On the Order of Business, I call Deputy Micheál Martin.
Order of Business (Resumed)
There is a commitment in the programme for Government to increase each year funding for home care packages and home helps. Some weeks ago, I brought to the attention of the Taoiseach that there appears to be a cap in operation on home help hours nationwide, about which he seemed unaware at the time. Since then, answers have been received to some parliamentary questions tabled that illustrate there are only 12 areas nationwide in which home help hours have not been cut. In the rest of the country, there have been savage cuts and home help hours have been cut in 21 areas, of which Cavan-Monaghan, Meath, Louth and Laois-Offaly were among the worst areas affected. This must be reviewed urgently by the Minister, Deputy Harris, in order that it can be stopped and reversed. It is extremely counter-productive, leads more people into hospital and into nursing homes and is against public policy in general. Given the Supplementary Estimate for health that has been announced, can the Taoiseach indicate whether the commitment in the programme for Government on home help hours will be realised? I have to hand the table of replies and the Taoiseach can see in red all the reductions since 2010, some of which were savage. For example, Cavan-Monaghan has experienced a decrease of 40% in home help hours. I note the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is looking at me in surprise. Similarly, there has been a reduction of 34% in south Tipperary. These are huge figures that have been given in the parliamentary replies to Members.
Second, the cybercrime Bill is listed in order that the convention on cybercrime can be ratified.
Members have already articulated the very serious issue of the appalling activity online and on social media, where people have been targeted with vile abuse, among them politicians, which is totally outrageous and unacceptable. In that context, the Taoiseach might indicate when we can expect the cybercrime Bill to be put through the House.
That is a while away. The preparatory work is under way in the Department of Justice and Equality on the cybercrime Bill. I cannot give the Deputy a more definite answer than that. I will update him on the extent of preparatory work that is involved.
In respect of the home care package that the Deputy mentioned, €40 million has been allocated from the Revised Estimate to deal with this, which is much more than last year and will hopefully allow the Minister to deal with the issues that the Deputy has raised. An extra €40 million has been allocated this time.
In the programme for Government there are commitments on dealing with suicide prevention and mental health, and I wish to raise a number of very important issues around this. One is a project called WALK PEER, which serves mostly young people who have disabilities and trains them so that they can increase their skills and go forward, if possible, into jobs. The funding for this project has been cut and I want to ask the Taoiseach if he will reconsider that. We have already raised this with the Minister involved and particularly with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, who has promised to look at it. I ask the Taoiseach to give it some attention as well. Mental health is an issue affecting every single family across this State and across this island. Suicide is on the increase, yet funding for mental health has been substantially cut despite promises by the Government to do the exact opposite.
The WALK PEER project mentioned by the Deputy was funded under the European programme, as I understand. The Minister of State, Deputy McGrath, and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, are meeting with personnel there this week.
They are, yes.
The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Helen McEntee, has responsibility for mental health and will take a keen and personal interest in this also.
Two weeks ago, I asked about the establishment of the north inner city task force. In the Taoiseach's absence, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, was standing in for him and I asked for details on where the task force stands, its membership, who would lead it and so on. I remain of the belief that in order for this task force to work it needs to have the full support of everybody in the House. I was advised by the Minister that the Taoiseach would communicate with me directly. That did not happen. I contacted the Taoiseach's office again last week and I was advised that I would receive an update by the end of last week. Again, I have received no further contact. I wish to ask the Taoiseach when we will get a full briefing on the membership. I know he has been involved again with community leaders in recent days and that is very good. I believe, and I said so two weeks ago, that this could be a model that we would all buy into, sign up to and fund, whatever Government is in office for the next ten years or so. We could replicate it in other areas of the country. Will the Taoiseach bring the other parties on board in this process and ensure that we have inputs into the composition of the task force? When can we hear from him?
There is no point in trying to do it from one source only. The Deputy is aware that I met with community leaders in the inner city down at St. Laurence O'Toole's national school. There were contributions there from 30 or 40 people who are leaders in their own areas. Last night, I met with a range of people, some public representatives and some not. I believe it is important to take into account the representatives of all parties. There was a comment made yesterday evening about how the terms of reference were being drafted by a wider group in the inner city. I wait to see what those terms of reference are. I do not know all of the personnel involved in that particular area, though Members commented that it seemed to be a wider group than normal. I indicated that I did not want the task force to try to cover the entire area and that it should be more tightly managed.
I will communicate with Deputy Howlin directly and I am sorry that he was not contacted after he raised this issue last week. I hope we will set up a task force that can be a model and a template for any other area in the country by the end of July. I have to go back to talk to some of those other groups. People set out their short, medium and longer-term views. Everybody made this point: the media, with respect to them, would appear in some cases to have branded the entire area as being gangland. The people resent that. There is so much good happening in the inner city area. They ask that people reflect very carefully on what they say and what they write about the people who live across that entire area. That point was made very forcibly by both public representatives and leaders of communities. We will communicate with the Deputy and with everybody else in this regard.
Last week, I brought an issue to the House with regard to St. Augustine's special school in Blackrock for children with mild intellectual disabilities. That was following a mobilisation, if one likes, by very concerned parents about the children and plans by St. John of God Community Services to cut HSE funding to vocational services. I was glad to hear that on foot of the protests and campaigning of the families, a stay, as it were, had been put on the plan to cut entirely the vocational services to St. Augustine's special school. Can we get a commitment that it will not just be a stay? According to the report I have read, while there is a stay, it will be reviewed and there will be further consultation, but these cuts in vocational services are still not absolutely off the table. I ask for a commitment that hands will be taken off any effort to take away these vocational services.
In addition, the Taoiseach needs to look at some of these services that one might call preventative in nature and that are being funded by the health services generally, which seem to be being cut to move resources towards what might be considered more emergency issues. Of course we need to deal with emergencies, but that should not be at the expense of youth or preventative projects dealing with children with disabilities or, as in a case I have mentioned-----
Thank you, Deputy.
-----in the past, outreach projects for vulnerable young people in poorer and more disadvantaged areas. That is happening, and I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health to have a close look at what is being pulled here and whether it is in line with the policy of the Government.
These matters are far more appropriate to a parliamentary question or a Topical Issue. Does the Taoiseach have a brief response?
The Minister for Health was very annoyed at how this was handled. Yesterday, there was a meeting between HSE officials and the management of St. John of God Community Services at which it was agreed that the current provision of services to pupils and families will remain in place until such time as these proposals are fully teased out or discussed and agreed with the HSE. Parents have to be involved here. St. John of God Community Services recently informed the HSE of its decision to restructure the boarding school element of St. Augustine's School, Blackrock, in line with projected need and the national disability policy of progressing children's disability services. It indicated its intention to close the boarding school service over a two-year period, as only two children remain as boarders and they will graduate during that period. The main area of concern for parents at St. Augustine's has been the proposed changes to the vocational training programme. It is important to emphasise that despite substantial investment by the Department of Education and Skills in services at St. Augustine's in recent years, the HSE has not reduced funding to St. John of God Community Services for St. Augustine's school.
Officials were briefed by the management team of St. John of God Community Services on Monday, 20 June. At that meeting, as I said to the Deputy, it was agreed that the status quo would pertain. No changes will be made to funding or services without being formally submitted, discussed and agreed by the HSE. The HSE is reassuring parents that it will continue to work in partnership with the parents, the Department of Education and Skills and St. John of God Community Services in order to find the best possible solution for both young people with disabilities and their families. The Minister has made the point that parents need to be involved in this.
After a long, hard battle, the Government has thankfully agreed, in the programme for Government, to deliver the re-introduction of local improvement schemes and a new drainage scheme. This is a most welcome development. Local improvement schemes were suspended more than five years ago, which meant that no local authority in Ireland could offer people living on a road on which there might be from two to 20 houses the opportunity of having a local improvement scheme. These schemes are most important. The new drainage scheme and the method for delivering it are also most important. There is no sense in tarring a road unless the water can be drained from it. I am very thankful to the Government for including this new, imaginative scheme in the programme for Government. What commitment will the Taoiseach give on the introduction of these schemes? I also include Údarás na Gaeltachta roads. There was great delivery of funds through Roinn na Gaeltachta over many years whereby roads in the Gaeltacht were tarred.
That was Deputy Ó Cuív.
It was certainly due to Deputy Ó Cuív and I give him 100% credit for it. We also wish to give credit to this Government for doing the same. There are three matters for the Taoiseach. When will he inform the local authorities of what funding will be put in place for the local improvement schemes, so they can open the schemes? When will the new drainage scheme be put in place and how much money will be given to the local authorities for it? Finally, what type of commitment will the Taoiseach give regarding money for roads in the Gaeltacht under Roinn na Gaeltachta? It is in the programme for Government so perhaps the Taoiseach will tell us what he will do.
I can see that Deputy Michael Healy-Rae has his eyes on the extra moneys that are thankfully becoming available through an expanding economy. There are approximately 600 miles of drainage to be done in Kerry, so a large amount of machinery will be required to keep that going and keep the water flowing.
That is below the belt.
These were two very good schemes. I recall being on the county council many years ago when great work was done. I will ask the Minister to communicate to the Deputy when it is expected to move on this. The Údarás roads are part of the responsibility of an tAire, Deputy Kyne, ó Chonamara. I recall the former Deputy, Dinny McGinley, saying in the House, after Deputy Ó Cuív had the fliúirseach of the dormant accounts, that Connemara was a little like North Korea with aerstráice here and an airstrip there; there were airstrips all over the place, on land and at sea.
That was our commitment to rural Ireland.
The Taoiseach should stick to my question.
He said there were unseen and unheard-of airstrips that had been developed in Connemara through the benefits of the dormant accounts, as Deputy Martin is well aware.
Tá dhá cheist agam maidir le reachtaíocht. The new children's hospital establishment Bill is long awaited legislation which should have been produced by the last Government before the hospital's announcement. The second legislative measure is the Digital Hub Development Agency Bill, which was announced long ago by the last Government. Nearly five years later there is still no legislation to give effect to the transfer of the Digital Hub Development Agency to Dublin City Council.
The heads of the Digital Hub Development Agency Bill are expected in July. With regard to the establishment Bill in respect of the national children's hospital, work is well under way on the preparation of the general scheme. The intention is that it would be submitted to the Government in July this year. A date for pre-legislative scrutiny is yet to be determined. Both Bills will be available shortly.
My question is on behalf of the farming community in Ireland. It was never worse off and I hope the new Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is aware of that. There are four main issues at present. The first is the price of milk. Never before has a community had to work for an amount below what it costs to produce a product. People are getting less than what it costs them to produce it.
Is this about the programme for Government?
Yes, the support for agriculture in that programme. Another issue is that if the blue card of an animal states that the animal moved more than four times into four different herds, one will get €50 or €60 less for that animal in the factory. This is simply because there were more than four movements for that animal. Then there is the price of fertiliser, plastic, tyres and batteries, even though oil has never been at a lower price. We were always told that the price of oil dictated the price of these items. Why is it that the costs have gone beyond the beyond? Farmers are being driven down into the ground. They are in a desperate state. They do not have a bob or a copper, and the new Minister should know that.
Those questions might be more appropriate for parliamentary questions.
The Deputy is making a good case for the farming community. As he is aware, milk prices are cyclical. The Minister is addressing that already. The movement of cattle and the number of times they are moved is an issue. Obviously, tyres, batteries, oil and everything from fan belts to hydraulics are important elements in the costs applicable to farming these days.
The cost of oil should have reduced them.
Yes-----
We cannot get into a debate on it.
-----I am aware of that, and the cost has risen slightly recently. However, these are matters for discussion under the agriculture Estimates with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.