reassured us they are safe. However, the Tánaiste has asked all Irish citizens to leave Cyprus, or, sorry, to leave Lebanon. I am going back a few decades there; the old mind is not the best. How do they leave? There will be no flights out of Lebanon. Once again, we find ourselves in this country not having a heavy-lift capacity within our Defence Forces to be able to bring people out in an emergency situation such as this. We must watch news bulletins over the next 24 hours to see how things go.

I had a communication this morning from Councillor Liona O'Toole in west Dublin and she was speaking about rapid-build homes. We all know that when the emergency is over, these homes will need planning permission. If they cannot get planning permission, they will have to be taken apart. Everything about them says they can be taken apart. They were erected and put together. They can be taken apart, like Lego. She asked how this will be done and was met with laughter because nobody believes they can be taken apart. In a situation such as this where there are rapid-build homes put together without planning permission put into areas where people are being assured they will be taken apart afterwards, let alone the expense and costs we learned of yesterday, where is the oversight in the country where something we were told would cost €200,000 now costs €440,000? Somewhere along the line there is a total lack of supervision of what goes on in this country. It seems as if money is thrown out like confetti at a wedding. It is just wrong in every sense of the word. I believe Councillor O'Toole and her colleagues in west Dublin are entitled to answers. They have tried to get these answers through the Minister's office and are not getting them. I ask the Leader to make representations on their behalf and to see if she can get the office of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to give them answers and some reassurance that buildings that have been erected without planning permission can be taken apart and the grounds can be put back to what they were before this started.