Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The cost-of-living crisis is pushing households to the brink. Price hike after price hike has workers and families to the pin of their collars, with no sign of the spiralling costs coming down. It is plain to see that people cannot afford Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in government any longer. People are at their wits' end. Rents are soaring, mortgage interest rates are rocketing and grocery prices and energy bills keep shooting upwards. People cannot stretch any more. There is nothing else left to cut back on. Last month, research revealed that Irish electricity prices are the highest in Europe. Gas prices are the highest in Europe as well. This will come as no surprise to consumers who open their bills to see eye-watering amounts being demanded. Energy credits have been long spent and the Government is merely sitting on its hands.

I wish to tell the Minister about one lady's recent experience of this crisis. An elderly lady in County Laois, living alone after her husband sadly passed away last year, received an electricity bill for €760, a colossal amount that she simply cannot afford. She applied for an additional needs payment to help cover the cost. Shockingly, she was refused support because she put a small amount away from her pension over the past year to save for a headstone for her late husband's grave. She was forced to spend that money on the electricity bill instead of the headstone because of that refusal for help. Her husband's anniversary is approaching and she is distraught that she will not have that headstone for his grave on time. Yet, when her family called around to visit last night, they found her sitting in the dark, terrified of switching on the lights, worried sick about what the next bill might be and when these nightmare costs are going to end. This is appalling. What does it say about us and the society that we are living in under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that this is the lived reality for a lady of that age. Another older person let down by the Government is a 90-year-old woman in Dublin whose gas bills have gone from €200 to €600. She simply does not have the money for this. Unsurprisingly, she has fallen into arrears. After questioning the bills, she was threatened with disconnection. She is absolutely beside herself; she is 90 years of age.

A few weeks ago, Sinn Féin brought forward a plan to cut energy costs and cap them, which would have made a real difference to hard-pressed households but the Government blocked the plan and failed to offer up any solutions of its own. The Government acts like a spectator to the catastrophe unfolding for workers and families the length and breadth of this State. Instead of acting, it has abandoned people who need support now. From energy costs to food prices, spiralling rent and mortgage interest rates, it is clear that we cannot afford to have Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government any longer. What will it take for the Government to get its act together? When will it give people the support they need to weather this cost-of-living crisis? What action will it take to cut energy costs and give households, like those two ladies and countless others, the much-needed break they need from ever-increasing costs?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. She is absolutely correct on one matter: the cost-of-living crisis is real for households and families in urban and rural Ireland. That is why it requires action, not just at budget time but from this Government on a regular basis, which can be seen in a range of measures. In advance of Christmas, there were more than €4 billion worth of measures to help people with the cost of winter across a range of areas such as lump sum payments, weekly payment increases and tax reductions kicking in for working families in January. It will be seen shortly by families with children throughout the country, who will benefit from an increase in child benefit of an extra €100 per child next month. This is a Government which, by any objective measure, is acting and using the hard-earned money of the people, paid in taxes, to give a bit back and try to make things a bit easier.

It is really disappointing that the Deputy tried to suggest that the Government is sitting on its hands. You get used to it from the Opposition but it is simply not true. On energy, every household benefited from a €200 payment, not once or twice but three times in energy credits. We provided everybody on the fuel allowance with a top-up payment of a €400 lump sum, which Sinn Féin did not even fathom in its alternative budget. We did that before Christmas, accepting that it was coming into the winter. We extended eligibility for the fuel allowance. I note the two cases the Deputy shared and we think of them. I accept the struggles they face but I think of them, as she described them both, as older people. The measures taken by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, mean that 80,000 more older people will benefit from the fuel allowance under plans this Government has enacted. We are taking action every day. Beyond families, there is the energy scheme for business that we put in place and the decision to extend it so people have until the end of May. We will keep it under review to ensure more businesses can qualify in order to help small and medium-sized businesses across the country. We are taking real action. Those examples are just in the energy space; there are many other areas.

I do not doubt the Deputy's bona fides at all or her sincerity. I know her to be a hardworking public representative but I can only judge her on her party's policy, which is why I am surprised she mentioned energy because Sinn Féin had gone terribly quiet about it for a while. Usually, the Opposition can stand up and say whatever it wants and we never get to see how it plays out in the real world. Unfortunately for the Opposition, Liz Truss became the British Prime Minister, albeit for a very brief period.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The lettuce.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

During that time, I do not know whether she stole Mary Lou's homework or Mary Lou stole hers but we ended up-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

What about Germany?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----in a scenario in which it went ahead and did what Sinn Féin advised and brought in price caps.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

They bust the country.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government is just the Tory Party.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In bringing in price caps, she managed to tank the pound.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is a new form of republican tactic.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We will not follow the example of Liz Truss or introduce price caps.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If the farmers start a party, the Government will be in trouble.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

He is telling the truth.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister is misleading the Dáil.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin comes in here on a very regular basis and asks if we have seen the latest ESRI report. It regularly asks Ministers if they have seen what the ESRI said. We could probably paper the walls of this Chamber with ESRI reports Sinn Féin would like us to implement. Has Sinn Féin seen what the energy economist in the ESRI, Muireann Lynch, said only two weeks ago about the Sinn Féin proposal? It was not the Government or Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or the Greens or whoever Sinn Féin wants to pick on today but the ESRI which stated, regarding price caps, "it means the energy providers can essentially jack their prices up as high as they want-----

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The windfall tax. Introduce a windfall tax.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Do not shout him down.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----because they have absolutely no incentive to try to contain those costs ... They know that it's all going to be covered by the Government". The only certainty Sinn Féin's plan would provide is the certainty that the woman in Laois and the woman in Dublin and everybody else watching this programme would have to put their hands in their pockets and hand their money over to the energy companies.

This is why-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is today they cannot give it, not next month or next year.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister cannot-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Deputy Gould, please.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This is why we will not bring in a plan that is bad for the economy-----

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Misleading the Dáil again.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----bad for households and bad for the climate. The only people who would benefit would be the energy companies. Instead, what we will do-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The time is up.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was shouted down. What we will do instead is legislation for a windfall tax to hit companies where it hurts-----

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Tell the truth. Time to move aside.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Please, the time is up.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----in the pocket and on their profits.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Wait now. On both sides of the House, I ask for a little bit of order and respect. I call Deputy Clarke.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No engaging in any amount of misinformation is going to put a headstone on the grave of that woman's husband. This is a simple fact. Equally, it will not put money in the bank account of people like that other lady in Dublin who has a colossal gas bill. The Minister mentioned child benefit and this aspect will be welcomed by all parents because they already have the bills these funds will have to go towards paying. It will not be for future bills that will arrive. Lord knows, it is not even to buy their children a pair of shoes over the summer. It is to pay the bills already sitting there.

There is, therefore, no future plan. This is where we have heard the Government come up with this notion of suggesting that people can hang on until the budget in October and then it will see what it can do then. It simply is not good enough. The message coming from the Government now is very clear to everybody across this State struggling in the here and now. The Government has no interest in tackling the struggles people are facing. It has no interest in assisting them in their time of need. The energy credits were mentioned. They were gone before the money ever landed in anyone's bank account or came directly off the bill. The question, therefore, again stands. What is the Government going to do to cut energy costs and to give households struggling in the here and now a break from these costs?

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Hear, hear.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is a very simple answer to this-----

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Nothing.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----and it is that we are going to introduce a windfall tax.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

One year later.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Deputy Clarke and her party were in favour of this a couple of weeks ago and still are now I think, but I am not sure.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Deputies, please.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We are going to introduce a windfall tax.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We worked at a European level under the leadership of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in November. We published legislation in March, which we referred to the relevant Oireachtas joint committee. With the co-operation and support of the Deputy and her party for the windfall tax, I hope we will pass it before the summer recess. We will introduce it this year and we will say to these companies, in a very practical way, that if they are going to continue to profiteer on the back of Irish people, then we are going to tax them for it.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Will this be the same as retail companies?-

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This is what we are going to do. What we are not going to do is Trussenomics, where it is decided to put in price caps that-----

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Misleading.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I know the Deputies opposite do not care what I say, but the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has suggested this would benefit disproportionately highest-income earners. Did the Deputies see this? It was also suggested that it would actually encourage energy companies to "jack up" their prices, that it would be bad for the climate, bad for energy supply in the European Union-----

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Hear them now-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Be honest.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----and that it was tried in the nearest country and it did not work. We will stand with those families mentioned. We have extended the fuel allowance and we have done the lump sum payments. We will continue to support those families. The Deputies opposite can continue to do their sound bites. Unfortunately for them, we saw how this approach worked in the UK.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. The time is up now. I call Deputy Cairns.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was very struck by a photograph taken by Niall Carson carried in the Irish edition of the Daily Mailtoday. It shows several asylum seekers leaving Magowna House and walking along a small country road. The caption says they are heading back to Dublin. The men are not lumbered down with many heavy bags. They each have small backpacks and a plastic bag. Their only possessions are crammed into those small bags. It is unclear how they intend to get back to Dublin and it is also unclear where they will stay once they get there. Given they have now left international protection accommodation services, IPAS, accommodation, it is likely they will be forced to sleep rough on the streets.

These people have come to this country with nothing and we are failing them. It did not have to be like this. The manager of Magowna House knew for three months that asylum seekers would be housed there, but nobody else was told. The local community was not told. Local politicians were not told. Not even the Clare Immigrant Support Centre, which has been providing outreach services for refugees for more than 30 years, was told. The Government is presiding over an increasingly chaotic response to this crisis. There are real fears that the shameful and violent scenes we saw in Dublin at the weekend will be repeated. We all know there has been an abject failure to provide emergency accommodation. Two years into this crisis, there is still no strategy to engage with communities housing refugees.

The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, was appointed to his portfolio with responsibility for integration to help with this work. He put together proposals in January 2023 to recruit a team to help with community engagement. It is reported in the Irish Examinertoday, however, that those plans stalled when they were sent to the Department of the Taoiseach. Five months later, that Department is still exploring alternative models of engagement. We still have no communications strategy. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, was appointed to the integration portfolio to help with this effort, but how can he when his plans are put on hold?

It appears the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, is on his own. At least this is the view of the Green Party. Senator Garvey of the Green Party said on "Morning Ireland" today that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has been "thrown under a bus". There are also reports of increasing tensions between the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Senator Garvey implored people not to play politics with this issue. It appears, though, that the only people playing politics are sitting at the Cabinet table.

Does the Minister, Deputy Harris, agree that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has been thrown under the bus and left to deal with this issue alone? When will the Government publish its communications strategy for local communities housing refugees?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising an important issue and one I think is on the minds of people right across this country this week. We had an opportunity in the House yesterday to reflect on the horrific scenes in Dublin and the Deputy is rightly raising the issue in County Clare now.

First, I wish to be clear that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is leading an incredible effort to address the largest humanitarian crisis any of us have probably lived through. We are all working tirelessly to support him. There are very concrete examples of this beyond words. Taking my Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, this means providing student accommodation during the summer months to the national months. If we take the Department of Justice, it means identifying and providing the Thornton Hall site. Turning to the Department of Defence, it means providing several sites, including Kilbride Camp in my constituency or Columb Barracks in Mullingar. It means taking account of the work of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, in respect of the Office of Public Works, OPW, and the roll-out of rapid-build housing, with the first units due to come on stream-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is-----

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Is the Deputy in favour of it or against it?

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We are in favour of it, but the Government should have delivered it six months ago when it was supposed to-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Deputy Gould, please.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As for calling it rapid-build housing, let us face it-----

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I ask the Deputy to rein in his party's councillor in Limerick.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister of State to rein in his party's councillors in Cork, if he knows what he is talking about.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, please not to provoke the Deputy.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was not provoking him.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It does not take much to do so.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am sorry-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Take it easy now.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Some issues are more important than shouting at each other across the Chamber. This is a very serious issue. I assure Deputy Cairns that the entire Government and the Cabinet committee chaired by the Taoiseach are co-ordinating the effort concerning this issue. For the information of the House, I confirm that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, now intends to open 350 additional beds this week. This will make a significant difference. A huge amount of work has been undertaken to get to this point. I acknowledge this aspect.

The Deputy also asked about community engagement. My understanding is that the tender for this has now gone out and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, is leading this effort. Regarding community engagement as well, it is important that we also provide financial assistance for communities that have opened their hearts, homes and facilities to help with this humanitarian effort. This week, the Government will announce the allocation of a €50 million fund that will see every county receive a level of funding.

If the Deputy does not mind me saying so respectfully as well, I think there needs to be a degree of fairness in respect of the commentary concerning this matter. Ireland's response has not been perfect. I am not sure that any country's has been. We have, however, achieved an awful lot together as a country and the Government has done an awful lot in a short time. Just this morning, I was looking at the figures from before the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and I think we saw 4,781 people come to Ireland and seek protection. We have seen more than 100,000 people come here in the course of the last year or thereabouts. This is a huge challenge and we must be honest, including the Government and everybody else. People are entitled to come here and to seek protection, but we must also be very honest about the accommodation challenges we face. We are working not on a daily basis but on an hourly basis to try to come up with solutions in this regard. The conversation at Cabinet, not that we discuss Cabinet matters in detail here, but for clarity, yesterday was about what we can do immediately, right now, to help with the acute situation regarding tents and then, moving beyond this, about how we can progress and turbocharge the progression at several of the sites identified for rapid-build housing, pods and other approaches.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Modular housing was supposed to come on stream last November. Not a single unit has been delivered. Is this rapid in the opinion of the Minister?

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Yes.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Accommodation services are in crisis, but when Baggot Street hospital was proposed as an accommodation centre, we were told it would take nine months to do a feasibility study. Does taking nine months to do a feasibility study scream urgency and emergency to the Minister? Nobody is underestimating the task that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has. This is why we are asking if other Cabinet Ministers are pulling their weight. He and his staff seem to be very much alone in this endeavour. He has had to repeatedly implore Cabinet colleagues to locate accommodation. On one occasion, a single Department, the Department of Defence, came back with one location, and now the feasibility study is being launched. His Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, cannot even get the Taoiseach to sign off on a communications strategy for local communities.

Who is in charge here? The Minister said the Cabinet is doing everything it can. The Taoiseach said the same but there is absolutely no evidence of that. It seems the Cabinet is at war and there is a complete lack of a co-ordinated approach. When will it sign off on the proposal for community engagement?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That will be a matter for the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. He is working very intensively on this.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

He has been waiting five months to hear back from the Taoiseach about whether it can be approved.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Deputy does not need to speak for the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien; he can speak for himself. He is already working very hard on making a real difference in regard to this. Deputy Cairns implored the Government not to play politics with this. I respectfully suggest the same.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is not fair.

A Deputy:

If the Deputy cannot take it, do not-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Lads, I do not need any help.

It is not fair to suggest that moving from 4,700 people seeking protection in our country to 100,000 people is a seamless transition. That is not fair. I am aware of the questions I was asked. I was asked questions in regard to the community engagement plan. I said it has gone to tender in the past two weeks. I was asked questions about how we will further support communities. I outlined that we will announce a €50 million allocation to communities this week. I am absolutely assuring the Deputy, and the facts bear that out, that every Department has contributed to the national effort. Every person in Ireland, in many ways, is contributing too. We are making a real progress. We have to be honest with people. There is not one singular thing we can do. This requires hourly work across Government and that is in place.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Baineann mo cheist le mo chathair féin, cathair álainn dhátheangach ar imeall na Gaeltachta is mó sa tír ach cathair atá ag déileáil le fadhbanna ollmhóra, an ghéarchéim tithíochta agus géarchéim na dtranglam tráchta san áireamh. Eascraíonn na fadhbanna sin go díreach as polasaí na comhairle cathrach agus polasaí an Rialtais. Táimid tagtha go dtí am na cinniúna. Tá ceist le cur agus freagra ag teastáil. Cá bhfuil ár dtriail mar chathair i gcomhthéacs na ndualgas atá orainn maidir le hathrú aeráide?

As the Minister will have grasped, my question relates to Galway city, which is naturally beautiful. It is a bilingual city and a gateway to the biggest Gaeltacht in the country. It is a city that is struggling with serious problems. It is choked with traffic and faces a serious housing crisis. I have raised this issue before and have received no replies. I have repeatedly brought it to the attention of each Government since 2016 that there are solutions to this problem.

I sat on a local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put park and ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis. A report from the Land Development Agency, LDA, stated that two-thirds of the land identified by the LDA in Galway is in category 3, with significant problems. Part of it is in Merlin Park University Hospital which will never be used for housing.

Recently, a conference was held, Reimagining the Irish City, hosted by the O'Reilly Institute, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, the Academy of Urbanism and Galway City Council. I praised it, but it is significant that it was not an inclusive conference. I understand the tickets cost a couple of hundred euro in order to attend it in St. Nicholas's church. It should have been held in a city council building, led by the city council, but there was a complete absence of vision and leadership.

Before the Minister comes back to me tells me this is a local authority issue, I wish to state this is an issue for the Government in regard to our climate obligations and building a sustainable city. My preference would be public transport with light rail, but there are many solutions. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated. I present this as someone who is very proud of my city, i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla, ach tá gá le réitigh inmharthana.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising these issues. Everybody in the House appreciates the beauty, benefit and importance of Galway as a city not just to the west and north-west regions but as a city of strategic importance to our country. Some of the issues are, quite frankly, related to the local authority and there is no getting away from that, but I accept that not all are.

Of course, local authorities received significant funding. I am not casting aspersions on any local authority, but they need to set out their own priorities in terms of housing schemes, county development plans and the drawing down of Government funding, which is probably at a level never seen before. In my role as a public representative, I see the opportunity for local authorities to draw down and access funding across a wide range of Government schemes to improve cities and counties. Funding is probably as an unparalleled and unprecedented level.

I am also very conscious that Galway is a place in which we are continuing to see job investment. In recent days we saw people deciding to invest in Galway. I will get to the transport issue in a moment but in my ministerial brief, I recognise the significant investment we have seen in regard to education in Galway. Not only do we have the University of Galway, Atlantic Technological University has opened and there are major developments and plans under way including expansion at what was the old rugby club site. There are plans for a college of further education. The Government has not been found wanting when it comes to investment in Galway. Investment has led to significant job creation.

From talking to my colleagues from Galway, I accept there are real issues when it comes to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway. These are concerns we share. I would certainly take that these concerns to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, without wading into what I know is a very heated view on the ring road and the like. That was struck down by An Bord Pleanála. There had probably been a lot of energy put behind that project.

We share the view that we need a park-and-ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans. I am very happy to pass on the views of the Deputy on public transport, accessibility and so on to the Minister for Transport. I also suggest that the city council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down and apply for funding from a range of schemes, including in the public transport area.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

First, a correction. An Bord Pleanála did not say, "No" to the ring road; the High Court said, "No" to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations. That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.

In the conference I mentioned, the chief planner, who has huge experience in Freiburg, described Galway as being like a mouthful of broken teeth. He also said there was very little sign of urgency in regard to our obligations in respect of climate change with the way development was taking place in Galway. We have any amount of possibilities. Mar a dúirt mé i nGaeilge, is am na cinniúna é. It is the tipping point. It is time to make transformative decisions.

Sorting out the housing crisis by building public housing is a major part of the solution. Not a single unit of public housing was built in Galway in 2002. There is no master plan for the city. The docks are doing their own thing. Níl aon mhórphlean ann. Ceannt Station is doing its own thing. Sandy Road is doing its own thing. There is no overall planning to bring together a comprehensive and transformative plan to make Galway a green city. We have employment and beauty. We are choking it through a lack of direction from management, in particular from the Government which is not telling the city it has to comply with obligations under climate change.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Of course it has to comply with its obligations under climate change. Even in discussions at Cabinet yesterday and announcements by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, make it very clear that it can no longer be about Government, be it national or local, telling other people that climate change requires them to change. There is a significant programme of change that every public body, including local authorities, need to undertake. To be clear, the legal requirement of Ireland Inc., of which the Deputy's city and county council are a part, is absolutely apparent.

Mea culpaon the High Court piece. The Deputy is, of course, entirely correct on that. I am aware that the LDA has significant development plans for Galway. From a Government point of view, we have capitalised the LDA in a very meaningful way. It is not short, in any manner or means, in its ability to get on with delivering projects. Across healthcare, which has been a major issue of concern in Galway for many years, my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is moving ahead with an elective hospital that will help the people of Galway significantly.

I take the Deputy's point and view on the need for a master plan. I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We have a serious health crisis in this country, with more than 1 million people on waiting lists for medical procedures. This, coupled with housing, has to be our biggest challenge, but like housing, this and previous Governments have failed miserably to challenge the crisis with any meaningful success. I was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 2016 and it soon became apparent that we had a health crisis no one was tackling, with people going blind for the want a cataract operation; people in dire pain in need of a hip or knee operation and people of all ages suffering on waiting lists and going nowhere. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, launched a €350 million waiting list action plan in February of last year which committed to reducing active waiting lists by 18%, but fast-forward to the end of the year, those on waiting lists only dropped by a modest 1.6% - fewer than 11,500 people - instead of the planned 132,000 people. At that time, a staggering 887,500 people were on waiting lists. Some 97,000 of these are children. When the additional 243,000 people waiting for CT, MRI or ultrasound scans are added, it takes us way over 1 million people on waiting lists.

This weekend, three buses will leave Cork and Kerry, taking people on waiting lists, some of whom have been waiting nearly five years, for operations in Belfast under the cross-Border scheme. Many of these people are up at 3 a.m., coming from places such as Mizen Head and the Beara Peninsula. Some of these are people of more than 80 years of age. They have worked honestly and hard in this country, paid their taxes and at a time when they want a small procedure such as a cataract procedure, they are left to go blind. Two of these buses go up for cataract procedures to Kingsbridge private hospital. I thank the private hospital for working with me and others, in saving thousands of peoples' eyesight with cataract operations. However, it is not just cataracts. For the first time, we will run a full bus from Cork and Kerry to Kingsbridge, with people of all ages who need hip, knee, carpal tunnel and prostate surgeries, as well as other surgical procedures. All of them have been left in pain or with the worry that their disease will spread. This same-day, up-and-down bus service, organised by myself and Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, is the first of this type in this country. These long-suffering patients will have their consultations and pre-operative assessments, pre-ops, on Saturday and will be home that night. Each patient is travelling in the knowledge that they will now have surgery within two to three months; light at the end of a very dark tunnel for them. I asked my staff to randomly pull out a file for one of the patients going up for a hip consultation to Belfast on Saturday morning. They told me this man in west Cork has been waiting two and a half years in Cork, on one waiting list or another, and the pain has gone too far. The only solution possible is a reimbursable operation in Belfast.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, was the Minister for Health for many years and during this time, health issues got worse rather than better. I know people in west Cork who are double amputees and cannot leave hospital as they have no home help. There is no endoscopy unit in Bantry. The Minister was down there and he made the announcement, but it never happened. There is no stroke unit for Bantry hospital either. There was announcement after announcement, but it has not happened. The list of shocking failures by the HSE continues, leading Paul Cullen to state in The Irish Timesthat management in the HSE is "stubbornly resistant to change". Does the Minister agree with Paul Cullen's statement? Will he be honest and admit that the HSE is a complete failure, leaving exhausted HSE staff and patients in pain?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I absolutely will not. The Deputy can have a go at and slur the Government, if he wants, but when he talks about the HSE, he is talking about hundreds of thousands people working every day. The HSE is nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants and people who get up and work bloody hard to try to run our health service. Thus, I do not agree with cheap-shot political lines at all. I will agree, however, that we continue to face major challenges in healthcare. We are all aware of that. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, is presiding over what is the largest expansion in the Irish health service. There are very clear statistics to show this. If one looks at GP access to diagnostics, 500,000 people had access in 2022. There are 20,000 more people working in the Irish health service - the people the Deputy wants to criticise. There are 6,200 more nurses; 2,000 more doctors and dentists and 3,000 more health and social care professionals. We are working on making sure we can train more people. We want to significantly expand the number of doctors, nurses and speech and language therapists we train, in order that we can really beef up our health service. We have seen the largest expansion of beds across the health service and the putting in place of primary care teams. Do we have challenges? Yes, we do, but are our health outcomes improving? Yes, they are. Are we seeing a significant reduction in waiting times, when compared with the Covid peak? We are.

Every health service in the world and every country that went through lockdowns and restrictions as a result of Covid, saw a significant increase in their waiting lists. Until Covid, we had been seeing modest improvements in waiting times, especially for inpatient and day cases. The pandemic really saw our waiting lists go through a very difficult period, but there were 135,000 fewer people waiting longer than the Sláintecare targets of ten to 12 weeks at the end of last month, than there were at the Covid peak. I absolutely accept there are challenges and there is more to do but I believe we are on the right path in having that agreed plan that is Sláintecare; having an understanding of what wait times look like and having an unprecedented level of investment in beds and staff. Now comes the tricky bit and the bit about reform, that is, the new consultant contract the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has put in place; making sure we staff our hospitals in a way that works, especially around discharges at weekends and - I acknowledge the Deputy is passionate about this issue - how we use our level 2 and community hospitals to better effect.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister said I was taking a cheap shot. I am not taking a cheap shot at anybody. I am standing for the people who are suffering in this country. I am standing for the staff who had been neglected by the Government, at the very top, and have been overstretched in their hospitals. How can the Minister stand here and praise a system that leaves a double amputee in a hospital, unable to go home because of not being able to find home help? How can he stand over the HSE which announces, year in and year out, that it will have an endoscopy and stroke unit in Bantry hospital, with no delivery? How can he stand over people travelling by car, passing Bantry General Hospital after 8 p.m. every night, because the accident and emergency department there is closed and having a to travel 120 or 130 miles to a bottleneck at Cork University Hospital? How can he stand over a mental health service that is losing beds in west Cork? How can he stand over people of more than 80 years of age travelling to Northern Ireland, getting up at 3 a.m. and not coming back until 36 hours later, to have a 25-minute procedure? The Minister stands up to tell me I am taking a cheap shot. He is taking a cheap shot at every man, woman and young person who will travel on that bus - more than 70 of them - next weekend, who are suffering in pain. They need a hip, prostate or cataract operation and the Government has failed miserably to deliver it for them.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We are also living in a country that has the highest life expectancy in Europe, as deemed by the World Health Organization. Not everything the Deputy says about the HSE is entirely true either. It must be doing something right.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

What was wrong?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy wants to blame the HSE for everything that goes wrong, he also has to acknowledge-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister is in charge.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----when the health services progress. It is a statement of fact that the Deputy and his constituents are living in a country that has the highest life expectancy in Europe.He wants to blame the Government for everything but when something good happens, that is incidental and has nothing to do with us.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

A total of 1 million people.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

He cannot have it both ways. The reality of the situation is there are too many people waiting too long-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

They are only promises.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----but it is also true to say that there were fewer people waiting last month than there were at the Covid peak. We are seeing real progress and inroads as a result of an unparalleled and unprecedented level of investment. That will continue and it will benefit the Deputy's constituents. The new ophthalmology service we will see in Cork this year will also fundamentally benefit the area.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That was last year.