Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I support this amendment. This Bill has been around since 2002. I presume it was taken out of the Taoiseach's cupboard and given an airing this week because we are about to embark on another round of social partnership discussions. In many ways, the purpose of this Bill is to set up the quango of quangos. It is the über-quango. It will unite all the other quangos which deal with social partnership. The new body will be a combination of the National Economic and Social Council, the National Economic and Social Forum, the National Centre for Partnership and Performance and related bodies. There are many bodies operating in this sphere, as well as those yet to be established, which the Taoiseach may deign to add.

I agree with Deputy Bruton's arguments in support of this amendment. Certain elements of social partnership have been extremely successful and have served the economy well. However, in terms of the social fabric and the type of issues the Taoiseach purported to address at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting in County Cavan, about Robert Putnam and "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community", our country is at severe risk of becoming unhinged from the issues that face many people in terms of their struggle for a decent life for themselves and their families.

The key failure of the social partnership process is that a plethora of issues are being addressed, but in effect the progress on many of these is more apparent than real. At the time of the previous social partnership, many promises were given on social housing initiatives, for example. The new body, when established, will probably have a whole section or group devoted to research and action on housing. The reality, particularly in working class areas of our cities and towns, is that social housing as a concept has collapsed, killed off by this Government. The amount of social housing is a fraction of what it once was. Tens of thousands of families are on waiting lists, and an initiative on affordable housing is good but limited. Whole sets of families and communities are effectively excluded from housing provision in the future.

This is a critical issue for the people, and I presume this to be one of the issues that the set of quangos, either now or in future, could be expected to deal with. These bodies will not be accountable to the Dáil on the issue, however. We will not even get the figures. What we will get are high-priced consultants' reports and aspirational documents indicating new improvements but absolutely nothing in reality.

We have had very important research carried out by the National Economic and Social Forum on the treatment of older people. It has been reflected in many Government statements that we only want a limited percentage of older people, who have no other choice, to end up in nursing homes. We all agree on this point. There has, however, been almost no provision in many counties for sheltered independent housing for people through local authorities which would enable older people to live independently with some community support.

I agree with Deputy Bruton that there are whole areas of absolute importance to our national well-being as a cohesive society, and not just as an economy, which are apparently dealt with at partnership level. However, people feel badly cheated after nine years of this Government. One reason for this is an almost total lack of information. It is Government through public relations and quangos operate through a similar method. People who are ripped off, be they consumers, people on the housing list or others excluded from the workings of these important quangos, including the very powerful quango I referred to previously, feel they have no recourse. It is part of a growing fissure in society that is not conducive to any type of social growth leading to people having a sense of well-being and ownership in their society.

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