Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 23 Sep 2014

Vol. 851 No. 2

Leaders' Questions

I want to return to the issue of social housing, which has rightly been raised frequently in this House over the past number of years. There are currently around 100,000 social housing applicants on local authority lists across the country. Many of these people would never have envisaged having to add their names to such lists and their failure to find housing sees them sleeping in cars and staying in bed and breakfast and hotel accommodation. They sleep on friends' sofas, floors and mattresses and families have been splintered by the failure to provide social housing. A man held in high esteem in Ireland and internationally, Fr. Peter McVerry, summed up the situation last May when he said that in his 40 years of dealing with homelessness he had never seen things so bad. He described a tsunami of homelessness relating to the housing shortage and said the situation was beyond crisis.

Does the Government agree with the Labour Party suggestion on introducing rent control? A cap has been placed on social housing rents and this has caused real difficulties, particularly in the greater Dublin area. Why has the Government not used the strategic investment fund to deliver social housing?

I thank the Deputy for his questions. When Deputy Jan O'Sullivan was Minister of State with responsibility for housing she made significant progress on this but everyone appreciates that problems emerge as an economy comes out of recession and they must be addressed. Ireland has quickly gone from having no housing market to having problems on the supply side. The supply side affects the availability of both private housing and social housing. There is a new Minister at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and a new Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey. They are working assiduously to develop plans to meet the need for social housing. Suggestions such as those made by the Deputy will be considered because we all know there is a problem.

The Deputy will recall that when his party was in Government policy changed from the direct provision of houses by construction by local authorities to the use of local authority housing budgets to purchase private houses in private housing estates. That is one way to address supply but there are other ways and they will all be considered in the context of the budget.

I have much regard for the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, and we were told some time ago that she would engage with the Department of Social Protection to deal with the crisis in rent allowance but this problem has not been addressed. My main concern relating to the delivery of social housing is that we cannot wait for the implementation of another plan - we need a direct construction programme. The Minister and his colleagues in Government have spoken of a solution that is off-balance sheet. The Minister of State with responsibility for housing has spoken of the voluntary sector providing housing. The Minister recently suggested the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, should provide housing. The Government is standing back from a burning crisis that is affecting the day-to-day lives of people, suggesting another entity, be it the voluntary sector or NAMA, should solve the problem. I suggest the Minister and the Government must solve the problem by directly building local authority housing. I suggest the National Pensions Reserve Fund be used as €1 billion would construct around 6,000 local authority houses, which would generate huge employment across the country. Funding from the National Pensions Reserve Fund could leverage other funding into the housing market. Will the Government take immediate action in these areas?

The disaster caused by Deputy Ó Fearghaíl's party in government was so cataclysmic that every sector of the economy was affected.

Answer the question.

Freagair an cheist.

Please wait for the reply.

It totally fractured the capacity of the construction industry to provide either public or private houses.

The recovery is now under way. Before Deputy Jan O'Sullivan was promoted to the office of Minister for Education and Skills she prevailed on local authorities to repair houses that were locked up as many such houses were around the country. That was the first step and then she held talks with NAMA that still continue. NAMA notified the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government several months ago that it has over 4,000 houses available for the purposes of social housing and local authorities indicate that they will take up around 2,000 of these.

The direct provision of housing is an option but it requires finance. The suggestion made by the Deputy is being considered but at this time of year Ministers are involved in negotiating Estimates for their Departments. When departmental budgets are set announcements will be made on all problems, including that identified by the Deputy.

We are now in the throes of the usual pre-budget scenario - the flying of kites by various Ministers and shadow boxing between coalition partners. There is a sham fight between the Labour Party and Fine Gael while families watch and hope there will be an end to austerity.

Last week various Government Ministers trumpeted the improved Exchequer figures but the key point is that those figures give the opportunity to do the right thing. Citizens have faced repeated austerity budgets, cuts across the board to public services and tax increases. This has happened directly and through various stealth taxes. One cannot discuss recovery without giving families more money in their pockets, which can go back into the domestic economy. We cannot discuss a neutral budget while people are receiving application forms from Irish Water, Uisce Éireann, as we speak. People are wondering whether to give their personal public service, PPS, numbers and various details. How will people afford this extra charge?

The Minister for Finance knows better than most that he has a choice. He can continue to protect those at the top of Irish society or he can take the pressure off families that have been squeezed by these budgets. Will the Minister withdraw the plans for the implementation of water charges and give families a real break in this budget?

I am glad the Deputy acknowledges the improving financial situation and the dramatic growth in GDP figures, which are up by 5.8% in the first six months of the year. I remind the Deputy that in the past three and a half years his party opposed every measure taken to get the country on an even keel.

They opposed every one of them.

The measures that were taken are the reasons the economy is now growing and Sinn Féin opposed every measure. I understand why the Deputy is subdued today. Sinn Féin hoped to build a political movement on the back of misery and failure in the economy but the country is not failing. The country is growing strongly again.

Look at the national debt.

I note that in this morning's newspaper Sinn Féin states that it has another red-line issue. First it was to abolish property tax and now it is to abolish water charges. These are red-line issues but nobody is rushing to join Sinn Féin in government.

Not even Deputy Mattie McGrath.

Where is the queue to join Fine Gael in government?

Sell their souls.

Putting down a red-line issue is like an auld fellow walking up and down the boundaries of the ballroom of romance saying he will not dance with any of those women over there. Nobody wants to dance with him.

Sinn Féin is lonesome.

Nobody wants to dance with him. That is the position.

We are not dancing with the troika. Perhaps the Minister does not realise about the €200 million and the national debt.

Red lines? Is Deputy Mac Lochlainn joking me? If I could comment on Sinn Féin's economic position, it wants to abolish water charges and property tax. Where will it get the €800 million to bring it to the starting point, if it was ever unfortunate enough to be in government? Who will Sinn Féin nail?

Cut your wages for a start.

Who are the rich?

The Minister obviously does not know who the rich are because he has never taxed them.

In Sinn Féin's book a garda married to a teacher is rich.

The Minister is quite capable of looking after himself.

It is difficult enough to construct budgets, but when one begins by moving back €800 million before one starts, then income tax will get a desperate belt, as will universal social charge and personal incomes. These are the Sinn Féin-----

What about the €700 million pension levy?

Is Deputy Mathews against that also?

The biggest of them all. The Minister forgot about that.

I ask the Minister to ignore the side comments.

I thought Deputy Mathews had more sense. It is not possible to construct a budget on the type of proposals Sinn Féin is making-----

-----and it needs to start again. Go back to basics. Now that the economy is growing, Sinn Féin needs a new model because what it has stated up to now is absolute economic nonsense.

He would be a far better Taoiseach.

Allow Deputy Mac Lochlainn to put a supplementary question.

One would think the Minister was doing stand-up at the Edinburgh fringe festival. Anybody watching today is looking at him and his fellow comedians behind him making light of the reality and sheer distress of so many families who are getting these letters through their doors and making choices and decisions. It is hugely disingenuous of the Minister because he knows that every year we give him detailed costed proposals for the budget with clear alternatives and choices. Every year, understandably, Fine Gael protects the very wealthy in society because that is what it is about.

What is shocking to people watching today is why the Labour Party continues to facilitate this agenda. This year once again Sinn Féin will provide the Minister with a fully costed budget with alternatives and choices for him to make. There will be no hiding place or stand-up comedy. There will be the reality he must face up to, with the electorate who will have to pay the bills come next January. It is about choices. Will the Minister protect those at the very top as he always has done, as all his language reflects, or will he bring in a genuinely fair and equal budget which starts to take the pressure off families throughout the State? This is his choice and we await his decision.

The Minister might be the auld fellow in the ballroom of romance by the time this is all over.

The House appreciates I am making light of Sinn Féin's pretend economics. That is what I am making light of.

The Minister is deflecting.

To summarise the fully costed three budget submissions Sinn Féin has made to me over the past three and a half years, it decided that 85% of the correction in the finances of the country should be made by way of tax increases-----

What are water and property charges?

-----and the total proposal of its tax increases was more than €7 billion. If Sinn Féin thinks the country can take an extra burden of €7 billion in taxation, whether it is the well off, those on middle incomes or the poor who must pay it-----

What about corporates?

-----it is absolute nonsense. This is what I am illustrating today. I am making light of the so-called economic proposals Sinn Féin is bringing forward. I can understand why it took its stance against the policies we pursued, which were dubbed as austerity policies, but now that it has been proved they have been successful-----

It has not been successful. Real people are suffering.

Successful for whom? For the homeless?

-----and that the economy is growing dramatically, if Sinn Féin wants to be a serious force in the Parliament, it should at least get background people who understand economics and who can add.

The Minister's Department. The Department of Finance.

What about corporate taxation?

Is Deputy Mathews sitting out this dance?

I ask Deputy Durkan to respect Deputy Collins, who is on her feet.

The 2011 programme for Government promised an extension of BreastCheck to those aged between 65 and 69 years. As part of the Government's reform plans for the health service it was promised to roll it out at the beginning of 2014 but this has not happened. It was also part of Fine Gael's commitments before the election in 2011. The Irish Cancer Society has been asking the Government to extend BreastCheck to women aged between 65 and 69 years in the HSE's national service plan for 2015. If the Government keeps its promise and extends BreastCheck to women in this age group, 43,670 women will be invited to attend for free screening each year. We know that for every 500 women screened, one life will be saved, so this will result in 87 women's lives being saved annually. In the Minister's constituency it will mean four women's lives will be saved, given that there are 2,100 women in the age group in the constituency, and in the Taoiseach's constituency five women's lives will be saved.

The Minister for Health has stated it is intended to extend the upper age range for BreastCheck to include those aged between 65 and 69 years as soon as possible and with available resources. Will the Minister make clear to the Irish Cancer Society and the 43,670 women between the age of 65 and 69 years and their families what extra resources, if any, are needed for the extension and the cost of these extra resources? What plan does the Government have to put in place these resources in order that the life-saving service will be provided in the HSE's service plan for 2015? I am glad the Minister for Finance is here because he has an input.

I thank the Deputy for her submission. BreastCheck has been an effective method of identifying persons in a pre-cancer state who then have the potential of early intervention. It has been rolled out for various age cohorts in various geographic areas throughout the country. It is a progressive scheme. I have no doubt that as the scheme advances, the Minister for Health will take the Deputy's views into account. The resources of the health service must be used where they are most effective. There are many issues with regard to screening programmes, with which I am sure the Deputy is familiar. It must be treated very carefully before extensions are put in place. In general terms, what the Deputy has said is worth considering as soon as resources are available.

A promise was made by the Minister's party before the 2011 election, and it was part of the programme for Government, that the age group would be included in BreastCheck free screenings. Why has this not been done and why can the Minister not tell the Irish Cancer Society, the women in this age group and their families that he will seriously commit to the promise in the upcoming budget and provide for it in the HSE's service plan for 2015? The Minister pulls the strings, he knows this is needed and the Government promised it so why is he not here stating the Government will seriously commit to introducing it in the 2015 service plan? HIQA has stated it is the most effective method and recommended extending BreastCheck to women in this age group. The EU advisory committee on cancer prevention recommends asymptomatic women aged between 50 and 69 years should be screened every two to three years. All medical expertise states regular screening is the most effective way to prevent women dying from breast cancer. Will the Minister state the Government will seriously consider introducing this in the 2015 service plan?

The mandate of the Government runs for another year and a half so there is no breach of any commitment in the programme for Government arising from this.

It was supposed to be 2014.

I understand the points made by the Deputy. When I was Minister for Health I brought forward the first breast screening programmes and I understand how they are organised. I will speak to the Minister for Health and tell him the Deputy's views on this issue.

What about the Government's views and the Department's views?

Top
Share