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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 23 Jan 2024

Vol. 1048 No. 3

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Bogfaimid ar aghaidh le Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí. Arís, a gentle reminder about time limits and mobile phones.

Go raibh maith agat. Three years ago, the Taoiseach's Government promised it would stop vulture funds bulk-buying family homes from under the noses of ordinary homebuyers. This followed considerable public anger on the back of a fund attempting to buy up the majority of homes at Mullen Park in Maynooth. On the floor of the Dáil the Taoiseach said:

What happened in Maynooth and Hollystown is not right. We do not want investment funds in any form coming in and buying substantially complete developments that could have been bought by first-time buyers, upgraders or even approved housing bodies ...

The Taoiseach then proceeded to introduce measures that left the door wide open for vultures. At the time, we warned the Taoiseach that his Government's measures were doomed to failure. We told him the Government had not gone far enough to deter the vultures but he ignored those warnings.

Fast forward two and a half years and more than 1,200 family homes have been snapped up by vulture funds since the Government introduced its regulations. These are homes on which vulture funds charge extortionate rent. Far from stopping the vulture funds, they are laughing all the way to the bank. It is a real kick in the teeth for everyone who has saved every spare euro and made real sacrifices to try to get a mortgage deposit together.

The latest such scandal has occurred at Belcamp Manor in north Dublin, where a vulture fund snapped up 46 of 54 homes in that estate, robbing ordinary families of the chance to buy a home. These homes are going to be let out at rents of upwards of €3,000 a month. The Taoiseach's response to the Belcamp Manor bulk purchase was that the Government would now have to look at what happened, but this situation did not come out of the blue. In fact, last year the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, was told by Department of Finance officials that the vulture funds had snapped up, and were still snapping up, family homes and it has got worse since then.

The Taoiseach's Government knows and has known that this has been happening and it knows how it has happened and why. The stamp duty rate the Government set out in May 2021 on the bulk-buying of homes was just far too low. Tens of thousands of homes already in the planning process were also left at risk of being snapped up by the vultures. The Taoiseach, then, should not be surprised. This has happened because the Government left the door open and the vultures swooped through.

Caithfidh an Rialtas stop a chur leis na gcreach-chistí agus tithe á gceannach acu faoi shróna na ngnáthdhaoine. Ní mór don Rialtas gníomhú go deimhneach ar thaobh na ndaoine atá éadóchas go mbeidh siad in ann a dtithe féin a bheith acu. The Government must act now to finally clip the wings of the vulture funds. The Taoiseach said his aim is to stop these funds swooping in and buying up housing estates. Yet the Government has indicated it will vote down Sinn Féin's motion which seeks to do just that. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has said the Government is reviewing the situation. Really? At this stage?

Every TD now has a chance tomorrow night to vote to actually clip the wings of vultures. I am asking each of them to do so and to stand with ordinary homebuyers in their constituencies against the unfair financial power of the vulture funds.

I am asking the Taoiseach to realise the damage these funds are doing. I urge him to change his mind and to support Sinn Féin's motion to stop these funds in their tracks.

I do not like to see investment funds buying up family homes en masse. I know the Deputy does not either. I have said that before. However, what she has represented in the Dáil today is not the full story. As is so often the case, she has engaged in a degree of misleading behaviour. The Government did change the law. We changed the law back in May 2021 after the events in Maynooth the Deputy has described. That change prohibited the bulk-buying of houses and duplexes by a single buyer and also allowed local authorities to apply planning conditions preventing the sale of homes in the kind of bulk seen in this case. I have looked into it. The planning permission for this particular development in Dublin 17 dates from 2019. The planning permission was therefore granted two years before the law was changed. The Deputy will understand that laws cannot be changed retrospectively in this State.

On stamp duty, stamp duty is set at 10%. We are not ruling out an increase, as the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has made clear, but it is something that has to be considered carefully because any change to tax can have unforeseen impacts and such changes sometimes do not work. We therefore need to make sure that if there is any change, it is thought through and teased out correctly. However, to be very clear, we have changed the law in this area. This could not happen in respect of any development granted planning permission from 2021 onwards. This is an old outstanding planning permission and that is why it was possible in this case.

With regard to the sale of family homes to bulk buyers, I do not have the exact figures in front of me but I think it was something like 600 or 680 out of 50,000 transactions last year, equating to perhaps 1,000 out of 100,000 transactions. It is not minimal or inconsiderable but it would not be accurate to create the impression that this is happening in great numbers.

I have set out the facts for the Taoiseach. I have acknowledged and put it to him that he did respond in 2021 on the back of the Maynooth situation. I also reminded him that, at the time, he was advised that he had not gone far enough. I also told him that, in July of last year, Department officials told the Minister that the regulations were failing. They said very clearly that funds were continuing to buy up family homes. The Taoiseach says that he wants this to stop - I presume we are all in agreement on that - so I cannot for the life of me understand why he proposes to vote down a proposal that would do just that. He cannot have it both ways. The Taoiseach cannot say that he wishes this behaviour to stop and then fail to take the very measures that would stop that same behaviour. The bottom line is that the losers in this scenario are hard-pressed families and workers who, as the Taoiseach will know, have scrimped and saved only to find that despite all the rhetoric from the Government, vulture funds can still swoop in and buy up family homes.

I have not seen the detail of the advice to the Minister, Deputy McGrath. I expect that when I see it, I will find out that Deputy McDonald has not told the full story or given the full picture to the Irish people and that she has engaged in a degree of misrepresentation and misleading behaviour. I suspect that the advice will also say that the number of family homes bought up by investment funds might have been something like 1% or 2% of total sales-----

It does not say that.

-----but I will double-check that. As I said earlier, the Government does not want to see family homes being bought up by investment funds. That is not the case at all. It is something we think is undesirable socially and economically. That is why we changed the law in 2021 to stop this happening. It does not apply to old permissions. This is an old permission from 2019. The Deputy's contention is that increasing stamp duty to 17% will solve the problem but she does not know that. A rate of 17% might not be enough or it might have other unintended consequences that she has not thought about and that would do harm to people and businesses. That is why it is important to give very careful consideration to any tax changes.

When will the Government act to prevent a genocide in Gaza? In just over 100 days, more than 25,000 people in Gaza have been killed. As a result of a man-made famine, 80% of the world's hungriest people are now in Gaza. Contagious disease is sweeping through the nearly 2 million displaced people. The healthcare system has been obliterated.

Not only are senior Israeli Government officials making regular genocidal statements, but they are also explicitly rejecting a two-state solution. Yesterday, Israel's foreign affairs minister suggested the international community should build an artificial island in the Mediterranean for Palestinians. It is clear the Israeli Government has lost all grip of reality, proportionality and humanity.

What is the Government waiting for? Is it waiting for the death toll to reach 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000? As the Taoiseach is aware, the Social Democrats have a motion tabled for discussion tomorrow calling on the Government to act and support South Africa's case under the genocide convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice at the earliest opportunity as a matter of urgency. Sometime after 10 p.m. last night, we found out that the Government was changing the Dáil schedule this week to introduce its own motion on Gaza today, in advance of our motion tomorrow. When I read the Government motion, I wonder why it bothered. The motion does not contain any commitment to intervene on the side of South Africa at the International Court of Justice. All it says is that this will be considered after the preliminary ruling. It is obvious the Government does not wish to use or even contemplate the word "genocide" when it comes to Israel's actions in Gaza. That is why it is refusing to take a stance now and signal its support for South Africa at the Court of Justice. It wants to wait until it has the cover of the preliminary ruling and then it will consider its options. This approach lacks courage. It is at odds with the annihilation we are witnessing and the Government's words of support for Palestinians.

While the Government is faffing around, other countries are making their intentions clear. Germany has already announced that it will intervene in the case on the side of Israel, saying it firmly and explicitly rejects the accusation of genocide. The US and the UK have also made their views clear. They have rubbished South Africa's case as unjustified and without merit. Western countries are lining up to support Israel. There could not be more of a pressing need for countries such as Ireland to signal their support for South Africa now. The Government's claim that it cannot do so simply is not credible. In fact, it has a duty to do so. Under the genocide convention, states have a duty to punish and prevent genocide. The first step in fulfilling that duty is to assess the risk of genocide. That means starting the process now, rather than waiting. Will the Taoiseach signal Ireland's intention to intervene at the earliest possible opportunity? Will he start that process now?

Like everyone in the House, I am appalled at the ongoing violence that is occurring in Gaza and, indeed, in the West Bank and Israel, where millions of people have been displaced and tens of thousands killed, mostly women and children. We should not forget there are two sides to this conflict. It is the case that many more Palestinians have died than Israelis and many more Palestinians have been displaced than Israelis but there have been Israelis killed and Palestinians and Israelis displaced too. It is important that should be acknowledged, perhaps in the Deputy's next remarks.

In terms of what we are doing as a Government, we are working at EU level, UN level and bilateral level to do anything we practically can do to bring about a ceasefire. We were among the first countries in the world to call for a humanitarian ceasefire. That is the way we voted at UN and EU levels and we will continue to look for that because we need a ceasefire so that humanitarian aid can get in, the killing can stop and the hostages who are still being held in Gaza can be released.

What happens at the ICJ and the International Criminal Court is really important. We are very big supporters of these institutions but I am sad to say I do not believe an order from the ICJ will bring about an end to this conflict. It did not do so in Ukraine. It may be four years before the case is finally decided. This conflict will be brought to an end by diplomacy and politics.

That is why we are focusing on diplomacy and politics. What the Government is asking the House to agree to tonight is to recognise that our overwhelming priority is exactly that, namely, trying to achieve a ceasefire on both sides and an end to the violence by way of diplomacy and politics. We are also demanding unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza, and we are supporting the UN in its work in that regard. We are also committing to support any decision of the ICJ on preliminary measures. These will be final and binding on the parties concerned, and we will urge all parties to the genocide convention to do so.

We are also committing to considering an intervention in the case of South Africa v. Israel at the ICJ. This is done at the point when South Africa would file its main case - its memorial case. While some countries have indicated that they will intervene, none has yet done so because that does not happen until that point. This is exactly the approach we took in relation to Ukraine. We will also drive efforts at EU level to bring about sanctions against violent settlers in the West Bank.

On ICJ cases, the Attorney General will travel to The Hague on 22 February to make Ireland's intervention in respect of the situation in Israel and Palestine in person. That relates to an existing case before the ICJ regarding Israel's actions in Palestine and the West Bank. I hope that proves we are taking this seriously and that we are taking the ICJ seriously. We want to do this properly, just as we have with that case and just as we did in relation to Ukraine.

It is interesting that the Taoiseach mentions the case of Ukraine. The Tánaiste had no such reluctance when it came to Russia. Less than two months after Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine he labelled it a genocide. The double standard beggars belief. Israel claims that it is doing everything in its power to protect civilians in Gaza. It says that while it is dropping 2,000-pound bombs on densely populated residential areas. These enormous bombs are not being used sparingly either. They have been dropped in their hundreds on an area half the size of Louth. How can countries that claim to value human rights and international law sit back and watch this? I agree that Ireland has been a really strong voice for the Palestinian people on the world stage, but words will not provide a defence from the bombs, famine or disease sweeping through Gaza. Saying we cannot act now is simply disingenuous. As stated, Germany has signalled its intention to act. We could signal our intention now and start the process with a legal team on establishing the case. We must stand on the right side of history with regard to this. Sitting by, watching this happen and waiting while 250 people are dying every day simply lacks the courage that is needed at this point. Will the Government act with the same degree of urgency as the Government of Germany? Will it act with the same degree of urgency as it did in the case of Ukraine and signal its intention to support South Africa's case at the ICJ immediately?

As I mentioned earlier, the Attorney General will travel to the ICJ in The Hague on 22 February and will make Ireland's intervention in respect of the case relating to Israel and Palestine and the actions happening in that regard in person. This demonstrates that we take these matters seriously and that we take the ICJ seriously. On the genocide convention case, we will adopt the same approach that we did in respect of Russia and Ukraine. We will wait until South Africa files its memorial - its main case. We will consider it and at that point we will decide on the nature of any intervention. We do agree that South Africa's case is valid.

The motion put down by the Deputy's party is good in parts, but I think it is flawed. I would like the party to consider amending it. The motion does not condemn Hamas. It does not call for the release of the hostages, and I think that is wrong. It does not call for Hamas to cease fire or to disarm. Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and terrorist organisations should disarm. The only real mention of Hamas and the events of 7 October is to say that they do not justify Israel's actions. I do not think that is good enough.

We have done that before.

People in Waterford and the south east know that the Taoiseach and the Government have forgotten them. In the election of 2011, 2016 and 2020, voters from across the south east who had been left to stew in their anger turned away from the traditional parties of government. Parliamentary responses I copied to the Taoiseach's office in recent weeks show that University Hospital Waterford, the south-east regional model 4 hospital, received just €83 million capital investment in the past ten years.

By contrast, in the same decade, the Government awarded €227 million on average to the comparator model 4 hospitals in Galway, Limerick and Cork. A sum of €87 million versus one of €227 million is evidence of pure discrimination against the south-east region.

During Leaders' Questions on 11 July last, the Taoiseach, in respect of University Hospital Waterford, stated: "under this Government €91 million has been invested in the hospital so far." Copies of parliamentary questions that I gave to the Taoiseach and each of his Ministers recently show that Waterford was awarded just €36.7 million in capital health funding by this Thirty-third Dáil, not €91 million the Taoiseach suggested. Again, this was but a fraction of the €130 million on average given to the other three hospitals I mentioned in that four-year period. The Taoiseach's statement to the House on 11 July was misleading and untrue. I therefore invite him to correct the record of the Dáil when he responds.

Given the evidence of ten years of discriminatory capital underinvestment in the hospital in Waterford, I ask whether the Taoiseach understands the right of people in the south east to be angry when they look at the current Dublin-Cork Cabinet? The evidence of shafting when it comes to investment extends beyond our hospital into the south east's aviation sector, its public transport and road development, its generation of foreign and direct investment generation and, most egregiously and especially, its higher education sector.

In the context of the South East Technological University, the Government has slow-walked a land purchase while providing no capital to carry out design work and nothing to fund construction of a new teaching building on this land site. This is despite its clear understanding that not a single new teaching building has been delivered on the campus in Waterford this millennium. The Waterford engineering building, first promised by the Taoiseach in 2011, was sideswiped by Government into a 2020 secondary phasing investment process. It is now just another broken promise to add to the many previous such promises. The three Government programmes between 2011 and 2020 singled out Waterford Institute of Technology for special attention. This is now manifested as a natty rebrand of the region in an underfunded merger. I know the Taoiseach is tired of me raising this issues. He will feel compelled to demonstrate that I am wrong by referencing other regional developments in order to prove that everything is okay. However, people in Waterford and the south east know that we are not getting our fair share. We are not fools and should not be taken as such.

The protests in respect of Irish Water were not properly understood by the Government of the day. They were never really about water. Rather, they were an expression of seething anger on the part of people who felt ignored, mistreated, let down and left behind. Despite his finely tuned political antenna, the Taoiseach does not seem to understand the building anger in the region, nor does the Government seem to be motivated to do anything to assuage it. In one of his first speeches on taking office, the Taoiseach promised that Waterford would not be forgotten. Ironically, however, that is precisely what the Government continues to do.

There has been considerable investment in University Hospital Waterford under this Government. Just since 2019, there has been a 40% increase in staffing at the hospital. The hospital's budget is now approximately €270 million. There has been a 33% increase in the budget since 2019. There has been considerable investment in Waterford. That includes the second cath lab, which people in the region campaigned very hard for over a long period. That is open now, and we want to extend the hours to weekends as soon as possible. There is a new outpatient unit. There is also the Dunmore wing, which I have had the pleasure to visit, and the new palliative care unit.

I assure the Deputy that I do not think that investment in University Hospital Waterford has been adequate either. That is why there needs to be more. Among the future investments coming is the new surgical hub, which will help people to get operations they need much more quickly, and the replacement of the adult mental health unit with a 50 single-bed unit, which I think will be a considerable improvement too. Of course, we need to examine future capacity at the hospital. It is a hospital that performs very well and that experiences very little emergency department overcrowding. It really helped out when the fire happened in Wexford hospital. Hospitals that perform well should be rewarded. That is why I want to see more investment happening in Waterford University Hospital in the coming years. The Deputy can be sure that is going to happen.

The Taoiseach did not actually correct the record in respect of what I highlighted to him. I am glad that he seeks support for University Hospital Waterford, as do I. Since the two cath labs opened - they are operating 60 hours a week - the hospital is emulating the same service activity as the Cork centre, which has five cath labs and 168 hours scheduled. This is despite the fact the Herity report in 2015 indicated that there was no requirement for a second cath lab and that the emergency services should be taken out of Waterford.

I can extend that to our technological university. We have had no capital investment there whatsoever, beyond a land purchase and, as I pointed out to the Taoiseach, no funding to build a building. The engineering building is nowhere to be seen. I could see on television during the week three senior Ministers walking around DCU, smiling while they awarded €61 million in accommodation grants, with nothing done for the south-eastern regional university. There has been no extension of the borrowing framework, no looking at lecturers' contracts as promised, and nothing done by way of accepting the €350 million project plan that has been put forward by the president of the university.

In recent weeks, the Taoiseach produced his capital calculator to show how much money Fine Gael is putting back into people's pockets. I suggest he might look at a calculator to see how much it has taken out of the south-eastern region and how it has left us behind, because we are suffering inequity. I have worked very hard with the Taoiseach and the Government to try to address that but it is not happening at this point.

In terms of clarifying the record, I think I have done that already by correspondence. Like a lot of things, investment depends on how you count it, that is, whether you count the spend when it is actually spent, which often happens after the building has been built, or when it is announced or when it is under construction.

What the Deputy and I do not disagree on is that Waterford and the south east need more investment, and I can guarantee him that so long as this Government remains in office, and so long as there is no fundamental change in our economic and foreign policy, that will continue to be possible. That is why it is important this Government should remain in office. There has been considerable IDA investment in Waterford and the south east. As the Deputy pointed out, we established the long-promised university for the south east and that includes the purchase of the Waterford Crystal site in Waterford, which is very welcome. We will get the engineering building done, but the Deputy will be aware there are complications in the negotiations there.

Work has begun on the north quays development, which will transform the city of Waterford, opening up a whole new quarter. It even involves the moving of the train station, so it is a huge investment. There has also been considerable road investment in the south east, such as the New Ross bypass and in Enniscorthy. In respect of Waterford Airport, we are keen to invest in that. The Minister, Deputy McGrath, visited it not too long ago. We made a commitment on funding. It turns out it is not enough. A further business case has been submitted for more funding and we are examining it with due haste.

The Taoiseach and I spoke recently about the minimum wage increase. At the time, he said to me that, on the one hand, I was welcoming the wage increase, which I do, but that I also wanted protection for businesses that will be impacted by the wage increase and had asked what the Government could do to counteract it.

The issue has now come to the fore, given the Taoiseach has, I believe, received a letter from IBEC outlining its concerns about the additional costs his Government has set out. The letter highlights specific worries about the pace and scale of the Government increases in labour costs, including an increase in the minimum wage to €12.70 and changes to employer PRSI, statutory sick pay, pension auto-enrolment, work permits, salary thresholds and protective leave entitlements. IBEC estimates the Government's labour market policy will add €4 billion annually to the wage bill of Irish employers, leading to labour cost increases of 25% to 30% in the most impacted firms. According to an article on the RTÉ website, one third of new companies close within the first four years of their existence. It states that the post-Christmas period has seen a wave of restaurant closures in Ireland and that the Restaurant Association of Ireland, RAI, claims 280 of its members have closed in the past six months. I urge the Government to intervene in this.

I am an employer myself. I agreed with the minimum wage increase and all the employers I have spoken to also agreed with it, but it has created inflation in certain cases. In the hotel industry, the minimum wage was increased to €12.70, but people who were on €13 then wanted to go to €14.30 and there was a knock-on effect through all the wage increases on all hospitality sectors. In the case of one business whose owner I spoke to, which has seven employees, two of whom are part time, it amounts to an increase of €40,000 to its costs.

The only way they can counteract that and pay the increase in the minimum wage, which they said the employees deserve, without increasing the price of their product is by going into their maintenance fund. They said that by going into their maintenance fund, if anything breaks down, they will have to close anyway. If they put the prices up, the same wage increase we are giving will actually be taken back in and means they will not be sustainable anymore. Representatives from one hotel I spoke to said this will actually cost them €400,000 extra this year. For a wedding or a major event, the increase will be by €4 per sitting. This means it will go to the same people who will have got a wage increase but will actually go back again into the Government’s purse as it goes around in a circle.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know many Deputies have done so, in Government parties and Opposition parties alike. We are a Government that supports enterprise and wants to make work pay. We believe it is possible to reward enterprise and reward work. However, there are interplays and balances that have to be struck, and we have to strike them right.

I acknowledge that the cost of doing business is very high and is rising. Some of that is down to pay. Much of it is down to energy. Some of it is down to the cost of supplies and materials. Some of it is Government-influenced, but the Government has no influence over much of it. We are helping businesses. More than a quarter of a billion euro will be injected into small businesses in the form of grants by the end of March. That is designed to help businesses with cash flow, particularly at this very difficult time.

We are now seeing energy prices falling, which is very encouraging. I hope we will see interest rates falling throughout the course of this year as well. The increase in the minimum wage was recommended by the Low Pay Commission, and our plan is to bring the minimum wage up to the level of the living wage, which is approximately 60% of median earnings. We want to do that as soon as we possibly can. We acknowledge, however, that we have to monitor how this works out on the ground, because we have seen very big increases in the minimum wage in recent years. While it is not double, it is much higher than it was ten or 11 years ago. Despite a very big increase in the minimum wage, we have not seen unemployment rising. In fact, the reverse has happened. There are more people at work than ever before.

While businesses are opening and closing all the time, the number of closures at the moment is below the long-term average of 50 per 10,000. However, this is something we will have to monitor very closely, because there is no point in putting up somebody’s wages if they then lose their job or have their hours cut. This is something we will have to monitor over the next couple of months and take account of when the Low Pay Commission makes its recommendation for next year, because there are other employment-related costs that are going to rise, such as pension contributions under auto-enrolment and the 0.1% increase in PRSI.

I take very seriously what businesses are saying. We acknowledge that the cost of doing business is high. We are helping, particularly with the quarter of a billion euro we will inject into small businesses over the next couple of months. The key thing we need to monitor is whether there is a fall-off in employment as a consequence of this increase and whether we will see businesses closing at a faster rate than they would on the long-term average. We are not seeing that yet, but we do need to look out for it.

Most of the businesses that are closing are SMEs: small, local and medium enterprises. They are not international businesses. They are small, local enterprise businesses. What the Government could have done in the interim, which would have had an immediate effect, was to have reduced VAT back to 9% across the board. It was brought in for the interim before. It worked and it could work now until we find a solution.

I am a father and a grandfather. I listened to a man recently, as I have listened to many parents recently. They have four children and their fourth child is now leaving the country to set up their life in another country. They are following their brothers and sisters across the water. The young man said to his father, “Dad, I am sorry, I am going". He said he will never afford a house in this country, that he will live and work here but never have anything here. He said he will now follow his brothers and sisters to create a life. We have all seen people leaving this country in their youth, and then come home to set up their families and live here. He said that will no longer be the case. They are leaving and they are not coming home because they no longer see home as sustainable for them to raise their families into the future. They have to do it in another country because they cannot do it at home.

I am asking the Taoiseach to intervene now, reduce the VAT rate to 9% now and protect our small businesses. The multinationals can protect themselves but our Irish local businesses need the Government's help and need it now.

Businesses, particularly small businesses, have received unprecedented support from Government over the past three or four years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we helped pay the wages and the overheads. During the energy crisis, we helped with the energy bills through TBESS. We reduced VAT to 9% on a temporary basis-----

-----we brought in tax warehousing and we also have a new grant which businesses will receive in the next couple of months. The sad reality is that there are a number of businesses in the State which have only got by in the past couple of years because of that State support and some of those are not viable. That is a sad truth but one no Government can simply subsidise forever.

On the story the Deputy tells about somebody emigrating to set up their lives abroad, of course that happens. It happens all the time for all sorts of different reasons. Let us not forget that in each of the past seven years, the number of Irish citizens leaving has been less than the number of Irish citizens returning or has been roughly the same. There is this narrative that huge numbers of Irish people are abandoning the country for better lives abroad, but the truth is different.

They are not coming home.

They are. The Deputy is entitled to his opinions, but he is not entitled to his own facts. The facts are that in the past three years, 80,000 Irish citizens left and went abroad for all sorts of different reasons. A total of 90,000 came back. That is a fact, Deputy.

Those are the statistics.

When we find out how many are leaving this year, we will see it is much more.

Is é sin deireadh leis na Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí. Bogfaimid ar aghaidh anois go dtí gnó na Dála don tseachtain seo. Under Standing Order 35, I call the Chief Whip-----

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, on a point of order, I ask the Taoiseach to correct the record. He said we did not mention Hamas in our Dáil motion. That is incorrect. We did and we referred to its acts on 7 October as an atrocity. Please correct the record.

I think the Deputy may be incorrect and we can check the record. I believe I said the Deputy's party only mentioned Hamas in the context of its crimes on 7 October which it says does not justify Israel's response.

We are not having a debate on this issue now.

There is no condemnation.

The Taoiseach said we did not condemn.

There is no call for the release of the hostages. There is no call for Hamas to cease fire. There is no call for that terrorist organisation to disarm.

Calling it an atrocity is a condemnation and the Taoiseach needs to present facts in this case.

This is misinformation.

Táimid ag bogadh ar aghaidh anois.

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