Before we take Leaders' Questions, I ask all Deputies for their co-operation in showing a little respect for the dignity of the Chair and proceedings in the Dáil. Deputies might please keep to the time limits.
Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Tá teaghlaigh ar fud an Stáit i lár ghéarchéim chostas maireachtála. Tá siad ag streachailt cheana féin agus ag tabhairt aghaidh anois ar chostais fhilleadh na scoile agus muid ag bogadh isteach sa samhradh. Anuraidh, chuaigh go leor teaghlach isteach i bhfiach leis na costais seo a íoc, agus i mbliana, beidh na costais seo ag brú go leor teaghlach thar an imeall. Tá tacaíocht de dhíth ar na teaghlaigh seo anois.
Throughout the State, families are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Many parents find themselves under serious financial pressure. Times are very tough for parents whose number one priority is their children. I have said before that the cost-of-living crisis is happening right here, right now. Workers and families cannot afford to wait any longer. There is a serious concern that, faced with a cost-of-living crisis, families will face real difficulty in meeting back-to-school costs. Many parents are viewing their child returning to school in August with a sense of dread. They are sensing that because of high costs at a time when they are already being put to the pins of their collars. Schoolbook lists began to arrive last week and this week in many households across the State. No parent should dread their child's return to school but that is what is happening in so many households.
My party's education spokesperson, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, spoke to a mother from Cork who faces back-to-school costs of €1,700. She is, in her own words, terrified as to how she can make ends meet. Last year, a back-to-school survey was carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions, which found that parents were spending €1,500 per child returning to secondary school and €1,200 per child returning to primary school. One quarter of these families were going into debt to cover these costs. That means using their credit cards, taking out loans and even going to the local moneylender just to send their kids to school. This year, in a cost-of-living crisis where bills and prices have continued to spiral, many parents are stressed and really anxious. A child's education should be a cherished right, but for so many, the price of education is a cause of concern and anxiety. That is simply wrong.
This week, we heard from staff at Barnardos who described families buying their children pyjamas to wear in the daytime because it was the cheapest option. It was the only option they could afford. For a Republic that was meant to be established on the basis of cherishing all the children of the nation equally, this is the grim reality of Ireland today.
Last night, the Government voted against Sinn Féin's motion to introduce an emergency budget that would lift the pressures off families in the here and now, including measures to support them in meeting back-to-school costs. Given the Government's vote against Sinn Féin's motion last night, the Tánaiste's message to struggling workers and families is clear: the Government will not provide further support to them now or over the summer months. The message is simply clear that they are on their own during this time.
What will the Tánaiste say to that terrified mother in Cork who faces school costs of €1,700 and does not know how she will make ends meet? What will he say to her given the Government's stance that it will have no further interventions until budget time? What will he say to the tens of thousands of other mothers and fathers in exactly the same position, worried about how they will meet the costs of their children going back to education as the school bills roll in this week like they did last week?
At the outset, I acknowledge the fact that the cost of living in Ireland is rising very fast. Indeed, this is the case all around the world. Governments are doing their best to deal with that but there is only so much any government can do. Obviously, people have seen big increases in the cost of petrol and diesel, utility bills, grocery bills and other bills as well. Everyone is feeling the squeeze, of course, but some people, particularly those on the lowest incomes, those with large families and those in rural areas, are feeling the pinch of that all the tighter. Sometimes, they have to make very difficult decisions on what to spend money.
The Government has acted already. If the Deputy compares what we have done in Ireland relative to what has been done in similar countries, we have done just as much if not more. As the Deputy knows, we had a budget package that kicked in in January with an increase in the minimum wage, reductions in income tax and increases in pension and welfare payments, including targeted payments such as the living alone allowance and fuel allowance. We effectively had a mini-budget or emergency budget already, with €1.4 billion in measures since the budget, including reducing excise on petrol and diesel, reducing VAT on electricity and gas, the €200 discount on people's electricity bill and a further fuel allowance payment. That is just to give a few examples of what has being done since the budget.
Of course, other measures will take effect before the budget in the autumn. As the Deputy knows, the school clothing and footwear allowance will be available for those who are eligible for it. We increased the funding for that significantly in recent years. For those attending third level institutions, the increase in the SUSI grant will take effect alongside the fact more people will become eligible for it. Those measures were announced in the budget but they will actually take effect over the course of the summer in terms of people going back to school and college.
Obviously, facing a big bill can often be the toughest thing for people. People might be getting by week by week, but obviously, a big bill arriving can be a big difficulty for a family. They might be getting by week to week but that big bill, whether it is for car repairs or back-to-school costs, can hit people very hard. As I said, much has been done already with €2.4 billion for families to help them with the cost of living. There is more planned in the autumn in and around the budget. We want a set of actions that will take effect almost immediately in the days and weeks after budget day to help people through the winter in particular. A series of more regular moves will take effect then in January. That is the plan on which we are doing much work at the moment. As I said, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will become available over the course of the summer as well as the improvements in the SUSI grant for those attending third level institutions.
I do not think that will be any comfort to that mother from Cork or, indeed, all the other families who face a summer of dread. As the Tánaiste acknowledged, they are already dealing with petrol, diesel, home heating oil, energy, food and clothing costs skyrocketing and going in the wrong direction. Now, as kids finish up their school year, the bills are starting to roll in. It is €1,500 per child going to secondary school and €1,200 per child going to primary school. There are no additional interventions from Government.
The Tánaiste spoke about what the Government might do in the budget. These bills need to be met in the here and now. These school bills need to be dealt with. The kids are going back to school at the end of August. The Tánaiste, along with his Government colleagues, decided that he will make no further interventions over the next number of months for these families and tens of thousands of families like them who are struggling right here, right now. They do not know where they will get the money to pay for basic things like schoolbooks for their children or a school uniform to put on their kid's back come August. I plead to the Tánaiste on behalf of these individuals and many more like them that the Government needs to change tack and bring forward an emergency budget. It needs to reverse the decision it made and see that the cost-of-living crisis is happening right here, right now. The Tánaiste has an obligation and a moral responsibility to support these families at this time.
The cost-of living crisis is happening right here, right now. It will happen all the way through to the budget and continue after the budget. That is the truth of it. We are facing a global inflation crisis and it will not end because of any budget, whether that is an emergency budget before the autumn or one in autumn. This is something with which we will be grappling for months if not years ahead. It is caused by number of factors, of which the Deputy is very aware, that are very much internationally driven.
There is no doubt that if we bring forward an emergency budget a few weeks time or a regular budget in the autumn, the first thing the Deputy will say is that it is inadequate and within weeks or months he will be calling for another emergency budget. This is what we will see for the next year or two from Sinn Féin, and that is fine. However, the Government has acted already. We have acted since the budget and over the summer other measures will take effect, including pay increases for some people and in the public service, the back to school footwear allowance and the improvements in the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant for third level. Then we will have another package in autumn in the budget.
As parents across the country fear the rising costs of the back to school dates that are looming ahead, there are some parents who fear September even more. That is because over 200 children still do not have a school place on the last day in June for the coming September term. It was a privilege yesterday to be joined by parents, advocates, SNAs, teachers and young people for the debate on the Labour Party's Autism Bill 2022, which seeks to address the serious shortfall in provision for autistic people, both adults and children, who are simply without services. We heard words such as "hellish" and "a nightmare" used by parents when describing their experiences in securing services for their children. We have asked the Government to take urgent action on this.
We were glad the Bill was not opposed yesterday on Second Stage. What we want is what children and adults in other jurisdictions have as a matter of right, which is a national autism strategy to address provision in education, healthcare, employment and training. We see it in Northern Ireland under the Autism Act 2011, in England under the Autism Act 2009 and in Malta which has a national autism empowerment strategy. My colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, has been calling for this for some time. Indeed, over a year ago, Labour Party Deputies put forward a motion to introduce a national autism empowerment strategy. We were promised action on that within a year by the Government and we accepted that response. We waited for longer than a year but, regrettably, over a year on we are still hearing the same experiences and frustrations. We saw this frustration expressed in the report of the Ombudsman for Children, a damning report of Government failures in regard to children.
We do not believe that anybody in the Government thinks that a 36-month waiting list for an assessment or intervention is acceptable or that it is acceptable that over 15,000 children are being bussed out of their local communities to access an appropriate or acceptable education. We do not think it is acceptable that so many schools are lacking the wraparound additional supports that are needed to ensure a proper and adequate education for children with autism. In recent weeks we see news headlines still being dominated by a lack of provision and lack of school places. Worst of all, we see children who are still without a guarantee of a place in the autumn. I know the Government's legislation is to be debated tomorrow, but it is too little, too late for those children and their families. What we heard from the groups, advocates and parents who were with us yesterday in the Visitors Gallery was an urgent desire for the Government to take steps today to ensure that we are not back in the same place next year.
What timeline does the Government have to ensure we are not back in this position next year? What timeline does it have for addressing the serious shortfalls in provision for children and adults who are lacking the basic human rights they should have just because they are autistic? Why are we still failing those children and adults?
I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue again. I emphasise that the Government is committed to ensuring that every child with special educational needs has access to an education. One child who does not have a school place is one child too many. We fundamentally believe that our most vulnerable children in society should be prioritised. That is why the Government is introducing new legislation this week.
The new Bill was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday and it will ensure that adequate provision of special educational needs placements is available for the coming year. We have school placements for probably over 1 million children - those who have special needs and those who do not - this year in September, but there is a particular issue with approximately 100 children in the Dublin area for whom we do not have a place. We are determined to make sure that a place is made available, and not at the last moment in late August or September. We want to make sure that parents know they have a place for their child in the coming weeks. That is the timeline we are working towards. The new process will allow a ministerial direction to be served on a school within six to eight weeks of receiving a report from the NCSE setting out its opinion that there are insufficient schools in a certain area. Of course, we will endeavour to make sure that happens far more quickly.
With regard to Deputy Ó Ríordáin's Bill, we very much welcome it as an important contribution to the debate on these issues. I welcome the fact that the Labour Party is putting forward solutions. It was discussed in the Cabinet during the week and the Government decided not to oppose it. However, we are essentially doing what is proposed in it by developing our autism innovation strategy. Work on that is very much advanced.
The response is inadequate. It is simply not good enough that there are 100 children in Dublin alone who do not have a school place for this coming September. This is 30 June, the end of the school year. As I said, we heard yesterday from parents who are very frustrated. In some cases they have had to approach 18 or 25 schools simply to try to get a place for their child and were still unable to do so. Many parents in my constituency, Dublin Bay South, are at the end of their tether trying to secure places. There is a pinch point at every stage - transition to primary school, transition into secondary school and leaving secondary school and going to college or training. At all these points parents have to fight so hard that it becomes a consuming exercise in activism for many of them. They should not have to fight for what should be basic rights for their children and young adults who are simply not getting the recognition and support they require in the State.
We heard yesterday from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, about the strategy she is developing, but it is not to be underpinned by legislation. That is simply not good enough. Will the Tánaiste commit to supporting our Bill and to ensuring there is a legislative basis for the strategy?
We can certainly give that some consideration, but different jurisdictions do things differently. It would not be the norm in Ireland, and it would not have been the norm when we were in government together, for a strategy to be underpinned by legislation. Different jurisdictions do things differently, but I certainly will not rule it out.
I absolutely agree with the Deputy on one point. It is wrong that parents have to fight and struggle for a place in school for their children. I met parents in Dublin 15 in my constituency who are in this position. We managed to resolve it in our constituency in the vast majority of cases and I think we will resolve it very shortly. There are things parents may have to fight for in life, but a place in a school should not be one of them. I totally agree with the Deputy in that regard.
In terms of the current position, I am told there are 80 children waiting for a place in a special class in Dublin who are not already in a mainstream setting. Recent weeks have resulted in eight primary schools saying they will open special classes in the new school year. This will reduce the number down to 56. Further engagement is happening with schools at present. That will continue intensively in the coming weeks with the intention of further reducing the number of children requiring a class placement. The NCSE advice is that there is an adequate supply of special classes and special school places outside Dublin at this time.
I wish to raise the orthopaedic waiting lists in the Galway region. Last Monday, a young man came to my office. He is 27 years old and is married with two children. He has been working, his wife is working and they have a mortgage. Unfortunately, he had an accident and he is waiting for treatment. He tried to continue to work but he had to give up the work five weeks ago. He was getting some painkillers for the pain. He was told when he was getting the injections that they would last up to six months. The pain left him for five and a half weeks. The prospect before him is 18 months waiting for an assessment. Then he will have to wait another four years for surgery. That is what he has been told by the hospital. This young man cannot lift his children, he cannot drive and he can hardly walk. That is his current position. He is relying on his mother to bring him to the doctor and relies on his father to help around the house. He has a mortgage to pay, which he is struggling to do. This is not somebody who is looking for a handout or for something soft.
This is what is happening with the services in the orthopaedic unit in Galway. There are massive delays. When Covid-19 started, I remember the Tánaiste coming down the steps from Government Buildings to address the nation and setting aside all rules and regulations to make sure we dealt with it. Today, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, need to come down those steps again and tell us how we are going to address our fractured health system.
The system was creaking before Covid but it has been further scarred by the effects of the pandemic. It is important that we get the health service right. We need infrastructure, additional beds, additional staff - when I say "staff" I mean nurses - and functioning accident and emergency units. We also need to put in place the necessary services our people deserve. We need to dispense with these codes for public procurement and appraisals for every project we have to undertake. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, is in the Chamber. He has to take on board the fact that we cannot continue with the same processes, while the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, who is sitting beside him, is trying to improve services. We need to take immediate, emergency, essential actions to make sure that whatever projects we have in place to improve our infrastructure and capacity are done rather than spending years looking at them.
I am afraid I do not have a specific note on orthopaedic waiting lists in Galway but I will make sure we get one and that we give the Deputy a fuller reply later. I acknowledge there are far too many people waiting far too long for the operations they need in Galway and in all parts of the country. Notwithstanding the fact we probably have 1,000 more beds than we had two years ago, more staff in our health service than ever before, a bigger budget than ever before, and more doctors than ever before working in our health service, we are, essentially, running up an escalator that is coming down at us. That is because of an increasing and ageing population with increased needs, a pandemic and a cyberattack. That has put us in a position that is not where we wanted or expected to be at this stage.
We have an ambitious plan to reduce waiting lists that has been published. The Minister for Health and I have been down the steps already with that plan. It is a €350 million plan to improve waiting times in 2022. It is the biggest waiting list plan I have seen in my time in politics by quite a distance. If it works, and a lot will depend on whether we get hit by serious waves of Covid, we should have fewer people on active waiting lists by the end of this year than at any point in the past five years. I am not saying we will get there but it will be a huge achievement if we can get to the point, by the end of the year, where waiting lists will be at a five-year low.
Every patient waiting more than six months for a high-volume procedure, which includes the vast majority of orthopaedic procedures, will be offered treatment through the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, this year. The waiting list action plan identifies 15 high-volume procedures. The commitment is made that anybody who is waiting more than six months and is clinically suitable can receive his or her care through the NTPF. That fund has confirmed it has authorised offers of treatment to almost 7,000 people and has sufficient capacity to increase what it is doing by approximately 100% by September 2022, thereby offering treatment to all 75,000 patients who are waiting for these procedures by the end of the year.
There are plans to improve waiting lists and money is going into the system as if nothing else is happening. I have a concern about all this money going in on the basis that, at the end of the day, it is not getting to the end user or patient. There is significant problem with staff morale. Nurses are leaving the public health service because they are completely disillusioned with what is happening. We have fewer staff available to deal with patients on the wards.
There is a daft idea relating to primary care centres that have been built. For example, we have one in Tuam where there is no X-ray facility so everybody has to go to Galway to get their X-rays done. I have talked previously about this with the Minister for Health. His predecessor, Deputy Harris, allocated €700,000 to put an X-ray facility in that primary care centre approximately four years ago. Today, it still has not happened. The equipment has been bought, is being stored in Germany and is probably out of date at this stage. We just cannot build a room for it. That is just a typical example of the challenges we have and how we get around them. We need to look at this from a completely different perspective and get to the nub of the issue.
I am aware that Galway is the specialist tertiary centre for a significant swathe of the country. Waiting lists in Galway are comparatively worse than in other parts of the country, but there has been a lot of investment in recent years. There is now more than 4,000 staff between University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital; that is a 12% increase since this Government was formed. The budget for both hospitals is now more than €400 million, which is a 10% increase since this Government was formed. Construction of a temporary emergency department is under way, which should be completed later this year. The building of a new radiation oncology unit is also under way. We are very keen to get the new emergency department, and the new maternity and paediatric units, into planning as soon as possible. I have spoken directly to the CEO of the HSE about this in the past couple of weeks. I share the enormous frustration that the project is progressing so slowly. I will take a personal interest in it.
The Government is detached from reality and completely self-absorbed. To come to this conclusion, all we have to do is listen to any interview with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, or the Taoiseach.
A recent EUROSTAT report from the European Commission revealed that Ireland was the most expensive EU country when it comes to the cost of living. Prices in Ireland were found to be a staggering 40% higher than the EU average in 2021 and matters have worsened significantly since then, as we all know. The report also revealed that, astonishingly, the cost of housing in Ireland was 88.5% higher than the EU average and a staggering 88% higher for utility bills such as electricity and gas. The average cost of food here was 17% higher than in the EU27 countries. These are the figures we are talking about. Milk, cheese and eggs were found to be an average of 25% higher in cost, fats and oils were 22% higher, while breads and cereals were typically 20% higher.
Despite Ireland's crippling cost of living, the Government has failed to act in any meaningful way, although EU governments have taken many measures to cut back on excise duties. The Rural Independent Group has tabled motions on this matter, as have other groups. Last night, there was another vote on a Sinn Féin motion. We also tabled a Private Members' motion last April asking the Government to axe the carbon tax, which would have the impact of putting approximately €8,000 directly into every person's pocket and knocking ten cent off the price of a litre of fuel by 2030, but that was rejected.
The Government has remained tone deaf on many issues, despite the people suffering. As I said, the current cost-of-living crisis is financially crippling lower income earners, including pensioners, struggling mortgage holders and, of course, the unemployed. It is also having a disproportionate impact on all residents and farmers throughout the country. Research has shown the impact of the crisis on rural dwellers has been much higher. We all know that from listening to people every day of the week. Rural communities and farmers face crippling costs for feed, fertilisers and fuel, which has the potential to wipe out many viable farms. That is the fact of it.
The Government brought in what I call an inept package. It is trying to play a three-card trick on the people by bringing in these little measures while taking so much excise duty from every litre of fuel. The public has copped on to this. The Government is glowing because of the tax receipts it is getting on the back of people's misery. As I said, not since the British landlords, who turned their eyes the other way at the time of the Famine, has any Government been so harsh, so inept in dealing with the problems and so uncaring about the people of Ireland. It is shocking.
I had a chance to read the EUROSTAT report in detail the other day; it is worth reading in detail. It tells us the cost of living in Ireland is high and much higher than the European average. That will not come as a surprise to anybody as it was well known already, but when we drill into the detail, the report tells a slightly more complex story. There are countries where the cost of living is higher than Ireland's, including Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. There are countries that are similar to us, for example, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg, and there are countries where the cost of living is much lower than Ireland's, including Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.
What is sometimes missing from the analysis and commentary around the report is the acknowledgement that salaries and wages in Ireland are much higher than the European average. They are 35% or 36% higher than the European average. There is a correlation between high-pay, high-income countries with a high standard of living and higher costs and countries where there is low pay, low standards of living and costs are lower. I would certainly prefer to aspire to be in that group of high-income northern European countries, even if it comes with higher prices, than to be a low-income, low-cost country. That is being missed from the analysis around that report. There is a clear correlation between higher salaries, prices and standards of living on the one hand and low prices, pay and standards of living on the other.
The Deputy is absolutely correct in terms of the impact that high energy prices have had on people throughout the country but his suggestion that we have done nothing is totally incorrect. We have reduced excise on diesel to the lowest allowed under European rules. We have reduced excise on petrol by 20 cent. If one looks at the price of petrol and diesel north of the Border and in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the rest of western Europe, it is roughly the same or higher. We have reduced VAT on electricity and gas to 9%, which is the lowest ever rate we have had on electricity and gas since VAT was invented, and taken €200 off people's bills. As we make plans for the budget, we particularly want to focus on those areas where costs are out of line with comparable countries in northern Europe, in areas such as childcare, public transport, education and rent, and see what we can do about those.
The Tánaiste is cheering for Europe one day and then telling us the EUROSTAT report is not accurate and that other places took more action. No place took any less action than we took here. The Government can take action on fuel. The price of fuel in some countries is down to €1.39 per litre. The Government wants its greedy paws on VAT and excise duties, which it has failed to remove because of the money coming in to keep higher wages and give an increase of €60 million or €70 million annually to higher civil servants, as it did last week. The Tánaiste did not call it a pay increase but a pay return.
To hell with na daoine beaga. To hell with the little people. Those are the people who are suffering. They are not evaluating the EUROSTAT report the way the Tánaiste is and trying to find and cherry-pick the good bits. They know the pain and suffering they are going through. They know how uncaring the Government of the Tánaiste, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, supported by a selection of Independents, is and how little it cares about them. Tá siad ag fanacht leo. They are waiting for them. The Government refuses to act. It will not and seems to be unable to act. That is the sad situation. We cannot wait for a budget in October because, as we and the public know, any measures that would help the public will not come into effect until the following January or April. "Live, horse, and you will get grass" will not cut it anymore. The Tánaiste should do something for the people he is supposed to represent and was elected to represent.
The EUROSTAT report is entirely accurate. What I am saying is that it is half the story. Incomes, salaries and wages in Ireland are 30% to 40% higher than the European average. Of course, there is a correlation between that and higher prices. Countries with a very low cost of living in that report are Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and other countries where there is very low pay. Of course, the price of something in a restaurant or a shop will be lower if people there are paid €1.50 or €2 per hour. We need to look at these things in the round when looking at these reports and we need to analyse them properly, not simplistically as has been done in recent times.
We have acted. We acted in January with an increase in the minimum wage, reductions in income tax, increases in pension and welfare. We have acted effectively since then, with our emergency budget. We made cuts in excise on petrol and diesel, taken €200 off people's electricity bills, increased the fuel allowance and cut VAT on electricity and gas to 9%. Other measures will kick in throughout the summer, including the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the increase in the SUSI grant. We will come back in the autumn with more measures, of which some will take effect within weeks and others in January. This will be an ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It will not end quickly, unfortunately. That is why we need planned actions in the way that we propose.