Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, NESC. [50104/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [50107/22]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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5. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [52019/22]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [51663/22]

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [52024/22]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [52031/22]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52027/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 9, inclusive, together.

I am advised by NESC on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. The NESC work programme in 2022 has five main areas, including to carry out a major piece of research and consultation on climate, biodiversity and how to achieve a just transition in agriculture, and to 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 continuing to work on Ireland's well-being framework by examining how well-being frameworks are implemented in practice. NESC has undertaken an extensive programme of research and consultation to support the shared island initiative. It produced a report on the shared island in quarter 1 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. It examined 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 findings of this examination were published in June this year.

NESC published five reports in 2021 and two reports in 2022, as follows: the Covid-19 Pandemic: Lesson for Irish Public Policy - Council Report No. 158; 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 and Policy Scoping Paper - NESC Report No. 153; Digital Inclusion in Ireland: Connectivity, Devices and 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 and Action - NESC Report No. 156. As reports are finalised in the relevant areas, they are brought to Government for approval in advance of publication.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I propose that NESC and, indeed, the Government urgently look into the question of the nationalisation of our entire energy sector. I want to demonstrate one example to show the Taoiseach the problems we face. That example is the bills over the course of a year of one woman on a district heating system in an area in Dun Laoghaire. In the bill from January to March, the tariff is 0.8 cent per kWh; in the next bill, it is 21 cent; in the next, it is 38 cent; and in the next, it is 49 cent per kWh. These are multiples of even the extortionate increases for ordinary people who are not caught, but trapped, on district heating systems. I mentioned Enniskerry Road, where the picture is similar in the cost-rental development that the Government trumpeted. This is insanity. It is grossly unfair and it is causing incredible hardship for people that profit-hungry, very profitable energy companies are, willy-nilly, charging unaffordable rates. There is no cohesion to the thing and people on that estate have been cut off.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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On 31 August, the local employment services in Tallaght and Clondalkin were shut down, 39 workers were made redundant and the areas are going to be left with no service for at least two and possibly three months. At the end of that time, the local partnership will attempt to re-employ a reduced number of workers on lower wages and with increased responsibilities. The consequence will be a significant reduction in services. When we attempted to raise this previously, the Government said, “Nothing to do with us” and it is the responsibility of the local partnership. The root of it is the tendering process that the Government insisted all of these partnerships went through. It effectively encouraged a race to the bottom in terms of services, with competition from for-profit providers. Will the Taoiseach instruct the partnership to re-employ all of the workers on existing terms and conditions and will he provide the funding to enable it to do so?

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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There seems to be a lot of leaking going on in the Dáil today but I will ask my question in any case. I asked the Taoiseach yesterday about the case of, say, a woman who is faced with a choice this winter of heating, eating or paying full rent, and who decides to put the interests of her children first, ahead of the interests of her landlord, and to pay some but not all of the rent. I asked could an eviction be processed under the proposed legislation in such a case. The Taoiseach did not provide an answer. I want to make it clear that the legislation needs to include an inability to pay clause that speaks to circumstances such as this and guarantees that the Residential Tenancies Board will not entertain cases such as this and that it is open and shut, and landlords cannot evict on those grounds.

In conclusion, the Government walked itself into a massive contradiction yesterday, supporting a ban on evictions but not supporting a ban on disconnections, at least not an across-the-board one that will include pay-as-you-go customers. The Minister is meeting the providers at the moment. When is the Taoiseach going to tell us the outcome of these talks and give assurances to the pay-as-you-go customers?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Yesterday, I raised the tenant in situscheme with the Taoiseach. Will NESC and the Government look at how to strengthen that scheme as part of the package of measures, including the eviction ban, that will be necessary to keep people out of homelessness and to secure homes for families and individuals into the future? Currently, the tenant in situscheme has too much red tape and there is inconsistency across different local authorities. Will councils be resourced to buy homes? Will they be given an instruction to do so by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage? Will the resources be provided to ensure that where landlords are evicting because they want to sell, the local authority will have first call on purchasing or, indeed, the tenants themselves might in some cases be offered the property? What measures can the Government put in place to ensure strengthening of the tenant in situscheme to ensure greater protection for families and individuals who are renting against the risk of eviction and homelessness?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I call Deputy Cathal Crowe, if he is still afloat.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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If my hair stands up, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know the microphone has shocked me, with the rain dropping in this corner. I notice it is dry in other parts of the Chamber but we are still standing.

I have a straightforward question and I hope the Taoiseach can tell us something positive. The Limerick northern distributor road, phase 1, from Coonagh to Knockalisheen, finally got under way for the second time. The contractor fell through but work has restarted, which is great. We now see all the improvements that the Government promised starting to come on stream. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a 150-bed hospital, will soon go in for planning. We also have an industrial zone to be planned beside it and we had news earlier this week that a brand-new train station will be built. However, if the true economy of this belt between counties Clare and Limerick is to be realised, we need phase 2 to happen between Knockalisheen out as far as the University of Limerick. I have had my own squabbles over many years about how we should route it. We have largely lost those battles or, at least, they have been settled. We now need to know with some certainty what will happen with phase 2. Will it stay in limbo or will it be realised as well?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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NESC has just published the findings of focus group work undertaken in the north-west on the experiences of people in the Border areas under the themes of sustainability and connectivity. Indeed, connectivity concerns are at the heart of this work. The Taoiseach met with a cross-party delegation of councillors from Donegal, Derry and Strabane earlier this year. During that meeting, the issue of the funding for City of Derry Airport was put to him. Some 40% of passengers who use Derry Airport are from County Donegal, unsurprisingly. It has connections to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and other places. Reopening the Derry to Dublin air route would create enormous opportunities for the north-west. At that meeting, the Taoiseach agreed to engage further with the Minister for Transport on these matters and noted the Government's interest in working with the aviation authorities and airlines to get this service going. What progress has been made on that matter?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for raising a range of issues. We can in the future put to NESC the issue of the nationalisation of the entire energy sector, although I do not advocate that. We have a regulated market and an independent regulator.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Not on district heating.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy made a specific point in respect of district heating but the specific issues pertaining to district heating would not in themselves merit the nationalisation of the entire energy network and system in the country.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is just one instance.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We need to have bespoke measures to try to help people in district heating settings with effective interventions.

Deputy Paul Murphy raised the issue of local employment services in Tallaght and Clondalkin being shut down for three months and then being restored in a differently organised way. He said it is a slimmed down version. The tendering did not facilitate a race to the bottom. We need efficiencies as well. We need people to have good models. From what the Deputy is saying, the local partnership won the contract. It was not the Minister's intention that those who won contracts would lay people off, but neither is it on that the Government would micromanage every partnership and every agency across the country. Government is a balance between delegation of its authority, as agreed by the Oireachtas, and, at a macro level, dealing with issues that are more appropriate to the Executive. I often note that the Deputy's side of the House calls on the Government of the day to keep directing and keep instructing - keep dictating, basically - people to do it our way and no other way. I am not sure that is the correct or the balanced approach to take. That is just the view that I have.

Deputy Barry again raised the issue of choices and people being in significant difficulties. First, there are moratoriums in respect of people in vulnerable situations. Second, the measures that the Government has taken on funding have been significant in supporting people in need through the cash payments that we will make between now and the end of the year, the permanent measures from January onwards in terms of social protection increases and payments, including the working family payment, and a range of cost reductions that we have introduced, which will help people with their bills, with energy remaining the big one. Regarding social protection, there is the additional needs framework to help families who are in difficulty, not just with energy, but across the board, to ensure that they are never in a position where they would have to make that choice. These measures and mechanisms are robust. We are being clear and insistent with the providers that we do not want any disconnections, particularly of families in difficult situations. I do not believe, given everything that has happened under the various strands, that people should be disconnected in the circumstances that the Deputy has outlined where there is a genuine need and difficulty.

Deputy Bacik raised the housing in situscheme and whether NESC could be deployed or a request made of it. I am not clear that the scheme requires legislative underpinning. We can ask NESC more broadly about the homeless housing issue. I still believe that we need to allow discretion by, and the delegation of authority to, local authorities. Substantial funding has gone to local authorities in respect of housing, and that will continue, but we are open to suggestions and discussions around that issue more generally in terms of what NESC could do.

Deputy Cathal Crowe raised the issue of the Limerick northern distributor road, about which he is passionate. I am glad the first phase of that is under way. He mentioned the investment by the University of Pittsburgh. The new train station that was recently announced by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is a positive because I think that, in future, there must be a balance between road and active travel. The Deputy also mentioned the industrial park, which is good news as well. I understand the motivation behind, and have sympathy with, the proposal for a second phase. Others are not as inclined towards phase 2 and have different views on it. It was not in the original national development plan, NDP, so we have to try to work out how that can be progressed. I note the Deputy's commitment to it.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Taoiseach.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Regarding the north west, I have spoken to the Minister for Transport on this matter. I am anxious for that to happen, but it is in the transport domain right now. Regarding the rail strategy, east-west connectivity is a big issue because the A5 has been caught in a lot of planning issues, public inquiries and so on. Then there is the rail issue. The largest number of submissions on rail came from the north west. The all-island rail strategy, funded by the Minister and the shared island fund, is nearing completion. We need an Executive back up and running for it to be published and acted on. It would help enormously with long-term connectivity for a high volume of numbers if we could get that off the ground.