Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have enjoyed this experience and I thank Senators for the contributions they have made. Some of them have been very valuable and very constructive.

My agenda for the future is immediately to deal with the budget and public finances, Brexit, the common travel area, Northern Ireland, our relationship with Britain, the protection of our own national interests and housing and homelessness. Regarding the latter, we have produced an action plan in 100 days, with €5 billion on the table, which is now being implemented.There are challenges in health. The budget is €14 billion and we have waiting lists and issues with emergency departments. Our strategy is to have a ten-year focus on health.

I was asked when the citizens' assembly would report on the eighth amendment. It is the first issue with which Ms Justice Laffoy and the 99 citizens will deal. Obviously, I expect the recommendations or whatever report is produced to be available to the Oireachtas probably fairly early in 2017. I cannot put a date on it because I am not in a position to direct that the assembly has it back by a particular date. It is important that ordinary citizens be entitled to have their say at a public forum in respect of an issue which has divided Irish society for well over 30 years. I look forward to the engagement and participation of people from throughout the country, and various groups will have their say. It will eventually come back to the Oireachtas. I cannot give a date as to when the assembly will report, but it is the first item with which it will deal.

Senator Craughwell referred to public pay. This is a serious issue. Having gone through budgets since 2011, I know just how desperate the situation has been and still is in many cases. I take on board Senator McDowell's words. We are not going to blow the Irish economy off the rails on which the people have put it in recent years through their hard sacrifices and difficult political choices. There is a finite pot of approximately €1 billion and this has been set out by both Ministers. It will be two to one in favour of public services as against taxation matters. We must make choices that are based on fairness, equality and priority to try to improve the lives of people where we can.

In many cases, when I sit at the European Council table people look at Ireland in a very different way now and they see the growth rate and the deficit falling - to be eliminated by 2018. They see employment at over 2 million for the first time since 2009 and they see the improvements. However, there are challenges. The Senator raised a very particular point on the follow through from the Haddington Road agreement and Lansdowne Road agreement, which is to end in 2017. I am a realist, as everybody must be in this business. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is acutely aware that there must be an arrangement to follow on from the Lansdowne Road agreement in due course. I will say no more about it now, except that the Minister is acutely aware of the importance of the public services in which people engage and the services they provide. I hope that, in the current situation, people will involve themselves in the mechanisms of the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court, and that we continue to keep our country going in the direction it is now heading, which is for a rising economy with the capacity to spread its fruits throughout the land where they are needed, where there is inequality and where people have been left behind.

The north inner city is an issue on which I intend to prove the Government actually takes an interest and that an area that was neglected, left behind and in which there is not that equality of opportunity, can respond in such a way. I have been there on many occasions. There are very strong, resilient and persistent people living there who are committed to their families, their streets and their homes. They do not want their area blackened by a small percentage of criminal gangs that involve themselves in power, money and territory with a ruthlessness that is savage in how it imposes itself on communities. This is why the Garda has been given the resources and the opportunity to deal with this. It is also why Mr. Kieran Mulvey is speaking to all of the groups. We will receive his report in November and I hope we can deal with it and demonstrate that where community leaders and people want to get on with their lives, we are there to help them. When I say "we", I mean everybody involved. This is a cross-party issue and not a party-political one.

The question of education interests me. We do not have the money to invest where we know we could. We must look to the Cassells report. We have shorter-term issues. We have paternity leave and the second free preschool year. We must deal with the question of child care costs and the particular issues involved.

I am concerned about the fragility of the European Union. Thirty five or 40 years ago, a number of very strong leaders were recognised Europe but now we have a single, serious economic power. For all of those years, it was a case of countries applying to join the European Union and now a country has decided to leave it. I want Senators to understand that the European Commission has always been the body which has dealt with applications to join because it has had the experience and expertise available to it. This is the first time a country is leaving and the Commission will still deal with the negotiations and discussions. It will be the European Council which will make the ultimate decisions because its members are the elected leaders and Heads of Government of the countries involved. There is fragility about the structure of Europe that needs to be focused on with clear political thinking and a picture of where we want to be in five, ten, 15 and 20 years time.

There are concerns about trade deals, but there is also the prize of being able to set down the standards for world trade for the next 50 years. People should not be afraid of globalisation. Socrates said he was not a citizen of Athens or a citizen of Greece but a citizen of the world. It is more important now to understand the interdependence of people and the international aspect of who we are in Ireland and the impact our people make worldwide every day. I am very proud of this.

We have the challenge of continuing to keep the country as a place that is attractive for foreign direct investment and that is recognised as being open for business. We are first in the world for skilled labour and, according to some of the world reports, seventh in terms of competitiveness. We have moved up this line and this is where we need to be.

The forthcoming budget on 11 October will contain Brexit-proofing in respect of issues that we know are important. People have mentioned the industries under pressure, and some have already gone under, and currency fluctuations, which Senator Reilly mentioned, are an issue. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland are examining this and the Minister is very cognisant of what it means. It also means there is an issue in respect of price increases from some manufacturing exports to England. These matters will impact on British consumers in due course. This will be an issue. It is right and proper that the Prime Minister should have the opportunity to reflect on the issues the United Kingdom has to focus on before Article 50 is triggered. Otherwise we are into a complete mass of confusion. We cannot have a fix at present on what the proposition is, as it is the legal right of the Prime Minister to move it. When it is moved, Europe must respond on where it wants to be. Believe me, the complications that will arise from this are absolutely complex. We have had some initial reaction to this.

People have asked whether we have a plan here. Long before the vote, we established a unit in the Department of the Taoiseach to examine the contingencies that might have to be dealt with. There is a dedicated Cabinet committee. I was asked about appointing a Minister. This is bigger than one Ministry and we need everybody involved. This is why I chair the Cabinet committee and bring in Ministers as necessary. I have asked all Ministers to look in detail at what is involved in their Departments in so far as their counterparts in Northern Ireland are concerned. The next meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council will be held in November and this will be an issue. I hope we will have held the first of a series of all-island discussions before then because it is important that the economic voice of Northern Ireland is also heard with regard to cross-Border activities. It is very important that we hear all of these voices. The North-South Ministerial Council is well able to deal with the politics and political discussion, but there are other voices that also need to be heard.

In respect of homelessness and housing, we have a €5 billion programme that is unprecedented in its scale. Some people remarked that not much is happening. The plan was produced within the first 100 days. The main aim with regard to family homelessness, which was set out in the action plan, is to ensure that by mid-2017, which is an ambitious target, commercial hotels will only be used in exceptionally limited circumstances to accommodate homeless families.For instance, the €200 million infrastructural fund that is being put in place is to open up sites that are held in public ownership but are not accessible. There is an intense interest in this already and I believe that it will bring about an increased access to about 11,000 to 15,000 houses when they are built.

We also need new ways of thinking like the private sector building after the Dublin City Council voted in respect of the site at O'Devaney Gardens, which is a massive operation. Bigger companies, where they are publicly quoted, have a capacity to have very low interest rates in terms of the repayment of loans that they borrow to build houses and can come on stream. We will accelerate the rapid building programme. By the end of 2018, there will be at least 1,500 provided. Look at these sites - much of the material comes in already manufactured elsewhere and grows exponentially in a very quick time. HAP homeless tenancies are to deliver 550 in 2016 and 1,200 in 2017. So far, they have delivered 450 this year. Two hundred extra emergency beds for rough sleepers are to be put in place before the end of this year at a cost of €4 million. The Housing Agency will purchase 1,600 vacant properties and a number of these will be used to provide permanent homes for homeless people. The agency has acquired 171 properties on behalf of the local authorities. In addition, in excess of 730 homes have been offered to the agency for sale. So far, bids have been made on 96 of these. Of those, 49 have been accepted, and that work is going on. The supply of social housing will increase to 47,000 houses by the end of 2021. It is an ambitious target, but it is one that I believe will be achieved. Under Rebuilding Ireland, housing first teams in Dublin will increase from 100 tenancies to 300 tenancies. The point made here by those dealing with homeless people is that the housing first team capacity is very good. Get the house first and then provide the wrap-around services for people who will live in those and occupy those things. It seems to be very successful. It is now being expanded here and we hope that it will be a big success.

I have mentioned the eighth amendment.

I would be very happy to recognise Senator Lawless. I know the Senator for many years, but the reason - to be clear on this - for his appointment was because I had seen him in action in the United States, on Capitol Hill in particular, talking to Republican Senators and Congressmen and Democratic Senators and Congressmen. Better known than many of those who serve on Capitol Hill in the White House is Senator Lawless. His connection there on behalf of all of the Irish will be most fortunate for whoever is elected President in November and the new structure that will apply on Capitol Hill. I wish the Senator well in his endeavours for the diaspora in general, but also in respect of undocumented Irish and elderly Irish who find themselves now stranded in condominiums far from their friends and their relations, unable to move out. Our agencies and those who look after the needs of the Irish can be led by the Senator. They are in very good hands in that regard.

I want to thank the father of House for his inspiring words. I will be most happy to grant him an hour of my life to discuss his proposals for Seanad reform.