Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination last met and will next meet. [61312/21]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination last met and will next meet. [63547/21]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 and 15 together.

The Government co-ordination committee last met on Monday and it is scheduled to meet again next Monday, 24 January. The committee reviews the activity of Cabinet committees and the agenda for the week's Government meeting, discusses political priorities and reviews implementation of a specified element of the programme for Government. I am a member of the committee along with the Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party. The Secretary General to the Government, my chief of staff and the chiefs of staff for the Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party also sit in on meetings.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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I hope the Taoiseach will agree with me when I note that the statement issued by the Women of Honour group last month in response to the proposed internal review by the Department of Defence should now trigger a reconsideration by the leaders of the Government parties.

It is accepted that violence, abuse, coercion and harassment of women and girls is systemic in Irish society. The evidence also tells us that this abuse is worse again for women in environments that are heavily reliant on power structures. In its statement in December, the Women of Honour group described the Government's proposals for a review as shocking. Has the Taoiseach discussed the Women of Honour group's statement with his coalition partners? The women have stated that the Minister does not appear to appreciate the seriousness of the issues and concerns they have raised. These are concerns based on their lived experiences surrounding dignity in the workplace, bullying, harassment, discrimination, assault, sexual harassment and sexual assault. This simply is not acceptable.

In their engagements with the Minister, the women have called on the Government to bring about real change and shape the Defence Forces for the 21st century by delivering a full investigation, with a comprehensive independent report, into past and ongoing events. Instead, the Minister has proposed a process that is not independent, has no investigative powers and cannot compel perpetrators who refuse to participate.

If we are truly committing to a zero tolerance policy on violence, abuse, coercion and harassment against women and girls, then we have a moral responsibility to use all the powers at our disposal to ensure that those who protect us and others are, in fact, protected themselves. If the Taoiseach has not discussed the matter with his Government partners, will he commit to do so at the earliest opportunity? The women are due to meet the Minister again tomorrow afternoon.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I want to ask the Taoiseach about an issue of Government co-ordination with regard to what it is doing to tackle vacancy and dereliction. In Ireland right now, more than 9,000 people are homeless and at least 90,000 homes are vacant. That is a conservative estimate as the census put the figure for empty homes at more than 180,000. That figure excludes holiday homes and homes that were empty on the night of the census. It relates to homes that were empty during multiple inspections over three months.

In addition, some 22,000 residential buildings are derelict. Ireland has one of the highest rates of vacancy in the world. This would be scandalous at any time but in the middle of a housing crisis, with escalating rents and house prices that people cannot afford going up month after month and year after year, this is completely unacceptable. Will the Government urgently introduce a tax on vacant buildings to bring them back into use, not next year or some time in the future, but now?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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For many years, People Before Profit has called for a wealth tax to try to redistribute wealth in what is one of the richest countries in the world where wealth has increased exponentially year after year, including during the pandemic. We now have the ironic situation that today, 100 of the richest people in the world have sent a begging letter to the political leaders of the world asking if the leaders will please tax them more because they are not being taxed enough, and to introduce wealth taxes. Even the billionaires see the gross inequality and pleaded with political leaders at Davos to tax them more. However, the Government resisted and tried to rubbish what Oxfam said this week.

For the Taoiseach's information or that of the officials who wrote his earlier response, the Central Bank quarterly report every single year spells out the amount of personal, financial and household wealth in this country and shows increases in that wealth in exactly the same proportions that Oxfam is outlining. The Department of Finance did a study, and the Taoiseach is right to say there are no studies, although there should be, which I think is deliberate, of the distribution of that wealth. The Department of Finance did a distribution study in 2017, however, which showed the richest 10% in this country have 53% of that wealth whereas the poorest 50% have less than 2% of the wealth. If we are going to address inequality and have the money for housing, health and education, surely we could impose a little bit of additional tax on the super-wealthy millionaires and billionaires.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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One of the many scandals of Covid-19 in this country has been how our pupils, teachers and schools have been treated. One of the latest episodes is that right across the country today and for the last couple of weeks, people are attempting to teach and learn in temperatures of 8°C, 9°C and 10°C. This is almost impossible to do in those circumstances. The reason is that the Government failed to act on our repeated requests in the Workplace Ventilation (Covid-19) Bill 2021, which was passed more than a month ago, and failed to invest in buying and installing HEPA filters in schools. Instead, many private fundraising efforts are taking place in schools across the country to get the HEPA filters, which will mean they will not have to leave the windows open as wide for as long in the course of the day.

Today, a number of reports from different schools seemed to suggest the HSE helpline for principals was refusing to record positive cases from antigen tests. The HSE said it needed a PCR test when it is not possible for those under the age of 39 to get a PCR test today anywhere in the country. Will the Taoiseach intervene to resolve this issue? Will he ensure the Department of Education buys and distributes HEPA filters and all educators, special needs assistants, SNA, etc., have access to FFP2 or N95 masks for free, just as we do in the Oireachtas?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for raising the various issues. In the first instance, the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, has been dealing and having engagements with the Women of Honour representative group. As Deputy Clarke said, I understand there will be further engagement shortly. Regarding the issues the Deputy raised, it would seem that on the face of the evidence and what has been put forward, there could in some instances be a case for criminal investigations in terms of the abuse that took place. To have a statutory or investigative inquiry that is outside of the normal processes of criminal investigation could potentially undermine such investigations. That said, I am open to engaging with the group. I want to see what transpires with the Minister and the group first. My understanding is that things were progressing for a while. The Government is prepared to continue the engagement.

If there are certain desired outcomes, which I think there are, people who commit abuse should be followed up on. The Deputy was talking about the investigative powers and the compelling of people to give evidence, which takes it out of the hands - if there was wrongdoing - of the Garda Síochána and any processes that it would engage in. That is something we would need to assess.

On Deputy O’Callahan’s point, I dealt earlier with some of the cases he raised regarding vacant properties and dereliction. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohue, through the local property tax, LTP, review is doing some valuable work in collecting information on vacant properties, with a view to designing a proper vacant property tax. The Government is committed to a vacant property tax. That is important in our view. We have to get it right. We have to design it right. We have to get a far better understanding of the vacant properties out there, the types of such properties and so on. Through the LPT process, which is extremely comprehensive, the Minister for Finance will be in a position to make recommendations in that respect.

Meanwhile, on the social housing side, 5,500 units have brought back since this Government came to office. We provided additional money, beginning with the July stimulus of 2020, to get thousands of void houses in local authority ownership back in operation. In 2022, a further 1,500 voids will be brought back into operation as a result of funding that has been provided by Minister of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. It is important that this continues, because we do not want to necessary vacancies. There are other issues we are looking at also, for example, nursing home legislation, to see if we can free up more units are vacant because people have gone into nursing homes. All efforts will be made to deal with the vacancy issue. As I said earlier, there has been a 40% year-on-year increase in commencements for housing. This is good news, especially in the context of the momentum that has gone into house building since the last lockdown in the first half of 2021. The latter hit construction somewhat, but we are now at 30,724 commencements.

On Deputy Boyd Barrett’s points, I was not rubbishing any report. It is important that we analyse reports and raise issues relating to them. It is also important that we go through reports with the authors and work issues out. It is not deliberate that there is no comprehensive data on wealth distribution. Again, there are questions around the figures. That is all I am saying. Let us park that for a moment. We have wealth taxes in Ireland. We have the capital gains tax of 33%, as well as the capital acquisitions tax. We have the LPT. Property is where a lot of wealth resides. Deputy Boyd Barrett opposes that, I think-----.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is not a wealth tax. It is seriously not a wealth tax.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----as do all of those on the left. The Deputy keeps calling for a wealth tax and then he attacks-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is not a wealth tax. Give me a break.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is, especially in the context of the very high value of houses that he wants-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is a few hundred quid that billionaires are paying.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett wants all the millionaires and billionaires to get away scot-free. He does not think that they should be taxed at all in respect of their massive properties.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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They should be taxed for property.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy does not believe so because he votes against it all the time. There is an ESRI study which shows that if the French wealth tax system applied in Ireland, it would only yield €22 million. That was an ESRI analysis back in 2016. There is a big difference between €22 million and €4 billion. There are issues of residency and so on, as the Deputy knows, as well as a whole lot of other stuff.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The billionaires are claiming-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Paul Murphy referred to schools. Again, I pay tribute to all the teachers, principals, parents and students in our schools for their efforts throughout the pandemic. It has been difficult and challenging time for them. Significant resources have been provided to schools, from PPE right the way through to funding for expenditure, to allow them to deal with the Covid-19 challenge. My view is that schools have coped well. There have clearly been challenges, not least in terms of the most recent wave caused by Omicron, which has affected so many people. I do not accept the charges the Deputy made. The issue relating to antigen tests has been fixed and resolved by the HSE.