I heard the Minister's reply to the previous speaker and I am appalled. Here we have a service which has been running for 57 years and which provides services for over 200 people. I have been told a fantastic level of care is being delivered, with psychological services, social services, social work and speech and language services among those services. The Daughters of Wisdom order has announced it will not continue because of a Government cutback to the tune of €1.3 million. This service covers a wide area, including south Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and parts of Cavan. Is the Minister guaranteeing there will be no break in the service delivered to all of those people who avail of this service-----
Leaders’ Questions (Resumed)
He said that.
-----and that the service will be as accessible to those families, whether they are from south Donegal or Cavan?
It is on the record.
Can he guarantee no break in service from when the order withdraws? It is a pity that an order which has the expertise in delivering this service and which has set up such a facility is now being forced to close at a cost to the area and to society in general. I do not know how the Minister can stand over that. If he goes back to the programme for Government-----
Has the Deputy a question? We are over time.
The question is whether the Minister is aware of his own programme for Government which states on its first page that the "parties are committed to protecting the vulnerable". This does not seem to indicate any protection for those people.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I can understand there is concern out there because of the work that has been provided by the Daughters of Wisdom over many years. They have been in discussion with the Department of Health since April, as I said to Deputy McConalogue. There is, as we speak, a transition team from the HSE that has been in negotiations recently with the Daughters of Wisdom to provide for continuity in the delivery of these essential services. I accept, of course, there are difficulties in the funding of services, whether it is in the health area, education or anywhere else because of the extraordinary economic mess this Administration inherited just over 15 months ago.
What about the Minister's pledge? What about third level fees? What about his breach of promise?
If I were Deputy Kelleher, I would not say very much about the legacy of Fianna Fáil.
(Interruptions).
He did it with an absolute brass neck. He told barefaced untruths.
They are shameless.
What about its financial and economic legacy?
The legacy of the Fianna Fáil Party was the destruction of Ireland's economic sovereignty - the destruction of our sovereignty.
Not only was there to be no increase, he was to reduce the registration fees.
They are shameless.
Do they want to bury the Catholic church?
(Interruptions).
Order, please. The Minister should proceed.
I can assure Deputy Ó Snodaigh that the Department of Health will be issuing a statement later today and will deal with all of the details of the issue. I know it is of concern to the people in the area and I have been assured by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, that the services will continue.
Is that a pledge?
It is on the record now.
We have seen in the past where such a service has been withdrawn, for whatever reason, that there is usually an additional cost in a transition period. Is that cost available? What is the cost of the transfer of these services to other service providers? It is being outsourced outside of the HSE to a private company? Is the Minister aware of any other such service being delivered by other orders or by the same order elsewhere which would also be in danger of closure?
The service will continue. It will be delivered by the HSE. I do not have the details of that at present but those details will be revealed later today in the statement the Department will issue. I can assure the Deputy there will be no automatic increase because of a transfer of the agent which is delivering the service. The services are funded and will continue to be funded by the State.
Would the Minister agree with me that-----
Deputies
No.
Highly unlikely.
Order, please.
Would the Minister agree with me that, when working people, people on social welfare, pensioners and some of the most vulnerable sectors of our society have been lashed with cuts, charges, levies and taxes for four years now, they would have been right to be outraged when they read in a Sunday newspaper last weekend that a Minister of the Government, Deputy Reilly, is claiming tax relief on his 13-bedroom mansion in County Offaly?
This is typical.
Does the Minister consider, when ordinary householders are being hammered with a grossly unjust household charge, when council tenants in my constituency and many other constituencies are living in dilapidated and substandard council homes and cannot get maintenance work done, it is wrong that a tax relief such as this for people with mansions to do maintenance on their homes is being provided by the State? Is it not indicative when even the IMF, which was the purveyor of so much of the austerity being inflicted upon the people of this country, questions the fairness of the way in which the austerity measures are being disproportionately imposed on the least well off and suggests they should be imposed more fairly?
Could I have your question, please?
I could ask several questions, actually.
He has no answers.
Is this not another example of how there is one law for the rich in this country and one law for the poor? Does the Minister consider it appropriate that a Minister should benefit from such a tax relief-----
The Deputy should look into his own background.
-----and that such tax reliefs should exist for some of the wealthiest people in our society, when ordinary working people are being crucified with austerity measures to pay off bankers and bondholders?
The Deputy should look into his own background. He would learn a lot after St. Michael's, I can tell him.
A Cheann Comhairle, why are they allowed continually to interrupt when I am speaking?
Put on your peaked cap from St. Michael's.
I do my utmost to try to bring order but I cannot physically go over and put my fist on them.
Go on, a Cheann Comhairle, your fists would be big enough.
(Interruptions).
Deputy Boyd Barrett will be aware, coming from the constituency he does, that Ireland has inherited a very rich architectural heritage of buildings going back centuries. Some of them are private dwellings in which people live. The maintenance and upkeep of those buildings is very extensive because of their age and the manner in which they were built in the past. In order to ensure that this heritage would survive and be maintained, Governments of different complexions have over the years provided tax incentives and tax relief to the private owners of private dwellings in which they live to maintain and restore those buildings on condition that they make those buildings open to the public so that the wider public can share that heritage.
There is no "one law for the rich and one law for the poor". The laws in regard to heritage preservation are open to everybody who is in a position to avail of them. To the best of my knowledge, that is what has happened in this instance.
We are all in favour of protecting heritage and it is entirely legitimate to give support to people when they are not in a position to maintain heritage homes or any dwelling which has a heritage value. The Minister is right to say there are Georgian homes and so on in Dún Laoghaire and elsewhere where it is reasonable to give financial support or tax breaks to people who are not in a position to maintain those homes. That is the way it should be done. However, it is not acceptable that tax breaks exist for people who are on salaries of €140,000 or €150,000 a year, or, in many cases, on much higher salaries-----
Like the Deputy's.
-----and that multimillionaires gain these tax reliefs.
Can we have the Deputy's question please?
Is it not part of an architecture of tax reliefs that, as the latest revenue figures indicate, the 11,000 highest earners in this country pay an effective tax rate of only 29%? This is simply a way of protecting the rich from taxes, while ordinary working people are being crucified with levies, charges and cuts. Does the Minister think it is appropriate that a Minister should benefit from such reliefs when he is so well paid?
What about the leader's allowance the Deputy has?
When is the Deputy going to give up his leader's allowance?
The object of the exercise, which successive Governments have supported, including Governments of which I have been a member in the past, has been to preserve the heritage. If people live in a house of that kind and spend money to maintain it, they only get the tax relief if they open the doors of those houses to the wider public. That is the public benefit of that measure. Individual status, in terms of people's income, is secondary to the overall objective cited in the Deputy's question.