Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach.

As always, the Minister is very welcome. Historically, Ireland’s stock and quality of public infrastructure has been poor by international standards. Poor quality roads, water and telecommunications infrastructure, in addition to a lack of schools and hospitals, compounded by poorly-balanced regional development, has diminished ordinary citizens’ quality of life. Chronic underdevelopment in public housing has exacerbated the housing crisis.

I do not need to remind anybody here that just this week, homeless figures broke the record for the seventh month in a row. There are now almost 12,000 people experiencing homelessness. That is a 28% increase on the past year and a 41% increase on two years ago. Significantly, these figures do not include rough sleepers, women in refuge centres, those couch-surfing, or those living in overcrowded or otherwise unsuitable conditions.

The picture is equally bleak when it comes to our healthcare system. In 2011, Fine Gael pledged to end the scandal of patients on trolleys, yet just in the past week, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, figures showed that in Limerick hospital alone, there were 49 patients waiting for beds in the emergency department and a further 60 elsewhere in the hospital. That is 109 patients on trolleys in Limerick hospital alone. That is for people who manage to get to hospital.

Freedom of information figures showed that a person in Waterford waited seven hours and ten minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Another 94 life-threatening emergency calls saw ambulances arrive four hours later. I could go on.

What is clear is that since the launch of Project Ireland 2040 and the current national development, the socio-economic environment which underpins it has changed drastically. Equally clear is that the proposed level of capital expenditure is wholly inadequate to deal with the crises we now face in housing and healthcare.Sinn Féin's most recent budget submission called for €2.8 billion of additional capital expenditure over and above what had been pre-committed in the NDP. This extra capital speaks to the urgency with which we need to close the infrastructural deficit and catch up after delays arising from the pandemic. This additional funding was to provide a direct response to the growing housing crisis and to deliver additional capacity in key areas such as health, transport, education, childcare and disability services. This additional funding would have resulted in more social and affordable housing, more beds in our acute hospital system, additional classrooms and the kick-starting of vital disability services which had been shut down or operated at reduced capacity.

I will refer to where I live in Limerick for a couple of minutes and raise some key points directly with the Minister. The first is the continuing absence of a northern distributor road, a key piece of infrastructure to address chronic traffic problems in Corbally, the National Technological Park in Plassey and the Mackey roundabout in order to connect properly the people of Moyross to the city. It is just not there. The Government has ruled it out, effectively putting our city on hold.

I ask the Minister to clarify for me once and for all whether we will have a motorway between Limerick and Cork. No one seems to know that at the moment. A former Member of this House used to have a picture of himself behind a big banner of the M20 motorway in local newspapers almost every week. I have noticed that even he has stopped now because we have been waiting so many years for this project.

I referred to University Hospital Limerick earlier. There is now talk of two further 96-bed units but there are no timelines or plans. Our hospital is in crisis like no other hospital anywhere in the State. It is a crisis that gets worse week after week, month after month, after 12 years of Fine Gael in government. It has failed to deal with the crisis at the expense of our people and unfortunately at the expense of patients' lives.

When preparing for today's debate, I was struck by the lack of foresight when it comes to the nature of the expenditure. As we all know direct State spending counts as a direct charge on the Exchequer and thus the national debt. However, commercial investments, for example, through a semi-State body like the ESB could be considered off the books. This is an important consideration when we think of the large-scale investment in items such as solar panels, residential home retrofitting, etc. This kind of capital expenditure would allow the State to make savings and bring in revenue by helping to drive markets and create new ones. New sources of revenue such as tax and national income would be created as new jobs and industries take shape. Long-term savings can be made as the State cuts down on things such as fossil fuel imports and moves towards self-sufficiency, leaving more money circulating in the economy. Given the cost-of-living difficulties many households are currently facing, it is critical that direct State-led investment in labour-intensive activities and projects be prioritised.

Special focus must be given to the potential of creating new job opportunities through apprenticeships and employability schemes for young people. This can create both direct and indirect forms of employment with decent pay and working conditions. The sad reality remains that a lack of accountability and transparency in the management and governance of large public expenditure undermines public trust and confidence. Massive cost overruns in key projects such as the national children's hospital and others have severely impacted on both their delivery and the commencement of other key projects. Furthermore, the continued use of public private partnerships which lacked transparency due to the commercial confidentiality that arises, means it is difficult to assess the real cost of projects.

Sinn Féin believes that public confidence can and must be restored. To achieve this the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform needs greater expertise to provide rigorous examinations and robust appraisals of a contract to ensure it represents best value for money before going to tender. Moreover, the Government must actually listen to the advice it has given. The procurement process must also have consideration for other issues. Specifically, it should move away from the current system which is often weighted heavily towards the very narrow concept of cost efficiency. It should instead recognise and give due consideration to the positive effect of social causes and socially equitable goals. Sinn Féin believes in greater use of social clauses in public procurement contracts for the achievement of various social objectives such as enhancing workers' rights, employment activation, local employment creation, gender balance and other considerations.

I again urge the Government to acknowledge the changes which have come upon us since this plan was developed and recognise the real pain that continuing with business as normal will have on ordinary people's standards of living for years to come. This morning at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment no less a body Chambers Ireland expressed real concern over the Government's performance on the national development plan. Its members are increasingly worried about the capacity of the State, and the wider economy, to deliver on the aims of the national development plan and our climate action plan. That is what the business community is telling us today. The Minister has much more to do.