Vol. 1018 No. 7
1. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach the number of staff currently employed by his Department; the current annual salary of the highest-paid person employed by his Department; and the various pay scales for persons working in his Department. [7799/22]
The role of my Department is to support me as Taoiseach, and the Government, to ensure a sustainable economy and a successful society, pursue Ireland's interests abroad, implement the Government's programme and build a better future for Ireland and all of her citizens. In order to ensure my Department remains agile in responding to emerging priorities, its staffing resources are kept under ongoing review. At present, there are 223.8 whole-time equivalent staff employed across the Department. The majority are assigned to the following main divisions of the Department: international, European Union and Northern Ireland division, including the shared island unit; economic division; social policy and public services reform division; protocol and civic policy division; Government secretariat; and corporate affairs division. The remainder are assigned to private offices, constituency offices, the Government information service and internal audit.
The highest-paid civil servant in my Department serves as both Secretary to the Government and as Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach. He is paid at the Secretary General 1 level and his current salary is €215,998. Civil Service salary scales apply to staff employed in my Department as set out in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's most recent pay circular published on www.gov.ie. The circular sets out all the pay scales for Civil Service staff, ranging from cleaner to Secretary General level.
This week alone, my office has received phone calls from single mothers looking for baby food, farmers dealing with spiralling and crippling costs due to the increase of fertiliser, members of the Defence Forces who are sleeping in cars, homeowners in Donegal looking for affordable caravans to rent because their houses are crumbling around them and students who are on a diet of Pot Noodle because they cannot afford much else. The CEO of the HSE is paid more than the Taoiseach, five times more than the President of India, twice the amount the President of France; more than the Prime Ministers of Britain and Canada, more than the President of the USA and more than the Chancellor of Germany. Would the Taoiseach agree that the wages of top civil servants should be proportional to their performance and productivity?
If he agrees with this, surely there needs to be some reduction in the wages of these civil servants when one looks at what is happening within much of the public service at present. There is the Kerry child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, scandal, the national children’s hospital overspend, the failure of the CervicalCheck tribunal etc. Why are we paying such high wages to certain civil servants when they are in charge of so many scandals? The Taoiseach mentioned a wage of €215,998 per annum and that is a lottery win for most people on the average wage in this country. There is a chasm between the experience of most ordinary citizens in this country and the largesse that is experienced by many within the upper echelons of the Civil Service. I call on the Taoiseach to make sure that chasm is closed, that the multiple of earnings at the top compared to the bottom is reduced and that there is some level of productivity and performance in the salaries. That is the experience of practically everybody else earning an income in this country. Why is it not the case in the Government and the Civil Service?
One of the core activities of the Department of the Taoiseach is to provide leadership of the Civil Service renewal programme through the Civil Service management board in collaboration with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Last month, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform told an Oireachtas committee of his intention to establish an independent review panel to advise on senior public sector appointments and corresponding salaries. The need for this panel is a direct consequences of the opaque method by which the Government appointed the Secretary General to the Department of Health last year and the Government party leaders’ decision to attach an arbitrary 40% pay increase to that position. Can the Taoiseach confirm if this independent review panel has been established and can he tell us what its remit is? Who has been appointed to carry out this work and when is the panel due to conclude its work? Following the Minister’s attendance at last month’s committee meeting, Government leaks to the media indicated that the work of the review panel might result in the final tranche of pay restoration for senior public servants being deferred or cancelled. Will the planned pay restoration in July proceed as agreed or has the Government put this agreement on hold until after the review panel completes its work?
The Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach is on record as saying that no clear process was followed in deciding to give a 38% pay rise to Robert Watt. He stated “While I would rather there was a much more scientific process for all of these things, there is not.” Some €81,000 extra was given to Mr. Watt, more than the vast majority of workers earn in a whole year as a regular wage, not a pay increase, and with no scientific process for it. We hear that further pay increases of 10% to 15% may possibly be given to those earning over €150,000 in July but that they may be postponed. How can the Taoiseach justify such pay increases for highly-paid officials while most ordinary workers are getting below-inflation pay increases? Instead of pay rises for those at the top, should we not have a maximum pay in the public sector and instead have above-inflation pay rises for ordinary workers in both the private and public sectors?
People are shocked at the extent of the pay and pay increases for the Secretary General of the Department of Health and the pay level for the head of the HSE. How can the Government justify that when at the same time it is willing to stand over the fact that ordinary workers in the health service, in education and in local authorities are held down to 1% or 2% pay increases when inflation is running at 5%? Following a briefing at the Department of Finance today, the breaking news is that the Department is estimating that as a result of the situation in Ukraine and the decision to impose sanctions, we are looking at 7% inflation for the coming year. Working people are being hammered with the rising cost of living, which will go up further, yet the Government will keep their pay increases at 1% or 2%. Would workers not be right to put in pay claims to insist they get pay increases at least to the level of the cost of living and inflation increases that are being inflicted on them?
On the points Deputy Tóibín raised, I will make the general point that Ireland has the most progressive taxation system in Europe and the world. The point of that is that those on high wages pay the highest amount of tax in this country-----
Because of low pay.
-----which is how it should be. It is objectively regarded as a progressive taxation system. The Deputy referred to performance and productivity and I am a strong admirer of the Irish public service and have been for a long time. That is notwithstanding weaknesses, flaws and uneven performance at times but if one looks at the evolution of the Irish State over the last 50 or 60 years or even from its foundation, one has to objectively say that the country has made a lot of progress. Some 100 years on from 1922 survival rates in health have dramatically improved and we have gained 25 years in lifespan over that 100 years. In the past 20 years, survival from cardiovascular disease have dramatically improved. Survival from cancer, on foot of oncology, has dramatically improved. National accident strategies have dramatically lowered rates of mortality on our roads and in workplaces-----
Individual productivity-----
-----so there has been a lot of systemic good work done in recent decades by the Irish public service. In more recent times, that has been manifested in our performance during Covid again notwithstanding flaws and mistakes that could have been made. Overall, however, Irish public servants put all hands on deck in responding to a one-in-100-year event.
These are individual salaries.
On mortality, in our hospital system and more critically, in terms of our broader societal response, the Irish public service stands up alongside its peers across Europe and globally. While there is no doubt but that lessons can be learned from that, if one looks at the vaccination programme alone, it was one of the best vaccination programmes administered in the world, which dramatically protected Irish people from losing their lives, becoming severely ill or being hospitalised. That was not achieved on fresh air or without a competent public service behind it.
The Deputy first listed a number of areas in which things could without doubt have been done better but he should equally have shown the full balance sheet, in that some very significant work was undertaken by Irish public servants. We do not affirm that enough in this House. It is important to affirm, as well as to criticise and be negative.
The other key area and this is all happening in real time, is Brexit, which we had just before Covid. If one looks at the situation in the United Kingdom in respect of Brexit, compared to the preparation in the Republic, one would have to say that Revenue, social protection, various Departments and our ports authorities have responded well and efficiently. Maybe they could do better in some respects but, overall, Brexit was a considerable potential issue for us as an economy and a society and we have managed to deal with it-----
The Taoiseach is generalising the successes.
I am not generalising. These are not-----
I am talking about specific salaries.
I am just making the point. The Deputy specifically spoke about performance and productivity-----
At the top.
-----and he specifically spoke about the Irish public service and the issues he had with it. I wanted to give the Deputy the other side of that story.
The vast majority of salaries and so forth are centrally negotiated with trade unions-----
Mr. Robert Watt's salary is not.
-----throughout the public service, whether it is the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants or other unions, through national wage agreements. The most effective way to tackle high salaries is the income tax system, which is progressive in this country. It basically means that when one gets to a certain level, approximately 50% is taxed. That rarely gets said in the debate but it is the reality. That relates both to USC, which is especially harsh or strong on those on very high incomes, and to higher income tax rates. That is the most effective in terms of redistribution of income from higher salary earners and is a more effective way of doing things.
With regard to Civil Service renewal, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, has indicated he will undertake a comprehensive review of all of the issues around Civil Service recruitment and pay. He proposes the establishment of an external review panel to make recommendations to strengthen the recruitment processes of senior public service posts and the process for determining the terms and conditions of employment. To ensure transparency and objectivity in the process, it is proposed that the panel will consist of three members from different relevant backgrounds with secretarial support to be provided by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform are currently examining the issues and will recommend terms of reference, scope of the review and potential membership of the review panel.
This Oireachtas, in previous iterations, already passed financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation. The process of unwinding the financial emergency legislation commenced under the Lansdowne Road agreement between unions and employers and the State, which covered the period 2016 to 2018, with the remainder of the process largely completed under the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020. The final elements of pay restoration have continued under Building Momentum, a new public service agreement for 2021 to 2022. Salary rebates up to €150,000, which account for 99% of the public service, have been fully restored. Section 20 of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017 states that the Minister, by order, shall provide for completion of pay restoration to public servants paid an annual basic salary of more than €150,000 by 1 July 2022.
In light of the consideration now being given to an external review to examine the processes and procedures around the recruitment of senior public servants, as well as the process for pay determination at senior levels, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is currently examining potential options around how and when this final element of restoration will be implemented. As restoration is provided for in legislation, this will require careful consultation with the Office of the Attorney General.
2. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, an agency under the aegis of his Department. [7524/22]
3. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [9492/22]
4. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [9694/22]
5. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [9764/22]
6. Deputy John Lahart asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [10084/22]
7. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [10086/22]
8. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [10088/22]
9. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council an agency under the aegis of his Department. [11431/22]
10. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, an agency under the aegis of his Department. [11434/22]
11. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [11571/22]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 to 11, inclusive, together.
The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advises me on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. The NESC work programme in 2022 includes five main areas. It will carry out a major piece of research and consultation on climate, biodiversity and how to achieve a just transition in agriculture. It will continue to help us deepen our understanding of how to deliver more affordable and sustainable housing systems, drawing on international and national experience, including ongoing work in Ireland on cost rental.
NESC is supporting work on Ireland's well-being framework by examining how well-being frameworks are implemented in practice. It has undertaken an extensive programme of research and consultation to support the shared island initiative. It will produce a report on the shared island in quarter 1 of 2022, which will make recommendations in five key areas, namely, economy and infrastructural investment; social policy; climate and biodiversity; well-being frameworks; and data co-ordination. It will examine aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic to help identify strategic lessons about public governance and how Government can be supported to arrange and manage its activity to deliver the best results for society.
The council published five reports in 2021; Grounding the Recovery in Sustainable Development: A Statement from the Council, report No. 152; Shared Island: Projects, Progress & Policy Scoping Paper, report No. 153; Digital Inclusion in Ireland: Connectivity, Devices & Skills, report No. 154; Ireland's Well-Being Framework: Consultation Report, report No. 155 and Collaboration on Climate and Biodiversity: Shared Island as a Catalyst for Renewed Ambition & Action, report No. 156. As reports are finalised in the relevant areas, they are brought to Government for approval in advance of publication.
The council's shared island perspective on mental health, published a few weeks ago, concludes that "there is scope for development, and much value to be found, in increased cross-border co-operation". The research finds that "many aspects of mental health services and promotion are well-suited to cross-border working, such as [for example,] ... on-line supports, mental health promotion, and training and education". Increased cross-Border work is viewed by stakeholders as "positive and desirable" and it was found that specific areas of co-operation, such as suicide prevention or the treatment of eating disorders, would add a very significant value to care. As other research commissioned by the shared island unit has found, community and voluntary organisations are already informally working on a cross-Border basis and, as a result, there is a real appetite to formalise these arrangements, to have processes and bodies that can continuously support such co-operation.
Existing co-operation on mental health has played a crucial role in establishing connections and maintaining co-operation and interaction between the health services, North and South. Does the Taoiseach agree with the council's recommendation that Government should build on this progress and that a more specific and formalised mental health cross-Border structure should be established? Will the Taoiseach confirm the next steps from the shared island unit to advance the council's paper on mental health?
Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly. That is the conclusion of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, report, which notes "Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature" and is affecting the lives of more than 3 billion people. It is fair to say that this report reckons that the situation is more severe than previously reckoned. Moreover, it flows from that reckoning that COP26 and the Government's commitments fall short of what is needed. I am in favour of democratic public ownership of the big corporations and the wealth in society in order that we can plan for the needs of people rather than profit and for a sustainable future. I do not expect the Taoiseach to support that position.
However, will he comment on the following point? The Government's position on data centres is clearly now insufficient. A ban on more data centres is needed. A carbon tax is needed on the big polluters, as opposed to on the shoulders of ordinary people. In addition, the Government's retrofit policy is insufficient. How can the council tenants avail? How can renters avail? How can those who cannot afford to match the State funds avail? A new scheme is needed, which provides for the needs of everybody and not just a section of society.
I thank the Taoiseach for his update on work of the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, particularly with regard to climate and biodiversity, housing and the shared island initiative. Like all Deputies across this House, I have been appalled by the war of aggression being waged by Russia and now, it would appear, Belarus, against the people of Ukraine.
News last week that the Irish visa requirements will be lifted is very welcome, as is the €10 million relief fund. Families in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire are making arrangements to host friends and family from Ukraine. Will the Taoiseach provide an update on Ireland's short- and medium-term plans to accommodate people fleeing Ukraine? Will he appoint a Minister to co-ordinate efforts?
I thank An Taoiseach for his update to the House with regard to the NESC. I wish to ask about the issue of housing, which was an important part of the body's work. In the context of the upcoming mortgage rules review by the Central Bank, I encourage the NESC to undertake a body of work to do analysis for long-term renters in our society, of whom tens of thousands of young working professionals are in that category, about how it may be able to lend money under a more sustainable economic policy from the Central Bank which, of course, is independent of much oversight from the Government through legislation that was brought in in the past. It would be appropriate for this unit, under the remit of the Department of the Taoiseach, to carry out analysis of this particular area ahead of the review, which will be finalised later in the year 2022.
The Taoiseach referred to the NESC report No. 28, which came out in December. One of the things to which that report referred was the issue of incorporating social and economic rights into policymaking. Today, the Minister referred the issue of housing to the Housing Commission in respect of a possible referendum.
I want to pin the Taoiseach down as to what his view is on this issue. People Before Profit put forward a constitutional amendment Bill, which was passed by the Dáil, seeking to incorporate the right to secure, affordable housing into the Constitution, and for the State to prioritise resources towards the vindication of the right to housing in the midst of an absolutely dire housing crisis.
That would then give protection to tenants facing evictions by vulture funds or would give us the power to take over vacant properties that could be used to house people affected by the housing crisis which, arguably, the Constitution currently prevents although, frankly, that is an issue of dispute. It would allow us to bring in rent controls without any threat of legal action.
Is that what the Government is actually going to do now? In fact, the aforementioned Bill that was passed by the Dáil would achieve this. Is the Taoiseach in favour of putting the right to secure, affordable housing into the Constitution to vindicate that right?
It is nine months since the Dáil endorsed our Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Housing) Bill 2020 to which Deputy Boyd Barrett referred. The Dáil agreed to call a referendum to insert the right to a home into the Irish Constitution.
Nine months on, we have no date for this referendum. No progress has been made on that but we heard reports today that the Cabinet is discussing it. We need to know what wording is going to be proposed by the Government. There has been much vagueness about that. It is in the programme for Government in a very vague way. What is the timing?
At the root of the housing crisis is that housing in Ireland and most countries around the world is seen as an investment, a commodity and a way to make money rather than a fundamental human right. Basically, the rights of cuckoo funds, real estate investment trusts, REITs, and developers to profit takes precedence over the rights of tenants and people seeking to have access to their own homes.
When will the Taoiseach set the date? What will the wording be? Will he guarantee that this will happen while he is still Taoiseach rather than being yet another Taoiseach who fails to deliver on the right to housing for people?
I thank all the Deputies for raising these issues. In the first instance, I support NESC's work with regard to the shared island unit and the work it has done in terms of greater potential for cross-Border co-operation projects, particularly in respect of health, which has been one of the more effective cross-Border areas over a long time and, in particular, in respect of paediatric health and cardiovascular health in paediatrics. The one cardiac surgical centre on the island enjoyed political support across the island irrespective of political background.
That scope and potential also exists for mental health. The shared island unit stands ready to financially support any cross-Border project that is developed by respective mental health agencies, North or South. I would be very keen to progress that whether it is in a variety of areas under the mental health umbrella or otherwise. That is something we will continue to work practically towards realising.
In respect of Deputy Barry's points on climate change, I accept the conclusions of the IPCC report but we need to start matching the rhetoric with reality. Any time the Government proposes anything, it gets opposed. In his contribution, the Deputy said he wants data centres banned, retrofit spread more widely and carbon tax abolished. I simply do not know how he is going to do all that.
We will be including council tenants and council houses will be retrofitted. There is a separate programme for that and a programme under the retrofit scheme for low-income families in respect of energy efficiency. An unprecedented allocation of funding has been provided under the retrofit programme. In fact, we aim to do in ten years what we did in the last 20 years. We want to double the numbers we did since the year 2000 over the next ten years. We also will be providing substantial grants to people to insulate attics and walls and so forth and then to do a deeper retrofit.
The resources we are providing are extraordinary but they have to be raised for the scheme to be sustainable over the ten-year period. That is why we put the carbon tax into law, which gets attacked all the time. Whatever measure we bring in to deal with climate gets attacked or undermined, which leads me to believe that people want to keep delaying dealing with climate change. That is the biggest danger we face in this country and all over the world. People want to keep delaying the action that is necessary and that will involve a bit of pain and readjustment. People want to keep on delaying it; we can no longer do so. People may attack our targets and say they are not ambitious enough, but God knows they are quite ambitious, and they will be very challenging over the next five years.
Whatever chance we have, however, we need co-operation and everybody on board because they are extraordinarily challenging. All sectors will have to play their part in respect of climate change. The NESC has pointed all this out in its reports. Likewise, the most recent report is quite depressing in terms of where the world is heading in respect of climate change and biodiversity. We must make very strong efforts around biodiversity.
I was in Fota Wildlife Park at the weekend to meet the executives there in terms of their plans. The work they are doing in biodiversity is quite extraordinary-----
Tell Coillte to stop selling the forests.
-----and quite effective in terms of European wild bison, for example. A programme is being led from the wildlife park in terms of various species of toads. We need to be funding organisations like Fota Wildlife Park, Dublin Zoo and those which are involved in global interbreeding, breeding programmes around wildlife and protecting endangered species. That is what we need to be doing more of but we need resources to do that. We need a re-engineering of our economy towards the green economy and also the decarbonised economy.
We have to change how data centres are developed in terms of back-up generation but also in terms of renewables being used by those who wish to construct them, and offsetting technologies being deployed by such companies. We have, therefore, a twin-track approach on the economy, which incorporates digitalisation. Digital transformation will happen but all that has to be borne along with the green economy. NESC has reported on all those issues.
Deputy Devlin raised a key point. He summed it up when he said that we have to do things differently this time in respect of the human trauma and crisis that will emerge as a result of the appalling assault on the Ukrainian people. The Deputy referred to families in his constituency who would gladly house people. We will need that in addition to what the State can do in order to deal with the sheer numbers that could come into the EU and, by extension, Ireland. We have to play our part as an EU member state in sharing the burden and by being generous and open. We have to talk to our educational partners and stakeholders to facilitate children to attend our schools. There is also the social protection aspect.
Deputy O'Connor raised a matter that I will ask NESC about. He made a very good point about long-term renters in Ireland, as well as what are the correct policy frameworks to deal with them. NESC has done some work on this already. I will ask NESC about a more comprehensive approach to that issue. I appreciate the Deputy’s interest in it.
Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to the Housing Commission, which earlier announced details of the referendum sub-committee that will examine the complex constitutional issues around housing rights. The Housing Commission will propose appropriate wording to the Government for a referendum on this matter. The sub-committee is being chaired by Dr. Ailbhe O'Neill, who is a barrister with extensive practical experience in constitutional law, a former adviser to two referendum commissions and a member of the school of law at Trinity College Dublin. She is joined on the sub-committee by Sorcha Edwards, secretary general of Housing Europe, Pat Doyle, CEO of the Peter McVerry Trust, and Patricia King, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In addition to these four members of the Housing Commission, the sub-committee has been supplemented by external members, including Mr. Justice Frank Clarke, the former Chief Justice and a former referendum commissioner, Gerard Whyte, professor of law at Trinity College Dublin, Rosalind Dixon, professor of law at the University of New South Wales, and Madeline MacKenzie, parliamentary counsel in the Scottish Government’s Parliamentary Counsel Office. I am sure that the Deputies will agree that that is a very strong sub-committee. It will focus on this very important issue, in respect of which there is a commitment in the programme for Government.
12. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he is planning to update his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023. [7687/22]
13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he is planning to update his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023. [7690/22]
14. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress of the implementation of the Strategy Statement 2021 of his Department. [9279/22]
15. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he is planning to update his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023. [10110/22]
16. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he is planning to update his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023. [11354/22]
17. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Taoiseach if he will provide a report on the implementation of the Strategy Statement 2021-2023 of his Department. [11429/22]
18. Deputy John Lahart asked the Taoiseach if he will provide a report on the implementation of his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023. [11430/22]
Sorry for standing up at the wrong time.
The Deputy is as enthusiastic as ever.
Eager.
The Deputy is eager and he always has been.
The real Taoiseach.
We will switch it around. The Taoiseach can ask us questions.
He does not know the answers to them.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 18, inclusive, together.
My Department’s Strategy Statement 2021-2023, which was published last year, reflects the role of the Department to support me, as Taoiseach, and the Government in order to ensure a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland’s interests abroad, to implement the Government programme and to build a better future for Ireland and for all of our citizens. My Department will provide progress reports under the six strategic priorities set out in the strategy through the normal annual reporting cycle.
My Department continues to work at the centre to ensure that policies that are developed support the Government’s commitment to develop Ireland in a sustainable way which supports economic development and social progress. It achieves this mainly through the Cabinet committee structure. Through the work of the ten Cabinet committees supported by my Department, a range of cross-Government work has been advanced under the new strategy statement. These include: management of the whole-of-government response to Covid-19, including the national vaccination programme roll-out; the economic recovery plan, which was published in June and the implementation of which is helping to drive a jobs-rich recovery and which will support the economy in transitioning towards a decarbonised and digital economy; publication of the Housing for All plan, an ambitious and far-reaching plan to address the provision of housing, increase the supply of housing and provide a sustainable housing system into the future; supporting the cross-Government work to manage the ongoing economic and political impacts of Brexit; driving delivery of our commitments for a shared island on a whole-of-government basis through the shared island unit in my Department and the shared island fund; supporting Ireland in its role in Europe and the world, including through my participation in the European Council, Ireland’s seat on the UN Security Council and with respect to continuing European Union-United Kingdom discussions on the Northern Ireland protocol; delivery of an initial well-being framework for Ireland and a supporting information hub, which have been developed to better understand and measure our progress as a country; the establishment of a social dialogue unit for my Department, which is working to co-ordinate and support the Government's overall approach to social dialogue; the work of the future media commission, which has now concluded; the completion of the work of the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality; the launch of the revised national development plan, which sets out the road map for investment of €165 billion in new and upgraded infrastructure over the decade ahead; supporting the development of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2021 and the Climate Action Plan 2021, which are key elements in a suite of measures introduced to fundamentally alter Ireland’s approach to climate change; and four legislative programmes, details of which have been published, to set out priority legislation across the Government.
My Department’s priorities for 2022 include: a continued focus on the whole-of-government response to Covid-19; economic recovery and investment; driving delivery of the housing plan and measures on climate action; progressing health and wider social reforms; European Union engagement; Northern Ireland; and establishing two citizens’ assemblies to run concurrently, one of which will be on biodiversity and another that will consider the type of directly elected mayor and local government structures that are best suited to Dublin.
Under the Public Service Management Act, 1997, Departments must prepare a new statement every three years or on the appointment of a new Minister.
The Taoiseach’s Department's strategy statement lists a number of priorities. Priority E is, “Strengthening Ireland’s place in Europe and the world”. In the context of the current crisis, invasion and war in Ukraine, I want to know what that means. What is our role in this? Obviously, all of us believe that Putin should be stopped, that he should leave Ukraine and that his invasion is inexcusable. Yet, I worry deeply about the comments by the Tánaiste earlier, which were about closer co-operation with the project of European militarisation and about the comments made by the Taoiseach, in which he essentially absolved NATO as some sort of defensive alliance-----
That is exactly what it is.
-----and which failed to acknowledge, for example, that it conducted a bloody invasion and occupation very recently in Afghanistan and that it bombed Libya. I wonder is the Taoiseach's opposition to warmongers like Putin selective insofar as we seem to oppose some warmongers but not others. We had briefing today with people from Yemen. They asked why no action is being taken over the role of the United States, Britain and France in arming the Saudi dictatorship to allow it to conduct a disastrous war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Yemen.
We are running of time.
The world is horrified by Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, by the war crimes which are now being committed and by the threat of this spiralling into a full-scale hot war between nuclear powers. We unreservedly condemn this brutal invasion and we demand that Putin withdraw from Ukraine, immediately and unconditionally. I want to pay tribute to the anti-war protesters in Russia who are under conditions of horrendous repression. More than 1 million people have signed a petition, tens of thousands have come out onto the streets and in excess of 6,000 have been arrested. Will the Taoiseach join with me in calling for those prisoners to be released?
I want to ask if the Taoiseach agrees with the Tánaiste’s comments, which clearly point towards an undermining of Ireland’s long-standing position of military neutrality? The Tánaiste said, “I do see us getting more involved in European defence”. On Permanent Structured Cooperation, PESCO, he says that it offers one route to deeper involvement in European defence. He talked about removing the requirement for the UN Security resolution for Ireland’s participation in military operations. Does the Taoiseach oppose the very cynical attempt to use people's horror at what is happening in Ukraine to drive through a Fine Gael agenda to abandon neutrality and align with NATO?
There is a commitment in the strategy statement to focus on building stronger and safer communities through reforms in the areas of housing, policing, community safety and community development. The strategy makes a specific reference to the implementation of policing reforms and to the Dublin north-east inner city initiative. The Taoiseach met with members of the North Inner City Community Coalition last month to discuss the increase of violent crime in the area. The coalition emphasised to the Taoiseach the urgent need for An Garda Síochána to grip the escalating crime and the drug-related violence and intimidation that is rapidly becoming normalised in some parts of the city.
I believe the Taoiseach recognises the need for strong community engagement, increased community safety and enhanced youth services. What progress has the Government made on these over the past month? In his public comments after the meeting, the Taoiseach specifically mentioned that additional outreach and information programmes would be rolled out, as well as youth justice and other interventions. What progress has been made on these initiatives? What agency has responsibility for their delivery? Will the Taoiseach provide a briefing on these measures and on the additional policing resources agreed between the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner? Dubliners need reassurance that the Government is committed to getting tough on serious and violent crime.
The Department of the Taoiseach is in charge of Ireland's interests abroad. Those interests should have nothing to do with turning a blind eye to racism. The following are the words of Isaac, a Nigerian man trying to get into Poland from Ukraine. He stated that he and his companions had been chased back and hit by police armed with sticks. The Polish Government denies this is happening, but that is disproved by hundreds of videos on social media. The Nigerian Government has recommended that its citizens not try to flee Ukraine via Poland.
Putin's bombs and bullets do not discriminate according to a person's passport or skin colour. All people fleeing the conflict, regardless of nationality, ethnicity or legal status, should be allowed to cross the Polish border and have the right to stay in the European Union. Will the Taoiseach join with me in voicing strong opposition to the racist policy being applied by the Polish state to people fleeing a humanitarian crisis?
What is happening in Ukraine is an absolute disaster. It is a tragedy and an inhumane injustice. Ireland needs to do all it can to help Ukrainians. Bizarrely, dozens of Government Deputies signed a petition to expel the Russian ambassador, yet the Government has said "No" to them. The Deputies, therefore, are in opposition and in government at the same time. It is a strange scenario whereby the Government will not make a decision because it has not got permission from the EU to do so. There is irony in the fact that a sovereign country will not make a decision regarding the Russian ambassador in order to protect the sovereignty of another country.
There have been allegations that the Russian mission in Ireland has a large number of spies here. Is this the case? It has been further alleged that the threat from Russia is particularly high - higher even than that from jihadists or dissident republicans. Is this the case? The Taoiseach stated that he is a realist when it comes to the fact that Russian spies are in Ireland, which amounts to an admission that they are here. Is that not reason enough to expel the Russian mission?
I thank the Taoiseach for his update on the implementation of his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023.
This morning, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made an impassioned plea to the European Parliament during which he called for support from his European neighbours as his country resists Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. It is disappointing to see reports of a number of Irish MEPs, including Mick Wallace, Clare Daly, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and Sinn Féin's Chris MacManus, supporting an amendment before the European Parliament that would delay Ukraine's accession to the EU. Will the Taoiseach advise whether Ireland will support Ukraine's accession to the EU and indicate what practical supports Ireland can give as the Ukrainian people fight for their lives and their independence?
I thank the Deputies for raising those issues. To respond to Deputy Boyd Barrett in respect of what Ireland's place in Europe means, it means that from the outset of this crisis we have decided to take a proactive role in supporting a unified response from the 27 member states of the European Union to Vladimir Putin's assault on the Ukrainian people. As I said at the European Council meeting, it meant we wanted the most comprehensive, wide-ranging, robust set of sanctions that were possible. That was the statement I outlined, and I made it clear at the meeting as well. We supported the conclusions that had been put together by the European Union, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other like-minded democracies that uphold universal values of free media, free speech, freedom of association, democracy, the territorial integrity of a country, sovereignty and self-determination. Those values are what European democracies support and we are going to be proactive in supporting them.
I take issue with the moral equivalence the Deputy draws, and has been drawing over successive weeks with other Deputies, between what Vladimir Putin is doing and the actions of the member states of NATO. It is fundamentally wrong.
I will tell the Deputy why. Every country-----
Yemeni lives are less important.
Every country in Europe, irrespective of whether it is a member of NATO, did not want the war and did everything possible to prevent the war, such as the German Chancellor at the eleventh hour going again to Russia. Anyone who knows the German-Russian relationship knows that Germany has tried everything, including the diplomatic channel and every other channel available to it. Germany has tried everything.
So has France.
France has tried everything. Emmanuel Macron, with his country’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, has tried everything, and the Deputy does not give credit for that or even acknowledge it. He calls those leaders warmongers on the same level as Putin. I think that is nonsense.
Yes, because they are selling guns to the Saudis.
It is nonsense.
Deputy Boyd Barrett’s approach is all wrong and it undermines the broader unity of purpose here.
In respect of the wider issue, for 20 years, irrespective of what the Deputy says, the western presence in Afghanistan gave some light to the women of Afghanistan through access to education and so on. Now they have nothing-----
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed.
There is no question that it was better to free Afghanistan from the clutches of the Taliban and other extremists who are now back.
Afghanistan was robbed of its gold just last week.
We need to be crystal clear and consistent. This idea of attacking pro forma or in a formulaic way – I am not saying every Deputy is doing that - the Russian aggression and then pivoting to attacking NATO and other countries as being the real culprits is unacceptable. Morally, I cannot stand over it without calling it out. Too much of that has been going on in this House in recent months-----
We cannot but call out the Government's double standards.
The Deputy needs to stand up and be counted and call this out, without equivocating on it or trying to dilute it-----
We do.
Does the Taoiseach support Amnesty's recommendations for sanctions against Israel?
Here we go.
To return to my main point, war crimes are being committed and the security architecture has changed because of Putin's actions. I listened to what the Tánaiste said; he referenced Irish military neutrality. Equally, however, the global system of a rules-based, multilateral order has been turned upside down by Vladimir Putin, and that has implications. One issue I observe is the vulnerability of Europe. The European Union cherishes democracy, social systems, education, open and free trade and so on. All of that is now vulnerable. Given the scale of Putin's forces on the European Continent, be it naval, the air force or the more than 150,000 troops with missiles and every type of advanced weapon, can we honestly say it will not go beyond Ukraine? Talk to people in Estonia, the other Baltic countries or Poland. They do not see NATO as a warmonger. I said this in response to the Deputy last week. The grandmother of the Prime Minister of Estonia was deported to Siberia when Stalin took over after the Nazis. Her mother was six months old at the time. Estonia said after 1941 that it would never be alone again. That is why it joined the European Union and NATO. It gives them some semblance of security-----
Taoiseach, we are over time.
The Deputy needs to get real about people on the borders of Russia-----
NATO is not their friend.
-----what they are facing and the fears and anxieties they experience.
We are way over time.
What about the Russian spies?
There has to be a comment on what is happening on the Polish border.
There were a number of-----
Poland has accepted more than 100,000 migrants from Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours.
Please, Deputies.
That is scandalous.
Please. I will let the Taoiseach reply but we are way over time. There are a number of questions to be answered. I ask the Taoiseach to address the questions.
I think I have dealt with the issues raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett.
To respond to Deputy Barry, I accept, that war crimes are being committed as we speak. All those within Moscow protesting against the Russian aggression should be freed. The persecution that is continuing against anyone who protests in Russia against Government policy is absolutely scandalous. I support the Deputy entirely in calling that out and calling for those prisoners to be released.
PESCO is an important facility that we have joined up to. Cybersecurity is a significant issue. Ireland will not deal with cybersecurity on its own.
It did not do us any good.
Ireland needs to work with other European countries in terms of collectively responding to cybersecurity attacks that have the capacity to paralyse nations. Last evening, I read some reports coming back to us from our missions in Germany. There is significant alarm and anxiety - this was in advance of the war - about potential cyberattacks on German infrastructure. We had it last year in the context of our health service. The cyberattack here really caused enormous damage to our health service.
And the case of the Russian spies in Dublin.
In response to Deputy McDonald, there is an increased Garda presence in the area of the north-east inner city, strong support for the pilot north inner city local community safety partnership, an educational bursary for local gardaí, a community agency to enhance skills and, as she will be aware, the completion of the refurbishment of Fitzgibbon Garda Station. There is much more in the context of education, training and employment.
On Deputy Tóibín's issue, I made the point that we are not seeking permission from the European Union. We are entitled to take any decision we like in respect of diplomatic channels - ending them, reducing them or whatever. As I have stated consistently from the beginning, the strongest response from Europe is to be united.
There was a delay in the context of Russian planes.
Never has the European Union been more united and ensured a more speedier response-----
The opposite policy.
-----with great determination to apply unprecedented levels of sanctions in the areas of finance and banking that no one comprehended a week ago. We do not need permission to do anything, other than what we said to the House. In the interests of Irish citizens in Russia or Ukraine, we believe keeping channels open matters in terms of helping those who could be in jeopardy. It also helps in terms of information, knowledge and communicating our position on key events.
It is an easy thing to do in one sense, but we need calm heads as we navigate our way through what will be a terrible humanitarian crisis that we will have to deal with. We have to be generous in responding to that humanitarian crisis, but it is a serious one. We have people now in Ukraine who will need our help - Irish citizens in hospitals, etc.
The Russian spy issue.
That is why we have to proceed carefully in relation to that matter.
In response to Deputy Barry, obviously, we neither support nor have any evidence of the application of any racist approach to facilitating migration into Poland.
Look at your phone. It is all over it.
What we have evidence of is 100,000 people so far have been facilitated by the Polish authorities in coming into Poland. That is important.
The Taoiseach should not turn a blind eye.
In terms of Deputy Devlin's point of view, I support Ukraine's application to be a member of the European Union. There is a process there but, I believe, it should be a candidate country. I am consistently of the view that the European perspective represents perhaps the most strategic approach that the European Union can take, not only in the eastern neighbourhood but in the Western Balkans as well. It has been too slow, in terms of application processes, for many countries and then Europe complains when Russia and others start meddling in the affairs of the western Balkans, as we saw recently during Covid-19 in terms of the deployment of vaccines for geopolitical objectives which, in itself, is reprehensible.
