Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach the mechanism by which his Department will review the progress made in implementing the programme for Government. [5960/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has been working hard to implement the commitments in the programme for Government across a wide range of issues in all Departments. The ten Cabinet committees established by this Government reflect the full range of policy areas on which it will work on during its lifetime, as set out in the programme for Government. Cabinet committees meet regularly to continue this work. Strategy statements prepared by Departments reflect the key national priorities as outlined in the programme for Government.

My Department has been involved in progressing some key programme for Government commitments in recent months, including ongoing monitoring and management of the impact of Covid-19 on the provision of Covid and non-Covid healthcare; driving delivery of our commitments to a shared island on a whole-of-government basis through the shared island unit in my Department; the establishment of a unit in my Department to help support social dialogue; the implementation of the Housing for All strategy, which is driving delivery of key housing-related commitments; the delivery of the economic recovery plan, which was published on 1 June, and for which a progress report will be advanced in the coming period outlining the considerable progress the plan has made in transitioning Ireland's economy; and developing a well-being framework for Ireland, the first report of which was approved by Government and published in July, while a well-being portal and well-being information hub have been developed, a follow-up phase of consultation and engagement on the initial framework has recently finished, and a second report will be published this year.

Other aspects include, harnessing digital, with the digital Ireland framework having been published on 1 February and which is a high-level framework with clear targets and deliverables to support Ireland's ambition to be a digital leader, to the benefit of our economy and society; the signing into law of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, the marine planning framework, the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 and the publication of the climate action plan 2021; engagement with European Union leaders to advance a range of high-level objectives in the programme for Government, particularly concerning those aspects relating to Brexit, Covid-19, the European Union budget and the European Green Deal; the implementation of Global Ireland 2025; supporting the work of the United Nations, through our membership of the UN Security Council; the establishment of a future of media commission; the completion of the work of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality; and ongoing oversight of the implementation of A Policing Service for our Future, which is the Government's plan to implement the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland.

Ensuring progress on implementation of the programme for Government will continue to be a priority across all Departments, as well as through the work of the Cabinet committees. The Government will also shortly publish an annual progress report.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Taoiseach about a specific commitment in the programme for Government to increase the availability of activation schemes, including those run by local employment services, LES. Far from increasing their availability, local employment services, along with job clubs, are being dismantled. The Taoiseach will know that many of those involved in local employment services - I see them in Ballaghaderreen and Ballinasloe in my constituency, while the Taoiseach will have seen similar people in his constituency - have given 25 years of service and dedication and they are vastly experienced.

The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, has repeatedly told me there was an EU requirement that required her to procure and tender out for local employment services and job clubs. The directive and the European Commission have been clear, however, that member states are not obliged to contract out the provision of services where they wish to provide them themselves. Regardless, even if there was a requirement to tender for these services, there is no requirement to change the model.

We are removing the community, not-for-profit basis that has worked so well and moving to a payment-by-results model, which we have already seen through JobPath has not worked. More than 320,000 people have been referred to JobPath, 6.8% of whom have sourced employment that has lasted for a year, at a cost of €250 million to taxpayers. The Taoiseach knows the local employment services and job clubs in his constituency, as I do in mine. They are being dismantled. It is going to remove the walk-in and wrap-around services being provided. For some people, it is not a case of getting a job or any job. Some people require wrap-around services they could get through the LES and the job clubs within their community. That will now be gone.

I know the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, has raised this issue with the Taoiseach. I would like to get his views on this matter because, to date, the relevant joint committee and the Committee of Public Accounts have not been listened to regarding the LES and job clubs. We want to see the community-based, not-for-profit model, which has worked, being retained.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The programme for Government makes many commitments regarding dealing with the homelessness crisis and the provision of affordable housing. I have raised two instances of people in homeless emergency accommodation who have secured employment, which has put them over the relevant income thresholds, and who have then been threatened with being, or actually have been, put out of emergency homeless accommodation. I have now encountered a third family in that situation this week. Two people working are in homeless accommodation because cannot afford the rents, which I remind the Taoiseach in my area average €2,200, so who could afford them, and they are being told they have to leave emergency accommodation. Will the Taoiseach please do something about this?

It is bad enough we have the housing crisis and cannot deliver social housing. By the way, if there was the social housing the Government has said it is going to supply, these people would not be thrown out of it because their income happened to rise, or even if it were to rise above the threshold, because there would be a differential rent. Ironically, however, if they are homeless, because the State has not delivered social housing, when people go over the income threshold, they are evicted from their homeless accommodation. This is bizarre, and as I told the Taoiseach yesterday, this is happening in a council area run by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and where, last year, zero council houses were built. This year they are going to get five. This is the supply the Taoiseach is talking about. This is a Fianna Fáil-Green Party council, and I just wonder if the Minister is aware of this. Does he know that is what is going on? When the Taoiseach says the Government is going to deliver housing supply, does the Minister know there are local authorities that are producing zero council houses or five next year? Seriously, there is a big disconnect between the plans, the rhetoric and the promises and what is happening on the ground.

The reason these families are being thrown out of their accommodation is because of the income thresholds set by the Taoiseach's Government and successive governments before this one. The Department has been reviewing the income thresholds since Deputy Alan Kelly was Minister with responsibility for housing. I have been appealing and asking about this of five different Ministers at this stage and I have received the same answer from every single Minister: we are reviewing them. It is the longest review I have ever seen in my life. It is never completed. What I think, when a review of income thresholds goes on for that long, is that it reduces the numbers on the list and makes the statistics look good. That is why the Department does not want to review them upwards because it does not want to increase eligibility for social housing. That is what is going on - honestly. It is obvious at this stage. There cannot be any other explanation, unless the Taoiseach is going to tell me the limits are going to be varied next week. I would love if the Taoiseach told me that, but I do not believe he will. He is going to tell me they are being reviewed.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On the point made by Deputy Kerrane concerning the local employment services and job clubs, there has been considerable discussion about this in the House and, indeed, within the Government. The Minister has received significant legal advice in respect of the European directive and the need to adhere to it. The Minister, in the designing of the tendering process and framework, has put a fairly high premium on community involvement and engagement. In some cases, that is a key factor in terms of capacity to be successful in tendering for a variety of these services. The Minister has received very strong legal advice regarding what she can and cannot do.

We acknowledge that in certain areas there has been a more community-based approach, especially in areas of high disadvantage. We will continue to look at those. The Minister has taken on board quite a number of the representations people have made on the issue. There is only so far she can go, however, because of legal constraints in respect of tendering, the need to tender and so forth.

The situation right now is that there are shortages all over in various sectors, including the hospitality sector and construction. I can recall not so long ago people in the House saying we should keep the pandemic unemployment payment going and keep this and that going. The reality now is that many sectors have lots of vacancies and they do not have enough people within society and within the economy to fill the jobs that are available. We have a different kind of problem now in respect of economic growth and development, coming back from the Covid situation when restrictions have been lifted not just here but everywhere. That is creating its own challenges in terms of inflation and so on. It is impacting on our economic recovery insofar as the cost of living is very much impacting on people and causing them a lot of pressure.

I will raise with the Minister again the issue the Deputy has raised here today. I am familiar enough with the issues. There is a need in certain areas to make sure we have tailor-made services. I spoke recently to a community representative who said to me it is not really about job activation or about jobs first. It is about getting people in terms of training and acclimatisation, because with the difficulties and challenges people have had in their lives, we need a whole range of programmes to get them even thinking of progressing to employment. That has to be factored in to whatever services are provided.

To Deputy Boyd Barrett, my view is that no one in a homelessness situation should be removed or asked to leave a homeless accommodation environment just because his or her income went up. If that person is still homeless, he or she should be facilitated to stay in the facility until that person gets a social house. There needs to be a common-sense perspective applied by the local authorities in that situation.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Will the Taoiseach instruct them on that?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In terms of the Deputy's question about whether there is a disconnect with local authorities, I just said in my reply that the Minister has provided an additional 200 staff to local authorities. He recognised that, and we have been, since we came into office, very serious about social housing. There have been a number of years where it has taken a while to catch up. We want to do 9,500 this year in terms of direct builds. The approved social housing bodies have taken up a lot of the slack in providing housing. Those bodies have done good work and we have great trust in them in terms of Housing First and the homelessness strategy. The local authorities are being resourced now to ramp up their housing programmes and get projects under way. Some local authorities are doing very well, others not so well. Some local authorities quite simply had lost the human resources capacity to deliver meaningful social housing programmes. That has been rectified by the Minister and I think we will see, in respect of social housing, stronger and higher outputs from local authorities to balance the output from the approved social housing bodies. It is preferable that we would build more social houses as opposed to relying unduly on the housing assistance payment, HAP, system. The HAP system has been in place for almost ten years now.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Absolutely.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We cannot just move on from that with a click of our fingers or wish it away. What we can do is rebalance that equation over time. If we did that, we would then free up more houses for the private market as well, for cost rental and so on. We can have all the politics about it and I respect people's views and different perspectives, but I keep coming back to the point that we need to get supply up. Twenty thousand houses are not going to solve our housing crisis. Before that it was even lower. There is no question that Covid affected it in 2020 and 2021. Without housing supply, however, we are not going to resolve the issues around housing. We need to give people access to a whole range of options in terms of owning and renting homes and apartments. That involves cost rental and affordable housing. The State has allocated €4 billion per annum for the next ten years.