It is proposed to take No. 1, Ombudsman for Children Bill, 2002 [Seanad] – Committee and Remaining Stages; and No. 51, statements re the report on the motor insurance industry. It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that the proceedings on the Committee and Remaining Stages of No. 1, shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 5 p.m. by one question which shall be put from the Chair and which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Minister for Health and Children; the proceedings on No. 51, shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 7 p.m. and the following arrangements shall apply: the statements of a Minister or Minister of State and of the main spokespersons for the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party shall not exceed 15 minutes in each case; the statements of each other Member called upon shall not exceed ten minutes in each case; Members may share time; and a Minister or Minister of State shall be called upon to make a statement in reply which shall not exceed ten minutes; and Question Time tomorrow shall be taken at 3.30 p.m. until 4.45 p.m. and in the event of a Private Notice Question being allowed, it shall be taken at 4.15 p.m. and the order shall not resume thereafter. Private Members' business shall be No. 74, Road Traffic (Joyriding) Bill, 2002 – Second Stage (resumed) to conclude at 8.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
There are three proposals to be put to the House. The first deals with No. 1, the Committee and Remaining Stages of the Ombudsman for Children Bill, 2002. Is that agreed? Agreed. The second deals with No. 51, statements on the report on the motor insurance industry. Is that agreed? Agreed. The third relates to the taking of Question Time tomorrow. Is that agreed?
The date of 17 May is the festival of Shavuot when Orthodox Jews do not use vehicles and will not vote. Will the Taoiseach assure the House that Question Time will be taken tomorrow so that this important matter can be raised?
There is a proposal from the Taoiseach before the House to take Question Time tomorrow. Is it agreed to?
Will the Taoiseach assure the House that, if we agree to this, Question Time will take place? I seek an opportunity to raise this matter.
There is a proposal from the Taoiseach. Is it agreed to? Agreed. I will take leaders' questions.
As we approach the final sitting day of the 28th Dáil, after five prosperous years the Taoiseach has failed to deliver on the major commitments he made five years ago.
The Deputy is wrong again.
The Government promised zero tolerance on crime, yet street crime is out of control. Violent crime on the streets has increased by 131%. Five years ago, the Taoiseach promised to eliminate waiting lists in hospitals, yet these are in excess of 26,000 and have increased by 24% in Dublin. He promised to control inflation which has rocketed since. It is the highest in Europe at twice the European average. He promised to provide affordable child care places. Fewer places are available than five years ago and the vast majority of young couples cannot afford them. The Taoiseach promised to control and reduce high house prices. They have doubled and, for the first time since the foundation of the State, the purchase of a house is beyond the reach of ordinary young couples. That is the Taoiseach's record. Can he explain how, after all the prosperity, his Administration has failed so dismally to deliver on the issues of most importance to the majority of people in the country?
Is it reasonable to infer that, despite repeated promises, a number of commission reports and assurances from the former Minister of State with responsibility for housing, the dramatic failure of this Administration to introduce legislation to regulate the private rented sector is an indication of the strength of the housing and building developers' lobby and the hold it has over Fianna Fáil, as seen from various revelations in the tribunals? Will the Taoiseach indicate why this measure has not seen the light of day in spite of his numerous promises in recent years?
The heads of the private rented sector Bill are being prepared from the consensus report which came from a working group representing all of the various interests in that area who put in an enormous amount of effort. It is being statutorily and legislatively implemented.
The tax side was done instantly.
I look forward to that happening, which will be of major help to people in the private rented sector who deserve the help.
It is not there.
In reply to Deputy Noonan, five years ago I said that the administration I would lead would create jobs, cut taxes, unemployment and crime and bring peace. We created almost 400,000 jobs and cut unemployment from 10.3% to 4.3%. Long-term unemployment has been reduced from 5.5% to 1.2%. The scourge of emigration that has been with this country for decades has been ended and we have had economic growth in excess of 10%. We increased the health service budget by more than 100% and the education budget by more than 70%. The dignity of work has been given to an enormous number of people in this country. We broke the record of 1.75 million people employed here and trebled child benefit. We brought down corporation tax and most small businesses that are thriving from the Celtic tiger economy we created are still developing strongly.
Order, please.
The success of agriculture following the 1999 round has continued to grow.
Why is the Taoiseach avoiding the issues?
We have dealt with many aspects of crime, if not all of them. As promised, we put resources into the Garda Síochána and the prison services. More than 40 Bills have been passed in the area of justice, in addition to many other areas across the board.
I am proud of my record and that of my colleagues and I will stand on it before the people.
I put it to the Taoiseach that the successes he has claimed are principally the successes of the private sector.
How does child benefit relate to the private sector?
What the Government is directly responsible for has been an abject failure; with rising crime, hospital waiting lists out of control—
The only thing out of control is the Fine Gael ratings and they are going down.
—the highest prices in Europe; unaffordable and unavailable child care facilities; house prices beyond the reach of ordinary young couples. This is what the Taoiseach is directly responsible for creating. The quality of life for most people has gone down and that is the direct responsibility of this Administration. Worst of all, at the end of the Taoiseach's time in office he is leaving the Exchequer in deficit when he got it in surplus. The next administration, as always after Fianna Fáil, will sweep up after its ineptitude.
He promised to lead Fine Gael—
A Deputy
Was that the mighty mouse?
The Taoiseach without interruption.
The private sector has done many good things and the policies we implement have helped it to achieve. In our last budget we introduced a social welfare package of more than €1 billion, the largest in the history of the State.
Less than the "Bertie bowl".
Under the PPF we are investing a record €1.9 billion on social inclusion over the lifetime of the programme. All this has nothing to do with the private sector. Contributory old age pensions have increased by more than 50%. There is a 28.5% increase in average industrial earnings since 1997 and it is up to 31% today. We still remember that the rainbow Government increased old age pensions by £3 in its last budget. Consistent poverty has more than halved from 15% to 6.2%. Child poverty has fallen dramatically. Child benefit has more than trebled.
What about Jamie Synnott? What about the disabled?
Social welfare has increased well ahead of anything that could have been dreamed of previously. One of the best national minimum wages in Europe is almost entirely tax free and we aim to finish the remainder of that. The health strategy has set a programme of investment and reform for the next decade.
The Minister for Finance will not give the money for it.
What about medical cards?
Anyone looking at the record of this Dáil will say it was a golden period for the people of this country and we are very proud of what we have achieved.
Where are the iodine tablets?
The Deputy will need a few after the election.
There is a decided end of term atmosphere about this House. The gallery is full of young school children who are likewise looking forward to an end of term. I note that the House has agreed today on the Order of Business to complete all Stages of the Ombudsman for Children Bill. I have repeatedly asked the Taoiseach about schools since last January, and I ask him again, when will all those children who sit in classrooms that are rat-infested, whose parents worry about the conditions in which they are taught, whose teachers anguish at the dilapidated state of the buildings in which they are being asked to provide first-class education, have the information that has been repeatedly sought on their behalf by elected representatives in this assembly?
On 17 May, or thereabouts, people will be asked to cast their votes for public representatives to come into this House. One of the rights of public representatives is to hold Ministers to account. We have had a hapless Minster for Education and Science who has refused, against every republican and democratic principle and tradition in this House, to put on the record information that he promised to my colleague, Deputy Shortall, on four separate occasions. Representative democracy either means something or it does not. Before the House goes into recess, will the Taoiseach honour the democratic and republican principles of this Assembly and respect the elected representatives, many of them his own backbenchers, who get ridiculous inane responses from the Minister for Education and Science as to when taxpayers money – not Fianna Fáil money – will be made available for the 850 schools that cannot establish where they are on the list? When will they get the information to which they are entitled? Otherwise, we are asking people to engage in some class of a farce if this information is being withheld. The Minister has had enough time to brief the Taoiseach in response to this question. As elected representatives of this House it is our right to access this information and it should be published before the Dáil goes into recess and not be allowed to become a kind of gravy train in the middle of May.
Will the Taoiseach state how much money is available in the public capital programme for the building and repair of schools and when will announcements be made on its expenditure?
The cheque is in the post.
The answer to the last question is €337 million.
That is half the answer.
That is four times what was spent in the past. Deputy Quinn—
There are 850 schools and no progress is being made.
Order, please.
I am sorry the Taoiseach is so sensitive.
No, I am not.
Deputy Quinn, a supplementary question please.
When the Opposition asks the questions we all stay quiet.
They will still be whingeing.
The Taoiseach can hide in here with that kind of device. After nearly 20 years in this House—
Deputy Quinn's supplementary question.
The Taoiseach is obviously not going to make this information available before this House goes into recess, totally undermining the democratic rights that will be given to us in the ballot box by citizens who come out to vote. An election candidate who is not a Member of this House, one of three Fianna Fáil candidates in a five seat constituency, has informed the principal of a particular school that he or she is to have no dealings with any other candidate, not even with that candidate's running mates, who happen to be Members of this House.
That is right.
Is that allowed?
Is the Taoiseach aware that the same person has informed the school that he will be able to announce to it not just when it is getting its school grant, but when others will be getting theirs? That is because his patron in this election, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, with whom he happens to share a name, has told him the information will be made available next week.
That is more of the Minister, Deputy Dempsey's trickery.
Fianna Fáil has not changed and it has not learned.
This is the kind of cynical manipulation and stroke pulling that damages everybody who stands for elected office.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
The Taoiseach is not conning the principal or the parents who know that it is taxpayers' money and he is devaluing the process of democracy. He is doing it not just at the peril of Fianna Fáil, but at the peril of all the institutions of this Republic.
Hear, hear.
If I get two minutes, I will be able to answer the Deputy's question. Total expenditure was €337 million, which is four times what it was before. There have been increases in the Estimates, increases in the budget and in PPPs, as well as other capital increases.
We have got all that already. There are 850 schools.
That has meant—
Order.
I want to give a full answer. That has meant the list the Deputy has been seeking has constantly changed. The Minister still intends to publish the list—
On a billboard.
—and he hopes to have it tomorrow.
There are many schools and we are entitled to know.
He will certainly have most of it tomorrow. Regarding the other issue the Deputy raised, it is not true that the full list of anything that is going out already exists. That is not the case. Funding has been increased by 70% to €5.4 billion, which is an increase of 14% per year and the largest increase in the history of Irish education.
In my constituency classes are working in converted bicycle sheds.
Order please. The Taoiseach without interruption.
There are now smaller classes, more modern facilities, targeted help for students in need and we are rightly proud of the core parts of our record.
Order.
Class sizes have been reduced to their lowest ever level, there are 3,500 more teachers and approved staffing ratios have been met.
The Taoiseach should answer the question about the lists.
I have answered it. I said the Minister would have most of that list tomorrow.
It is polling.
Order please. The Taoiseach will ignore interruptions.
I do not want to leave the question in rancour. The list Deputy Quinn has been seeking has constantly changed because extra money has been made available, allowing several dozen more schools gladly to be part of the capital programme. The young people in the Visitors Gallery will be glad that, for the first time, we are spending large amounts of money. There were 12 schools under construction when this Administration took office.
There were 12.
There are now over 200 schools under construction, which is the real progress we have managed to make in education and I am sure the Deputy is very pleased with that.
The Taoiseach should get six of the best.
That concludes leaders' questions. We will now take questions on the Order of Business.
Will the Taoiseach ask his colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, if the schools building unit in his Department, which was closed yesterday and would not take calls, has reopened?
That is not in order.
Elected Members of this House cannot get any information.
Does the Deputy have a question that is relevant to the Order of Business?
Fianna Fáil is sending the list to all its backbenchers.
It is on a Fianna Fáil voice activation system.
I tried earlier to raise the fact that for Orthodox Jews 17 May is a day on which they cannot vote. Will the Ceann Comhairle tell me when the dissolution order is to come before the House because I would like an opportunity to raise the question of Orthodox Jews in my constituency who will not travel on 17 May. It is a Jewish festival.
The Taoiseach will consult the Deputy before he goes to see the President.
Does the Taoiseach propose to make time available to discuss the issues on the agenda of the Seville summit? Will he make time available to discuss the Middle East?
That is a matter for the Whips to arrange.
Regardless of whether we are sitting, it is a matter for the Taoiseach as well.
There was an extensive exchange of views on these matters during Question Time yesterday. It is now a matter for the Whips to arrange.
We are entitled to hear what are the Government's proposals in relation to the summit.
This matter was dealt with yesterday during questions to the Taoiseach.
The questions were not answered.
He did not want to say.
(Dublin West): Over the past five years those who have been thrown at the mercy of private landlords have been bitterly let down by the Government.
The Deputy must ask a question on promised legislation.
(Dublin West): I am drawing attention to the grotesque exploitation of those dependent on private landlords.
It is not the time to draw attention to that. The question must relate to promised legislation.
(Dublin West): What does the Taoiseach foresee for these people, having failed to lift a finger to assist in the prevention of their exploitation by landlords over the past five years?
There is promised legislation to give effect to the report of the commission into the private rented sector. The heads have been cleared, the Bill has been drafted and the legislation will come before the House later in the year.