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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 17 Feb 2022

Vol. 1018 No. 3

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

Bogfaimid ar aghaidh go dtí Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh. I dtús báire, beidh cainteoir ó Shinn Féin ann. Arís, de bharr srianta ama, beidh suas le nóiméad ag gach duine.

Yesterday the Central Statistics Office published the latest property price report that shows property prices are continuing to spiral out of control. In the past year house prices have increased by 14.4% across the State. The Border region is seeing crazy house price inflation at prices increasing by up to 24% in the past year. This is scandalous. House prices are almost at a Celtic tiger peak, and as a result of Government policy, ordinary people, ordinary families and workers simply cannot afford to buy a home. First-time buyers in this city would have to have income of over €130,000 to get a mortgage to cover a house in Dublin.

This week the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, told the Dáil that he wants to see more cuckoo funds. These are the funds that are pricing ordinary workers and families out of the market. Does the Minister, Deputy Ryan, agree with the Minister for Finance that more cuckoo funds is the solution? Is it not time to clip their wings and to end the tax advantages enjoyed by these funds? These funds are distorting the market. Is it not time to increase stamp duty on them?

We need to spend about €12 billion per year to really tackle the problem. Some €4 billion of that will come from the State and €8 billion from elsewhere. My job and my role, and what I want to do, comes back to what I said about Dublin Port: do we need all of the land with the expectation that it would double the amount of traffic in the port? I would say "No". We should take some of those pockets of land that are within walking distance of the city centre, where the problem is at its most acute, and build high-quality housing particularly for cost rental housing, through the Land Development Agency. We have started this, it is not just talk. We started with Irish Rail and with land to the west of Heuston Station and around Conyngham Road bus station to start planning now to put in housing now. I could go through this Department by Department, public land by public land. That we have control of and that we can do, in line with also getting the €8 billion which we need from the private sector. We need both of those combined to tackle the problem.

As we all say, Covid has changed everything and has been the great disrupter. Many people are moving around and changing their work patterns, through working remotely and so on. I have never seen so many people moving home to my own county. In the context of spatial planning changing, and with Covid having had such a disrupting effect, what is the Minister's personal position on the 170 km Shannon water pipeline?

I listened to an interview the Minister did not so long ago. What he said in that interview was very interesting. This is going through public consultation at the moment and he acknowledged everything had changed fundamentally. He made some interesting comments on how we should plan for the future, economically, environmentally and spatially. Given that this is now under public consultation, is it the view of the Minister that this is necessary or should we consider other options, in particular as regards how we plan our country?

I will give my personal view based on real experience in Dublin. In 2018, we came very close to drought in Dublin. There is undoubtedly a real issue with water supply in Dublin. I was in Shannon and Ennis last week and I also have long held the view that we need better balanced regional development. A lot of water use is industrial. People do not see it or notice it, but it is huge. If that is where the water is, would we not move industry there, rather than shipping everything somewhere else? There is imbalance in this country. I mentioned earlier that 97% of roll-on roll-off traffic comes in through Dublin Port and 95% of air passengers come through Dublin Airport. Some 75% of new houses are in the greater Dublin area, that is, Dublin and surrounding counties from where people are commuting into Dublin. This is not working for Dublin or the rest of the country. The biggest problem in Clare and Shannon is water. We cannot build houses in Clare because Irish Water is not investing in towns and villages there which would be perfect to build in. I would bring the jobs west.

Minister, we are over time. These are just short questions and answers.

In 2022, in a modern wealthy republic, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul released a report today entitled, The Cost of Surviving?. There are many shocking findings in the report, but one that stands out for me is the fact that 30% of one-parent family respondents said that due to the rising cost of living they were cutting back on essentials like food. I am sure I am not the only person in the Chamber who has encountered a parent who has had to skip a meal so that a child does not have do. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has made a series of recommendations for the short, medium and long term. Can the Minister tell me one policy that has been enacted in the suite of measures announced last week that will ensure that a parent in this Republic no longer has to skip a meal? It is a sad indictment of us as a society.

One of the measures announced last week was a change to the rules on school transport. That applies more to rural than urban areas, but it was very much targeted at the parents of young children. There are also changes in prescription charges. In addition, the many parents who cannot afford a car will benefit most from a cut in the cost of public transport. It is very expensive to pay for fares for adults and children, and that starts to hit home. More fundamentally, what was done last week was an adjunct to last October's budget. To go back to my earlier discussion with Deputy Doherty on the framing of the carbon tax, we deliberately designed measures to try to target lone parents, qualified children and the living alone allowance. The fuel allowance is not the only payment that was included. Using carbon tax to pay for some additional targeted measures in the social welfare Bill is one way to help those categories of people.

We are all aware of the controversy surrounding the decision of the National Women's Council of Ireland, NWCI, regarding its platform for the International Women's Day protest on 5 March. We have differing views on it and I do not do not want to go into those views here. However, I seek from the Minister and Government reassurance that the NWCI, or any other NGO which takes a view that is different to that of the Government or takes a decision that the Government does not like, will not have their funding cut or threatened and will instead be protected.

I thank the Deputy. My Department funds the NWCI. This year, we funded it to the tune of €611,000, a 10% increase on last year. We will continue to fund the NWCI and look to continue to grow the level of its funding. My Department and I, as Minister, regularly meet it regarding a wide range of issues, as do many colleagues. We value that working relationship with the NWCI.

Our electricity prices are among the most expensive in Europe, with Irish families paying, on average, €180 extra for electricity annually. This is partly as a result of Irish families being forced to subsidise the cost of electricity, grid connections and backup supplies for existing and already planned speculative data centres. The Government decided in 2018 to stop the practice whereby those struggling to pay electricity bills were subsidising these speculative developers and instead make data centres pay their own costs. When will the Government reduce electricity costs by stopping this data centre subsidy?

We clearly recognise that we have an issue with data centres. We cannot just have an open door whereby every new data centre that wants to get onto the grid is connected. If we did that, we would blow our climate budget and so on. We have introduced much-needed new arrangements. A data centre that wants to connect to the grid has to be part of solving the problem we have with managing the balance in the grid, such as providing backup power, providing a real benefit in terms of district heating or other solutions. Flexibility is required. I will make a point that is central to this issue. The primary reason for our high electricity prices is our dispersed population and grid connection. If we ask any expert analyst why Irish electricity prices are high in comparison to other European countries, it is largely due the fact that we have a different model of development. The dispersed population model is one of the main reasons we have higher costs.

I am referring to the existing system, not the pie in the sky one.

I have to come back to the Minister again on behalf of Oireachtas Members from the south east regarding funding for the N24 and N25. A sum of €3.5 million is needed to continue preparatory work, reports and investigations. Our consultants are doing that work and their funding runs out at the end of this month. We need that meeting urgently to determine whether we can get the €3.5 million that is needed to keep the project alive. Connectivity between Limerick and Waterford is important. I welcome the Minister's vision for the bypass for Tipperary town, but work is required between Cahir and Waterford on the N24 and the Dungarvan to Cork road on the N25. The funding is minuscule. Only €3.5 million is needed to keep the project alive. If they fall off the track now, God knows when we will be able to restart them. It will cost a lot of money. There are many fatalities on the N24. There is pollution and carbon is being wasted due to blockages. Can the Minister give me a date when he can meet Deputies, including his colleagues, from the south east?

I look forward to that meeting. About 25 people sought a meeting. It will be tricky to arrange everyone's diaries but I will happily do whatever I can to facilitate it.

I welcome the Minister's commitment to balanced regional development. Shannon Development was set up as part of that. It became the Shannon Group, comprising three entities, namely, the airport, commercial properties and Shannon Heritage. The idea was that properties, which would be highly profitable, would be used to pay for much-needed capital investment in heritage sites. For a variety of reasons, that has not happened. The Minister visited Clare last week and will be aware that the Shannon Group does not see Shannon Heritage as part of its strategic future. The county council is prepared to take it over. The question still remains as to how the necessary capital investment in Shannon Heritage will be funded. The Minister served on a local authority for some time. He will be aware that local authorities' funding streams are limited and generally do not run heritage sites, although they are very well placed to run this. Did the Minister's discussions with Clare County Council result in any solutions?

I met the council and the chair and chief executive of the Shannon Group. We are close to final arrangements involving the likes of Bunratty and the Cliffs of Moher retail unit going to Clare, King John's Castle going to Limerick and so on. There is remaining debt and those issues have to be resolved. It is appropriate that Clare County Council is taking over Bunratty. It will get revenue streams from the Cliffs of Moher. We have to plan for the Cliffs of Moher in a different way. While we did not resolve that on my visit on Friday, both the Shannon Group and the council are committed to getting it over the line.

And what about the Government?

And the Government too.

Like many other Deputies, I joined the Together for Yes group outside last week, in a protest demanding safe access zones for essential health services. The Minister for Health was in the Seanad last week and was supportive of safe access zones being implemented. It is a commitment in the programme for Government. Together for Yes has written to seek the release by the Minister for Health of the legal advice that he is basing many of his decisions on. He spoke in the Seanad of extensive legal advice that he has received. Echoing and supporting the call by Together for Yes, will it be possible for the Government to release that legal advice as soon as possible?

I do not think the Government will ever share legal advice.

Irish ones do not. British ones do.

They may, but we are not a British Government.

Deputies

Hear, hear.

We have a Constitution and laws that are based on it, with certain protected rights, unlike others that I will not mention.

This is a living issue and an immediate concern for people. There has to be a balance between the right to protest and to people being protected. The Government is committed to delivering the zones. My understanding from the Attorney General's legal advice is that this is not an insurmountable problem. We will be able to square that circle and provide the measures. I will pass the Deputy's question on to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to see if he can speak with Deputy Costello directly. We need to resolve it under the Constitution of the Irish Republic.

Councillor Michael Gallagher and I have been raising an issue for years. There was an announcement about roads recently. I have to hand a map of the Kells electoral area with details for the next three years. There are 55 sections of road being worked on, or 1 million km. Eighteen sections of road are being worked on per year. The section from Ballinlough to Ross and Mount Nugent is a huge area. There are five sections of road. The area includes Ballinlough, Crossakeel, Killallon, Kilskeer, Drumone, Moylagh, Ballynacree, Oldcastle, all the way to Ross and Mount Nugent. There are five sections of roads. They are some of the worst in the country. Will the Minister come to visit these roads? I am sick and tired of raising this every year at Meath County Council. We need targeted funding for this. There is no public transport down there. There is no other way to get to work. There are thousands of people employed there.

The Deputy is over time.

We need to do something. I have been trying to address this since I was on the county council in 2014. I have just one more thing-----

We are over time. I call the Minister to reply.

My glasses are good but they are not that good. I ask the Deputy to send me the details. On Tuesday, €25 million was announced as being allocated to Meath County Council for local roads. The overall figure was a 4% increase on previous years. It is important that we maintain what is called steady state quality of roads. If they are let go, they cost more to repair, and there are safety aspects and other issues. I ask the Deputy to send me the details, I will look specifically-----

Please, Minister. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, is hinting at him there.

This is the story in north Meath.

The Deputy's colleagues are waiting to get in, in the limited time. These are questions on promised legislation.

The silence of those living with motor neurone disease is now speaking volumes. The voice of their struggle is becoming all the louder and significantly raising awareness of the issue that they face daily. As people prepare to gather at Mayo's Croagh Patrick and countless other hills and mountains around the country to climb with Charlie Bird, it is important to highlight the need to increase funding and support for those living with motor neurone disease. University Hospital Galway is the western regional centre for neurology but it is short of neurology nurse specialists and people are unnecessarily waiting for longer for diagnosis and treatment. Based on the catchment area, national and international guidance recommends that there should be 13 neurology nurse specialists but there are only four in Galway. Patients deserve better. I ask the Minister to raise this in Cabinet in order that we can increase-----

-----resources and services for people suffering with motor neurone disease.

I commit to doing that. I am sure I will be joined by colleagues in saying how much people are inspired by the bravery and strength of people such as Charlie Bird. That vision of going up Croagh Patrick is poignant and powerful. We wish him and everyone else involved well. I will raise it with Government colleagues to see if there is anything we can do to help.

Thankfully, we are moving beyond the situation of Covid certificates being required. That is due to a significant effort by people around the country. They are still required when travelling internationally. It is getting more difficult for people who have had Covid, sought a PCR test, but have not been able to get that. They are not able to get a Covid recovery certificate if they have had a confirmation via antigen testing. Many younger people, including anyone under 40, were told that they could not get a PCR test and needed to record a result using antigen testing. Many teenagers would not have finished their vaccination course, so it will be more difficult for them too. If people want to travel internationally, there needs to be access to the Covid recovery certificate if they have an antigen test.

The Deputy makes a good point. I will have to look into it because I do not have the details of why it is so difficult to get that Covid certificate in place in time. The Deputy is right that people are now looking forward, as more normal life returns, to starting to travel. If they are restricted in that way, that would be a real problem. I will follow up and come back to the Deputy with the specifics of what is happening and what could change to address the problem.

I was contacted by the staff of the Gorey Educate Together National School in County Wexford. The new school was sanctioned by the Department of Education in 2020. The school opened to first year students in September 2021, in temporary accommodation on the Fort Road, Gorey. The board of management raised the issue of a permanent site location many times with the Department. Each time, it was told that talks are ongoing to locate a site for a new school building. It asks that all negotiations on site acquisition must now be finalised so this project can move forward without delay. The families of the Gorey school catchment area, along with the teaching staff and current students, deserve clarity about where their school will be located. Will the Minister raise this matter with the Minister for Education and clarify the site location, since the community has been waiting for more than seven months without any conclusive answers?

I do not have the details but I will follow up and try to get the Department of Education to respond to the Deputy with urgency. It is not right that the school is in such an uncertain place.

The Minister knows that the waiting list for surgery for children with scoliosis and spina bifida is under extreme pressure. The list has grown by almost one third since the pandemic began. That means that many young people and many children are living in pain, waiting for life-changing surgery. We need a solution. We urgently need enough funding, staff and theatre space to make those operations happen. I know this Government is committed to addressing the waiting lists for these young people and to ending their pain. Will the Minister give us an update and assurance for these young people and their families?

I thank the Deputy for the question. I was speaking with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, about this issue yesterday and last week he visited Cappagh, Tallaght and Crumlin. He spoke with Children's Health Ireland. He has made provisions within the budget for the issue the Deputy raised. I will get her a substantive answer from the Minister and revert to her.

The principal of Kilbrittain National School in west Cork has been informed by the school's special educational needs organiser, SENO, that the National Council for Special Education intends to phase out early intervention classes nationwide, which means that Kilbrittain's early intervention class is to close this year. That is a significant loss to the people of Kilbrittain and the surrounding areas, even though it has sufficient numbers enrolled for next year and has accommodation and staff already in place. It currently has three special education classes attached to the mainstream school, which have been in operation since 2012. Its board of management has spent more than €40,000 to create a new playground and resources for the early intervention classes. Their teacher has recently completed a master's degree in this area. Is the Minister aware of this national plan and what are his thoughts on it?

Has research been carried out on the benefits of the existing early intervention model? I have raised this issue with the Minister for Education and I raised it in the Dáil with the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities yesterday. I am still awaiting a reply. Will the Minister work with me and for the children of Ireland, who succeed so well thanks to early intervention units, to do what we can to reverse this wrong decision?

I am not aware of the school in question but I am aware of the issue. In my family we have a child with special needs and I have seen him grow up through the various parts of the health and education systems. My broad assessment is that our education system is providing many services that did not exist ten or 20 years ago and that there has been significant progress. The problems really start to occur in the interaction between the health system and the education system. The communication between the two is very poor. Every child and his or her circumstances are different. Some children would benefit best from being educated within specialist units outside the traditional school model; others really benefit where integration is possible. One of the biggest benefits of the integrated model is that other children in the school grow up knowing what it is like to work with and to be educated with children with disabilities. That model is working well. I am sorry if that is a very general answer but it is based on my lived experience.

Yesterday we welcomed the announcement by the European Court of Justice that it had dismissed the appeal by the Hungarian and Polish Governments in respect of the European Commission's new-found ability to withhold funding from those countries due to flagrant breaches of the rule of law. Will the Government now urge European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to use that new law to make it clear that European citizens can continue to live in free democracies where the rule of law comes foremost rather than being subject to thuggish regimes that suspend the rights of the judiciary, minorities and many others?

He is not here now, but Deputy McNamara and I were joking earlier about what the difference is between Ireland and the UK. We have a constitutional legal system. I see the European Union in a similar light. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is, in effect, an extensive constitutional arrangement to which we have all agreed. It provides us all with real strength and protection in the context of fundamental rights. The European Commission and others are right that it is their role to stand up for the protection and implementation of EU treaties. I am glad the European Court of Justice has backed that up with its decision. For us, that adherence to law and that independence of the legal system, which has been one of the hallmarks of the success of our country over 100 years, is very important. I understand that the court decision was in part based on that very issue of the independence of the law. We are right to stand by that as a fundamental cornerstone of both our Union and our own Constitution.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to building stronger and safer communities and specifically priorities visible policing in rural areas. Given the savage attack on Tom Niland in west County Sligo in recent weeks, and given a 27% reduction in resources in the Sligo-Leitrim Garda division, how does the Government proposes to increase visible rural policing? Furthermore, given such a savage attack and others that have taken place in recent weeks and months, will the Government commit to the introduction of more severe and mandatory sentencing in respect of such attacks?

I regret that the Minister for Justice had to leave only a few minutes ago. She would not have-----

It is a matter of collective responsibility. I am sure the Minister will be able to respond.

That is true. I absolutely agree that the savage attack on Mr. Niland that the Deputy mentioned requires us all to see what we can do. If constitutional rights are to mean anything, people have to be protected in their homes. I do not believe mandatory sentencing is the best response to that. The independence of our judicial system I mentioned earlier requires giving judges and our judicial system the powers to assess each case and impose the appropriate penal sanctions. We do need policing, however, and the Government is increasing investment in our policing system. I absolutely agree with the Deputy that if people are feeling vulnerable in a rural or isolated area, where they might not have neighbours close at hand, we need to focus on those areas.

I was recently contacted by a man in my constituency who is in his early 50s and who, unfortunately, received a cancer diagnosis about eight months ago, fortunately within the early stages of the disease. Because of that, and because of his income of just under €50,000 a year, he cannot get a medical card. He has commitments, he has to pay down a mortgage and he has other loans and so on. He does not have health insurance. He has found now that all his savings have gone and that he is struggling with hospital appointments, the cost of cancer care and so on. A recent survey done by AIG found that the additional costs for a person who has cancer amount to €1,104 on average per month. The Marie Keating Foundation has found that many people are more stressed about the financial impact of cancer than their recovery from the disease. Clearly, the answer is to grant medical cards to people on an emergency basis, renewed annually, if they have a cancer diagnosis. It would not cost a fortune. We are talking about quite a small number of people, but it would have a huge impact on those families. I ask the Minister to speak to the Minister for Health to ensure that this provision is put in place.

I mentioned earlier that the three key priorities of this Government are housing, climate and health. In health there will have to be reform. There was a lot of controversy yesterday in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health as to how quickly that is delivered and whether it will be delivered. Our cancer treatment service has improved significantly in recent years-----

It is the cost.

The Deputy is right. We have to ensure, then, that that cost does not result in other areas falling back. As the Deputy asks, I will talk to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and see what plans he has in this regard. No one wants to see someone with cancer burdened with another worry about finances. Considering how we do that and how we deliver universal healthcare would be the best solution to this. That is a cornerstone of the Sláintecare strategy. Broadly, I agree with the Deputy's perspective. We need to try to move towards such a universal system. The funding has increased, as mentioned at the committee meeting yesterday. There has been some €6 billion in additional core funding in the past three years. We wish to continue on that path to provide universal care.

I have a very straightforward question for the Minister or for the Government. Why is the north side of Cork city being neglected when it comes to funding for road infrastructure and projects? Last year, under sustainable transport funding, 31 projects were announced for the south side of the city at a cost of almost €16 million but only 12 projects were announced for the north side at a cost of less than €6 million. Then, three weeks ago, the Minister announced the active travel fund, under which 29 projects, amounting to €18.6 million, are on the south side of the city and 13, amounting to less than €5 million, are on the north side. There is less money this year than there was last year. I have no problem with the projects announced for the south side going ahead. They deserve to go ahead. However, why is the north side being so neglected when it comes to funding? There is nothing for the northern ring road. Will the Minister explain this and ensure it does not happen again?

I assure the Deputy that the north side is just as much in our minds, attention and-----

It is not in the figures.

Let the Minister respond.

That does not come from any Government direction or an inclination on its part not to support the north side over the south side. The Deputy mentioned the active travel fund. I remember talking to an engineer who said he had not seen a previous example where pretty much everything Cork had looked for we had been able to deliver. Cork has been ambitious and a bit ahead of the curve in some of these areas. What I said to the council when I met it was that if it comes with good projects, there will be an open door to trying to get them delivered and built. Critically for north Cork, under the funding for this year, spending on Kent Station will be provided to create the new Mallow-to-Midleton rail service. We will effectively build a DART for Cork with new stations on the north side, in the likes of Blarney, Monard, Tivoli and Blackpool. Those stations will be selected. That will transform north Cork. As for the European funding, we deliberately said that north Cork is where that new rail infrastructure should go. There is no shortage of desire to transform the north of Cork city.

Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 1.09 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 1.51 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.09 p.m. and resumed at 1.51 p.m.
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