Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

B'áil liom cead a chur in iúl, mar eolas don Dáil, gur chuir mé m'ainmniú mar Thaoiseach in iúl don Uachtarán agus gur cheap sé mé dá réir.

I beg leave to announce, for the information of the Dáil, that I have informed the President that the Dáil has nominated me to be the Taoiseach and that he has appointed me accordingly.

Tairigim:

Go gcomhaontóidh Dáil Éireann leis an Taoiseach d'ainmniú na dTeachtaí seo a leanas chun a gceaptha ag an Uachtarán mar chomhaltaí den Rialtas:

I move:

That Dáil Éireann approve the nomination by the Taoiseach of the following Deputies for appointment by the President to be members of the Government:

Proinséas Nic Gearailt

Frances Fitzgerald

I also propose to nominate her as Tánaiste.

Mícheal Ó Nunáin	Michael Noonan
Risteárd de Briotún	Richard Bruton
Síomón Ó Comhánaigh	Simon Coveney
Leo Varadkar	Leo Varadkar
Cathal Ó Flannagáin	Charles Flanagan
Pascal Ó Donnchú	Paschal Donohoe
Heather Nic Unfraidh	Heather Humphreys
Síomón Ó hEarcaí	Simon Harris
Micheál Ó Críod	Michael Creed
Donnacha Ó Neachtain	Denis Naughten
Seán de Rossa	Shane Ross
Máire Mistéil Ní Chonchubhair	Mary Mitchell O'Connor
Katherine Zappone	Katherine Zappone

They will be assigned Departments of State as follows:

Department of Justice and Equality	Frances Fitzgerald
Department of Social Protection	Leo Varadkar
Department of Finance	Michael Noonan
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform	Paschal Donohoe
Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation	Mary Mitchell O'Connor
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine	Michael Creed
Department of Children and Youth Affairs	Katherine Zappone
Department of Health	Simon Harris
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade	Charles Flanagan
Department of Education and Skills	Richard Bruton
Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government	Simon Coveney
Department of Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources	Denis Naughten
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport	Shane Ross
Department of Rural Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht	Heather Humphreys

I will assign the Department of Defence to myself. I intend to nominate Deputy Paul Kehoe as a Minister of State attending Government as Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Defence with special responsibility for the Department of Defence.

I propose to nominate Maire Whelan SC for appointment by the President to be the Attorney General. I also propose to nominate Deputy Regina Doherty as Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and Government Chief Whip and Deputy Finian McGrath as Minister of State attending the Government and Minister of State at the Departments of Social Protection, Justice and Equality and Health, with special responsibility for disability issues.

It is also my intention to restructure the Government to align it with the priority objectives of the new Government. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government will become the new Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. There will be an action plan for housing and homelessness and a dedicated Cabinet committee on housing, which I will chair. Responsibility for the environment, including climate change, will transfer to a new Department of Climate Change, Communications and Natural Resources. There will be a new Department of Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht. This will retain all of the functions of the former Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. It will also be assigned responsibility for the roll-out of rural broadband and the development of the post office network. In addition, this new Department will be assigned responsibility for the Leader programme, an expanded town and village renewal scheme and the Tidy Towns scheme, the Western Development Commission, the implementation of the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, the dormant accounts fund and social enterprise. There will be an action plan for rural development and a dedicated Cabinet committee on regional and rural affairs which I will also chair. This will provide for effective monitoring of delivery and clearer co-ordination across all policy areas that affect rural Ireland.

I am acutely conscious of the honour that has been bestowed upon me by this House. I assure the people of Ireland, the Government and every Member of the House that as the current custodian of the Office of An Taoiseach I will use this term to make life better for all our people. The Government is both ambitious and optimistic. In its make-up alone it is unlike any other established in Ireland since the foundation of the State, comprising members of my party, members of the Independent Alliance and a number of Independent Deputies. Its formation process proves that politics is not about power and its attainment but always about what is possible, the possibility of what can be achieved and what can be achieved not for parties, individuals or sectors but for the entire country. That sense of possibility is the touchstone of a partnership Government for a fairer Ireland.

The formal process of meeting and agreement began on 24 March last. There followed many hours and days of formal discussions and informal conversations. It was crucial not only to get it done but that it be got right, to understand the make-up of the new Dáil and to reflect the new partnership and spirit of partnership that was asked of us. I happen to be the longest serving Member of the Dáil and have been through many extraordinary times in this Chamber, but this is the most different, challenging and, indeed, exciting of any of them.

I hope that we will all embrace it and, as Members of the House elected by the people, we will realise the historic moment that we are a part of. I certainly will. No one in the negotiations suffered from certainty. After 70 days of talks and negotiations we agreed not alone our programme for Government, but that there is no place or function for political pessimism in our Administration and no limit to political possibility. There was a palpable sense in all of the talks, including with those who decided they would not join the Government that politics as we knew it had changed forever.

All of us involved in the talks agreed that, economically, Ireland was going in the right direction, and for our country’s future, we must ensure that continues. We hope to continue to be the fastest-growing economy in Europe this year. We were equally agreed that politics itself would not just have to change direction, it would also have to change its dimensions and include the particular qualities of resilience, kindness, insight, empathy, dignity and resolve.

I have noted before the old observation that people live not only their own lives, but they live the life of their time. While on the international stage the official record of the life of Ireland is one of exceptional growth and recovery, it is in the lived experience, the personal experience of people that the national life is revealed. That is why with the new Government I am anxious that the national record of the life of the time, be it the surge in tax receipts or the headlines on growth, must be more in tune and aligned with the personal record, which is the lived experience of the people. We must ask how alive we are willing to be to the experience of all our people, and to the opinions of those with whom we differ or even strongly disagree.

Fianna Fáil knew, as we did, that with the election the traditional rules no longer applied. It was fitting that on the centenary of the Rising of 1916, both parties managed to start to sweep away some of the old ways and find a way to work together. I thank the party opposite for that. I believe the Thirty-second Dáil will make a new and collaborative approach not only with the partners of Government, but indeed with the partners of the Opposition. I believe all of us in the House are ad idem, that our function is to use Government, and see it used, to effect the kind of change, opportunity and compassion we need and desire in our society.

The Thirty-second Dáil is an unprecedented challenge but it is equally an unprecedented opportunity. In fact, it is a unique opportunity to begin this very day as a society and as a nation with a Government based on an articulated consensus around the issues that really matter to the lived experience of our people. Our country and our people have come through an unprecedented economic crash. Every family in Ireland has been touched in some way or other during the crisis. For the past five years I and the previous Government have worked to end the crisis, exit the international bailout and to help the creation of new jobs. Now the foundations of a growing economy are in place. While the sense of economic crisis may have passed we still have a great deal of work ahead of us to ensure that work and opportunity is present for all families across Ireland.

Today, Ireland also faces other challenges in the areas of housing and homelessness, in health care provision and in providing relief for working families. After the general election and 70 days of intense debate it is now time for new and immediate action. One of my immediate priorities is to ensure the Government is fully engaged on the UK referendum on EU membership, which is now less than seven weeks away. While it is clearly a matter for the British people themselves to decide, it is of profound importance and consequence both to the EU and to this country. Uniquely for a non-Commonwealth country, Irish citizens living in Britain will have a vote on 23 June. British citizens living here will also have a vote, and of course the issue of EU membership directly affects voters in Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom's referendum campaign is now entering a critical phase. It is an important time for everyone on these islands and in Europe, particularly for those who work in companies that export goods and services to Britain. I intend to make a number of visits to Britain and Northern Ireland over the course of the next two months. I will ask a number of Ministers to visit Britain during this time to reach out to Irish citizens and to engage with friends and the wider business community who have an interest in British-Irish economic co-operation. Moreover, because I believe it is of critical importance that our voice is heard as Britain's closest neighbour and friend on this issue, I also intend to invite Members of the Opposition, where appropriate, to attend particular occasions with Irish communities in Britain.

We are acutely aware of what has been called a once-in-a-generation decision facing the British people and are respectful of the sovereignty of that decision. That said, Ireland is the only country that shares a Border with the UK. We have strong historic, economic and personal ties and move easily across these islands to do business, visit families and celebrate each other's culture. Every week, we trade €1 billion between our two countries in goods and services - goods and services produced here in Ireland. We are co-guarantors of the peace process in Northern Ireland and are partners in Europe. We want to ensure there is no doubt about the Irish Government's position and that its message is heard clearly. Prime Minister Cameron kindly telephoned me this afternoon and I said I would do whatever I could usefully do to help in the run-up to the referendum. I will meet the Prime Minister as our schedules permit. British-Irish relations are stronger than ever. The close working relationship and the understanding Prime Minister Cameron and I have developed will help to build these relations further and we hope the UK stays with us in the European Union. Europe, Ireland and the UK will be all the stronger for that. It is important to note that were the decision to go the other way, obviously Ireland would still have special relationships with Britain. Ireland would still work in the context of co-operation with Britain from a European point of view, but the unknown quantity would be the reflection of how European Union countries would look at Britain were it to decide to leave.

While the programme for Government is extensive, at its core is one simple objective, which is to make people's lives better in every part of Ireland. The economic recovery remains central to the Government's work and the people have worked hard for this progress. A fair society must lean on a strong economy and only with a strong economy can we deliver on the key goals of the Government, which are to make people's lives better, to provide homes for the people and to make Ireland a great place in which to grow up and grow old. Under the Government's first priority, it wishes to help working families, and to do that, we must secure a strong economy. The programme for Government contains ambitious plans for more affordable child care, more and better jobs, lower taxes on workers, help for low-paid workers and safer streets. An urgent challenge for the new Government will be to remedy and fix the housing and homelessness crisis and the emergency that now exists. As a country, we still are building far too few homes for the people following the construction crash. It is not acceptable to anybody that in 2016, families are living in hotels and bed and breakfasts and I am sure fixing this is a matter on which all Members are united. That is why the Government will publish a spring economic statement shortly to set up the parameters of the budgetary and economic policy for the coming year, which will build on the strong progress that has already been made. I firmly believe Ireland is a great country for families to raise children and so on. After a period of tough economic times, we must invest in new services to look after the people better, both young and old alike. New investment in hospital and primary care centres will be at the top of the Government's investment programme to ensure we can all live in a country of which we can be proud. As part of this ambition, the Government will focus specifically on improving the disability and mental health services.

The new partnership Government will get to work immediately on the many serious challenges facing Ireland. The first 100 days will provide a comprehensive agenda for all Ministers of the new Government and for every member of the Oireachtas. The Government will shortly agree and publish a plan for its first 100 days in office based on the programme for Government.

The new Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government will begin immediate preparations for the development of an action plan for housing taking into account the views and suggestions of Government, the Oireachtas and civil society. I commend members of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness who, at the moment, are giving their views on proposals in respect of housing. This will be a road-map for a resolution to the current housing crisis and will require the assistance of all Members of the Oireachtas in its implementation and across Government.

I want to make it clear that there will be new attention put on our psychological and emotional well-being as a country. It is clear that children and teenagers particularly need support to navigate a world which, while it can be marvellous, can equally so be quite merciless.

Within the first 100 days, we will establish a national taskforce on youth mental health to consider how to address such challenges, to teach our young people resilience and how they and their families can access the services they need.

Every community in this country has been afflicted by suicide or self-harm. Connecting for Life, Ireland’s national strategy for suicide prevention, has many commitments that do not have a financial cost. They require a political and community commitment. It is up to all of us every day to make that difference.

I wish for this country to become more aware of how we depend not alone on those in our community, but frequently also on the kindness of strangers. We must be that kind stranger ourselves, on occasion.

As I said earlier, I commit to working in partnership with all the Members of this House to deliver real solutions to the problems facing our country. I look forward to that work and I commend these nominations to the House.

I will give this commitment, irrespective of party, non-party or political creed, in so far as I am concerned as Taoiseach, and honoured to be so, to work with all the Members of this House in the interests of our people and our country. I recognise that we are in a very different situation and I hope I can respond in a proper and fitting fashion to the many cultural and attitudinal changes that are required to bring about a Government, in a minority situation, that will be in the interests of all our people and our country. I guarantee that the members of the Government will do their utmost, individually and collectively, to work with everybody here to make this Thirty-second Dáil one that will leave its mark for the betterment of all our people to build that fairer society of which I have spoken.

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