Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

They could have abolished the European Parliament by the time we get to the Chamber.

In terms of staff, I note the Department of the Taoiseach has 19.6 politically appointed staff. In addition, in terms of divisions and business units, the Government Information Service, GIS, has 16 staff and the corporate affairs unit has 32 staff. In terms of the discussions we have had over the past year and a half about the Government's messaging, one of the Taoiseach's innovations on taking office was to have common Government messaging and a common banner on all Government messaging under mygov.ie. The Taoiseach stated recently in the Dáil that he is transferring this function to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. His Department still has a significant number of staff dealing with public relations, messaging, etc. What do these staff do now that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has taken control of the spin unit and mygov.ie?

The Taoiseach spoke at length about housing and is obviously concerned about the issue. What I do not understand, and this applies to all constituencies, not only the constituency I share with the Taoiseach, is that the figures published today show that significant numbers of children are in long-term homelessness. As with long-term unemployment among young people, particularly young men, homelessness among young children is very damaging. When children do not have a place to call their own for a protracted period, which is generally considered to be more than six months, the damage done to them can be severe. What does the Taoiseach do to have himself briefed on the crisis, particularly affecting children living in homelessness with one or both parents?

The Taoiseach has said on many occasions in the Dáil that he does not like the style of Cabinet sub-committees where detailed papers from various Departments or institutions are discussed. I accept that his style and preference is to discuss everything at the full Cabinet with his colleagues around the table. That is a fair choice. Who in government now examines and audits the many detailed reports that are available on the devastating impact of homelessness, in particular, on children? I note the paper appears to have a target of building 25,000 houses per annum.

As 18,000 of these were new dwellings, I presume the others are boarded-up houses that are being brought back into use. The Taoiseach might clarify the position in that regard. All housing experts have suggested that for the next five years, as a result of the backlog and the base from which the country is coming, we would need to increase the number to approximately 35,000.

The Taoiseach, as head of his Department, has stated that he has overall responsibility for social advancement, for people's well-being and for the headings he read out. How does he address those matters? Who now discusses and examines the detailed briefings on a range of issues that are provided from a variety of sources? Those issues used to be discussed, possibly at excessive length, by Cabinet sub-committees. In my experience, the time for detailed discussion in Cabinet is relatively short. No one has suggested that this Cabinet sits for very long. The general understanding is that the meetings are brisk enough, as we would probably expect. Where does that discussion now take place?

It would also point to questions regarding what is happening with the children's hospital. In the context of the Cabinet, which is the Taoiseach's responsibility, there no longer seems to be a space for those issues to be discussed in detail. I presume there must have been some warnings that not everything was right with the cost structure and the progress on the children's hospital.