I wish to raise an issue that arose yesterday and has arisen on several occasions in recent years, which is the closure of English language schools. I lay the blame firmly at the door of the Departments of Justice and Equality, and Education and Skills. Both Departments have failed to regulate English language schools resulting in a number of such schools becoming visa factories. When I heard yesterday that one of the students paid €1,000 for his course in an English language school, it confirmed that this school simply distributes visas. It also suggests that the school was bound to fail because the fees being charged would not allow it to survive.

There is a failure to inspect these schools and a failure to verify the type of education going on there. There is a failure in proper regulation, particularly on the part of the Department of Justice and Equality, which issues visas to students coming to Ireland based on the fact that schools are registered with it. They may have no qualified teachers or anyone competent enough to run the school, yet they allow students to come in, provide them with visas and allow them to work at low cost. It is driving the industry down in that it is allowing teachers to be paid low salaries as a result of these visa factories.

There are a number of good English language schools. This country has a good reputation for education but this situation is ruining that reputation. Some schools want to be regulated so that they can partake in the proper education of students coming to Ireland and not these visa factory schools.

I wish to raise an issue with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. Something is very broken in the system when between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters lined the streets last weekend to protest the Government's policies on housing. We are all working hard but there is no joined-up thinking. People are overspending on rent and the State is not building the houses that are needed with the kind of living spaces people want and in places they want to live and work affordably.

We have a beautiful accessible island but everything is concentrated in Dublin. Irrespective of what the Acting Leader says in reply, this is borne out by last week's Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, report. We cannot become an island that stands on one city alone. We would topple, not only because we would be off balance but because it goes against who we are and what and where we come from. The Government has led a sustained destruction of rural Ireland. It has closed post offices, stalled broadband provision, allowed large companies to see the benefits of Dublin and, but for a few, hold on to those benefits while the rest of the country suffers. We rarely get visits in rural Ireland from IDA Ireland.

The older person without a smartphone and a monthly commuter ticket is the one who loses. They are alone and isolated. When I visit them - I visit as many of them as I can - they tell me they feel forgotten. For an older person to go collect his or her pension, he or she needs a car to get to the nearest large town because the local post office is closed. He or she needs a bank account to lodge it because nobody carries that amount around but he or she has to be there before a certain time otherwise the counter will be closed. He or she will have to find the nearest supermarket because the post office is closed and so is the corner shop attached to it. If we do this to one older person, what are we doing to our younger people? We are an island for all of us. This is a serious issue and I am looking for Ministers to come to the House and address it.

I join Senators Ardagh and Murnane O'Connor in expressing serious concern at the ever-increasing numbers of people sleeping rough in Dublin. While recent press coverage talks about the city, people are sleeping rough throughout the county.

I believe that the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive showed that recently. I note from the Taoiseach's commentary earlier that he was disappointed with the latest figures. When one couples this with the thousands of people who protested last weekend about housing - they are not all wrong - we have to sit up and listen. If we have to change direction, then so be it. At this stage we have to take on board that people are genuinely concerned. People are priced out of homes, be they to purchase or to rent; it is a crisis situation. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government can exercise special powers under special circumstances. If a national emergency on housing is declared, I am advised that he could use some of these powers. We have a crisis situation in every local authority, but especially in the four Dublin local authorities. They are at breaking point with staff totally frustrated at having to turn people away day after day. We should have another discussion on what direction the Government is going.

On more positive news, as a result of our Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill, which is now the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018, I am happy to say that the regulations to scrap planning fees for elected members of councils were signed by the Minister on Friday. I have a copy in front of me. The Minister also authorised councillors to seek a report on a variation to a proposed county development plan change by the elected members. Some 900 councillors lobbied strongly on those two issues. They are welcome changes and are now embedded. These are two issues that some Senators got over the line, despite significant opposition from the Government of the day and other Senators. I am glad that local authority members are delighted with that.