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

This is an historic day in a Chamber that has seen much history since the Dáil was first convened 100 years ago. While it is the first time the office of Taoiseach is rotating between coalition partners, this arrangement has been entered into for party political interest rather than the national interest. In truth, the changeover will barely be noticed by the people outside this House whom we serve. Without any accompanying fundamental changes in policy or political priorities, this is change for the sake of political expediency rather than political purpose.

I acknowledge that the outgoing Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, worked diligently during his tenure in office. In doing so, he has undoubtedly made many personal sacrifices. I want to recognises those sacrifices today in his service to public life. It is also important to recognise and acknowledge the sacrifices his wife and family have made in supporting him in that service to public life. I hope he will now be in a position, as Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, to accelerate the progress of the shared island initiative. I look forward to him bringing forward proposals in that regard in the coming months.

This is also a proud day for the incoming Taoiseach and his family and friends. On a personal basis, I wish him well. Nobody on this side of the House underestimates the depth and breadth of the challenges the country faces. Nobody thinks those challenges are easy to solve. It was a bit disingenuous of the outgoing Taoiseach to claim earlier that Opposition Members only want to exploit problems. Certainly we in the Social Democrats have consistently put forward solutions to the many big problems facing the country but too frequently there are rejected on ideological grounds.

Fine Gael has been in power for nearly 12 years, throughout which time there have been many promises to resolve the crises in housing and healthcare, in particular. Despite this, the problems have intensified. Those who bear the cost of the failure are ordinary working people and families who pay their taxes and should have a right to expect decent public services and that things actually work in this country. Too often, they simply do not work. It is the most vulnerable who especially bear this burden. These are, most shamefully, the growing numbers who are homeless, including the 3,500 children who will spend Christmas in hubs and hostels.

There are ever-increasing numbers in the locked-out generation, the first generation who will be worse off than their parents. In previous decades, single-income families with one worker on an average wage could aspire to lead a decent life, own a home, educate their children and have a secure job. Today, single people are forced to continue to live at home, house share or rent tiny apartments at exorbitant cost until they are in their 30s, 40s and even older. Older people worry about where they will live when they retire and how they will pay for it. Even couples on what were once considered decent wages are locked out of home ownership now. Many are again considering emigration.

The Taoiseach has desperately sought to evade responsibility for the housing disaster but even if we judge him not on the past 12 years but solely on the record of this Administration, it is clear the Government is failing. Since it assumed office in June 2020, two and a half years ago, house prices and rent have gone up steadily. How are people in the communities we all represent supposed to pay such prices? Today the Taoiseach told us his big plan on housing is to accelerate the implementation of Housing for All. He refuses to make any changes in the face of overwhelming evidence that his housing plan is simply not working. After nearly 12 years, Fine Gael still will not accept its housing plans have led to a housing disaster. The Taoiseach said he will do “whatever it takes”. That is not a policy. Saying he will do “whatever it takes” is simply not a sustainable policy.

For too long the Irish people have endured a situation in which healthcare is delayed, deferred and often denied with frequently devastating consequences. It is becoming more and more difficult to retain our excellent healthcare workers in a system that fails them too. Sláintecare can change that but implementation has been painfully slow. Why is there such resistance to reform? Who stands to benefit? It is not the Irish people. The Sláintecare plan is not radical. It sets out a blueprint to bring the health service into line with almost all other EU countries, where services are free at the point of delivery and people can attend a doctor, speech and language therapist or mental health service or access home care when they need to without worrying about cost or lengthy waiting lists. If that sounds revolutionary, it should not. Ireland’s two-tier model of healthcare is an outlier, not an exemplar.

Nowhere is that more evident than in our shamefully inadequate disability services. Children with disabilities and their families must battle from the day they are born. It is shocking that their biggest battle is often with the State for basic services like an assessment of need, essential therapies or a school place.

This abject neglect has disastrous consequences. Children's development is severely limited and they are prevented, of course, from reaching their full potential. I noted the Taoiseach namechecked this issue earlier but we need a Government that pays more than lip service to the rights of disabled people.

In much of Irish politics and public life, we see the corrosive effect of the golden circle; a fast track for insiders whose connections confer unfair advantage. We also regularly see a revolving door between politics and business with former Fine Gael Ministers, in particular, fans of reinventing themselves as lobbyists. The Social Democrats has consistently said that former Deputies and Senators who are now lobbyists should no longer have the run of this complex. Their automatic access-----

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