Why were EU funds intended to support rural Ireland redirected to climate measures? In 2021, Ireland received €365.5 million from the EU to spend on supports for Ireland’s economy in mitigating the impact of Brexit. Ireland was the biggest beneficiary of Brexit funding as we were the country worst affected by Brexit. The funding Ireland received was to contribute to the improvement of living standards, support economic growth and mitigate the negative impacts on local communities.

Through a Government source, I have learned that a request was made to the European Commission to transfer €150 million of the Brexit adjustment reserve funding to support the roll-out of climate measures. What is the biggest crisis in Ireland currently? It is surely housing. Why can the Government not direct the funding into housing infrastructure? I have asked for this to be done for the past three years. A few minutes ago, the Taoiseach asked this side of the House to help. I have been a building contractor all of my life. I understand building, infrastructure and how to build houses and other properties. The Taoiseach said the answer to this is to build social housing. I agree with him.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, was in Limerick recently where he announced that social housing was to be built. We visited five different areas. We started in Patrickswell where 110 houses were being announced but the infrastructure in Patrickswell is under pressure and funding is being sought. We then went on to Hospital where 20 new houses are being delivered. I am thankful for that as I have been asking for this housing but five of those houses had on-site sewerage systems because there was no capacity. The Taoiseach has asked me for help and I am giving him my advice on something I know because I live and breathe it every day. The answer to the housing crisis is infrastructure. For 40 years, the governments of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have failed to invest in infrastructure in Limerick. If I had infrastructure, I would deliver the houses. The Government can take the recognition for it and I would give it. I ask it to give me the funding to put infrastructure in Limerick and we will have no housing crisis in Limerick.

A number of different funds are operated by the European Union through the European Commission and there are very strict rules around those funds. One of those funds is the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. Ireland secured just over €1 billion from the fund but we are limited in how we can spend it. For example, we are able to spend it on upgrading our ports facilities and we have done that in Rosslare and in other ports around the country. We are able to spend it on fisheries and much of the money has gone to the fishing industry.

It has gone to closing it down.

We would have liked to have spent a lot of it helping businesses, for example, and the agricultural sector but in order to do so, we have to demonstrate that those businesses have lost their profits or have gone into the red solely as a consequence of Brexit. Given the increased trade that has occurred between Britain and Ireland, the performance of business and rising incomes, this did not fit the criteria. When money from one fund is not spent, it can be moved to another fund, and we have moved this money to another fund called the European recovery fund.

That cannot be spent on housing but it can be spent on things such as retrofit, and that is one of the things we have decided to divert the funding to. That will be of benefit to the construction industry because the same people carry out a lot of that work.

In regard to funding for infrastructure, the Deputy is absolutely right that for a prolonged period, when this country had no money, we were not able to invest adequately in infrastructure, and that is one of the things that is holding us back. The Deputy is right about that, but where are we now? There is a housing budget this year of €4.5 billion, the highest ever, and an infrastructure budget this year of something like €13 billion or €14 billion, the highest ever, higher than the European average, higher than that of many of our peers such as the Netherlands and Denmark. There is no lack of money for new housing or infrastructure. The constraints are different ones. They tend to be around planning, the availability of labour and the availability of materials, and they are the bottlenecks we are trying to fix.