Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

And party leaders as well. I was asked whether there has been an independent review of what does and does not work and the pros and cons of citizens' assemblies more generally. That was done. A report was submitted by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, which gives her advice and experience, having chaired an assembly. It is a very good report on the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of citizens' assemblies that is worth reading. It is a very good piece of work for which I thank her in addition to her chairmanship of the previous assemblies.

I am not sure if any Government prior to this one has done more to make childcare more affordable or to improve its quality. I will give a few examples. Everyone now has two years of free preschool through the early childhood care and education programme. We have introduced paid parental leave and paid parental benefit for the first time, extended unpaid parental leave, increased maternity benefit and changed the rules, particularly around women whose children were born prematurely in order that they can have more maternity leave. We have increased paternity benefit, provided capital investment for childcare and in the past few weeks, have introduced the national childcare scheme. We will publish the initial figures from that tomorrow but I can tell the House that over 14,000 children have already signed up for that scheme. It means increased subsidies for those already receiving subsidies and for the first time, some middle-income families qualify for subsidies. These are families with a gross income of around €100,000. I think this is only right because people on middle incomes pay the most income tax and they should benefit from these schemes as well. I envisage the Government increasing the subsidies in the years ahead for everyone but also ensuring that more middle-income and middle-class families can qualify for these subsidies as well, because it would be wrong to expect them to pay very high amounts of income tax and USC but be unable to benefit from these schemes. This is very much the direction of travel in terms of policy. Regarding pay and terms and conditions in the sector, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, is very much of the view that there should be a sectoral employment order for this sector to set minimum standards and wage levels. There is a process by which that can be followed. I believe the terms of reference of the assembly cover the issue of childcare. Obviously, neither I nor the House can change the terms of reference now but the fourth term of reference is to recognise the importance of early years parental care; to seek to facilitate greater work-life balance; to examine the social responsibility of care, including women and men's co-responsibility for care, particularly within the family; and to examine the gender pay gap scrutinising structural pay inequalities that result in women being disproportionately represented in low pay sectors. The terms of reference are very wide.

Regarding domestic violence, two refuges are opening or re-opening in the near future. One will be in Rathmines and while I cannot remember where the other one will be, it is outside Dublin. This will bring us almost up to the level recommended by the Council of Europe. I think we were 28 short. The new refuges will bring us to being about three short of the recommended level. Two different measures are recommended but on the first one, it brings almost to that level so we probably need to open one more. I will give the House the figures on funding for domestic violence services funding. This is done through Tusla's domestic, sexual and gender based violence services. The budget in 2014 was €17 million. It went up to €19.5 million in 2015, although €2.5 million was transferred from the then Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. In 2016, the figure increased to €20.6 million. The figure in 2017 was €20.1 million and in 2018, it was €23.8 million. As the figure for this year is €25.3 million, there has been a €1.5 million increase this year. I can give a breakdown as to how that was used.

Separate to that, a lot of money goes through the Garda budget. The Garda is establishing special victims units in every division at the moment, most of which, although not all, are up and running. That is important but is counted as part of the Garda Vote, as opposed to the Tusla Vote.

On the question of climate change, there was a Citizens' Assembly on the topic, the report of which went to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action, and then the Government produced its climate action plan. We now report quarterly on how that is being implemented. The first report has been done already and the second will be coming soon.

I responded earlier to the question about smoky coal. The air quality in cities is largely down to diesel cars and not particularly down to the burning of solid fuels. That goes back to a decision made by a previous Government to encourage people to buy diesel cars. That reduced greenhouse gas emissions but it made our air quality worse. We have been trying to unwind that policy mistake for the past two years.

Turning to the issue of railways, there will be a 34% increase in capacity on the Maynooth line in 2021. The necessary rail carriages are now on order but could not come fast enough.

See this speech in context