Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

When I consider the programme for Government we are now asked to speak about, the image that comes to mind is from the plinth in the early stages of the Dáil when a number of members of the Government, who are now established as members of the Government, stood there and said they would support this Government through the good times and the bad. That phrase has been reiterated in different contexts, in the media and in this Chamber for a variety of reasons. Humility demands of us that we also acknowledge that those bad days are very rarely ours. That is the job of the programme for Government, and those of us in opposition who believe in something different, to advance and recognise. One such bad day occurred in my constituency of Dublin Central in the community of Stoneybatter on Sunday when a vicious assault took place on three individuals. It is now before the courts so I will not go into too much detail about the event but rather acknowledge how incredible the gardaí were with their response and the community was in rallying. I hope the victims make a full recovery. I was surprised when I raised an issue relating to safety in the city today that the Minister for Justice referred to how unexpected it was for an attack to take place in Stoneybatter at 3 p.m. Those were his words; I chose not to mention the event.

In acknowledgement of the community I represent, while we cannot ever legislate for an event of such savagery in isolation, that community has for the past 18 months to two years been demanding of its public reps and holding public meetings. At every door we knocked on during the general and local election campaigns, the single issue that came up was safety. Stoneybatter is not unique in that, especially around the inner city communities, north and south. The response from those in charge on behalf of the State was to simply not hear. There are conditions in communities in Dublin that create a sense of unsafety. That has not been addressed. Simple actions have been called for such as an increased Garda presence and crisis intervention teams to address the mental health issues prevalent in our communities. There has been a demand on the city council to address the aesthetic aspects of a community that bring a sense of unsafety such as dereliction and illegal dumping that goes uncleaned. These are all simple things that one would expect but are simply not being addressed. On the programme for Government's claim that there will be 5,000 new gardaí recruited over five years, lots of us would love to see that but we have not seen any detail of how it would be achieved. Last year saw the first small annual increase in Garda numbers since 2020; they went up by just under 200. At that rate, it would take two decades to bring the force up to 18,000, the expected number to adequately police this country.

In his contributions on how he will increase that number, the new Minister seems to just be the cheerleader in chief. He spoke about the pride people have in being a garda. I agree absolutely; I have friends and family in the profession. The reason people are leaving is not because of an absence of pride in their work; it is because of an inability to pay to live in the cities they are asked to police, the absence of morale, when they expressed no confidence in those in charge to their leadership and it is simply neglected. To achieve full satisfaction among those whom we ask to police our streets, nurse in our hospitals and teach in schools, we need to address the underlying reasons those people on whom we rely so much are withdrawing their labour. They cannot afford to live in the cities or the cost of living when it comes to childcare provision. None of these issues seem to be addressed in the programme for Government. There are some great statements on what the Government would like to achieve but the only clear indicator of future performance is past performance. Every single time, successive Governments in which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been the only two constants have failed when it comes to the provision of public services. That was a reason when we spoke about how the Social Democrats could enter government based on five dealbreakers, we made public service central. One of the more arrogant things that have been said from the Government side of the Chamber over recent weeks whenever we tried to question it, whether about the falsity of the housing figures presented willingly by the Government or the inability to promote what the public childcare in this programme for Government is, was, "Ye had your chance". That is not true. Long before any of us were around any table, a deal had been done. We stood clearly for an increase in transformational changes that would bring achievements for the people. What is actually in the programme for Government is the same old same old with a new glossy title.

Our cities, towns and the country as a whole demand of us to improve performances and expectations. The basic necessities of any country are found in its public services. I hope many of the things the Government claims it believes in such as the public models of childcare and public healthcare come to pass. I cannot even get into climate because I am just remembering a conversation I had with the now Taoiseach when he dismissed the idea we would not achieve our climate targets, basically saying, sure, they will not fine us anyway. We stood for a senior Minister with responsibility for disabilities not because we just believed in another new Minister but because too often in this Chamber each of us looks up and sees a person who is brought to the Chamber, in great difficulty themselves, or their family, to vindicate a basic right such as a wheelchair, in some instances, or the carer's allowance. They ask that they no longer be means-tested. It is cruel and unjust today, with the family being imposed upon. Another reason is access to an SNA. These are all the reasons we fought so hard to achieve those things and they were nonchalantly taken away, dismissed and we were told we had our chance when we know that was not the case. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste clearly had their favourites and it was the path of least resistance.

I would love to talk more in detail about the proposed Dublin task force. It has been much talked about but not in any way budgeted for. It is badly needed in our capital city, which deserves more than being a consistent form of press release whenever the Government looks for cheap headlines. It needs to be budgeted for and a genuine sense of responsibility in leadership given.

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