Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It has managed to turn it into a housing emergency, some achievement. Some 130,000 people are languishing on the social housing waiting lists. There are 471 homeless families with 1,054 homeless children sleeping in hotel rooms tonight in Dublin, Cork and Galway, waiting to be kicked out the next morning before they go to school, ashamed to say where they spent the night. This is in addition to the people sleeping rough on our streets every night.

There are thousands of empty housing units throughout our cities and towns but many people looking for housing. The failure of this Government to match these empty houses with people who are looking for housing shows a level of incompetence that people will not ignore. One could meet 50 people on the housing list in a town but one will see 50 empty housing units in that same town. Why is the Government not tackling this? Many of these houses are controlled by NAMA, by banks, some of which are controlled by the State, or by receivers appointed by the banks and NAMA, along with people sitting on empty properties waiting for the price of these houses to increase. This is the real scandal. Is there actually a shortage of houses or is it just the Government’s incompetence?

This Government does not have the ability to solve the housing emergency. I believe there is a housing emergency but I do not believe anybody opposite believes there is one. Has the time come when emergency legislation to deal with the housing and homeless situation is necessary? We now need financial emergency in the public interest legislation to deal with the housing and homeless emergency. If the Government believes there is an emergency, it should act in the public interest.

NAMA is still sitting on empty houses but instead, the Government is talking about building modular homes, risking turning parts of our cities into trailer parks because it is unable to implement a solution to this crisis. This Government has not secured the bricks and mortar needed to give people the basic dignity of a roof over their heads. It has launched and relaunched its social housing strategy on more than one occasion, and has done so again today. From what we hear, it will have to do it again next week when the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, has another chat with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly. The Government housing strategy has been launched at least four times, double the number of social houses the Government built in County Laois last year. There were four housing strategies but only two houses built to deal with a social housing waiting list in County Laois of 1,764 people.

The failure of the Government to address the housing crisis is another example of what it does when it is actually in charge of something. The homeless crisis on our streets, first-time buyers frozen out of the market and the families waiting on a place to call home is the Minister’s legacy. Fianna Fáil has continually put forward real alternatives, such as using the strategic investment fund to kick-start social housing building, a home development bond to help get money flowing to build houses and using NAMA and State lands to ensure homes are built where they are needed. We put forward a €4.5 billion social housing programme with a broader strategy to build 150,000 new homes by 2021 to secure home ownership for a generation.

All the Government has offered over the past five years, however, and sadly again this afternoon, is long on promises and short on delivery. We have seen here today the first public acknowledgement that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, has failed to deliver on his legacy of dealing with the housing crisis.

He said he would be judged on this legacy. The Government has passed judgment on his performance and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, has now felt it necessary to take direct charge in this area, make changes and call in NAMA to take over where he has failed. We have a new plan with promises of houses years down the line but nothing for people requiring housing this year.

Today's commitments on crime come against a dark backdrop of sadness and loss. Sunday’s terrible murder is a sharp reminder of the sacrifices that members of An Garda Síochána make in the line of duty. It is the task of this Parliament to support them as they protect our families and communities from the threat of criminality. The surge in burglaries across the country reached more than 30,000 last year, which is an increase of 8%, and is leaving communities and in particular vulnerable, elderly people, terrified. The closure of 139 Garda stations in Dublin and across rural Ireland has left parts of our cities, towns, villages and hinterlands feeling more exposed. The daily sight of anti-social behaviour, theft and low level crime should not be tolerated in our capital city. Too many streets are rife with open drug abuse and intimidation. Our premier thoroughfare, O’Connell Street, is a no go area at night. How many of our cities and rural towns suffer the same experience?

Garda numbers have slipped to 12,800, which is below the previously described minimum level of 13,000 for a safe policing force. Recruitment levels barely match retirement levels let alone compensate for the loss of experience. Today’s announcement is inadequate and will not lead to a sufficient number of gardaí on the beat, who are needed to prevent and confront crime head on.  People want to see gardaí on the street. The Government has options. It has always had the choice of what to invest in and what to prioritise. The most fundamental role of the State is to keep its citizens safe. It must be a key priority of this Government to rebuild the capacity of An Garda Síochána to protect our communities. Today’s budget simply does not do that. The hard facts remain unchanged. The decline in Garda numbers, depletion of resources and closure of stations have left the force demoralised and blunted its ability to fight crime. It will take real leadership to reinvigorate An Garda Síochána but this can only be achieved when a Government gives it the resources and personnel it needs to get the job done. This strong commitment is sadly lacking in today’s announcement.

We are back again, as usual, to talk about health. The Government’s health policy has been defined by false budgets and an abandonment of its pre-election universal health insurance promise. Its legacy after five years is a deep crisis at the heart of our health services. Constant overcrowding in emergency departments has driven nurses onto the streets in protest. They know all too well that the problem is only getting worse. They are taking this action because they felt it was the only option open to them to force the Government’s hand into addressing the problem. This summer, some of the highest levels in the number of patients on trolleys ever were recorded and last month saw a 17% increase in the numbers. Hundreds of patients across the country are facing long waits on trolleys, stripped of dignity and privacy, as the Minister for Health continues to give a running commentary on his Department rather than showing real leadership.

After today’s budget the front line of our health service still faces into the hard battle of another winter under-resourced and underprepared. Hospital waiting lists expose the harsh reality of this Government’s health policy. Even their efforts to shift goalposts have failed to mask the scale of the crisis engulfing the service. At the start of 2015, the Minister for Health abandoned his predecessor’s targets of a maximum eight months' waiting time for inpatient and day-case appointments and a one year timeframe for outpatient appointments. Instead, he changed his mind and set a new target of 18 months for people waiting for an outpatient appointment. Even with this sleight of hand, the Minister has not met his targets.

I want to quote from a letter issued by the HSE on 22 September 2015. This letter was issued just 22 days ago to a person in County  Laois. The person is in urgent pain requiring shoulder surgery. The letter states: "I wish to inform you that the above patient has been placed on the adult orthopaedic outpatient waiting list. I wish to inform you that the current waiting list is in excess of 78 weeks." This is a delay of more than a year and a half for an outpatient appointment. If the person eventually gets an appointment to see a consultant, how long more will he have to wait before the urgent surgery is carried out? Letters such as this one are being issued every day by the HSE to people in every county. More than 13,000 people are waiting in excess of 18 months for these appointments. Some 804 of these people are in the children’s hospitals group. The inpatient lists tell another similar tale. The number of people on waiting lists of more than nine months to be seen on an inpatient basis has increased from 5,000 to 17,000 in the course of a year. All the while, the Minister for Health looks on from the stands, a disinterested armchair critic looking on as the team falls further and further behind. Today’s budget is another edition of a series of fictional budgets that is undermining our health service leaving it to drift and decline in front of our very eyes.

The flagship announcement on child benefit, paid parental leave and the further preschool facility for children over three years of age have to be put in context. The additional funding for child care for children over three years of age is welcome for their families. However, what of the child care costs incurred by working parents whose children have not yet reached three years of age?

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I have to draw attention to the fact that, like every other year, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Finance will not even give the courtesy to the national Parliament to hear what the Opposition has to say about their budget.

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