Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have questions on a few areas but I will allow time for a response from the Taoiseach. Overall, the Revised Estimates do not have anything remarkable in them. The only standout figure is the €20 million for Covid-19 communications, of which €10 million or thereabouts has already been spent. There has been concern expressed about many of these Revised Estimates in that there are very few metrics to identify where the money is being spent and whether we are getting value for money. I hope this will be rectified in the remainder of the year so people can make proper assessments.

I will make a point on communications. I do not agree with the Taoiseach that they have been good. There has been much confused and mixed messaging coming from the Government, not least with regard to foreign travel. Today, I will raise the question of face masks, about which there is a high level of confusion among the public. On the one hand, masks are supposed to be mandatory in certain circumstances and wearing them is strongly advised but there is no clear guidance on the types of masks to be worn or enforcement of the recommendation. We are told there are three different types of masks and people in at-risk groups are supposed to be wearing medical-grade masks. What are medical-grade masks? Are they blue and white or are they the type that can be bought cheaply in a supermarket? What about the concern that people will be competing with front-line medical staff, as we are told we should not be using any medical-grade masks for that reason, etc.? Overall, there is a high level of confusion and no quality standard has been set. Masks are being sold in all kinds of places and goodness knows where they are coming from or if they do any good at all.

I ask the Taoiseach to pay some attention to that and provide a clear message on where masks need to be worn. Last week, we were told they were mandatory on public transport but that does not seem to be the case. I was on a bus on Sunday and very few people seemed to be wearing them. There is a need for a clear message as people's guard has dropped in the past couple of weeks. If we are mixing more as the economy opens and so on, there must be very clear direction on wearing masks, including what types of masks are to be worn.

I ask about staffing in the Department of the Taoiseach and specifically the additional offices being set up for the Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party. What exactly is meant by "office" in this respect with regard to the Tánaiste and the Green Party leader? I take it this amounts to much more than just an office. What is the staff complement for the office? Why is this necessary? I accept there needs to be a high level of co-operation and co-ordination between the three parties but both the Tánaiste and Green Party leader have departmental offices and offices in the Oireachtas, and they probably have constituency offices. Why is there a need for these additional offices? What is the estimated cost of this? Will the estimated cost of providing these new offices within the Department require a Supplementary Estimate or will it be catered for in the overall current funding envelope?

My next question relates to political staff. The Taoiseach already has 200 staff in the Department. I do not know if he will continue with the position of the previous Taoiseach, who had five special advisers in addition to 17 staff in the Government Information Service. That seems quite excessive when viewed in addition to a chief of staff, a head of policy, the support of the Secretary General and assistant secretary, etc. Is it the Taoiseach's intention to continue with that level of staffing?

I do not have anything against advisers and it is important that Ministers have good quality advisers. Will the Taoiseach at least give us an undertaking that the advisers he will appoint will have expertise? Could we see an end to this practice of bringing in party hacks to ministerial offices, particularly the Taoiseach's office? These people need to be properly qualified with expertise relevant to the job.

We also need clarification on salary scales. It is important that the salary scales applied to advisers be transparent from the beginning. Ideally, they should be tied to particular scales in the Civil Service. I hope there will be early clarification in that regard.

It also strikes me that there seems to be a large number of specialist staff. With issues like Brexit or Northern Ireland, one would expect there would be sufficient staff in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Taoiseach's Department has a complement of 20 staff in the social policy unit, and there is also the €2 million spend on the National Economic and Social Council. There is a fair bit of overlap and potential duplication. I hope the Taoiseach will bear that in mind.

I also raise the undertakings on citizens' assemblies. I welcome those outlined by the Taoiseach and I presume additional funding will be required over and above the specified €1.8 million. There is a standout topic that is missing, namely, the need for a citizens' assembly on private property and the provisions relating to private property in the Constitution. These have been used as an excuse for holding up progress on tackling land issues and how they affect the price of housing. The other issue with private property is that it is increasingly being used to undermine workers' rights. Will the Taoiseach give consideration to establishing a citizens' assembly specifically on the topic of private property?

Finally, will the Taoiseach give us some more detail on the proposals for social dialogue? I know time is tight but perhaps the Taoiseach will correspond with me on the outstanding matters.

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