Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, the agency under the aegis of his Department. [24327/22]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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11. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [25828/22]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, the agency under the aegis of his Department. [26648/22]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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13. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, the agency that is under the aegis of his Department. [29502/22]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [30061/22]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, the agency under the aegis of his Department. [30723/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [30726/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 16, inclusive, together.

The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advises me on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. The NESC work programme in 2022 includes five main areas. It will carry out a major piece of research and consultation on climate, biodiversity and how to achieve a just transition in agriculture. It will continue to help us deepen our understanding of how to deliver more affordable and sustainable housing systems, drawing on international and national experience, including ongoing work in Ireland on cost rental.

NESC is supporting work on Ireland's well-being framework by examining how well-being frameworks are implemented in practice. NESC has also undertaken an extensive programme of research and consultation to support the shared island initiative. It produced a report on this in the first quarter of 2022 which made recommendations in five key areas: economy and infrastructural investment; social policy; climate and biodiversity; well-being frameworks; and data co-ordination.

Finally, it will examine aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic to help identify strategic lessons about public governance and how Government can be supported to arrange and manage its activity to deliver the best results for society.

The NESC Council published five reports in 2021 and one report in 2022. These are: Shared Island Shared Opportunity: NESC Comprehensive Report, Council Report No. 157; Grounding the Recovery in Sustainable Development: A Statement from the Council, NESC Report No. 152; Shared Island: Projects, Progress & Policy, Scoping Paper, NESC Report No. 153; Digital Inclusion in Ireland: Connectivity, Devices & Skills, NESC Report No. 154; Ireland's Well-Being Framework: Consultation Report, NESC Report No. 155; and Collaboration on Climate and Biodiversity: Shared Island as a Catalyst for Renewed Ambition & Action, NESC Report No.156. As reports are finalised in the relevant areas, they are brought to Government for approval in advance of publication.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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We have a number of contributors. Each speaker will have up to one minute, beginning with Deputy McDonald.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach mentioned the Shared Island Shared Opportunity report in support of his Department’s shared Ireland unit about which I wish to question him. The Taoiseach correctly makes a very strong play around the need for dialogue and collaboration and the report echoes that. Will the Taoiseach explain why Fianna Fáil, the party of the Taoiseach, and his partners in Government are actively seeking to block an MLA or MP from parties in the North from participating in special Oireachtas committees? I am not talking about statutory committees but special committees such as the committees on gender equality or autism. That is what is happening and it completely goes against the grain of everything the Taoiseach has been saying around shared island collaboration and working together.

We have the bizarre situation where we have an all-Ireland centre for children with autism located in Armagh, north of the Border, but members of the Government will not work with counterparts from the North to develop policy solutions in a special committee on autism. I ask the Taoiseach for an answer on that point and, in fact, an undertaking that sanity will prevail and that members from the North can participate in special committees?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his update on the work of the NESC. One of the five areas on which NESC is strategically advising the Taoiseach is aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are all conscious that a lack of hospital bed capacity was one of the key reasons our lockdowns had to be so extensive in order to protect bed capacity in hospitals. We see reports that the emergency department in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, is to be closed. Has sufficient capacity been put in place in Drogheda hospital to ensure we do not see the repeat of the overcrowding we have seen in University Hospital Limerick, which I heard about on a recent visit?

Last week in my constituency, I heard from a constituent who told me of their family member’s experience in St. Vincent’s University Hospital where the person had to sit on a chair for two days while enduring the agony of appendicitis. Another person contacted my office last about a relative who was suffering with early symptoms of sepsis having developed blood poisoning, and who sat in a chair into the early hours of the morning semi-lucid and propped upright against a wall. It is a reasonable expectation for those people and their relatives that hospitals would be able to provide beds to every patient in need of care. Has NESC advised on the additional capacity we need to put in place to ensure people are not facing these sorts of waiting times in hospitals?

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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On 15 February, Frank McDonald, a retired journalist from The Irish Times, wrote to the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage regarding a very disturbing pattern which he noticed when reviewing the minutes of An Bord Pleanála’s meetings. He noticed that: “Decisions on [strategic housing development] schemes, particularly those of a high-rise nature, were made by panels of three that consistently included two particular board members rather than being allocated randomly among board members, contrary to assurances given to the Oireachtas by previous chairpersons of An Bord Pleanála.” This is a very serious allegation. The letter was only circulated to members of the housing committee yesterday, despite having been written and sent in February. Are the specific allegations that files on strategic housing developments were not allocated randomly under investigation? When did the Government and the Taoiseach first become aware of these allegations about An Bord Pleanála?

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Taoiseach told us some time ago that NESC is undertaking work on behalf of the shared island unit in the context of the economy and regional development. I suggested that a particular work project should be undertaken on the specific challenges faced by the Border region, in particular the central Border area of Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone. We are very dependent on the agrifood, engineering and construction products sectors. Our key market is Britain. That alone demonstrates the vulnerability of our local economy considering that the British Government proposes to break its international obligations following an agreement which it freely made.

The dairy, beef and sheepmeat sectors are all interdependent on a cross-Border and all-Ireland basis. The proposals made by the British Government have alarmed and frightened people in those sectors. They are utterly crazy proposals and a clear message must go back to the British Government that the protocol is working in the context of the agrifood and farming sector. We have significant volumes of milk coming south for processing in County Cavan and elsewhere.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Two years ago, the National Economic and Social Council produced a report in which it described Ireland’s housing sector as completely dysfunctional. It stated that this could be addressed by policy intervention by the Government and by structuring permanent affordability into the housing sector. Since then, the situation has got worse, not better. By the way, our housing costs are so far ahead of those of the rest of Europe, on average, that for the Taoiseach to suggest that this has to do with the Ukrainian war, or anything like it, is just ridiculous. It is part of the cost-of-living crisis, one of the biggest parts of it, and that is down to the Government’s policy failure, identified as recently as two years ago by the National Economic and Social Council.

One aspect of this is that because the Government refused to raise the income thresholds on eligibility for social housing and social housing support in those two years, thousands of people have lost their entitlement to social housing and social housing support and some of them are homeless. When will the Government raise those income threshold limits and restore the time that has been lost to the people on the housing list?

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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In the past number of days, two health unions - the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO - have made a significant statement on the state of the health service and the conditions of their members. Junior doctors have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action in response to long hours, deteriorating work conditions and, most worryingly, constant breaches of the European working time directive. Alarm bells are ringing for everybody in respect of our health service. If we cannot keep doctors and nurses safe in their workplace, they will not remain in the health service and will go somewhere else.

How is the Taoiseach trying to address this and stop nurses and doctors leaving the country?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Taoiseach has under two minutes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I know. It will be difficult. Deputy McDonald's negativity towards the shared island unit is striking because when I was at the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement there was unanimous support for what it has been doing from all members, including those from Sinn Féin to be fair, on that committee. We do work with elected representatives all over Northern Ireland. When I visited the North recently I had a very good engagement with the North West Partnership which involves councils from Donegal, Derry and Strabane.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Why is the Government blocking them from being on special committees?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We have initiated, for example-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I have asked the Taoiseach a specific question. Please answer.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----the Narrow Water bridge project.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Time is short.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am not stopping. The Ulster Canal and so on. It is not about party partisan agendas -----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Government is stopping MLAs and MPs from participating on an autism committee and a gender equality committee. Why is that?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's capacity to reduce everything to her party is striking. It is the prism through which she looks at everything. That is a pity.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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No, I want an answer to my question.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In relation to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan -----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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He is absolutely waffling.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I was not aware prior to what Deputy O'Callaghan just said -----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Fianna Fáil does not want Northern representatives to participate in committees.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Let the Taoiseach answer, please.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am not aware of those specifics. As the Deputy will know, the Minister has appointed a senior counsel to look at issues pertaining to An Bord Pleanála. When he receives that report he will consider that and I have no doubt he will continue to work with you-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy, please.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Brendan Smith raised a pertinent point on dairy and sheep meat and how the protocol is working generally for the agriculture sector. It seems to me that this is something that is not understood by the British Government particularly with its dual regulatory approach in food traceability which puts a lot of agrifood industries and enterprises at risk if it proceeds with its proposals as announced yesterday. The agricultural interests and the meat and dairy industries that I met are very clear about the negative impact that the Foreign Secretary's proposals would have on the agrifood industry in Northern Ireland. That is what illustrates more than anything the lack of real thinking through of those proposals by the British Government.

Responding to Deputy Boyd Barrett, there is no doubt that the cost of the war is feeding into shortages in materials and so on as did the imbalance in supply and demand occasioned by the bounce-back of the economies after Covid. The war has exacerbated that particularly with the costs in fuel and commodities beyond anything that we have experienced before. That is a big factor in housing inflation.

On Deputy Gino Kenny's points, the last two years have seen record recruitment levels into the HSE front line staff, with nursing, doctors etc. In the junior doctors strike, culture in the medical profession is the key issue. We have had these campaigns where they have been met with increased salaries, as they have before, and promises that the culture would change in how junior doctors are treated but that change has not always transpired. There is a bit more than a pay campaign involved in that and anyone who knows anything about a health service knows what I am talking about. The Minister will engage with the unions on those issues, particularly on the medical side and the junior doctor side and their role in the broader health service.