Dáil debates

Thursday, 13 October 2022

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Today, third level students throughout the State are staging a walkout from lectures. I send solidarity and support to these students and their families. I wish to acknowledge the work done by the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, and all of the student unions. Students are weary and they are at their wits' end. This is not a decision they have taken lightly. They have been forced into it by the Government's abject failure to stand up for students. Students are very much under pressure. Too many are sleeping in cars or on sofas or commuting exhausting journeys because there simply is not enough accommodation; PhD researchers are pushed to the brink of their finances without a living wage or decent conditions and Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants are in dire need of reform.

The student housing crisis should shame the Government. The whole calamity in this regard is that the number of students who need accommodation is entirely predictable. It is not good enough for Ministers to act surprised every September. Indeed, it is apt that the walkout today was at 11:11 a.m. because the Tánaiste's party has been in government for 11 years and the problem has got worse after each of those years.

Despite all of the handwringing of Government Deputies, this year's budget is the third consecutive budget from this Government without an allocation for student accommodation. The Fine Gael Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has passed the buck to the Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage - a Minister who has not even met student representatives to discuss the crisis. Someone needs to take responsibility. Students are paying the price each and every day.

Let me tell the Tánaiste what the Government's failure to deliver student accommodation means for ordinary students. One student told me that being unable to secure accommodation has meant the student must commute two and a half hours each way. This student's mental health has suffered immensely due to anxiety. Another student told us of a six-hour commute each day to reach UCD from Offaly and that students knows of lads travelling from Longford daily. The student is in final year but cannot face it and will defer. A PhD researcher said that, out of the €1,500 per month stipend, €1,000 each month goes towards accommodation and that researcher is left eating beans on toast at every meal. The researcher's mental health has been severely impacted and they are considering quitting their programme and leaving the country.

The housing crisis the Government has caused is devastating people's lives and is impacting on student education. However, it does not have to be this way. We need capital investment to unlock the 3,000 student college-owned beds that the Government has allowed to sit on the shelf. This must happen without delay. Sinn Féin allocated €81 million in additional capital investment to get these shovel-ready projects on site and under construction. Will the Tánaiste commit to allocating the necessary investment?

Students and parents must be recognised as renters like any other and, yet, they are being unfairly excluded from the rent tax rebate. Will the Tánaiste find a way to include them in the rent tax credit? PhD researchers are also excluded because they are denied worker's status. Will the Tánaiste end this unfairness and include them in this rebate? Students have been failed for far too long on the watch of the Tánaiste's Government. Will he end this unfairness and tackle the student crisis, once and for all, to let the students of this country get on with their education and careers?

Too many people are being excluded. When I talk to universities and colleges, they tell me about the hundreds of students who are on their accommodation waiting lists. That does not even include the students who have not even left their homes or have decided to defer until next year. This is totally wrong on many levels. Students need the support of this Government.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The rise in the cost of living is affecting everyone and it is affecting students too. We understand that. We get that. Students want their voices heard and, by protesting today, they are making sure that their voices are heard. They will be heard in this House and by this Government.

I will give the Deputy a few examples of what we have announced only in the past few weeks, such as a reduction in college fees by €1,000 this year and by €500 on a permanent basis from next year and we intend to build on that in the years ahead. There will be a one-off increase in the student grant before Christmas which will put more money back in students' pockets; a 10% to 14% increase in the student grant from January and eligibility for the student grant is being widened in order that approximately 15,000 students, who do not currently qualify for a grant, will qualify for one next year.

We have also reduced the cost of public transport for students by up to 50% and more purpose-built student accommodation will be built in the next months and years. The four things we are doing to help students with the cost of living are cutting the student fee, increasing the student grant, reducing the cost of public transport and building more purpose-built student accommodation, which is desperately needed, as the Deputy rightly points out.

It is worth saying that we have more students in Ireland now than ever before. That is very positive. This generation of school leavers is more likely to receive third level education and further and higher education than any generation that has gone before it. It is also more likely to be in employment and, as we know from migration statistics, more Irish citizens return every year than leave. That has been the case for a number of years.

Like all sectors of society, students are very much suffering when it comes to the impact of the housing crisis and very high rents. We absolutely acknowledge that.

With regard to the question that the Deputy raised on student accommodation, the Minister, Deputy Harris, taking the lead on this. He has the authority of the Government to do so in co-operation, of course, with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Hundreds of student accommodation places are under construction at present of which 600 alone are located not too far away from the Deputy in the University of Galway.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, is putting together a financial package to help unlock student accommodation developments, where permission is granted but they cannot proceed, because they are not financially viable. He is putting together financial aid for universities, including technological universities, to unlock those developments and get them under construction within the next year. That will really help by providing more purpose-built student accommodation on campus. It must be done at affordable rates, because much of the student accommodation that exists, especially in this city, is extremely expensive.

The rent tax credit, as the Deputy is aware, is a credit of €500 per year per renter not per tenancy. If three or four people are sharing house, it will be up to €2,000. It applies to students where they are income tax payers but we acknowledge that in many cases, students do not earn enough to pay income tax and their parents are paying the rent for them. Therefore the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is examining whether it is possible to extend the rent tax credit to parents who pay student fees on behalf of their children. We hope we can do that. Sometimes these things are easier promised than done but we hope we can do that and we should be in a position to confirm whether we can do it by next Tuesday, when the finance Bill comes to Cabinet.

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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That is welcome. The Minister, Deputy Harris, will be in the Dáil to answer questions next week and I hope he will acknowledge that, because parents paying for students' rent should be entitled to the credit. Rent is rent at the end of the day.

What is disappointing is we can predict accurately, based on the number of babies born today, how many students are going to need accommodation in 19 or 20 years' time. There must be an acknowledgement of the failure there and we must learn from it. It is inevitable there must be a capital investment to make the 3,000-plus beds financially viable and that needs to be done sooner rather than later. This Government is very good at looking at things but I ask for immediate action on behalf of the students who are out protesting today. I acknowledge the great work they have done to stand up for themselves but we in this House must also stand up for them and hear what they are saying. Their families are under pressure and they are under pressure and it must stop.

12:10 pm

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure that is entirely true. If we rewound to 20 years ago, when neither my party nor that of the Deputy was in government, and projected ahead, I doubt we would have projected the population of the country would be 5.2 million, as it is now. I doubt we would have projected we would have extended the opportunity of higher and further education to so many as we do now. I am thankful to say more people are accessing higher and further education than was ever the case before. They are doing so from a wider and more diverse range of backgrounds, especially non-traditional ones, than was ever the case before. Those are really good things but they have resulted in a shortage of student accommodation. We acknowledge that and that we must deal with it. One of the ways we are going to deal with that is by providing financial aid to universities and technological universities to unlock some of those purpose-built student accommodation developments so they can go ahead. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is working on that as we speak.

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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The key message for today is we need a winter eviction ban. We have seen it in the report from Threshold launched today, which was unequivocal. It outlined that the most pressing issue facing those renting in the private sector in Ireland is the termination of their tenancy. The fear of termination of tenancy, of eviction, is the biggest fear confronting renters. With over 10,000 people on the homeless list we know just how serious that fear is. Of course, the second fear of renters is of rent increases. Rents have increased by almost 80% in the past decade and risen by 90% in Dublin. Renters are worried they will lose their home through eviction. We need to see urgent action from the Government on this.

Threshold has recommended the removal of no-fault eviction from the Residential Tenancies Acts. Twelve months ago, the Labour Party put forward in this Chamber the Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill which would have created, among other things, far greater security of tenure for renters by restricting the situations in which a tenant can be evicted, along with providing for better quality-of-life measures for tenants. Had the Government taken on our Bill this time last year, families who rent would have been guaranteed a safe home this winter but so many renters now do not have that security. I am conscious that my constituency has more than double the national average of households in private rental accommodation. This is a very serious issue. President Michael D. Higgins was right to call the housing situation "a disaster".

No single section of society is insulated from this disaster. It spans age cohorts. In my constituency I have supported pensioners facing eviction due to unaffordable spiralling rents. Losing your home late in life is unquestionably appalling for somebody facing into older age. It is a social, economic and public health issue but it is a particularly terrible situation for daoine óga na hÉireann. Our youngest generation are facing a future where they have no certainty or security about where they are going to be able to live. My own office has taken to trawling daft.ie and private advertisements to assist students who are thinking of dropping out of third level education because they cannot find anywhere to live. It is devastating to have to tell students and their parents there is simply nowhere available. I commend the Union of Students in Ireland on co-ordinating a student walkout this morning at 11.11 a.m. One of its key points of protest is the abject lack of accommodation for those attending further or higher education. The Government must listen to these students. The market has failed to deliver on accommodation for those renting and seeking to rent to attend college.

Will the Government impose an immediate and temporary eviction ban for this winter? It can be done within the terms of our Constitution if it is carried out in a way that is proportionate. There are precedents for doing so. Will the Tánaiste concede this needs to be done now?

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in people who are homeless and need to access emergency accommodation. I am thankful that we are able to provide emergency accommodation for almost everyone who needs it. We do not see, or at least we very rarely see, families having to sleep on the streets or sleep in cars, as is often the case in other countries. Nobody wants us to end up in that situation. With a few exceptions, which are often very difficult and complex cases, we are able to provide emergency accommodation to everyone but that is not where we want to be. We do not want to be providing emergency accommodation for over 10,000 people, which is what we are doing now. The experts and people who work at the coalface tell me it is being driven by three things. One is indeed landlords giving people notices to terminate as they sell up and leave the market. There is a real difficulty securing housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancies and that is why we have increased the HAP limits quite considerably. There has been a significant increase in the last couple of months of families from overseas - non-Irish families - presenting for emergency accommodation. In general, they are not entitled to social housing in Ireland but we provide them with emergency accommodation on a humanitarian basis, as we should. Those are the three factors driving the increase in homelessness according to the experts and the people working at the coalface and in the field.

As for what we can do to help, the rent credit will help some people with their rents. It is €500 per person, so for a couple it is €1,000 and for three people renting it is €1,500. In many cases it will be the best part of a month's rent to help people with that. I advise people who face the possibility of losing their home to engage with the prevention services as soon as possible. That could be through the Government services or NGOs like Threshold and Focus Ireland because prevention works and we need to resource those areas a little better.

A no-fault eviction ban over the winter period is being weighed up by the Government. I certainly have no ideological objection to that. We introduced it when I was Taoiseach during the last Government, although that was during the Covid crisis when there were restrictions on movement and the circumstances were different. We have to weigh up the pros and cons. The obvious advantage is fewer people losing their homes over the winter period. The obvious disadvantage is when it ends, we may see a glut of homelessness occurring at that time which is harder to deal with. It may indeed accelerate the number of landlords leaving the sector and might result in a higher level of homelessness next year. Nobody wants to do anything that helps a problem get a bit better for a few months only to make it much worse in a year's time. We have to weigh it up. As the Taoiseach said, it cannot be the only response and must be part of a wider response.

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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We have certainly been pushing for a wider response. I ask that the Government take up the renters' rights Bill we put forward this time last year because it addresses broader issues around security of tenure and the quality of living conditions for renters. We were glad the Government did not oppose the Bill at that time but we would like to see further progress made on it.

It is useful and welcome to hear the Government is also considering the introduction of a winter eviction ban. It is an urgently needed measure. We see it done in other countries. The Tánaiste mentioned other countries but in France there is a winter truce that begins on 1 November and remains in place until 1 April. During that period landlords have no right to evict tenants, even with a court order, and gas and electricity supplies cannot be cut off. We can learn from other countries where we can see radical measures have been taken to give tenants security, especially through the tough winter months ahead. How bad do we need to see things getting before we see emergency measures adopted here? Again, I reference the proportionate response needed now with the housing emergency and indeed the housing disaster.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is right to say we can learn from other countries but we should not be naive about what things look like in other countries either. Anyone who has walked the streets of Paris or Marseilles will see the kind of homelessness problem that exists there and how much worse it has got in the past ten or 20 years. I acknowledge the Deputy does not think there is any quick fix to these things and nor do I. A number of measures are required and there are many in place already. Let us not forget all new tenancies are now tenancies of unlimited duration and any tenant who is being served a notice to terminate has a period of up to six months, in some cases, to find a new place to live.

I acknowledge how difficult that can be in some cases.

I hear the same issues about students struggling to find accommodation in my constituency office. Deputy Bacik said she often checks daft.ie. It is a good website, though it is only one website. I checked digs.ie this morning. It has a large number of digs available, which is an option for some people. Student accommodation services in the universities have lists of rooms available, running to the hundreds in many cases.

12:20 pm

Photo of Michael LowryMichael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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I attended a briefing on the recently published Deloitte report commissioned by University Hospital Limerick, UHL. Deloitte fulfilled the task it was given. It set out figures and predictions on patient flow and the requirement for 300 new and replacement beds up to 2036. I wholeheartedly welcome today's event, with the turning of the sod for a new 96-bed block in Limerick. This is long overdue but will take time to install and commission. In the meantime, University Hospital Limerick is in crisis. The chaos must be brought under control. Patient safety is already undermined. This serious and dangerous situation must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The emergency department in Limerick is dysfunctional. We have delayed admission followed by delayed action and intervention, a lack of co-ordination within the hospital, a lack of internal communication and a lack of information for worried family members. There is a general air of confusion. This is leading to demonstrable neglect of patients.

To leave patients in pain, waiting for hours on end on chairs and trolleys, is degrading, insulting and, obviously, dangerous. I have received numerous accounts of sick people from north Tipperary not being treated with dignity and respect. I hear disturbing stories about patients who have not received proper care and attention. It is inevitable that litigation against the hospital is increasing. Staff at the hospital are committed and diligent. They have become overwhelmed in this chaos. They are helpless.

UHL has a serious problem with bed capacity, staffing levels and management structures. Some months ago, I informed the Taoiseach in this House that these problems would not be resolved unless a dedicated team of professionals was deployed to Limerick. The Taoiseach agreed to my request. I understand their work is completed. Will their recommendations be made public? That group must have the freedom to insist on and implement organisational changes. Further special funding must be allocated to the hospital for a sufficient bed complement with enhanced staffing levels.

The immediate crisis cannot be ignored. UHL serves a population of 400,000 people from across north Tipperary, Limerick and Clare. The hospital cannot cope with the numbers depending on the emergency department or the hospital itself. Admissions are restricted. Ambulances are left idling outside the hospital as paramedics have nowhere to take their patients when they arrive. Staff at UHL are under unbearable pressure. They are stressed, careworn and exhausted. Ambulance personnel have told me that patients are telling them that there are aware of the serious problems and delays in Limerick and are asking to be taken to an alternative hospital. This is an appalling indictment of the service currently being delivered at that hospital.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this important issue. I appreciate that University Hospital Limerick is not just a hospital for Limerick, but for a whole region, including north Tipperary, Clare and the wider County Limerick. This morning, there were 21 patients on trolleys in Limerick. Eleven had been on trolleys for more than nine hours. That is a bad situation and is not acceptable at all. However, it is not the worst that it has been. We do see some evidence of some improvement in Limerick in the last few weeks. I acknowledge that and recognise the staff and management who have made some changes to make that happen over the last few weeks. I know that is no consolation to anyone who has had to wait on a hospital trolley for a bed.

As the Deputy mentioned, the HSE's performance management and improvement unit led an intensive engagement with the UHL team throughout the summer in response to concerns about conditions in the hospital and the findings of the HIQA report following its unannounced inspection of the emergency department in March. We accept that additional beds must be part of the solution. Some 150 additional beds have been provided in UHL since 2020, over the last two years, with 24 in the dedicated haematology and oncology unit, 14 single beds in a single-bed block, and an additional 60-bed block which opened in 2021. As Deputy Lowry mentioned, work has begun on an additional 96 beds in a new inpatient block at University Hospital Limerick. I believe the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is breaking ground on that development today. The extra 96 beds for the hospital is a lot. It is a small hospital and will have an additional 96 beds in four storeys over the emergency department and renal dialysis unit. It will cost about €90 million. It will take two years to build and three months after that to commission.

We have to work with the hospital to do everything we can to improve the situation in the meantime. That is what the engagement with the performance management unit is all about. It does not just involve work with UHL but with other hospitals in the group and with community services to make sure that we avoid admissions and improve patient flow, so that people get through the hospital quicker and do not have to wait days to get a scan, when that scan might be enough to get them discharged. Regular, frequent assessment of patients reduces the number of long-stay patients waiting for a nursing home.

Photo of Michael LowryMichael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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I thank the Tánaiste. At present, 58,000 people in the mid-west region are on waiting lists. UHL does not have the capacity or capability to complete these assessments. The option to upgrade and increase the services provided at Nenagh and Ennis hospitals is an obvious way to ease this pressure. I wish to acknowledge, in this House, and compliment the management and staff at Nenagh General Hospital for its workload, throughput and efficiency. Further investment, expansion and development of services on this site is a realistic solution and should be looked at. It is also obvious that the mid-west region needs an elective hospital to serve the needs of its huge population. Will the Tánaiste please inform me whether the Government or Department has made a decision on the need for such a new hospital in the mid-west region? Has a location or site been identified? What is the timescale for the delivery of such a project?

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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No decision at this stage has been made by the Government in relation to an elective hospital in the mid-west. It is open for consideration. I do not think it is a bad idea at all. I am realistic about it because I know how long it takes, believe me, to get a hospital through design and planning and then built. Realistically, it would take six years. In the meantime, the mid-west region has a new private hospital that will soon be under construction quite soon. That might be useful to us for public patients to access through the National Treatment Purchase Fund. We also have Nenagh General Hospital, St. John's Hospital, Ennis General Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. As Deputy Lowry knows, there has been investment in Croom to provide 24 more beds. The solution for the mid-west might be extended and better use of the existing hospitals in Ennis, Nenagh and Croom, and the use of the private hospital, rather than putting everything into an elective hospital which we might not see until the end of this decade.

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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With fuel prices at an all-time high, many in urban areas like Dublin and its surrounds have turned to public transport, since the costs of owning a car have gone out of ordinary earner's reach. This cost has multiplied considerably in rural communities, especially since the introduction of carbon tax. Owning and running a car for young people, in particular, has become the same as owning their own home. It is not an option in rural communities. The expectation when carbon tax was forced on the people was that we would get a better warmer homes scheme, but we did not. People have been waiting in the cold for retrofitting for two years. We expected better grants for solar panels, but we did not get that either. When I met west Cork hoteliers and supermarket owners recently, they told me that applying for a solar grant is so complicated that they will not bother with it. Instead, they will pay out of their own pockets to install it.

What should the young and all other people in west Cork expect to get from our carbon tax payments, since we pay the most? One would expect a proper public transport service. In two and a half years of this Government, I have seen no delivery of a transport service in west Cork. Connecting Ireland remains "Disconnecting Ireland" in west Cork. There are proposals for new services, but that is kicking the can down the road. Due to the NTA's disconnected mindset, public transport is leaving public transport users, including young people, at the roadside since services are not allowed to expand.

Bus Éireann runs daily services in many communities. However, a bus might leave at 7 a.m. and not return until 6 p.m. Many of Bus Éireann's great staff are annoyed that I do not give their services a mention. However the management of Bus Éireann never speak to me about its plans for expansion in west Cork, if it has any at all.

There was no movement on transport in west Cork in decades until West Cork Connect came along. This private company delivers return services every two hours from Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Bandon to Cork daily. It also delivers services from Bantry, Dunmanway and Ballineen to Cork and back. West Cork Connect applied to the NTA to provide on-the-hour return services on these routes every hour. That application was refused. On the Friday before last, the company carried 1,000 college students and everyday travellers to and from west Cork on that day. However, it had to people at certain bus stops as it will not overcrowd its buses. West Cork Connect offered to do the State’s work for it by providing a service every hour on the hour. It did not seek a brown cent from the State for doing so, but it has been refused a licence.

In addition, a service to and from Goleen was offered several times daily by the same private operator. This was also refused by the NTA. Why was that the case? It was not going to cost the State a cent? All the company wants is a licence. People young and old in west Cork pay the most in carbon taxes and get the least in return. Our young people deserve the same opportunities as their counterparts in Dublin, Kildare or Wicklow. They deserve access to the same public transport services, every hour on the hour, whether they live in Drimoleague, Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Baltimore to Skibbereen. These opportunities must be explored and implemented immediately. If this does not happen, it will be an injustice to the great students from Skibbereen Community School, who are here today, and from every school throughout west Cork who have tried to support sustainability in their communities. In the not-so-distant future, the Tánaiste will become Taoiseach again. Will he inquire into the NTA's and the Department of Transport's refusal to develop a fair and proper transport system in west Cork designed to deliver a cleaner future for our young people?

12:30 pm

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. We should acknowledge at the outset that roughly half of carbon tax is paid by businesses and the other half by individuals. It varies a good deal from one individual to another. It is not just a rural-urban matter. It depends on how big your house is and how you heat it, whether you drive and what type of car you drive. There are many things people can do to reduce their carbon tax liability, regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas. I acknowledge that a greater burden is going to fall on rural households than on urban households because of the need to travel by car and the fact that houses in rural areas generally are larger than would be the case in urban areas.

When it comes to solar panels, it is important to bear in mind the changes that have been made recently. In the past few weeks, The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, changed the planning rules to allow people in almost every part of the country to put solar panels on their roofs without planning permission. That is a big change. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced changes to the solar panel grants for businesses. Those changes will make it much easier for them to avail of those grants. I encourage businesses to apply for the grants. There are 20 different schemes available to businesses to give them advice on how to reduce their energy consumption and move to renewables. I would like to see more uptake of that. Because of the high cost of electricity, gas and oil at the moment, the return on investment from solar panels is pretty good. People can make their money back within a few years. That makes it a very good investment.

On rural transport, I agree with much of what the Deputy said. We need to improve public transport in rural areas. There are new services available throughout the country. We have a budget to do more and we have plans to do more. The Minister for Transport and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, will take the opportunity to expand on that in the House. We also need to invest in more electric vehicle charging points across the country. Electric vehicles have much greater range now, which makes them far more viable than in the past. However, we are not where we ought to be in regard to the charging infrastructure that is needed. We need to press ahead in that regard. We use carbon tax receipts to do that type of thing.

The Deputy mentioned a specific private operator who did not get a licence from the NTA. It would not be appropriate for me to get into that. I do not know the answer to the question for a start. Licences are not issued by the Government; they are issued by the NTA, which is an independent regulator. However I appreciate that the Deputy has raised the question here and I will ask my office to make some inquiries as to why that licence was refused. I am sure there is a reason but I honestly do not know what it was.

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. He stated that half of carbon tax revenue comes from fuel, but 90% of that has to be coming from rural Ireland.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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No it is not.

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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Is he saying that there is no difference between somebody coming in from Wicklow to Dublin and an individual travelling from Goleen to Cork? There is a massive difference. There has to be. However, we have a serious crisis on public transport west Cork. It is astonishing that for some reason the NTA refused the offer of an on-the hour service from West Cork Connect, thus leaving adults and students on the roadside due to overcrowding. The erratic decision-making of the Minister for Transport is damaging the new routes being set up, as each month he announces 20% - this could rise to 50% - off public transport. That may be a positive announcement, but he is mainly applying this reduction to city transport users. I have worked very closely with West Cork Connect to get a new route encompassing Kinsale, Belgooly, Riverstreet and Ballinhassig, a first-time bus service for some people, licensed. This private bus operator, while having the vehicle, staff and licence, is afraid to invest because the Minister for Transport could wipe his business out when he announces the next reduction aimed at some, but not all, operators. The people of west Cork have been left behind for far too long when it comes to public transport. The Tánaiste has to stand up to the Minister for Transport in order to ensure that when all these positive reductions in public transport fares for passengers are announced, all rural and urban private and public bus users will benefit and that public, mainly Bus Éireann, and private transport companies will work together to deliver for the people of west Cork who remain disconnected in the context of rural transport.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Once again, the Minister for Transport does not issue public transport licences. That is not his function. The NTA does so on the basis of the law, regulations and certain criteria. I do not know why it refused that licence. From what the Deputy tells me, there is not an alternative service available. Sometimes it will refuse an application if an existing Bus Éireann service is available. The Deputy has indicated that there is not such a service. I will certainly get my office to make inquiries with the NTA as to why the licence was refused.