Dáil debates

Tuesday, 21 November 2017

Ceisteanna - Questions

Programme for Government Implementation

4:20 pm

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach the status of the implementation of measures in the programme for Government. [48128/17]

Photo of Gerry AdamsGerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach when the next progress report of A Programme for a Partnership Government will be published. [47837/17]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach the progress in regards to the implementation of the programme for Government. [48980/17]

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach the progress report on A Programme for a Partnership Government. [49113/17]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together.

The programme for Government annual report published on 10 May provides a comprehensive update on more than 300 commitments progressed across all of Government in its first year and highlights the specific plans put in place to tackle in the short and longer terms areas such as housing, homelessness, education, rural and regional development, job creation, broadband, agriculture and climate change. The report also highlights the ambition and steps to improve services for families, children, people with disabilities and mental health problems and older people, and reforms necessary in the health and justice sectors. It also reflects the significant work undertaken to ensure an effective whole-of-Government approach to the Brexit negotiations and takes full account of the Government's negotiating priorities.

Work is under way on a further interim progress report to reflect work advanced by the Government since May. The report, which is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, will include an update on measures progressed by Government Departments, including actions to ameliorate housing and homelessness problems, such as the €750 million financing entity Home Building Finance Ireland, the new stamp duty refund scheme, projects approved under the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, the national roll-out of the HAP place finder service and measures to progress delivery of vacant houses; actions to support rural development, including a €60 million regional enterprise development fund, €21.6 million allocated in the 2017 town and village renewal scheme and €10 million approved for Leader projects; actions to support businesses and jobs, including a €300 million Brexit loan scheme, which has been announced, €3.4 million in Brexit supports made available to SMEs, the reduction in USC rates and an additional €6.6 billion in capital funding allocated in budget 2018; and actions to support families and services, including a €5 increase in all weekly benefits, increasing the minimum wage for the fourth time, 1,800 additional front-line posts for the health sector, the new national cancer strategy, which runs from 2017 to 2026, an increase in maternity leave in the case of premature births and 2,300 extra posts for schools.

The Government will continue this work over its lifetime to protect and grow the economy, invest in and care for its people and plan for Ireland's future.

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I recall from the programme for Government and interviews that the Taoiseach gave at the time that he indicated his appreciation of the importance of the arts and culture in Ireland and his hope to more or less double funding to that area over time, which all of us would support. Is he aware of a serious concern among professional musicians, particularly those working in the orchestras under the aegis of RTÉ, that there will be a severe reduction in the number of its orchestras, which currently stand at two? Given the size of Ireland's population, we have little in the way of professional orchestras. The idea that, under an RTÉ review, one of them would be closed down and many musicians would be deprived of employment is worrying.

The Taoiseach tries to have sweet music around him. On days like this, that is sometimes difficult.

The issue concerning the orchestras is very important to the future of culture in Ireland. Many musicians have been obliged to leave Ireland to get employment because there is so little orchestral employment here. The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht told me she is not aware that RTÉ is carrying out a review of orchestras as part of an overall review of operations. She was not aware that submissions have been sought in regard to this matter. I ask the Taoiseach to express his concern and solidarity with the musicians in the orchestra, as well as all of the music students nationwide who are for working for music degrees and who will have little prospect of employment in their own country if the policy of closing down orchestras proceeds on his watch.

4:30 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Taoiseach as ucht an freagra sin a thabhairt dom. Tá súil agam go léireoidh an chéad tuairisc eile ar an dul chun cinn maidir le clár an Rialtais go bhfuil dul chun cinn suntasach á dhéanamh i dtaobh na mórcheisteanna atá ag cur isteach ar shaoránaigh ar fud an Stáit. Caithfidh mé a rá nach raibh mórán dul chun cinn le feiceáil sa tuairisc dheireanach, a bhí iontach éadrom.

Despite so-called new politics, the Government has failed to take decisive action on the big issues affecting citizens. In areas of significant challenge, such as housing, homelessness, the rent crisis, health and other areas, the Government is clearly failing. There has been little progress on areas for which the Taoiseach's Department has direct responsibility. The commitment in the programme for Government to fulfil the Government's mandate as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, as well as honouring the commitments of subsequent agreements, has not been fulfilled.

The Taoiseach will be aware that a Sinn Féin delegation met the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, today. We told her that her Government must bear the greater responsibility for the failure to reach agreement on the restoration of the institutions, but the Irish Government also has a role to play. We told her there is no public confidence in talks which will be more of the same; they need to be meaningful. We told her that the provision of the Irish language Act, marriage equality, a bill of rights and funding for legacy issues are all British Government obligations and commitments. Progress is only possible if the British Government honours these commitments.

The job of the Irish Government is to ensure that it honours those commitments. We told the British Prime Minister that direct rule is not an option and that she must look at the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement, in particular the establishment of an intergovernmental conference involving the Irish and British Governments. I ask the Taoiseach to also press this with the British Prime Minister. There is an urgent need for the two Governments to act to deliver equality. As the Taoiseach is aware, that is a joint responsibility under the Good Friday Agreement and it needs to happen without delay. Will the Taoiseach press his British counterpart to establish an intergovernmental conference, as is the next logical step under the Good Friday Agreement?

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The programme for Government states "Our approach to governing will be clearly seen in how we address the issues of housing and homelessness." Given that was stated as a priority and a key indicator of what the Government is like, what are we to make the series of statements coming from the Taoiseach, the Minister of State, Deputy English, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, Conor Skehan of the Housing Agency and Eileen Gleeson of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive? Quite frankly, they were scandalous and insulting statements which have tried to normalise, minimise or downplay the scale of the housing and homelessness emergency, or even worse, in the case of Eileen Gleeson, blame the homeless themselves. Her shocking comments referred to homelessness being a result of "years of bad behaviour" and chaotic lifestyle". The Minister of State, Deputy English, suggested that those who talk too much about housing and homelessness are doing damage to our reputation.

In so far as the Government has power over these agencies, is it going to repudiate these kind of comments? It should denounce them for what they are, namely, shameful attempts to cover up, downplay or normalise the housing crisis. Will the Taoiseach acknowledge that as the housing analyst Mel Reynolds has suggested, the real problem is the refusal of the Government to build council housing on the thousands of hectares of publicly owned land? There is an aversion to building council houses. The Government is playing with figures to try to suggest more houses are being built than is actually the case. The evidence shows that what is actually happening is the Government is refusing to use public land to build council housing.

Photo of Pat GallagherPat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am going to be very strict on time because there are three important blocks of questions. There are 15 minutes. We have five minutes left.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I generally agree with what is said about the programme for Government in respect of housing, in terms of the language contained therein compared with the actual implementation. The local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, has not worked. I understand only seven houses benefitted from the repair and relief initiative. A series of initiatives over the past two years have had very little impact. There is no sense that there is any urgency or conviction in respect of the scale of the issue.

It seems to me that recent statements from the Taoiseach, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, the Minister of State, Deputy English, and from the Housing Agency and regional housing executive personnel are all designed to try to put the housing crisis in Ireland in some context. We are being told that things are not that bad compared with other countries and so on.

Yet all of us in the House are inundated with people coming into our clinics or contacting us who are in dire situations on foot of having no place to go with their children. Some are living in very overcrowded conditions with their parents and siblings in, for example, a boxroom in a small house. Many are on the homeless pathway and others are facing that route. It is very difficult to match the rhetoric and language we have heard with their everyday life experience. To be frank, the language which has come from officialdom of late has been insulting to them.

I put it to the Taoiseach that there has been a sense from officialdom for quite some time that the market will take care of this and that we do not need to build local authority houses to any great extent. That view has been there for the past three or four years. I met Department officials at the time of the formation of the Government when I was talking with Independents and that very much seemed to be what was coming from the officials. It seems to me that the entire approach has failed abysmally. I could go on to health and other issues, but my time is up. On the issue of homelessness alone, it is important not to insult people who are in desperate situations in terms of their personal circumstances and housing.

Photo of Pat GallagherPat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The questions were very broad, but I ask the Taoiseach to try to compact them into about four minutes. I know it is impossible.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I will do my best. On the first set of questions on the arts from Deputy Burton, she is absolutely correct to mention my commitment to increasing arts funding. I did not say this would happen over a period of time. I was very specific and said we would double funding for the arts over a period of seven years. That, of course, refers to the arts in total and not just to the Arts Council. There has been an increase in the arts and culture budget Vote for 2018 and 2017. It is not as much as I would have liked but, as the Deputy knows, the famous fiscal space was much narrower this year than it was last year and will be next year. The commitment to double total funding over seven years stands.

I am not aware of the detail in regard to the orchestras. I would share the Deputy's concern about any diminution of the RTÉ orchestra or any other orchestras in the State. I will certainly discuss that with-----

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are two.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The other one is-----

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The concert and symphony.

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are two RTÉ orchestras and it might want to abolish one.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I will raise the issue with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.

On Deputy Pearse Doherty's question, we all have a role to play in making sure the Good Friday Agreement works. I am disappointed when I hear Sinn Féin spokespersons, as has been the case for weeks, setting the scene for the blame game.

That is very disappointing and I call on Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, to come to an agreement to form a coalition government and do the right thing by the people of Northern Ireland.

On the Deputy's specific question, at my meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Gothenburg on Friday we discussed the Good Friday Agreement. As I have done at previous meetings, I said to Prime Minister May that the Irish Government could not accept a return to direct rule as it existed prior to the Good Friday Agreement and that if Sinn Féin and the DUP failed to form an administration, the Government I lead would expect the Good Friday Agreement to be implemented without them. That means convening the British-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference, as if nothing is devolved then everything is devolved to that conference. I indicated to her I would seek a meeting in the new year of the British-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference so British and Irish Ministers could meet to plot a way forward for Northern Ireland in the absence of the elected representatives in Northern Ireland being able to form an administration.

With regard to housing and homelessness, I do not wish to speak for other people but statistics are important. It is how we know whether things are getting better or policies are working. International comparisons are important also, notwithstanding the health warning that comes with them. It is how we know what examples to follow or not. Perhaps sometimes when we speak about statistics, numbers and policy, it can come across as being somewhat unfeeling. I want everyone in the House to be assured that the Government feels very deeply about the homelessness crisis we are facing and that it is worsening. It feels very deeply about the need for us to return to a status quoin which people can aspire to home ownership again, with homes being affordable and available for young people seeking to purchase them. That is our objective.

With regard to social housing more generally, we anticipate 2,000 houses will be built this year. They are social homes, publicly built homes, council homes or council apartments, whatever people wish to call them. That is up from only a few hundred last year, meaning the number has more than doubled. The aim next year is 7,000, with 3,800 direct-build and approximately the same number through other mechanisms. Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about playing with figures but much of that is going around on all sides. I was in Clongriffin just yesterday at an Iveagh Trust project. Many Members know the Iveagh Trust, which has been providing social housing for people for over a century. It is associated with the Guinness family. It has 84 apartments and duplexes under construction and they will be occupied by 84 people and their families this time next year. When our opponents criticise our record on housing, they do not count such homes; to them, these 84 homes do not exist and the people who will be in them do not exist.

4:40 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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That is untrue.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is not true.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is not true but the Government is not building on its land.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I will tell the Deputies why it is true. It is because of the mechanism by which those 84 real social homes are being provided. That is a partnership between the Government and the Iveagh Trust, using a long-term lease agreement. It is not a direct build by a local authority.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We all know that.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It will provide 84 real social homes for people.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Who has said it does not?

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That does not get the Government off the hook for not building council houses.

Photo of Pat GallagherPat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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We will move on.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Taoiseach has gone over by four minutes already.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I have seen so many times the opponents of what the Government is trying to do with social housing only counting direct build.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No.

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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We recognise them for what they are.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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They discount everything else that is done. That is not honest.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We mentioned social housing.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Only two weeks ago I opened a site at Hansfield in my constituency, where there are 1,000 new homes being built, approximately 100 of which are social housing. They are being acquired by direct purchase by the council from the developer.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We all know that.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Again, we see figures produced of Fingal only having ten or 40 houses, and it does not include such houses. It is a good idea to have integrated communities.