Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am sure the Taoiseach will recall his billboards from the last general election on which he declared he would end the scandal of patients on trolleys.

I fast forward to 30 June of this year when in a new form of government by e-mail the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, e-mailed the chief executive officer of the Health Service Executive and said we are losing the battle, any thoughts? We move forward to more choreography, more leaked e-mails, where the Minister is now saying to his officials heads will roll, and a senior head will have to roll-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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They will be on the trolleys.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----if this is not fixed. Then the CEO of the HSE is put in charge of the task force. Why he was not put in all along I do not know. Strangely, he has been put in from now until March, presumably to take care of the election for the Government and to try to deal with this issue during the electoral period.

The real cynicism at the heart of the Minister’s position is that when he became Minister he was given a briefing. He was told what would happen back in summer 2014 if action was not taken immediately in terms of delayed discharges, resources for the fair deal scheme, and not the possibility or probability, but the certainty that there would be a crisis in accident and emergency departments during that winter if action was not taken. He ignored that advice. He now wants heads to roll. He wants the heads of people whose advice he and his predecessor, Deputy James Reilly, have consistently ignored in respect of health matters.

We remember the CEO of Beaumont Hospital who said that the accident and emergency department was unsafe. The Government’s tactic then was to undermine the people making these comments. There is fear in the health sector. People are afraid to speak their minds, lest the Government get them. I recall the CEOs of the maternity hospitals and how they were dealt with because they put their heads above the parapet saying the situation in the maternity services was appalling. Their salaries were leaked by Government to undermine their position and as a signal to everybody else to keep quiet and not to embarrass the Government about the health services. It has its own way of sorting things out.

The waiting lists have gone through the roof, as have waiting times and the number of patients on trolleys. There are 400,000 on the outpatient lists. The Taoiseach got rid of Deputy Reilly and said that he was taking charge two years ago but he appointed Deputy Varadkar as Minister for Health. Will he accept that we are now witnessing appalling cynicism from the Government and from the Minister, in respect of his stewardship of the health service, as we head into a general election campaign?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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No I do not, actually.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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The Taoiseach does not get it so.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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What I see is, for the first time, a Minister for Health saying we have to have accountability for taxpayers’ money and the services we run, I am not happy with the way things are being run, I need people to step up to the mark and take responsibility, unlike what happened in Deputy Martin’s time-----

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Including himself.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----when he denied publicly that he had ever been given any responsibility. The Minister is quite entitled to say he is not happy with the situation he finds in some services that we run and he needs people to be able to accept responsibility for the charges they have been given. It has been a trying time. There was a modest increase in the health budget last year despite the fact that new beds were opened and €70 million extra was allocated but it did not deal completely with the situation in so far as waiting lists were concerned. That is unsatisfactory. Today, however, and over the next few years, it has been possible to allocate €3 billion in respect of hospital and health capital facilities. It is a warning from the Minister for Health that he is not content to have a situation in which year after year a budget is agreed and that, year after year, it is not met. It is not possible to meet it in all circumstances. Many of the services are severely challenged, given what went on in years gone by.

Far from being a cynical exercise, I think it is realistic to expect from any Minister for Health that there is not a bottomless pit of money from the taxpayers to deal with any situation. While the health service is primary in people’s view, with an overrun every year for the past 30 years, perhaps it is time the Minister signalled that he will require that accountability and responsibility be accepted by those who are in those positions.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The accountability should be with the Minister and with the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach said four and a half years ago he would end the scandal of people waiting on trolleys. He said that. There was a supplementary budget of €680 million last year. What is that saying? That speaks to the dishonesty at the heart of the Government’s approach to the health service, consistently, deliberately falsifying the health budget every year to suit its own budgetary figures, allowing no planning, ignoring all the advice. When Deputy Varadkar became Minister for Health he was told that Deputy Reilly’s reform proposals were unworkable. The Taoiseach has some neck. Look at his programme for Government. He should read the eight pages on the health service. It is complete fantasy.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Martin has some neck.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has wasted health officials’ time for the past three years going on about universal health insurance. It should read what it said:

This Government will introduce Universal Health Insurance with equal access to care for all. Under this system there will be no discrimination between patients on the grounds of income or insurance status. The two-tier system of unequal access to hospital care will end.

I could go on, paragraph after paragraph, not a single bit of it implemented. Things have got much worse. It is debacle after debacle, and the Minister, and the Government have the neck at the end of their term in office, when they had no blueprint coming in, when their reform proposals were pie in the sky with no substance or depth to say that they will do a Martin Callinan on it, they will do a Fennelly on it: when all else fails, to save our political hide we are going to sack people, we are going to sack civil servants; that will look good; that is good public relations. The Taoiseach can ask Deputy Reilly and Deputy Shatter and the former Garda Commissioner. That is what we have been reduced to because of the Government's appalling abject failure in terms of delivery of its own health care policies.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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It is remarkable the Deputy was not as vocal in government.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Martin is the champion of false anger.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Absolutely.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Taoiseach will meet the anger if he goes out on the streets. They are waiting in the grass.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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If I recall correctly the Minister for Health back in 2002 was one Deputy Micheál Martin.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Amnesia.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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He proclaimed to the nation and internationally that he would end and abolish waiting lists. He had a plan to do it. He still has a plan to do it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No, no. We implemented incredible reductions in waiting times.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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He comes in here floundering around in desperation. His party, with a few notable exceptions, has not come up with a constructive suggestion in the past four and a half years. He started his period in opposition-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Bring back the national treatment purchase fund.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----saying he would work in the interests of the country-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This Government abolished it.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----but what he has been at here, week after week and month after month-----

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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-----is holding the Taoiseach to account but he does not like it.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----is typical of somebody who has no vision of where his party should be or where his country should be.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Taoiseach should change the record.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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What he has given out there in that diatribe does not warrant a response.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is the Taoiseach's plan. The Taoiseach should read it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I would invite anybody to read the eight pages of the Government's programme for Government.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Is it any wonder the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, is so arrogant?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Alan Murphy died on the streets of our city last Friday. He was a man in his thirties, sleeping rough only minutes away from this place. Alan was not the first person to die on our streets and I fear he will not be the last.

Last December, Jonathan Corrie tragically lost his life while sleeping rough minutes from the Dáil. In response to the public outcry, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, who has responsibility for housing, Deputy Alan Kelly, promised action. The Taoiseach gave an emotional message of support to people left homeless, assuring them that they were not on their own.

Alan Murphy died alone on our streets last week. His death is yet another symbol of the failure of the Government to address the housing crisis. Since Mr. Corrie’s death last December the number of families presenting as homeless has increased.

The number of children sleeping in emergency accommodation every night has increased. Rents have continued to spiral upwards and evictions are becoming more frequent. More and more families turn to the State for help but instead of being offered shelter we have the appalling situation of scores of families being turned away every night, unable to source even emergency accommodation. Meanwhile, councils desperately wait for the funds to build the homes these families need and charities desperately wait for funds to provide much-needed emergency accommodation.

What will the Taoiseach do for the families who will not be able to access emergency accommodation tonight? When will the Taoiseach and his Minister release the long-promised funding to allow councils to start building?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim mo bhuíochas le clann Alan Ó Murchú, go ndéanfaidh Dia trócaire ar a anam.

The Deputy's party has tabled a motion on housing for debate this evening when this matter can be dealt with in greater detail in the response by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Clearly, one cannot beat this problem until one supplies more houses and that requires building-----

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Yes, four and a half years later.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Settle down, Deputy Higgins.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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That means we must continue the programme of social housing and returning so-called voids to habitable use - of which it is expected there will be 2,500 this year - and that the housing construction sector begins to move. As Deputy McDonald is aware, there are numbers of components to this. There is the social housing element, the renovation of units or apartments that are void at present and the private housing sector. Believe me, it is not a shortage of money that has caused the exacerbation here. It is not fit to have children and families in bed and breakfast accommodation or to have children homeless or staying in hotel rooms.

Last year, when the homeless situation became very public from September to Christmas, the Government responded very strongly in respect of the rough sleepers who were homeless, through the acquisition of new accommodation and providing money for extra accommodation, night cafés and constant engagement with people who were sleeping rough on the streets. At the end of that saga, in January and February, there was a bed for everybody who wanted one. Now, it has broadened far more because of the situation where landlords are concerned and people not being in a position to pay rent. The rent supplement scheme operated by the Department of Social Protection is available for any person who is having difficulty with a landlord at present where rent is being increased and who are likely to have uncertainty about being able to stay in their home. A total of 4,000 individual cases have been helped under this scheme.

I note the Deputy's comment about the capital programme today, in which she indicated that it appeared as if the Government is reducing the amount of money being made available for social housing. In fact, the programme extends out to the budget of October 2020, which will be for the year 2021, and an extra €500 million is allocated there. I bring that to her attention for her information. It is not being shortened, but is being extended and broadened.

What will happen this evening for people who are homeless and on the streets? It is a very difficult situation and is not satisfactory. However, we cannot and will not be able to deal with it until we provide more houses on the ground. This morning the Cabinet agreed to the Minister's proposition for modular housing and to move immediately with 150. The Deputy might have seen and visited these units. They are in different shapes and forms. They are very acceptable and are guaranteed for insulation, warmth and comfort. They are also for families, so they are not in bed and breakfast accommodation or hotel rooms. The Minister for Finance and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government have met and engaged on a range of opportunities that will help us to move this forward and to provide more houses. The Minister for Finance has referred to the opportunities that might exist with NAMA's land bank and the possibility of more housing there.

No matter what happens, however, we cannot deal with the situation effectively until one starts to put blocks and concrete on the ground. We hope to start on that very strongly in the time ahead.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The Taoiseach must have been off looking for water on Mars for the last four years.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Settle down, Deputy.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Are we for real here?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, your party spokesperson is due to ask questions, so do not interfere with Deputy McDonald in the meantime.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The sum total is that the Taoiseach has no answer for families who will seek emergency accommodation tonight and will be sent away. Some of them will sleep in cars. Some of them have slept in parks. The Government has acknowledged that we have what amounts to a humanitarian crisis at this stage. There are 130,000 households on the housing waiting list. The Taoiseach cannot claim with a straight face, or with any level of honesty, that any real progress has been made in terms of social housing provision. The Taoiseach, I and all of the families on the waiting list know that.

It is curious to hear the Taoiseach say that it is not a matter of funding and that money is not the issue. The facts do not bear that out. It appears that the Taoiseach lays the blame for this crisis at the feet of almost everybody. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, blames the local authorities, the Tánaiste has blamed the planning process and, at times, it almost appears as if homeless people and families are being blamed. The Government's record is that it cut the social housing budgets in its first years in office. It has not released the funding for local authorities to build the homes so desperately needed, despite the fact that there are shovel ready projects good to go since 2013. The fact is that the Government fails to fund appropriate and sufficient emergency accommodation. That is the Government's record.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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You are way over time, Deputy. Put your question.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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High profile announcements and promises on the never-never are no good. They are no good to the families who do not have a roof over their heads tonight. When does the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, propose to release the funding to local authorities to let the building begin, for work to begin today on the shovel ready projects? The Taoiseach tells us it is not a matter of money or funding.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, you are way over time.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Demonstrate that and tell us when the money will flow to the local authorities.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It has already been allocated to local authorities. In fact, the Minister and the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government are meeting with the chief executives of all of the local authorities tomorrow to hear their responses in terms of the targets that have been set, the objectives laid out, the money awarded to them and how they are getting on with the job. In some cases, local authorities are not very anxious to get back into direct house building and might prefer agencies to build the houses for them. That meeting will take place tomorrow.

I never hear interviews with a homeless person who has been awarded a house.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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They have not got them.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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One cannot find them.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Settle down. Watch your blood pressure.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has issued an order in respect of the allocation of social housing to ensure that 50% of all allocations go to homeless people. I also do not hear interviews with anybody who has been awarded a voided apartment or house that has been renovated and made fit for living in again. There will be 765 of those in Dublin by the end of this year, with 633 provided to date.

The social housing budget has already been set out. The Deputy might have been misinformed in her comment on it, but it has been extended from what she said. The money for Dublin city amounts to €37 million for 2015. By the end of August, €33.4 million of that had been expended. That leaves money available for further expenditure to deal with housing.

As I said, the chief executives have all been called to Dublin tomorrow by the Minister. Some 70% of all the funding allocated has been allocated to Dublin.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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How many houses is that?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, Taoiseach, we are over time.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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For any person out there now who is under pressure from a landlord who says, "You will have to get out because I am going to increase the rent", the scheme that has already helped 4,000 cases is there for them. The Department of Social Protection will deal with each of those cases individually according to their circumstances and extend the remit it has of their tenancy so they do not have to become homeless.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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A further 80 families are becoming homeless each month.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As a public representative, Deputy McDonald is in a position to talk to many people who might be in that category and to tell them the Department is there with money to help them now.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I speak to them every day. In that case, there is no crisis - we are just imagining it.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Between that and rent supplement, modular housing, the allocation of tenancies to homeless people and the results that are now going to come through in the proposals from the Ministers for Finance and the Environment, Community and Local Government, I hope it can have an impact on this in the immediate future.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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In January 2014, US investor Blackstone acquired three properties from Project Platinum for €100 million. It is now looking to offload them for €170 million. That is a profit of 70%, not 7%. Despite the fact the buildings were yielding approximately 6% per annum in rents, while NAMA's cost of money was less than 1%, there was still a panic to sell them.

Following PIMCO's allegations regarding kickbacks for fixers, why did NAMA allow the deal to proceed with the same players, Brown Rudnick and Tughans, involved? Did NAMA report the PIMCO allegations to the relevant law enforcement or the Government, and if it did, when? In a confidential letter from Brown Rudnick to the Minister for Finance in the North, Sammy Wilson, Brown Rudnick admits to acting for two clients with a strong interest in Project Eagle. Brown Rudnick ended up acting for PIMCO and Cerberus, which is not legal. This matter is now being investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission in America. Why did NAMA have no concerns about the involvement of Brown Rudnick and Tughans despite the revelations? The reserve price for Project Eagle was €1.3 billion. This was adjusted to €1.24 billion in April 2014 to reflect, NAMA told us, asset disposals which took place in the intervening period between the launch of the loan sale and its closing. Can the Taoiseach find out what are the details of these disposals?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Can the Taoiseach tell me why the reserve price was reduced by €60 million? Can he find out if this might be connected to reports regarding a developer whose loans were in Project Eagle and who came to NAMA to complain about being approached by fixers who were seeking a backhander in order for him to buy his loans back at 50p in the pound from Cerberus in the autumn of 2013, months before Cerberus even bought it? Can the Taoiseach find out if NAMA actually did a deal with this developer? Can he tell us what disposals were involved in this €60 million?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is over time.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I raised this with the Taoiseach before the summer recess. Why does he insist on doing nothing about it? Why does he not want to get answers to the questions that have been raised? We have loads of questions and there are more every week, but we have received no answers. Why is the Taoiseach not interested?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is not a question of not having an interest. On the issue relating to NAMA and the Northern Ireland portfolio, for example, there are two investigations ongoing, one by the police and one by the parliamentary commission. Questions have been answered at some considerable length here in the House by the Minister for Finance on this matter. Whatever papers or correspondence is necessary or available will be presented to either of those two investigations.

PIMCO was dropped, as the Deputy is aware, under the legislation by means of which NAMA was set up. NAMA is responsible to the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is before the Committee of Public Accounts on Thursday. I suggest that the questions the Deputy has just asked, and any other questions he wishes to pose, be given to a member of the Committee of Public Accounts in order that they might be put directly to the representatives from NAMA on Thursday. NAMA is responsible to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Deputy has made strong statements and comments or allegations about fixers and bags of money. I suggest to Deputy Wallace that if he can back up that information, he should bring it to the notice of the Comptroller and Auditor General immediately and also to the attention of the police authorities. These are very serious allegations and the questions he raises can legitimately be asked of NAMA, which is responsible to the House, at the Committee of Public Accounts on Thursday.

In respect of the Northern Ireland portfolio, there are two investigations ongoing and these are taking place outside this jurisdiction.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I get the impression the Taoiseach is trying to hide behind the fig leaf of Oireachtas committees. I have already been to the Garda and I have been to the National Crime Agency, the British authority that is investigating the matter. I have already been to both of them. However, I cannot understand why the Taoiseach does not want to do anything about it.

Cerberus is under criminal investigation in two countries and it still has not been disqualified from looking at Project Arrow, which it is threatening to buy. Project Arrow has a par value of €7.2 billion and it appears it may be sold for something in the region of €1 billion. As 50% of it is made up of residential units in the Republic, and we have a housing crisis, where is the logic of selling Project Arrow to an entity such as Cerberus, which is being investigated for criminal activity in two countries? The Taoiseach could not make this up. It is absolute nonsense.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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A question, please.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I realise these are serious players. I was recently summoned to a meeting by a public figure and a message was passed on to me from a leading member of Cerberus Ireland that I was going to get sorted. Why would they have to say that if I am telling the truth? Can the Taoiseach understand that?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, this is Leaders' Questions. Will the Deputy put a question to the Taoiseach?

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Is the Taoiseach going to give serious consideration to the questions that are swirling around in respect of NAMA? As I said before, the workings of NAMA have left too much to be desired and there is a lot which is rotten about it. Is it going to be the Taoiseach's legacy that he ignored all of this? Is it going to be part of his history that he chose to ignore what is going on in NAMA?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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That is another allegation the Deputy makes. It will not be part of our history. NAMA is responsible to the Houses of the Oireachtas, of which Deputy Wallace is a Member. He comes in here week after week with very strong statements and allegations. I cannot say whether what he says is true or whether he can back it up.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Why does the Taoiseach not find out?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government told NAMA to accelerate the sales process.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am glad the Deputy has gone to the police force and the crime investigations unit but perhaps he does not want these questions raised - or to have somebody raise them on his behalf - at the body to which NAMA is responsible, and through which it is responsible to this House.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Rein them in.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is not good enough for Deputy Wallace to come in here like this, given that he is the centre of attention for receiving these kinds of allegations. I hope that when such allegations presented to him, the Deputy, who has full privilege in here, demands that proof be given.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Is the Taoiseach going to stop Project Arrow?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am quite sure Deputy Wallace wants to use that privilege with responsibility.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Nobody is denying the €7 million is in an offshore account.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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If there is an issue here, the questions that have been asked and the questions that have been answered by NAMA mean there is nothing wrong on the seller's side. If there is anything wrong, it seems to be on the purchaser's side.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Taoiseach cannot be serious.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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The Taoiseach needs to catch up with what is already in the public domain.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I suggest the Deputy should write out his list of questions. These can be raised-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Order, please.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy wants to find out the truth about these issues. In that case, he must use the facility available to public representatives - in the public interest - in order to ask his questions. I would like the Deputy to furnish to the Committee of Public Accounts the basis of the evidence given to him that will make the allegations he makes stand up.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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The Taoiseach would love that.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for going to the Garda and the crime investigations unit. I hope he will supply a full list of questions in order that NAMA can comprehensively address these issues at the Committee of Public Accounts.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I gave the Taoiseach the questions.