I call Deputy Clare Daly to announce the Order of Business for this week.
An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Today's business shall be No. 19, motion re EU Agreement with Kazakhstan - referral to committee; No. 20, motion re technological universities - referral to committee; No. 21, motion re JHA protocol of the Treaty of Lisbon - referral to committee; No. 39, statements on Brexit negotiations; and No. 40, Markets in Financial Instruments Bill 2018 - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages. Private Members’ business shall be No. 210, motion re confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, selected by Sinn Féin.
Wednesday’s business shall be No. 41, Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015 [Seanad] - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages; No. 40, Markets in Financial Instruments Bill 2018 - Report and Final Stages, resumed, if not previously concluded; No. 22, motion re Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures Order 2018, back from committee; No. 23, motion re Double Taxation Relief (Taxes on Income and Capital Gains) (Republic of Ghana) Order 2018 - back from committee; and No. 11, Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2018 - Order for Second Stage and Second Stage. Private Members' Business shall be No. 60, Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018 - Second Stage, selected by the Labour Party.
Thursday's business shall be No. 21, motion re JHA Protocol of the Treaty of Lisbon - back from committee; No. 1, Children’s Health Bill 2018 [Seanad] - Second Stage; and No. 11, Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2018 - Order for Second Stage and Second Stage. No. 25, motion re report on Engagement with Investment Funds — Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, will be taken in the evening slot.
I refer to the first revised report of the Business Committee dated 20 September 2018. In relation to today’s business, it is proposed that Nos. 19 to 21, inclusive, shall be taken without debate and any division demanded on No. 21 shall be taken immediately. No. 39 shall be brought to a conclusion after 85 minutes and shall be confined to a single round of statements for a Minister or Minister of State and the main spokespersons for parties or groups, or a Member nominated in their stead, of ten minutes each, with a five-minute response from a Minister or Minister of State and all Members may share time.
In relation to Wednesday’s business, it is proposed that Second Stage of No. 60 shall conclude within two hours. No. 22 shall be brought to a conclusion after 45 minutes. Speeches shall be confined to a single round for a Minister or Minister of State and the main spokespersons for parties or groups, or a Member nominated in their stead, of five minutes each, with a five-minute response from a Minister or Minister of State and all Members may share time. No. 23 shall be brought to a conclusion after 45 minutes. Speeches shall be confined to a single round for a Minister or Minister of State and the main spokespersons for parties or groups, or a Member nominated in their stead, of five minutes each, with a five-minute response from a Minister or Minister of State and all Members may share time.
In relation to Thursday’s business, it is proposed that No. 21 shall be taken without debate.
There are three proposals to be put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with Tuesday's business agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with Wednesday's business agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with Thursday's business agreed to? Agreed.
In his response on rural services earlier, the Taoiseach mentioned his ambitions for broadband. A total of 543,000 homes, businesses and farms are awaiting the roll-out of the new national broadband plan but the process is more like "Lanigan's Ball" than anything else with so many people stepping in and stepping out of it. Will the Taoiseach confirm the procurement rules are still being complied with in the process in spite of all of the changes to the tendering parties? Will he also confirm when the assessment process for the current bidder will be finalised? Is he still confident that the roll-out of broadband for those 543,000 premises is on schedule?
I assume that the normal procurement process is being followed. I met the Ministers, Deputies Naughten and Donohoe, on this issue just last week. I will ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to give the Deputy a more detailed answer than I can. I am confident it is on track and we will be able to sign a contract, and that we will have shovels in the ground and work under way in 2019 to bring high-speed fibre to some of those homes. It will be the biggest single public investment in rural Ireland in a very long time, as big a project in many ways as rural electrification.
I look forward to-----
Does the Taoiseach have his high-visibility jacket ready?
-----having the contracts signed.
Will that be on camera?
I look forward to turning the sod, absolutely.
Page 35 of the programme for Government contains a number of commitments in respect of public sector pay. Yesterday, the Minister for Finance made a much anticipated announcement in respect of pay restoration. As the Taoiseach knows, more than 60,000 public sector workers, including 16,000 teachers and nearly 10,000 nurses who entered service after 2011, currently earn less than colleagues for performing the same work. We have consistently called on the Government to find a fair and sensible unwinding of pay cuts and to deliver pay restoration and equality. The proposals announced yesterday fall very short of the mark and do not provide full pay equality until as late as 2026, which is almost a decade away.
This could be done sooner. We have proposed the delivery of full pay equality by the beginning of 2020. This is affordable and would see all post-2011 entrants receiving an initial pay increase at the beginning of 2019, with full pay equality by 2020. Does the Taoiseach agree that the Minister should go back to the drawing board in this regard?
The proposal published yesterday was negotiated between the Department of Finance and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. It has been welcomed by some unions such as SIPTU and Fórsa, while others have given a more muted response and some have given a negative response. It is now up to people to make a decision for themselves and ballot as to whether it should be accepted.
To bring about equal pay scales in one go would cost €200 million and we just do not have that money for next year if we are to invest in housing, health and all the areas that Members are calling on us to invest in. We have agreed with ICTU a staged restoration of basic salaries over a number of years in a way that is affordable and does not mean we would have to find the money by reducing services, cutting back on new schools or anything like that. It is important to point out that of the 60,000 new and recent entrants to the public service who will benefit, 58% or 35,750 will benefit from year one, which is next March. Of the total, 78% will benefit by year two, with many receiving substantial uplifts in pay. Ultimately, if the proposals are agreed, we will be able to accommodate them in the budget. Something that would cost much more, such as what the Deputy proposes, could not be accommodated without having an impact on other spending areas, particularly health and housing. That would not be right.
In the programme for Government, there is a commitment to a health-led approach to the process of decriminalisation of personal drug use. There was an extraordinary number of submissions to the Department of Health over the summer as part of its public consultation process. This debate has been ongoing for many years. Most people here agree that harm reduction is the way forward to stop people going through the criminal justice system. When does the Taoiseach envisage this policy being realised? It has been suggested for many years and the vast majority of people in this country want to see a system that is health-led rather than one which throws people into jail.
I agree with the Deputy that we should adopt a health-led approach to combatting the use of illegal drugs. Convicting people for minor possession has not worked. We have appointed a judge to head a group to examine the matter under the auspices of the Minister of State with responsibility for the drugs strategy, Deputy Catherine Byrne. The group was given a year to do the work and it must be coming close to the end of that time now, although I do not have the exact date. I will certainly make inquiries and inform the Deputy as to when we expect to receive the report.
The programme for Government has the ambition of protecting farmers' incomes. Suckler farmers are experiencing severe difficulties in County Kerry and all along the west of Ireland. These farmers provide the source of our beef, by and large, for most of the rest of the country. Suckler prices are down by a third in Cahirsiveen, Castleisland and Kenmare marts.
Farmers are losing today. I ask and beg the Taoiseach that the €200 that was promised to suckler farmers be made available this year. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine gave back €76 million to the Exchequer last year and €106 million the year before. Suckler farmers need this money now as otherwise they face extinction. I ask the Taoiseach to take action in the budget this year.
I want to address the same matter of agriculture. Storm Ali devastated up to 70% of the maize crop in Louth, Meath and north Dublin last week. Less than 60% of the crop, if it is salvageable at all, will only be salvaged by the introduction of imported specialist machinery. Much of that maize was grown to meet the demand of the cereal crisis that we have had over the past number of years. In view of the precedent that was set last year in regard to cereal and potato crops in Donegal and the north west, will the Taoiseach see to it that the Minister, Deputy Creed, will offer similar assistance to those devastated farmers who have lost up to 6,000 ha of crops? It will cause a serious impact on fodder supplies later in the year in the rest of the country.
I wish to address the same matter of agriculture. Like others, I too recognise the importance of the suckler herd. The constituency I represent probably has one of the greatest populations of suckler cows nationwide. It is an important part of the cycle of beef production. If calves are not born and there are no suckler cows, the beef sector on which the country has come to rely, in terms of the jobs and the products for export it provides, will not be the same. Suckler farmers are under considerable pressure this year and Deputy Healy-Rae is right to say that a considerable amount of suckler cows have been sold. The size of the national herd is dropping significantly as a result of the pressure, particularly because of the drought and concerns as to whether there will be enough fodder over the winter. It is important that any possible supports be provided to that sector of the farming community. There is no doubt that suckler farmers are the poor relation of the farming cohort and they deserve the support of the State because of the line of product that ultimately feeds the country's agricultural sector, which is important for exports.
For the past two months meat processors have consistently reduced the price they are returning to farmers. At the same time, prices are increasing in the UK. There is now a huge differential between what cattle are making here and in the UK. There is a beef forum and it should transparently examine the returns from the market place in order that factories cannot continue to exploit farmers.
There is no promised legislation on this matter but, as regards budgetary matters, they are obviously under discussion now and I am not in a position to make any announcements about the budget until the budget happens. I know the Minister, Deputy Creed, is working with the stakeholders' forum on all of those issues and, if he is in a position to, I will ask him to give a more detailed reply.
The Minister has to work a bit harder.
The Taoiseach said last week that the people of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway will be able to vote for their own directly-elected mayor. Will the Taoiseach outline if that is due to go to a plebiscite in each of those cities this October, or will that just proceed because the Government has made a call on it? When will we know what the powers and structures for that office will be?
The Taoiseach said he will create a Citizens' Assembly to look at the position of the mayor of Dublin. We did something similar ten years ago. It was not a Citizens' Assembly, but involved people within the political system. I put it to the Taoiseach that he should do something similar on this occasion. As well as including citizens, it should involve people from the political system because no one else knows how local authorities work as well as those who have worked in them. It could also include public officials. If an assembly will be established, it should comprise a mix of citizens, people from the political system and public administrators.
Does the Taoiseach believe the recommendations of such an assembly would only be implemented in 2024 or 2025, or what is the timeline for that proposal?
Proposals are about to go to Cabinet on this, but the intention is to have a plebiscite of the people in the four cities that were named.
I will consider the point about an assembly to consider the issue regarding a Dublin mayor.
On page 97 of the programme for Government, the Government states it will support the investment in closed-circuit television, CCTV, at key locations along the road network in rural and urban centres. There are several community CCTV schemes nationwide and the Department committed €1 million per year over several years. In County Laois, however, the Donaghmore and Mountmellick schemes have been held up and a similar situation exists across the country. Many of these schemes have raised funds through their own voluntary efforts such as through cake sales, raffles and so on. There has been a game of ping-pong between senior Garda management and local authorities as to who will take responsibility for storing the data. This has dragged on and on and the schemes are now in jeopardy as a consequence.
I have raised this matter with the Minister for Justice and Equality who replied that he is trying to resolve it but in the meantime, these CCTV schemes and community alert schemes are paralysed as a result. I call on the Taoiseach to examine this seriously with the Minister for Justice and Equality. It cannot be allowed to drag on. Grant money the Department has allocated is going down the tubes because this matter has not been resolved. The County and City Management Association has said its members will not touch it because they are not the police force. The Garda also has stated it is not its baby either. Someone must take responsibility and it is up to the Taoiseach and Minister for Justice and Equality to knock heads together, make somebody take responsibility and sort this out so that community alert schemes in counties Laois and Offaly and across the State can benefit from this funding.
I thank Deputy Stanley for this question. I am particularly familiar with the situation at national level and particularly in the area mentioned by the Deputy. It is an important crime prevention measure. I am very pleased that the Government has made available, through my Department, a sum to allow community CCTV.
There is a regulatory framework. I assure Deputy Stanley and Members that I am very keen to deal with this issue in a satisfactory manner. The regulatory framework to which I refer involves the local authorities, An Garda Síochána and the Data Protection Commissioner. I imagine everyone will agree there must be a proper legislative framework for this sensitive issue. I am keen to resolve the matter. Officials from my Department are engaged with the County and City Management Association and local communities with a view towards resolving the matter in order that the CCTV system can be up and running across the country at the earliest opportunity. Twenty-six of the 31 local authorities have now embraced the scheme in accordance with the regulations. I am anxious to sit down with the remaining handful of local authorities with a view towards dealing with the issue to which Deputy Stanley referred.
A further 11 Deputies are offering to speak. I call Deputy Brophy.
I raise the issue of BusConnects. There are many concerns relating to BusConnects. Like many Deputies, I support the investment in public transport. While the overall intention of what is being attempted with BusConnects should be warmly welcomed, nevertheless there are genuine concerns among communities across my constituency and across Dublin relating to existing bus services and the consultation process that is currently ongoing.
Will the Taoiseach raise these concerns with the National Transport Authority, NTA? Many concerns are genuine. There are some local politicians and politicians of various stripes who are trying to stoke fears. They are trying to make people fearful that they will lose their service when many people will have an increased service. Nevertheless, there are genuine concerns about bus services to local communities that will be affected.
I thank Deputy Brophy for raising this important issue, which is causing enormous concern across the capital city. BusConnects is Government policy. It is a €2 billion investment in improving our bus services, not only in Dublin but also in Cork and Galway.
Some people in my constituency spend more than an hour each day travelling to work on the bus. That is an hour in and back which is ten hours a week. BusConnects, if we get it right, could reduce journey times by half.
This would mean that people could spend an extra five hours a week with their families or on their own daily lives. It is clear that we need to get it right. When I met the chief executive officer of the National Transport Authority last week, I expressed the enormous concerns of many people in Dublin about the proposals, particularly regarding direct routes into the city centre and the termination of routes long before the city centre. I said that the authority needs to make major modifications to the plan and I asked that a revised plan with major modifications be submitted and put to consultation again.
The programme for Government contains a clear commitment to improve the quality of life of older people. I understand that the Taoiseach was away on Government business for the last few days, so he might not be aware of media reports today that the Christmas bonus will not be paid to pensioners and social welfare recipients this year. Can the Taoiseach assure those who depend on this bonus that these media reports are untrue, unnecessary and unfounded? They are causing huge stress to people who depend on this payment. I have been inundated this morning with calls from people who have seen the reports in the media.
I call Deputy Brassil on the same matter.
Page 36 of the programme for Government sets out a commitment to provide a fairer and more inclusive society and spread the benefits of a recovering economy more equally. I ask the Taoiseach to put this rumour, which may be unfounded and untrue, to bed immediately. It would be of great concern to pensioners and social welfare recipients if they were unable to rely on this extra money around Christmas time, when it is most needed. The timely ending of this rumour, which I hope is inaccurate, would be welcome. If it is Government policy not to pay this bonus, I ask the Taoiseach to reverse that policy immediately.
I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue and giving me an opportunity to allay people's concerns. The Christmas bonus is really important, particularly for people who are on low and fixed incomes. It gives pensioners an opportunity to buy presents for their grandchildren. It gives people on very low incomes an opportunity to meet the inevitable bills that come with Christmas. I can assure the Deputies that the Christmas bonus will be paid this year.
I thank the Taoiseach.
The report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, which was announced last week, contains many positive recommendations that would modernise policing in areas like civilianisation, human rights, training and community policing, which is a key point we have emphasised. However, some concern has been expressed about the proposal to do away with the Policing Authority and to move some of its functions, for example with regard to appointments, to the Garda board and the Garda Commissioner. It is significant that there were differing views on the issue of appointments within the commission itself. When the Government is implementing the report, will it give weight to and take account of this difference of opinion within the commission? When will we have a debate on the report in this House?
I would be very anxious for us to have a debate on aspects of this important report in the House at the earliest opportunity, subject to the agreement of the Business Committee. I assure the House that the Government has noted the far-reaching recommendations in this report, which is a blueprint for policing for the coming decades. I am anxious to ensure an implementation body is put in place and that is my priority currently. I will engage intensively in the coming weeks with a view to putting together an implementation committee headed by an independent chair. We will proceed accordingly with the 50 recommendations, subject to the observations expressed by Deputies during a Dáil debate on this report, which is really important for the future of policing in this country.
Thirty patients were waiting on trolleys in Letterkenny University Hospital yesterday. There were 2,000 instances of patients waiting on trolleys in Letterkenny University Hospital over the course of 2016, and that figure increased to 5,000 last year. When the Taoiseach visited County Donegal two weeks ago, he decided not to visit the hospital to meet management and to assess the pressure being experienced by staff.
Last year, the hospital put to the Taoiseach a proposal, costing €1.8 million, to provide additional staff to reopen a 19-bed ward that would alleviate some of the pressure on the hospital. It has put that proposal to the Taoiseach again this year. Will he take the steps necessary to ensure the funding is delivered to alleviate some of the pressure on the hospital so the patients of Donegal, in particular, and other counties will not be facing a crisis in which they will be on trolleys and in which staff will be asked to deal with unacceptable working conditions that are simply atrocious?
Overall, the number of patients on trolleys this morning was 291. That is 18.5% down on the figure for this day last year, and 17.56% down on the figure for this day two years ago. I appreciate, as always, that the figures vary from hospital to hospital. One could have very high numbers in one hospital and a figure of zero, or of only one or two, in others. Extra beds were brought into the system this year. As the Deputy knows, a decision was taken by Fianna Fáil during the boom to reduce the number of beds in acute hospitals. We reversed that decision around 2014 or 2015 and have been increasing the number of acute beds since then. I will not be making individual decisions on which hospitals the extra beds go to, but there will be extra beds again next year.
There is a clear commitment in the programme for Government to provide home care services, home care packages and home help services for elderly people. In recent weeks, I have been inundated with people coming to me trying to get additional home help hours that they cannot get. When I speak to the service in the north west, it tells me it would need to get at least 20% more funding to provide adequately for the number of people who need to get the service. Most people are being told they have to pay for the home help services privately to be able to subsidise the State's intervention. It is really unacceptable because many people are on the poverty line. They find that when an elderly relative or another individual comes home from hospital, they cannot get home help services for him or her. They are told to pay for it themselves when they cannot afford to do so. In the forthcoming budget, I expect a strong commitment from the Government to put the funding in place to ensure the promise in the programme for Government is kept in respect of this. It saves money in the long run. Not only does it save money from the point of view of the health service but it also puts money into the hands of people living in rural areas, many of whom are providing the service. It makes absolute sense. It is the one area in which the Government needs to invest with absolute haste.
On the same matter, I raised this with the Tánaiste last week and he did not give a satisfactory answer. As I can hear in the Dáil Chamber, there is a chronic crisis in the home help sector right across the country, particularly in my area. Home help organiser posts are not being filled. This is leading to a chronic backlog that dates right back to the end of June. No extra home help has been given to patients who have been discharged. In cases where patients are waiting to be discharged, the Government should put a proper home care package in place. It makes no economic sense to do what is now being done because it is costing the State on the other side. We need to be very realistic. The home help package is a massive facility for elderly people, in particular. What is happening is shameful.
I thank both Deputies for focusing our attention on this important issue. I agree with both in that I would like to see increased investment. The Government has increased the investment in home help budget on budget. I am very hopeful that we will do it again this year.
It is important to note, however, that there is a dual challenge; it is not just about funding. If we had all the money in the world in the morning, we would need to get the people to provide the service. In many areas, including mine, west Cork, the biggest challenge is not the financial one but getting people to deliver the service. As the Deputies will be aware, with a view to dealing with this I recently concluded a consultation with the public to hear its views on setting up a fair deal-type scheme, underpinned by statute, that would guarantee the delivery of home help hours and the appropriate training, and require a requisite number of staff to provide the service. That will take two to three years to bring about, bearing in mind that the fair deal scheme itself took seven to eight years to introduce. We are working and making a lot of progress towards that. In the meantime, however, I hope we will see an increase in this year’s budget, but it will not solve all the ills in the area of home help.
Deputy Michael Healy-Rae has two seconds.
Some chance.
In the programme for Government, there are commitments on health issues, especially regarding children.
Last weekend, a mother brought her small child, Rose, to my clinic. Rose was able to point to her hair, eyes, nose and mouth. A short time ago she could not do that. Rose suffers from a spinal muscular problem and, thankfully, she is on the drug Spinraza which is working very well for her. That is the reason she has some power to move her arms. Sadly, however, there are 25 other children in this country who cannot move their limbs and whose little muscles and limbs are getting increasingly weak. As a medical professional the Taoiseach would be far more knowledgeable about this than me. It is a disgrace that the drug is not being made available to the little children who could benefit so greatly from it. Anything the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Government can do to help those 25 children to be like Rose and to be able to move their hands, point and use their muscles would be important beyond belief.
I am glad to hear that Rose is doing well and that Spinraza is providing benefits for her. I gave an oral answer on this topic last week and it is on the record. The position has not changed since then.
My apologies to the six Deputies who have not been called today. The Deputies who take more than a minute, which is the allocated time, do not leave time for their colleagues to ask questions.