Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I will now take Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 29. In accordance with the recommendation of the Committee on Dáil Reform and the decision of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, we will for the first time be making use of the clock. I call Deputy Michael Moynihan.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Across the country, families have applied for the home help service for elderly relatives to keep them in their own homes. However, they are receiving letters stating that while the hours are approved, no funding is available to allocate extra resources. It seems ludicrous that the HSE is sending out letters approving home help hours, yet it does not have resources to back them up.

The home help system is a fantastic service which allows people to stay in their own homes, and it encourages them to do so. However, a cost-benefit analysis of that service does not seem to have been undertaken. Such an analysis would show how much could be saved by allocating a proper care package and home help service for patients. For example, it would save the costs involved in providing long-term care in nursing homes.

Last year, the HSE estimated that 2.2 million extra home help hours would be needed to accommodate the requirements arising from demographic changes in 2016. Unfortunately, there was nothing in either the HSE's plans or the budget to allocate funding for those home help hours. On the one hand, the HSE says it is necessary to have these hours in place to accommodate people in their own homes, while, on the other, the Government has not put funding in place for them. That is ludicrous.

The current programme for Government included increased funding for home help and home care packages. The last programme for Government, from 2011 to 2016, had a similar provision albeit with different wording, yet nothing has been done about it. Does the Minister accept that there is a crisis concerning home help and home care packages? We are getting reports that the HSE is dealing with this matter in different ways in various areas. The HSE says it must wait until somebody ceases looking for home help, or dies, before somebody else can be accommodated through that availability.

Is the Minister aware that it is taking six months to process applications for the carer's allowance? Is he also aware that it can take four or five months to process the simplest medical card application? Reports by advocacy services, including Age Action Ireland and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, state that there is a crisis out there. Is the Minister aware of this? What is on the Government's agenda to tackle this crisis?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy finished spot on time. I thank him very much. I call the Minister, Deputy Bruton.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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How much time do I have?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Three minutes.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Michael Moynihan for raising this issue. Members of the House will appreciate the importance of community-based care. Yesterday, an announcement was made concerning additional funding for the health service which, significantly, includes additional provision for home help hours. It is also important to bear in mind, as the Deputy has recognised, that the programme for Government contains a commitment to increase home help hours every year. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, will shortly publish the demographic impact on spending in each area. No doubt the demographic impact on health will include provision, built into the 2017 no-policy-change budget, to deal with the demographic pressures to which the Deputy has referred.

Yesterday, the Taoiseach adverted to the fact that currently there is a 4% annual increase in the number of people over 85. That clearly creates pressure on areas such as the home help service. As regards having uniformity across the country, home help has always been organised on a decentralised model. Part of its strength is that local home help organisers understand their community. It has, therefore, been organised in a way that seeks to respond flexibly to local needs. That balance between uniform provision, national planning, diversity and division is part of the service's strength. It is not something we would want to let go of lightly.

The Deputy mentioned delays in issuing the carer's allowance, which has been a problem for as long as I have been in politics. It concerns the complexity of the assessment methods which the Oireachtas has put in place.

It requires capital and income assessments as well as a medical assessment. That has been put in place, in the wisdom of the Oireachtas, as a fair way of allocating it, but it does create delays in assessment, which are inevitable with that type of approach. There is also the carer's benefit for people who are at work and decide to take a break to provide care. That can be a bridge because it is based on stamps and does not require the same detailed assessment.

I will alert the Minister for Health to the Deputy's concerns. The Minister for Social Protection has responsibility for carer's allowance, but I will alert the Minister for Health about the continuing problems the Deputy mentioned with medical card delays. I have experienced some improvement in that regard. Members of the last Dáil travelled out there to see that improved processes were put in place.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not acceptable to say that there is a system in place for the carer's allowance and we must work through it. As Members of the Oireachtas, we are challenged to change that. If there is a system in place that is bureaucratic and is causing undue hardship for families, we are duty bound to challenge it and ensure it is changed. Does the Government accept that the home help and home care packages, by any standard of cost-benefit analysis, provide a fantastic service to older people and families and save the State a vast amount of money? I ask the Minister to do whatever is required with the carer's allowance and medical cards. With regard to the carer's allowance, it is unacceptable that when a medical report is sent to the Department it can take six to eight weeks for it to be accepted, when any layperson can see that the person concerned is in need of full-time care and attention. It is not acceptable to say that it is the system. We must change that system, because families are under savage pressure to keep elderly relatives at home for as long as possible.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I do not disagree with the Deputy. Much of the effort of the Oireachtas has gone towards recognising that. As the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, reminded me, last year we restored the respite care grant to its full value and we have sought to improve home help and home care packages. In each of the winter initiatives, a substantial improvement in spending on home care occurs. I agree with the Deputy that we must try to keep as many people as possible living independently in their homes. I noted from the reports during the week that perhaps we have not emphasised that sufficiently and that there has been too much emphasis on institutional care in cases in which people could have remained independent. The programme for Government reflects that concern and commits to expanding this area. We have made a very solid commitment in this regard, even though we are aware that new drugs coming on the market or new procedures will demand attention and resources. There is a recognition in the programme for Government of the importance of this area of care.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Private Residential Tenancies Board has confirmed that the cost of renting continues to spiral out of control. At the end of May, the average cost of renting a home in Dublin was €1,454 per month, which is a staggering €17,500 per year. That is higher than the highest point reached in 2007. Outside Dublin, while rents are below the 2007 peak, they are still rising. I believe we can agree that these rents are scandalous. Due to the failure of previous Governments to ensure an adequate supply of social and affordable housing, more people are finding themselves reliant on - indeed, trapped in - the private rental sector. How is a low-income family expected to keep pace with such rents? How are working families expected to pay these rents and save for a deposit on their own homes at the same time?

A report from the Homeless Agency shows that spiralling rents is one of the principal causes of family homelessness. Scores of families will sleep in emergency accommodation tonight because they cannot afford their rent. Across the State, rent supplement and housing assistance payments lag considerably behind market rents. Last year, the former Minister with responsibility for housing, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, were locked in a bitter row over how to deal with rising rents. The Government set its face against rent certainty. It refused to link rents to the consumer price index. Instead, it introduced measures which not only have not worked, but have made matters worse.

The Committee on Housing and Homelessness has received repeated and strong calls in its hearings and submissions for the introduction of rent certainty and for increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payment levels. Will the Government include rent certainty in its action plan on housing which is to be published in August? Second, will the Government ensure there are increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payments to ensure that no family is made homeless due to an inability to pay its rent?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is no secret that the crisis in housing is the biggest issue on the Government's agenda. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has committed to an action plan for housing within the first 100 days. He has consulted widely with all of the interests, including those referred to by the Deputy, in the preparation of that work. The Committee on Housing and Homelessness is due to report soon with its input into this debate.

In terms of the response, many worthwhile initiatives have been put in place in the past, although obviously more must be done. I agree with the Deputy that there is inadequate supply of both social and private housing. Much of the rental sector is in the private sector, and the rents the Deputy referred to in the reports are entirely in the private sector. This is a supply issue and we must see an acceleration of supply both in the social housing programme and in the private sector. That will be a big feature of what emerges from this.

There is also the issue of the adequacy of rent supplement. The Department of Social Protection has a protocol in place under which 1,000 families have been assisted in getting higher rent supplement with a higher ceiling to avoid the pressures the Deputy has described. With regard to the housing assistance payment, a 50% uplift of the payment is being piloted in Dublin and that is making an impact for families who are threatened with becoming homeless. It is working in some cases but, obviously, there will have to be a tight review to assess its impact. This area is getting a huge level of Government attention. There have already been four or five meetings of the Cabinet committee on housing at which all of the issues are being raised.

Rent certainty was dealt with in a Bill that was passed by the Oireachtas, under which new rules governing rent certainty have been provided. They provide for a more extended period of notice and there can only be increases in rents every two years. Those provisions are in place and will be monitored in terms of policy in this area.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is correct that it is no secret that there is a crisis in housing. It is equally no secret that this is a Government-made crisis. It is also no secret that it took a considerable amount of time for the Government to catch up and recognise the scale of the crisis.

It is no surprise that the Minister has not answered my questions, so I will put them again. Will the action plan on housing contain a commitment to rent certainty and increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payments? The Committee on Housing and Homelessness has met. It is a cross-party committee and it received reams of submissions from experts across the board. I seek a commitment from the Minister today that rent certainty and increases in the rent supplement and housing assistance payments will be contained in the action plan. Should the committee in its final report recommend rent certainty, a link to the consumer price index and increases in those payments, will the Government honour the report, listen to the committee and ensure the recommendations are included in the action plan?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In respect of what has caused the housing crisis, it is important to remember that misplaced policies caused a construction boom of unprecedented levels where we built 90,000 houses and had a massive property bubble. This bubble collapsed with all the ensuing consequences, such as the damage to people's lives and the public finances. We have been living with that ever since and no system is more broken than that relating to housing provision. The system is simply broken and must be rebuilt from scratch.

The Minister will look at all views coming from all parties. The housing action plan has not yet come to Government for consideration so I have not seen the elements of it. The committee's recommendations have not yet to come to Government. The Deputy can rest assured that the Government will look at all elements.

The rent issue is about supply. We have inadequate supply and that is what the report today showed. It showed that the number of properties becoming available for rental has declined at a time when there is an increase in demand. This has simply put pressure on rents and that imbalance must be corrected before we resolve this crisis.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Last week, together with my Labour colleague, Joe Costello, I held a series of meetings in Dublin north's inner city with community leaders, business owners, educators, service providers and members of An Garda Síochána. As everybody in the House knows, the spotlight is on the north inner city because of gun deaths and the focus on crime. This is a cause of great frustration for the people who live there who are weary of the periodic focus on their community and the analysis and talk relating to it. They were anxious that they now be fully involved in finding a permanent solution to which everybody can buy in.

Two weeks ago, I raised the issue of a joint task force with the Taoiseach. In response to my query, he indicated that this would happen. I have a few questions for the Minister. Where stands the task force? Who will lead it? The latter is one of the issues that was raised again and again with me. It is critical that the local community be fully involved in the design of a solution to all the issues of inequality that prevail in the north inner city. It could be a model for regeneration and a model of hope. However, it can only work on the basis that all of us across the various parties - in or out of government and regardless of the vagaries of politics and how the political winds blow over the next decade - commit to signing a solemn pledge, individually as Members of this House, to implement the blueprint for action outlined by this task force. On behalf of the Government and Fine Gael, will the Minister commit to signing such a pledge for this community, which could become a model for other areas in regeneration, rebuilding and supplanting despair with hope? Will he also answer the questions relating to the timescale and membership of the task force that the Taoiseach agreed to create?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I do not have precise answers in respect of the timeframe but I assure the Deputy that the Taoiseach is taking this very seriously. Within the education portfolio, I am looking at areas where we could support initiatives within the north inner city and also, as the Deputy says, in the context of a wider model to examine areas of concentrated disadvantage to see how we can break that cycle. The concept of working across Departments has come into vogue in the past couple of years. Examples include the Action Plan for Jobs and the action plan for housing. The Deputy is right in that we need to form an approach to dealing with concentrated urban deprivation in particular in a way that is more consistent and breaks away from silos because an individual family deals with all the problems. It does not silo its problems between health, education, the community, the risk of slipping into lives of crime and all the other aspects. The Taoiseach is continuing to work with this and I am sure he will communicate with the Deputy.

The question of whether such an approach can become something we would roll out and create a pledge around is a challenge for this Dáil. One of the things we need to do is have a long-term vision. We are approaching a long-term vision for health and looking to the Oireachtas to have a degree of consensus about that. We want to do the same in terms of long-term funding for the higher education system where there will also be a challenge coming down the track. Climate change is a third issue. There is a large number of major challenges facing this Oireachtas and I agree with the Deputy that this certainly ranks among them. We need to find a more consistent way of ensuring that the resources of the State are deployed in a way that delivers better outcomes in these communities rather than each sitting within its own silo.

Today, we have seen the publication of a report on the health prospects of people suffering from cancer in different parts of our community. The report again raises questions for the Oireachtas as to how it can improve delivery in these areas. While it would be premature for me to say I will sign on the dotted line for a policy approach we have yet to see fully developed, I am fully behind the spirit of what the Deputy is saying. In respect of my responsibilities in education, I would like to see that sort of cross-community approach because a school cannot be just an oasis on its own. Its strength depends on the resources it can bring in from the rest of the community in order to deliver improvements. I look forward to the work of the task force and I will ask the Taoiseach to communicate to the Deputy on the framework and how the Oireachtas will be fully involved.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister's initial positive view of the all-party pledge in respect of this. The Minister said that this is a challenge for the Dáil. It is more than a challenge. It is imperative that we do not just talk about an area that has been in the public view periodically for decades, but actually commit ourselves to finding a resolution. We can do that. All of us, and I put my hand up, have failed this community. We have failed it because we have not delivered the resources in a consistent, co-ordinated, marshalled and ongoing way that would break the cycle of deprivation that has led not only to elements of crime, but an ongoing lack of participation in proper health statistics. I ask the Minister to ensure that we have a clear timeframe for this task force, that the membership will be set out - he can come back to me on that - that there will be real community buy in and that we, as an Oireachtas, commit ourselves to this area. Let this be the model area where we will commit over whatever time is required to ensure that we do not revisit the same issues for this community in a decade or two.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Deputy's approach. Indeed, our own parliamentary party discussed this challenge last week. I am sure it is replicated in parts of the Deputy's constituency, as it is in parts of mine. Most Deputies experience the same and there is a resolve to see a response in the north inner city, which has particularly acute experience. As a former school principal in the area, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, knows this better than I do. As we respond to the challenges in this area, we need to develop a model that we can replicate and build upon for other communities. I have often been very impressed by the partnership companies and the way they can innovate in a way Government Departments cannot. We need to find ways of allowing a thousand flowers to bloom in different communities. One of the things I hope to do in the area of education is examine the concept of supporting innovation, particularly in respect of different community challenges.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I wish to raise the issue of school patronage because there has been painfully slow progress in this area during the past five years.

11 o’clock

There is now an onus on the Minister to make this a priority issue in the education portfolio. If we are a true republic, we must ensure that our institutions respect and reflect the diversity of modern Irish society. This is true in respect of education in particular. The State has a serious responsibility to ensure that every child has access to a State-funded school in his or her own locality and that the ethos of that school reflects the ethos of the family concerned. A significant number of parents have no choice but to send their child to a school that does not align with their own belief system. Many parents feel they must baptise their children in order that they can be enrolled in a local State-funded school. This situation is entirely unacceptable in this day and age and must be dealt with as a matter of priority.

This week, the Minister appeared to endorse the community national school model, which involves splitting classes and segregating children on religious grounds for part of the school day. This happens because the Catholic Church insisted on a requirement to have faith formation classes and preparation for sacraments during school hours in these schools. We know this thanks to the excellent research carried out by Emma O'Kelly of RTE, who had access to documents obtained under the freedom of information provisions which showed that this was an agreement reached between the Catholic Church and the then Government in 2007. It is incredible that such an agreement was reached only nine years ago.

I have two questions for the Minister. Will he commit this morning to repealing section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act in order to ensure that all children can access their local publicly funded primary school irrespective of their belief system? Will he end this most blatant form of discrimination against our children? Does the Minister accept that the community national school model entails segregation on religious grounds and runs counter to the principles of child-centredness and inclusiveness? If so, why is he endorsing it?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising what I believe is an important question. There is no doubt that Ireland has changed and citizens have different expectations of all Departments, but most particularly in the area of education. It is my ambition to help parents to have access to the school of their choice. As the Deputy rightly points out, over 95% of our schools are denominational, and my ambition is to deliver the commitment in the programme for Government to treble the number of schools that offer alternatives to denominational patronage. My vision for this is to have as much diversity as possible. I do not see the merit in confining our approach to a single model. That is why I have sought to accelerate all the elements of the existing strategy and to provide new schools. Last week, I provided new schools in the Deputy's neighbouring area, Cabra, and in Marino, with Educate Together as patron. We need to continue to provide new schools with new patrons. Virtually all the schools where new patrons are being appointed are multidenominational or non-denominational. The progress that is being made on the transfer of patronage, which was initiated by Deputy Ruairí Quinn and continued by Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is something we can accelerate. I will form a working group which will sit down with the Catholic patrons to seek to accelerate that work. It is recognised as an area in which slow progress has been made, but we hope to accelerate this progress.

I do not share the Deputy's view regarding the role of the community national school. A school that is in State rather than private patronage and that offers, under one umbrella, the opportunity for faith-based instruction and makes provision for other options offers a good model that will allow us to transition. If we are moving from a situation in which more than 95% of schools are denominational we will need models that can accommodate parents with different views of the type of education their children should have, and the model of community-based national schools under the education and training boards, as a State-sponsored patron, is a good one that has potential. We have to look at it and look at the programmes that children who do not opt to be in a denomination receive. I am very open to considering how we can improve those programmes, but I do not share the Deputy's view that we should throw out a model that allows different views of education to thrive under one umbrella.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister for his reply, but he is not addressing the core issue. He is talking about endorsing a model that entails segregating children during the school day. How can that possibly be right? What he is suggesting is that education policy should put the interests of children second to the interest of any church. How can the Minister defend that situation? Just imagine that for a half an hour in every school day, children are segregated according to religion. That cannot possibly be right. At a very minimum, is the Minister prepared to insist that any denominational instruction is moved to the end of the school day so that we do not have this kind of divisive and anti-inclusive policy in operation in the community national schools?

The Minister has not addressed the other question about section 7 of the Equal Status Act, which will continue to allow thousands of schools to discriminate purely on the grounds of religion. Is the Minister prepared to give a commitment to repeal that section here in order to stop that kind of discrimination?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I do not agree with the Deputy. Children do different things during the course of the school day. If we can create a model that is acceptable to a lot of parents and that offers diversity within that school, it is something to be celebrated.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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There is no evidence that it is acceptable.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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It is something we should include. It is not the exclusive model. We will have the Educate Together model, the gaelscoil model, some denominational models and so on. Diversity, with different education offerings to parents who want different things, is the right approach.

On the issue of the Equal Status Act, it was not considered in the admissions Bill that was introduced during the last Government and it will not be part of the admissions Bill that I will publish soon, but the Dáil will have to debate its approach to this. There is constitutional protection for religions within our constitution and the last Oireachtas committee recognised that there is a difficulty here. That has to be recognised. The Equal Status Act provides, and we will provide in the admissions Bill, that a denominational school must accept a non-denominational child, but if the school is oversubscribed that may not be the case, and 20% of schools are oversubscribed. This is a matter on which I will consult with other Oireachtas Members and we will be able to debate it in the Oireachtas.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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It is something the Minister should be leading on.