Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A referendum was held on children's rights, and child protection has been strengthened through the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 and the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. The new Child and Family Agency was established. The national implementation framework and a value for money and policy review of the disability services programme was published. There were discussions about the changes necessary to have an evolving transport scheme. There was a €30 million investment in a new area-based childhood programme, which included €15 million from Atlantic Philanthropies. A school patronage survey was completed in 43 areas and the new junior cycle reform programme was launched. We have increased the time spent on literacy and numeracy skills in all primary schools and developed a new comprehensive action plan on bullying. We have also ended the practice of sending 16 year olds to St. Patrick's Institution. A total of 48,575 applicants were granted certificates of Irish naturalisation at an appropriate and formal ceremony. New supervised community service programmes commenced and a strategic review of penal policy was published. The national positive ageing strategy was published, as was the national carers' strategy. The Pathways to Work programme and the Action Plan for Jobs were launched. We introduced a package of measures to address alcohol misuse, so prevalent in today's newspapers, arising from the report of the substance misuse strategy group. We also published the implementation plan for the State's response to homelessness up to December 2016, a particular problem at present. As I understand it, 154 people were sleeping on the streets of this city on one night last week.

The priorities for the rest of 2014 include advancing the work so that we can have a published report on a strategy for dementia. We will also progress the Children First Bill through the Dáil. We intend to progress the implementation of early actions in the national literacy strategy and advance the development of a new integration strategy. We will publish quarterly reviews on the State's response to homelessness, with particular reference to this city. We will also progress commitments in the programme for Government on school empowerment.

While I am on my feet I should say that I heard Deputy Adams waxing eloquent yesterday morning about the wonders that will come the way of the nation should the people give Sinn Féin the opportunity to govern. I note that while Deputy Adams accepts that working families have shouldered an enormous burden and challenge in the last while, he wants to introduce a new 48% rate of income tax which would bring the top effective rate of tax for PAYE workers to 59% and to 62% for self-employed people. He also proposes to abolish the marginal rate of 41% tax relief on pensions, which would hit thousands of middle-income earners. Teachers, nurses and gardaí earning €40,000 would be hit with an €800 per annum pay cut. He wants to ramp up the inheritance tax so that a son or daughter inheriting a family home in Dundalk or the Louth area worth €300,000 would have to pay approximately €20,000 more in inheritance tax. Deputy Adams also proposes to increase employer's PRSI to 15.75%, which would slap additional labour costs on employers, costing thousands of jobs and inward investment. When Deputy Adams starts to throw around the material, he should be sure to know the pile from whence he is taking it. His own proposals for social policy would have a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of hard-working people all over this country.

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