Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 March 2023

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will say just a couple of things in rounding up. The Taoiseach has dealt adequately dealt with all the issues in his opening statement, as did the members of the committee in their respectful statements, and I thank everyone for that.

A couple of things need commenting on, especially the housing situation, to which you yourself referred, a Thaoisigh, as did the members. The important thing is to have a fallback position when and if the problems that are predicted arise. The fallback position, how we can respond quickly to a situation that emerges for some people who are worried about it, is hugely important. It is recognised, however, that the existence of a ban on evictions did not solve the problem; it just postponed it for a while. The provision of that treatment for the housing situation still stands, particularly when we compare it with the situation in my early days in politics. I remember when the local authorities built on average 700 to 800 houses per annum and, on what were at that time called small dwellings acquisition, SDA, loans from the county council, somewhere in the region of 300 to 400 on top of that. That was a thousand houses a year, roughly, in various local authority areas, of which Kildare was one. We have not been able to come up with that but we are making strides and things are happening, and that is correct.

Women's issues and gender issues all need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. The Constitution was fine in 1937 but it no longer applies or could apply or reflects the people or their thinking at this time. I have brought to your attention previously in the House, a Thaoisigh, some of the issues affecting women, mothers in particular, in the family law courts at present. I know that is an issue that you are dealing with and that will be dealt with. It needs to be dealt with. There are situations we do not know about throughout the country where mothers have been separated from their children for up to three, four or five years for no reason at all except to conform to a mythical theory that could never exist and was never accepted by contemporaries. We were looking forward to changes to that situation and a recognition of the importance of women, not necessarily women in the home, but women's role in society and the tremendous job they have to do.

I will finish on the health issue. I happened to be in a situation in recent weeks where I had to avail of emergency services in one of our hospitals. I was very impressed. I was impressed by the ease with which I gained access, the way the matter was dealt with by the staff and the courteous manner in which they did so, even though they were under stress. There were several people in the waiting area but the staff dealt with them. It should be remembered that not all the people who attend at a hospital at any given time can be dealt with in the same moment, especially in an emergency department. It is not possible to do it. If a hundred people turn up, unless you have a hundred consultants, a hundred doctors and so on to do all the preliminaries, you cannot treat them all in five minutes. It cannot be done. I give full credit to the hospital services and the manner in which the staff deal with this issue and, in the teaching hospitals, teach at the same time. I was very impressed by my experience. We generally do not do ourselves any credit when we criticise the health services all the time. That has a demoralising effect on the staff in hospitals. It does not do any good. It does not solve the problem and only makes the staff feel more down at heel. They are doing a very difficult job. It should be remembered that we had an economic crisis and Covid, both of which affected all these issues. It was remarkable to be able to stand up to the pressure in the way the staff and all the services throughout the country did when compared with other European countries, as you mentioned, a Thaoisigh.

That concludes my summing up. Does the Taoiseach want to make any final comment before I propose the report?

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