Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Where do we start? I will point to a few sections of the document. On housing, there are a lot of aspirations but nothing tangible or deliverable, and given that the previous targets were not met, we have no faith that these ones will be.

I mentioned climate earlier in the context of Storm Éowyn. The programme is equally woolly in this regard. We are talking about meeting our 2030 targets but not about how we are going to do it or the step-by-step approach that is required.

On healthcare, the people of Ireland are dealing with a crisis at the moment and it is evident the HSE needs ongoing support and proper management structures. I was surprised to find out recently, for example, that a lot of agency staff are now being appointed in the area of management, not just in terms of nursing support. We are dealing with backlogs and long waiting lists for patients, some of whom cannot obtain appointments in local clinics or find a space on the patient lists of their local GPs. I know that GPs are private operators but we do not have the incentives to get them operating. There are many other issues relating to hormone replacement therapy, HRT, as I mentioned previously. Other women's health issues also need to be addressed, such as free contraception and breast cancer screenings.

There are many other issues in the area of health but I am going to skip them because this programme is a scattergun document, and while we could pick flaws everywhere, I want to get to different areas. On education, the population at primary level is stabilising throughout the country but in Dublin Mid-West, the constituency I share with the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and Deputy Shane Moynihan - it is great to see them here in the Chamber - we have the opposite. We still have rapidly growing areas, such as Newcastle, where the population shows there is a need for at least a 500-pupil second level school. Newcastle is a public transport desert. People have been campaigning for it but there is no movement at Government level for a school for Newcastle. In areas such as Adamstown and Clonburris, the strategic development zones, SDZs, there is the same issue and children cannot get a place close to where they need one, and the problem is even more pressing at second level. Again, I will challenge the Government on this over the coming years.

We have staffing shortages, in both the healthcare service and education. I have mentioned previously that we could do with a Dublin allowance to encourage back the many people who have travelled abroad. They might have travelled as a rite of passage to work for a year or two, but they do not come back. In healthcare, for example, if it were not for the great efforts put in by staff from countries such as the Philippines or Nigeria, we would not have a healthcare service. Equally, however, from an investment point of view, if we are looking at pure economics as opposed to at people and society, we should keep our best and brightest at home and encourage them to return. They cannot afford to rent in Dublin, let alone get a mortgage. They need a Dublin allowance to encourage them to come back here, work and contribute to our society.

We have issues with the school transport scheme. Again, there is little on this in the document. Taxi drivers over the age of 70 can carry members of the public but Bus Éireann will not allow these taxi drivers to supplement the shortage of drivers required to bring kids to and from school. The Minister of State is nodding and I have faith in her delivering on at least this aspect of the programme for Government.

Freisin, maidir leis an éileamh a thagann nuair a labhraítear faoin easpa tacaíochta agus cúnaimh a thugtar dár nGaelscoileanna agus Gaelcholáistí, is léir go bhfuil an-chuid den phobal ag lorg níos mó scoileanna, go mór mór i Leamhcán, mar shampla. Tá an clár Rialtais comhtháite maidir leis an éileamh agus soláthar do Ghaelscoileanna agus Gaelcholáistí Gaeilge. Tá éileamh ard ann ag na scoileanna seo nach bhfuil an Rialtas ag cur ar fáil dúinn. We need to put more investment into Gaelscoileanna. There is a demand in our constituency and across the country.

On transport, I reference what Deputy Shane Moynihan said. He is a great person for highlighting the deficiencies in our transport system in Dublin Mid-West. A lot of what Deputy Moynihan spoke about was stuff that is not in the programme for Government, which is not a good omen for the five years to come. I mentioned in my bus users survey that the bus system is not fit for purposes. More than 2,700 people filled in this survey. I have had a nightmare trying to get the NTA to engage. There are issues with ghost buses and Dublin Bus used to be able to put a service on halfway along the route and catch up for the overspill. There are buses that do not turn up and buses that are full but the NTA does not engage. Is it arrogance or incompetence? I found in this survey that a lot of people have faith in a directly elected mayor with political accountability to take over our transport system. I will come back to this issue.

We also need to do more to incentivise the take up of EVs, replace older, polluting vehicles and make EVs more affordable. EVs are a panacea for rural Ireland because with all the space on roofs and battery storage technology, people should be able to charge their cars at home and have cheap and almost free electricity at different times of the year to get from A to B in rural communities and reduce carbon emissions. There is not enough in the programme to push this at the pace required. We saw in the issue about the electricity grid that we need to have more locally produced electricity added into the grid as part of an overall regional hub system.

A brief but important aspect that is not in the legislation at all is the consequences for those who commit violent assaults. The Minister for Justice said that those who have a history of coercive control and abuse would require a Private Members' Bill but there is no Jennie's law. I would like to see a Jennie's law over the next 12 months.

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