Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I put to the Taoiseach that the fact that the Cabinet committee on social policy has met only twice says it all in terms of the lack of urgency in respect of some critical social issues. Will it be meeting shortly to initiate the restoration of the mobility allowance?

The Taoiseach referred to vacant houses and the social housing problem. I know of a young woman with children. They have three weeks to go before they will be evicted because the house is being sold. They cannot rent a house because the rent allowance is not enough or landlords will not take the rent allowance or because the cuts in rent allowance and the limiting of the allowance has rendered it almost irrelevant for many people in these situations. I have seen her genuine anxiety because she will not have a roof to put over her children's heads in three weeks time. That sums it up. There is a lack of hands-on urgency from the Government, the Taoiseach and the social policy committee. It should meet far more often.

There is no point in the Taoiseach coming to the Chamber and shouting to everyone here about vacant houses. What the Government should have done during the past two years is brought in the county and city managers and put it to them that they should change their approach. There are thousands of houses throughout the country vacant and idle. They could be occupied very quickly but this is simply not happening. I pass by them every week. Houses which have not been allocated are boarded up for months and even longer. The social housing issue is a real crisis for many people. The Government has allowed it to get worse and worse without any urgent, hands-on intervention that would significantly change the story for many families.

How many times does the Taoiseach envisage the social policy committee meeting in the latter part of this year? Will its agenda entail the re-establishment of regeneration initiatives throughout the country, especially in areas with significant disadvantage and where in the past good initiatives were undertaken through RAPID programmes and so on?

The entire area of social policy lacks ministerial responsibility now because of the way the Taoiseach restructured the Government. There is no real ministerial responsibility in many communities in terms of regeneration or rooting out the underlying causes of crime as well as a range of other issues, including poor school attendance, better health outcomes and so on. I put it to the Taoiseach that the Cabinet committee on social policy is not meeting often enough and certainly its output is not effective in terms of tackling some of the critical social policy areas that we are dealing with at the moment.

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