Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 22 Feb 2022

Vol. 1018 No. 4

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I begin by extending, on behalf of Sinn Féin, my condolences on the passing of South Belfast MLA, Christopher Stalford, to Christopher's wife, Laura, to his four children, his family, friends and colleagues in the DUP. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they grieve his loss.

Tá dhá tuairisc a fhoilsíodh an tseachtain seo a chaitheann síos go mór ar fhreagra an Rialtais seo maidir le géarchéim na gcostas maireachtála chun solais. Is í an fhírinne ná nach bhfuil go leor á dhéanamh. Tá páistí ar an líne bhochtaineachta anois mar gheall ar chostais atá ag ardú.

Children face the sharp edge of the cost-of-living crisis. Barnardos Ireland has published a report which states that one quarter of families fear they will not be able to feed their kids as the price of groceries soars. Barnardos CEO, Suzanne Connolly, has stated families are running out earlier due to increasing costs. She has said the situation is now very serious for low- and middle-income families. In its Report Card 2022, published yesterday, the Children's Rights Alliance awarded the Government a grade E to reflect the increasing number of children experiencing homelessness. Extortionate rents that ordinary families cannot afford are a key driver in this scandal.

The package announced by Government does not go far enough. It barely scratches the surface. It is not just me or Sinn Féin telling the Government this. Barnardos, St. Vincent de Paul, Social Justice Ireland and other organisations are all saying the same thing. The Government could have made better choices. It could have acted as Sinn Féin proposed. It could have cut rents and banned increases, but it did not. It could have cut childcare costs. It did not do that. It could have expanded and extended the fuel allowance. It did not do that either. It could have provided a cost-of-living cash payment to individuals. Again, it refused to do so. A one-off energy credit paid in March or April is better than nothing, but it will not make a dent when people are paying thousands to light and heat their homes. Last month, gas demand rose by 11% as temperatures dropped. At the weekend, Sinn Féin activists were out engaging with communities. People were coming to their doors with energy bills that were so high they described them as the straw that would finally break their backs.

What is the Government response to all of this hardship? First, the Taoiseach is telling people that no further help is coming from the Government and that they will have to wait at least seven months for the budget. You are on your own, is the message from the Head of Government. Then we have the Tánaiste, Deputy Leo Varadkar, piping up and talking about increasing interest rates, a measure that would not help any families but would heap additional financial pressure on workers and households. Then, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and his Government colleagues plan to go ahead with a carbon tax increase that will make it even more expensive for families to keep their homes warm. To crown it all off, on Wednesday evening, the Government rolled in here and voted to ensure cuckoo funds continue to pay no tax on rental income and no capital gains tax, the very same funds that are gobbling up family homes, making home ownership unaffordable and helping drive rents up, up and up.

The Government needs a reality check. It needs to wake up and understand where ordinary people are at. The Government is living in dreamland if it thinks that people can hang on and wait until next October, when the Government announces next year's budget. Families and children need a far better intervention from Government to bring down the cost of living, and they need it right here, right now. That is what the call is for. Is the Government going to leave them in the lurch or is it going to do as Sinn Féin has asked and act to support those families and children, who so many organisations are saying are being left behind as a result of its policies?

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Michael McGrath)

I thank the Deputy for raising once again the very real issue of the cost-of-living pressures people are facing. The Government acknowledges that a lot of people are under real pressure because of the rising cost of living. We all know the reasons the cost of living is increasing. There are external international factors. There are also domestic factors, including the really strong rebound in the Irish economy which has exceeded most expectations. On the external front, undoubtedly the increase in wholesale energy prices and the disruptions in the global supply are having a real impact on the ground.

Of course, people are not that concerned about the reasons. They just know it is hurting them, it is affecting them, and they want to know what we are doing about it. We do note that the most recent data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, show a moderation in January in the harmonised index of consumer prices, down from 5.7% to 5%. We cannot take too much comfort from that. It is a slight easing and we do not know yet whether that is going to be part of an improvement in the underlying trend or whether it is a one-off. Time will tell in relation to that.

That is why the Government has acted. That is why we acted in the budget last October, when we had an income tax package of more than half a billion euro in respect of reductions in income tax, the burden of which falls on low-income people and on middle-income people. The Sinn Féin proposal in respect of income tax was to increase it by €800 million in the last budget. This Government reduced it by half a billion euro. That is €1.3 billion of a difference in our income tax proposals in the previous budget alone. In addition, we had a social welfare package in the previous budget of more than half a billion euro, much of which was targeted: at the working family payment, the qualified child payment and the living alone allowance, for example - three payments that are generally accepted as being among the most effective tools any government has to tackle the poverty issues that are undoubtedly there. Of course, it was also coupled with increases in the core rates. We acknowledge there is a challenge with fuel prices. That is why we increased the fuel allowance in the budget by €5 immediately on budget night last year. The Sinn Féin proposal was not to increase the fuel allowance at all in the budget last October. That is a fact.

Now, of course, we have gone much further. In recent weeks, we have come forward with a package of more than half a billion euro. Some measures are targeted and some are universal. The targeted measures will include the €125 once-off payment to people on the fuel allowance. Almost 400,000 households will get that payment in the next three weeks. By mid-March, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, plans to have that payment transferred to the people who need it most. A number of the measures we introduced in the budget last October have yet to kick in and these will also help many families, particularly working families and middle-income families, who also are feeling the pressure. In autumn, for example, the improvement in the SUSI grant will come in. There is the improvement in the means test and the qualifying threshold for the student support scheme. The extension of the universal childcare subsidy in relation to older children will also kick in in autumn of this year. The extension by two weeks of parents' benefit will kick in in July. In addition, a number of the other social welfare measures, such as the improvement in the means test for carers, for example, will also come into effect in June.

I represent ordinary people. I get elected by ordinary people. This Government represents ordinary people. We are listening to them. That is why we have responded in the best way we can so far with a set of universal measures but also a set of targeted measures, including those introduced outside of the annual budget. That has just been done, as the Deputy is aware.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The people I speak to who live in this city say they cannot afford €2,000 rents and cannot understand why the Minister and his Government continue to vote against rent freezes. They continue to ask me why the Government will not support the Sinn Féin policy that would put a month’s rent back into renters’ pockets. The people I talk to tell me about the fact that childcare is a second mortgage for many families and that there is a way to cut the cost of childcare but it falls on deaf ears. The people I talk to say the social welfare package the Government introduced in the budget last year does not even keep up with the rate of inflation.

What people want is real action right here, right now. There is a suite of proposals that we put forward. It is a suite of proposals that could help people in terms of the cost of living by giving them direct cash payments. The Government refused to do that. There is the proposal to ban rent increases and put money back into renters’ pockets.

The Government refused to do it. There is the proposal to cut childcare costs. The Government refused to do it. When it comes to last week's vote, however, there is no tax for vulture funds that are making millions of euro on charging the highest rents in the State. These are the ordinary people the Minister is on the side of, because talk is cheap, but when it comes to action the Government is failing to deliver for these families. The Minister should not just take Sinn Féin's word on this. Barnardos, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Social Justice Ireland and the National One Parent Family Alliance are all saying the same thing. The Government needs to understand where people are at.

Deputy David Cullinane

Hear, hear.

Deputy Michael McGrath

We do understand where people are at. The Deputy is right; talk is cheap. He talks about fuel poverty. Sinn Féin introduced an alternative budget last October that did not increase the fuel allowance by one cent.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

That is not true. We increased portions of welfare-----

Deputy Michael McGrath

That is the truth.

Deputy Martin Browne

The Journal will have more work to do.

Deputy Michael McGrath

The Deputy did that in October of last year. His party published its budget proposals in which there was not a single cent of an increase in the fuel allowance. This Government increased it by €5 on budget night in an unprecedented measure because we recognise the genuine difficulties that people are facing.

The Deputy talks about the carbon tax. He is being duplicitous on the carbon tax and highly disingenuous. He gives people the impression Sinn Féin is against the carbon tax. The only thing his party is against when it comes to the carbon tax is the next increase, whenever that is going to be, because it never proposes to unwind or abolish the carbon tax. Tell people the truth. His party is-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

We did not say we would. Let us stop pushing up energy prices on families.

Deputy Michael McGrath

His party is in favour of the carbon tax and is only ever against the next increase, and that is typical of the cynical politics that his party is pursuing.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

We are against pushing up prices on families. What do you only understand about that? Push up gas prices. Push up oil prices.

Deputy Michael McGrath

Perhaps Deputy Doherty might tell people where the €412 million I have ring-fenced this year for fuel poverty measures, for retrofitting and for agri-environmental schemes from carbon tax receipts will come from. It is not there.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank the Minister.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

What about the vulture funds, Minister?

An Ceann Comhairle

I call Deputy Shortall.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

There were further revelations about the dysfunction at the heart of the health service in the Business Post at the weekend. Department of Health officials described a horror of waste in the HSE, criticised recruitment targets as incredulous, and expressed concern at their inability to hold the HSE to account.

Concerns about budgets in the HSE went all the way to the top. The Minister himself was said to have spoken directly to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, about the €514 million supplementary budget for 2020 and to have expressed doubt as to whether it was needed or indeed utilised as intended. When the Business Post sought confirmation on this from the Department, it was told those remarks were hearsay. I am pleased the Minister is in the Chamber today and in a position to confirm whether he had that conversation.

There is a great deal of detail on what has been reported in the past two weeks which raises serious concerns about monumental levels of waste, inefficiency and profligacy within the health service. I want to focus on just one area, which is cancer services. Recently, the Social Democrats introduced a motion calling for hospital charges for cancer patients to be waived and for hospitals to stop using debt collectors to pursue cancer patients for outstanding charges. The Government did not object to our motion but, crucially, it has not acted and it had the opportunity to do so. In advance of the Government’s publishing its measures to combat the cost of living crisis, the Department of Health submitted a proposal that would have seen those charges abolished for everyone. It said it would cost approximately €30 million. The cost for cancer patients would be only a fraction of that figure. The Government opted not to do this and instead made a conscious decision that cancer patients should continue to be charged for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

How does the Minister think it must feel to be a cancer patient and read what has been revealed in recent weeks about the hundreds of millions of euro going into a black hole in the health service while debt collectors are hounding such patients to repay outstanding debts related to life-saving services?

Did the Minister raise concerns with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, about the €514 million supplementary budget in 2020? Why is it there are hundreds of millions of euro in the HSE budget for fake recruitment targets but the Minister cannot find the relatively meagre amount that would be required to spare cancer patients the financial burden of paying for their care? Will the Minister commit to abolishing hospital charges, if not for everyone immediately, at least for cancer patients?

Deputy Michael McGrath

I thank the Deputy for her questions. First, to respond to the comments she made and the questions relating to the articles in the Business Post, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and I have a good working relationship. Officials of the two Departments engage on an ongoing basis. There is a health budget oversight group involving officials from both Departments that meets regularly and, as one would expect, we have occasional bilateral ministerial meetings as well, and sometimes on specific issues. For example, we had one in the middle of last year to review progress on the implementation of the budgetary measures for 2021.

The accounts for the HSE in 2021 are currently being finalised. The Minister gave an update to the Cabinet today that on a cash basis the health Vote was €469 million below profile. They are now calculating the level of accruals that relate to 2021 and it is expected there will be a deficit of perhaps up to €140 million for 2021. Those accounts are due to be finalised by the end of this month and any question of a prior year adjustment relating to 2020 will be dealt with in that context as well. There was a Supplementary Estimate of just over €500 million in 2020. The HSE ended 2020 with cash reserves of over €800 million and over €260 million was ultimately returned to the Exchequer in respect of 2020. The question of any prior year adjustment will be dealt with in the coming weeks as part of the finalisation of the 2020 accounts. The Comptroller and Auditor General has commented on that issue and has outlined what the process is in that regard.

On the issue of cancer care, the central tenet of Sláintecare, and the Deputy knows more about this than most, is that cost would not be a barrier to accessing healthcare. The Government is committed to meeting that goal. We recognise that any form of cost that people face to access vital healthcare is a barrier and must be addressed. We have made significant progress. Recently, we announced a further reduction from €100 to €80 in the drugs payment scheme threshold for medicine. That is an important reform. We have provided €300 million in respect of waiting list initiatives for this year as well. The Government is certainly of the view that when it comes to cancer and other acute conditions cost should never be a barrier to accessing the services people need in our acute hospital system. We are committed to achieving that goal.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

I am puzzled by the Minister's last comment because, too often, cost is a barrier to people accessing care. For cancer patients, in particular, unless they have a medical card or private health insurance, they are faced with a bill of up to €800 per year just to get life-saving treatment. How can the Minister defend that? It is utterly indefensible. While, of course, Sláintecare calls for the removal of all inpatient charges, this is year five of the Sláintecare plan and no progress has been made on that. That is the reason we are asking the Minister to give a commitment, at least. The money involved is minuscule in the context of a €21 billion budget. We are asking the Government to honour the decision it made a couple of weeks ago on the Social Democrats' motion. The Government did not oppose it so, in effect, it is saying the motion was right. Will the Government honour that now and make provision for the removal or waiving of inpatient charges, at least for cancer patients, for the life-saving treatment and care that they must access? Will the Minister set out a clear timescale for that?

Deputy Michael McGrath

We are committed to tackling the general issue of costs in respect of access to healthcare. We will be extending the free GP care eligibility to children aged six and seven years across this year. As I said, we have reduced the drugs payment scheme threshold and, recently, there have been reductions in the monthly prescription costs that individuals and families face. We have provided dedicated funding of €30 million to ensure access for patients to new innovative medicines. The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has been clear that he is committed to addressing any eligibility anomalies or barriers to ensure the health system cares for those who are in the greatest need first.

I do not believe there are people out there who need access to our public healthcare system for cancer care who are not getting it because they cannot afford it. That is not-----

Deputy Róisín Shortall

That is not true. Listen to the Irish Cancer Society.

Deputy Michael McGrath

It is not a barrier.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

It is absolutely a barrier. They are hounded by debt collectors.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Minister without interruption.

Deputy Michael McGrath

As a practising politician for a number of years I have never encountered a situation-----

Deputy Róisín Shortall

Okay.

Deputy Michael McGrath

-----where our public health system refuses to care for cancer patients because they cannot pay a bill. I have never seen that.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

They hound them for the bills.

Deputy Michael McGrath

If the Deputy has any example please bring it to the attention of the Minister and the Government because access to cancer care in our public health system is not dependent on paying.

Deputy Michael Lowry

The establishment of the Tipperary town task force came about at my request following significant protests in Tipperary town. March4Tipp highlighted issues such as long-term unemployment, a lack of industry and employment opportunities, high social deprivation, high levels of vacancy and dereliction in the town centre, a lack of confidence in the Government's commitment to the town and a lack of consensus on what is required to solve issues locally.

Carmel Fox was appointed in 2019 by the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, to lead a task force that would develop a plan and look at addressing many complex issues. A dedicated manager has since been appointed to support this work. The task force was convened in early 2020 and is a multi-stakeholder group that has the active support of local community and voluntary organisations. Despite the global pandemic, the task force set about a broad and deep-reaching community and stakeholder consultation. A 15-year strategy action plan has been developed, which is aimed at arresting the decline in the town and driving socioeconomic recovery.

The task force has had some early successes. The commitment by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to the construction of a bypass to alleviate town centre congestion is a major boost. However the extent of the remaining task should not be underestimated. The scale of the challenge around social inclusion is especially daunting. Parallel to developing an overall plan for the town, the task force has developed a detailed and comprehensive social inclusion plan aimed at addressing a myriad of issues that prevail. These include the fact there is up to 40% male unemployment in areas of the town, there are high levels of welfare dependency, 36% of households are lone-parent households and there are high levels of disability and sickness. Several of the key indicators are more than twice the national average and will require significant multi-annual funding support to achieve meaningful outcomes.

I welcome the recent announcement by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that funding is to be provided for a social inclusion co-ordinator for Tipperary town for an initial three-year period. This commitment in itself is an acknowledgement of the seriousness of the issue. I ask that the commitment is further underpinned by ensuring the person is given the appropriate resources needed to deliver the required results. The task force opened dialogue with the agencies that operate in the area of social inclusion and has been met with broad support. However, it is already obvious that as these agencies operate on the basis of an annual programme and budget, it is not possible for them to commit to the multi-annual funding required to implement the plan.

The range and depth of the issues facing the town are extraordinary. It now requires an extraordinary response from the Government. We need a lead Department to take responsibility, such as the Department of the Taoiseach or the Department of Finance, to co-ordinate, fund and deliver the objectives of the plan across a ten-year period.

Deputy Michael McGrath

I thank Deputy Lowry for raising Tipperary town in the House, the challenges faced there and the need for the Government to support the efforts to revitalise the town. We are very much aware of the challenges that are undoubtedly there. We continue to provide supports and investment to assist the area to tackle challenges and build a sustainable place to live and work. As the Deputy is aware, last Friday the Tánaiste and the Ministers of State, Deputy English and Deputy Troy, launched the mid-west regional enterprise plan to 2024. The Government has developed nine region-specific plans and we are investing up to €180 million to aid their implementation. The plans show a huge appetite to grow job opportunities and facilitate enterprise development throughout the mid-west region, including in Tipperary.

The plan concentrates on measures to encourage innovation, focus on sustainability, enable enterprise growth in regional cities, towns and rural communities, and increase the economic activity for local start-ups, microbusinesses and SMEs. Deputy Lowry has acknowledged the commitment that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has previously outlined for how a bypass of Tipperary town should be prioritised under the proposed upgrade of the Cahir to Limerick Junction roadway. We all acknowledge that this project is badly needed.

The Deputy referred to the task force that has been set up and operational for some time now with regard to Tipperary town. He will be well familiar with a number of the elements of the package that have already been introduced such as funding from the Heritage Council to support the production of a collaborative town centre health check for Tipperary town; funding across 2020 to 2022; ring-fenced discretionary funding sources to support the Tipperary town revitalisation project; and the allocation of €100,000 to Tipperary County Council as a contribution to the cost of recruiting a project manager for a three-year period to drive the implementation of action items arising from the town centre health check.

I acknowledge the point made by the Deputy about the level of unemployment in the town. This is a key priority for the Government to address through the enterprise plans. In addition, the Deputy will be aware that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, announced funding of €120,000, which the Deputy has acknowledged, for a social inclusion programme co-ordinator for the Tipperary town revitalisation project. We very much look forward to seeing that implemented over the period ahead.

Our Rural Future has also launched, and it provides significant opportunities for Tipperary town and other towns across Ireland. I acknowledge the work of the Tipperary town task force in feeding into the town centre first strategy. There will be a third call shortly for funding under the urban regeneration and development fund. We will be inviting projects that are specifically focused on the implementation of the town centre first policy, and this will provide further opportunities for Tipperary town.

Deputy Michael Lowry

The real issue here is the funding of the task force to allow it to fund its objectives. Is it possible for each agency and the Department to contribute to a central fund, which would be guaranteed in advance and would be available to the task force? This is the key issue.

The most pressing issue in the town at the moment is non-participation and exclusion. Whole communities in the town are living without any sense of hope or opportunity. The Tipperary town social inclusion plan is designed to offer these people a future through education and employment pathways, supports at household level for distressed families, and programmes aimed at assisting young people to remain engaged in education. Without this support, the wider efforts of the task force, in terms of economic development and other improvements to the town, are doomed to failure. We will have history repeating itself in Tipperary town. Is it possible that the Minister would liaise with the chairperson of the task force to discuss the funding situation and give it some funding in order that it can plan ahead, and not be living from month to month and year to year?

Deputy Michael McGrath

We can all acknowledge that revitalising a town such as Tipperary town requires a multifaceted approach. Deputy Lowry touched on the need for investment in educational facilities and infrastructure, and the need to generate employment, especially where we are dealing with a high level of unemployment and intergenerational disadvantage, which has manifested itself in Tipperary town. We acknowledge the need for significant community supports to support the community and voluntary efforts that are being made in Tipperary town and to work with all of the stakeholders in the region. I will commit to taking up the issue raised by Deputy Lowry with the relevant line Ministers to examine their budget lines, to see what support is already there and to examine what further opportunities there may be for us collectively as a Government to provide further support for the revitalisation efforts for Tipperary town.

Deputy Carol Nolan

I wish to raise the ongoing challenges presented by Ireland's planning laws, and in particular the problems that are being created in the area of planning in rural Ireland. The most recent high-profile incidence of this is the decision by the Supreme Court, rightly, to reject an application to have the proposed Glanbia factory project halted.

Some of the Minister's Government colleagues have welcomed this Supreme Court decision, as have many others, including me and my Rural Independent Group colleagues, as a victory of common sense against an overzealous and inflexible attitude towards environmental or emissions targets.

The rush to court and the use of judicial reviews around infrastructure planning is creating paralysis in some areas. In many other less well-known cases at a local level, An Bord Pleanála is simply not fulfilling its statutory obligations, in particular when it comes to section 126 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, which states that every appeal is to be determined within 18 weeks. This is not happening. I have no wish to personalise this matter against the staff of An Bord Pleanála. I am sure they are as frustrated as the rest of us with the growing need to assess even the most minor projects against a library shelf of EU regulations. We need a much more simplified and straightforward system because the one we have is simply not working, is creating frustration and is jeopardising much-needed investment and job creation in many areas.

I will refer to the case of Banagher Chilling in my constituency, a multi-million euro investment that would offer vital price competition to beef farmers. In January 2021, An Bord Pleanála initially confirmed that it was not in a position to determine whether the inspector's report, which was due by 4 January 2021, would be completed. That was bad enough, but the situation became worse. In March 2021, it was confirmed to me that An Bord Pleanála had yet to receive the report despite the new deadline of 1 March having come and gone. Fast forward to September 2021, and An Bord Pleanála was still not in a position to confirm when the inspector would submit the report on the appeal. In January 2022, I was told that the report would definitely be ready within two weeks, yet it is almost the end of February and there is still no sign of the report. That is a far cry from 18 weeks. We must address this urgently because An Bord Pleanála is not upholding the statutory planning timeframe within which decisions are due. This is also creating frustration and jeopardising much-needed investment and jobs.

Deputy Michael McGrath

I thank Deputy Nolan for raising these issues regarding our planning system. We all acknowledge the need for a fit-for-purpose planning system in our country for the development of homes, industry and public infrastructure. As the Deputy will be aware, we have now adopted a national development plan out to 2030 that involves public expenditure of €165 billion across all of the main areas, including building the homes we need, building our public transport and road infrastructure, introducing climate action measures and investing in enterprises, etc.

Having a planning system that is fair and acts in a timely fashion is absolutely fundamental to the achievement of those objectives. That is why the Deputy will no doubt be aware of the initiative being led by the Attorney General. It is the first of the its kind. He and a team of dedicated experts are re-examining the entire planning legislative framework with a view to bringing forward new legislation that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will bring to the Government over the period ahead.

The idea is to make our system more efficient and reduce the level of legal risk. People are entitled to object and bring judicial reviews, but we certainly do not want major projects of regional or national importance to end up before the courts and have planning permission rescinded on a legal point of law. The planning system has to be robust and, ultimately, be vindicated in the great majority of instances where such legal challenges are taken.

We also do not want frivolous or vexatious objections to developments across the country that are badly needed and which must take place. Along with the Taoiseach and the Government as a whole, I have welcomed the decision in respect of the judicial review taken in the Glanbia case.

People who took that case had a right to bring it. It has now gone through due process. It has been concluded and we welcome it. We all acknowledge that our agriculture industry is on a journey. It is up for that journey. Embracing sustainability, dealing with the climate action issues and challenges with reducing emissions and so on is vital. The Deputy mentioned the issue of rural and one-off homes. The evidence points to the strong delivery of new homes in rural Ireland in recent years. Planning permission has been granted for more than 28,000 rural houses in the five years to the end of quarter 3 last year. About 80% of that number was actually built. The latest CSO figures indicated a 38% increase in permissions for one-off houses in the year to the end of September 2021 when compared with the previous year. It went up by about 5,000 to 7,000. That is not evidence of a system that is completely broken when it comes to building one-off homes. The number is increasingly significantly. There is a balance to be struck between ensuring that developments are sustainable, proportionate and suitable to the area in which they take place.

Deputy Carol Nolan

I thank the Minister for his response. I welcome that the Attorney General is examining the matter. I ask for urgency about it. We need to ensure that we have a robust, fair, balanced system in place as quickly as possible. I have seen first-hand in my own constituency that the delays are impeding investment and indeed could put off future investment coming into Laois-Offaly because of this multi-million factory being place in the position it is being placed in and the time delays that are involved. The Minister also mentioned rural housing. I have seen first-hand that many of those applicants are being left in limbo because An Bord Pleanála is not coming back in a timely manner with a decision about planning for one-off housing. That issue needs to be dealt with. I am particularly concerned with the lack of balance for enterprise and environment. We need to ensure that there is balance. I can see first-hand that it is tipping one way. I feel that there needs to be more common sense and pragmatism. We cannot stand here and talk about job creation if we are being impeded and obstructed all the time by groups such as An Taisce.

Deputy Michael McGrath

The issues that the Deputy raises are really important when it comes to the Government and the country meeting the objective of balanced regional development. We want to see such balanced regional development. It is core to the Project Ireland 2040 strategy, where the majority of growth in the population of Ireland over the next 20 years, which is estimated to be growth of about 1 million people, will be outside Dublin. Ensuring that we are able to deliver infrastructure in a timely manner is central to that, including flood schemes and other vital public infrastructure. We want An Bord Pleanála to meet the statutory deadlines. I will raise the issue that the Deputy has raised with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. Updated rural housing guidelines are being prepared to ensure consistency with current requirements and legislation at national and EU level, subject to requirements for periods of public consultation and ensuring compliance with environmental legislation, which will inform the timeframe. The guidelines will be prepared in draft during this quarter of the current year. In the next month to six weeks, the Minister expects to be in a position to bring those forward.