Order of Business
The Ceann Comhairle opens the Order of Business, agrees the day's and Thursday's business, and notes 33 Deputies have indicated. Deputy O'Callaghan raises concerns about fire safety and standards in private homeless accommodation, and the Taoiseach says the issue can be revisited through the Business Committee.
Go raibh maith agat a Thaoisigh, tá an t-am caite agat. Rachaimid ar aghaidh go dtí an chéad phíosa oibre eile, is é sin clár oibre na seachtaine. The House has agreed that, for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency only, the rapporteur's report of the Business Committee shall not be read out but shall be taken as read. Arising from it there are just two proposals to put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with today's business agreed?
Comment on this
It is not agreed to. Yesterday, "RTÉ Investigates" published a report based on inspection reports it has received from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE. The report shows that 34% of privately run homeless accommodation has had fire safety issues. It also showed conclusively that the national quality standards are not being applied to private providers of emergency accommodation. I have raised this with the Taoiseach before. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has told the Dáil that these national standards are being applied to providers of privately run emergency homeless accommodation when that is not the case. I asked the Minister to update the Dáil on this and to correct the record. That has not been done. Will the Minister come before the Dáil this week to take questions and to update the record on this? It is very serious that the Minister with responsibility for housing does not seem to know what is going on in emergency homeless accommodation.
Comment on this
My understanding is that the Business Committee organised the schedule for today and tomorrow, and I do not propose to deviate from that. Deputy O'Callaghan has probably read that the Dublin Region Homeless Executive has confirmed that all the issues identified in the inspections - and this is in the context of the recent release by the DRHE of inspection reports - were followed up and resolved "swiftly and comprehensively". There is no issue with having further engagement on this issue at a time that perhaps the Business Committee could organise and facilitate, but there is a set schedule for today which we should proceed with, given the important issues that are on the agenda for today and which were agreed by the Business Committee.