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

We need to have bespoke measures to try to help people in district heating settings with effective interventions.

Deputy Paul Murphy raised the issue of local employment services in Tallaght and Clondalkin being shut down for three months and then being restored in a differently organised way. He said it is a slimmed down version. The tendering did not facilitate a race to the bottom. We need efficiencies as well. We need people to have good models. From what the Deputy is saying, the local partnership won the contract. It was not the Minister's intention that those who won contracts would lay people off, but neither is it on that the Government would micromanage every partnership and every agency across the country. Government is a balance between delegation of its authority, as agreed by the Oireachtas, and, at a macro level, dealing with issues that are more appropriate to the Executive. I often note that the Deputy's side of the House calls on the Government of the day to keep directing and keep instructing - keep dictating, basically - people to do it our way and no other way. I am not sure that is the correct or the balanced approach to take. That is just the view that I have.

Deputy Barry again raised the issue of choices and people being in significant difficulties. First, there are moratoriums in respect of people in vulnerable situations. Second, the measures that the Government has taken on funding have been significant in supporting people in need through the cash payments that we will make between now and the end of the year, the permanent measures from January onwards in terms of social protection increases and payments, including the working family payment, and a range of cost reductions that we have introduced, which will help people with their bills, with energy remaining the big one. Regarding social protection, there is the additional needs framework to help families who are in difficulty, not just with energy, but across the board, to ensure that they are never in a position where they would have to make that choice. These measures and mechanisms are robust. We are being clear and insistent with the providers that we do not want any disconnections, particularly of families in difficult situations. I do not believe, given everything that has happened under the various strands, that people should be disconnected in the circumstances that the Deputy has outlined where there is a genuine need and difficulty.

Deputy Bacik raised the housing in situscheme and whether NESC could be deployed or a request made of it. I am not clear that the scheme requires legislative underpinning. We can ask NESC more broadly about the homeless housing issue. I still believe that we need to allow discretion by, and the delegation of authority to, local authorities. Substantial funding has gone to local authorities in respect of housing, and that will continue, but we are open to suggestions and discussions around that issue more generally in terms of what NESC could do.

Deputy Cathal Crowe raised the issue of the Limerick northern distributor road, about which he is passionate. I am glad the first phase of that is under way. He mentioned the investment by the University of Pittsburgh. The new train station that was recently announced by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is a positive because I think that, in future, there must be a balance between road and active travel. The Deputy also mentioned the industrial park, which is good news as well. I understand the motivation behind, and have sympathy with, the proposal for a second phase. Others are not as inclined towards phase 2 and have different views on it. It was not in the original national development plan, NDP, so we have to try to work out how that can be progressed. I note the Deputy's commitment to it.

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