Mary Lou McDonald
Question:1. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [22488/23]
Ceisteanna - Questions
Economic Policy
Ivana Bacik
Question:2. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government’s response to Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [25769/23]
Neasa Hourigan
Question:3. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [25953/23]
Brendan Smith
Question:4. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [26404/23]
Aindrias Moynihan
Question:5. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [28081/23]
Joe Flaherty
Question:6. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [28109/23]
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:7. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government’s response to Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [28115/23]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:8. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [28603/23]
Paul Murphy
Question:9. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Government's response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022. [28611/23]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together.
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, NCPC, published its annual competitiveness challenge report in September 2022. It makes recommendations to the Government across a range of policy areas. On 29 November 2022, the Government published a formal response to the council's recommendations. This is the third year in which a formal response was issued by the Government to the competitiveness challenge report. This response was co-ordinated by my Department, drawing together material from relevant Departments and agencies.
The council outlined a set of 20 actions or recommendations across a broad set of areas for Government consideration. These areas include boosting productivity, enhancing the labour market, infrastructure investment and managing business costs. The Government welcomed the focus of the council on the areas outlined and agreed on their importance and relevance to Ireland's continued competitiveness. The response outlined the specific actions under way across different Departments in answer to each of the recommendations of the council.
Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce met Oireachtas Members at the end of last month to outline the development and growth challenges for business in Donegal and the north west. I travelled to Letterkenny last week to speak at the chamber's lunch, and the message from its members was absolutely clear, that significant shortfalls in transport infrastructure, the housing crisis and staff shortages are holding back progress in the region. Those challenges are interdependent and are the negative outcomes of historical political and policy neglect.
Despite these failures by the current and former Governments, there are fantastic home-grown innovators in Donegal, creating exciting opportunities in domestic and foreign domestic investment, FDI, enterprises. Imagine what could be achieved if a Government finally gripped the long-acknowledged connectivity deficits of the north west and addressed the fundamental housing and cost-of-living crises. Donegal, as the Taoiseach will know, has always suffered from excessively high levels of emigration. Add to that the shortfalls in the defective block scheme, the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis and we have a perfect storm. Young workers continue to emigrate. The skilled staff hired into the county face undue and sometimes impossible challenges to secure accommodation. These are old problems that have been manifested and multiplied into new crises this Government has yet to fully accept. They directly impact people's lives and quality of life and on the competitiveness, social cohesion and well-being of the region. What response has the Taoiseach to the challenges that have been laid out by the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce? What commitment can he give not only to Donegal but to the north west as a whole to show that he has the willingness, ear, heart, stomach and ability to address all of this?
At recommendation 1.4 of Ireland's competitiveness challenge report, the NCPC recommends that the actions put forward by the Commission on Taxation and Welfare are addressed. In its reply, the Government has undertaken to consider changes in site value tax, or tax in general as it relates to land. Has the Taoiseach considered, or has there been significant consideration of, a site value tax, particularly as it relates to rates? As we know, the rates system at the moment is a significant barrier to business. It vests with the tenant and not with the owner of the property. A site value tax would allow those rates to vest with the owner and would remove significant barriers particularly for small to medium businesses in Ireland. Such a tax would also be likely to increase the take for local authorities.
In rural areas, in particular, one of the challenges facing businesses and enterprise in general is inadequate infrastructure. In my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, most businesses are indigenous and home-grown. Some of those enterprises started as one-person businesses and are now international companies with their headquarters remaining in Cavan and Monaghan. In my area, the agrifood sector, engineering and construction products are an extremely important part of the local economy. By and large, those are bulky products and as we do not have a rail service, all goods are transported by road. A total of 93% of the road network in County Cavan is non-national and we need more upgrading of these vital arteries for the betterment of local residents and all businesses and for the protection and growth of employment.
With the public finances in good health, there should be much more investment in the road network now to help businesses to reduce cost. The massive increase in road construction costs over the past two years has considerably reduced the amount of work local authorities are able to carry out this year with the allocations they have received to date from the Department of Transport. Additional investment now will prevent further deterioration in road standards and will save the State funding in the future. I believe that substantial additional funding should be provided to local authorities in the middle of this year towards road maintenance and road construction, particularly of the non-national road network. We are all well aware that poor infrastructure adds additional costs to businesses which they do not need in these challenging times.
Housing for All, the national retrofitting scheme and the delivery of our national development plan are all placing considerable stress on our competitiveness and our ability to respond to our labour market needs. A report published recently by the expert group on future skills needs stated there are considerable pressures forthcoming on our labour market in terms of building and delivery of our future infrastructural needs. Are we doing enough to provide apprentices and train people in adequate numbers to meet those continuing pressures?
It is interesting that the Taoiseach was talking about the difficulty of the leaving certificate mathematics exam when it is clear there are problems understanding mathematics in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The competitiveness challenge report highlighted the vital need to address the high cost of housing and one of the centrepieces of the Government's response to that issue is cost rental. I draw the Taoiseach's attention to the fact it is not possible for large numbers of people on many of the incomes within the cohort or band of earnings between €40,000 and €53,000, which is the income band that cost rental is supposed to address, to meet the criteria. Their applications are not even being allowed. For example, for people earning €45,000 with a need for two-bed accommodation, the criteria mean they are only allowed to pay a rent of €1,312. However, the rent for two-bed accommodation in Delgany under the cost-rental scheme is €1,445. Even people who are earning €50,000 and have a need for three-bed accommodation are not allowed to apply because the rent is €1,530 but they are only allowed to pay €1,458, which is 35% of their income.
Somebody has seriously messed up on the maths here. The criteria do not align to even allow applications for huge numbers of the people for whom this scheme is supposed to apply. I have come across three cases. This also has implications for the cost rental in situ purchase because if you do not fit the criteria, the local authority says it cannot buy the house. This is serious and urgent, and the Government needs to address it.
The way that the workers at Tara Mines have been treated is utterly disgraceful. They found out that they are to be temporarily - they do not know for how long - laid off yesterday. Some of them found out through watching the Nine O'Clock News that, effectively, they will be left without pay.
The company says it is due to a variety of factors in terms of zinc prices, inflation, energy costs etc. The company does not mention the fact that when there were previously high prices for zinc, Tara Mines was operating extremely profitably. In 2021, it recorded pre-tax profits, specifically from Tara Mines, of €19.75 million. In 2022, extra dividends were paid out to the shareholders of the overall company as a result of the very big profits that are being made.
If the company wants to shutdown temporarily for a period of time, it should not take the workers off the payroll. It should continue paying the workers. That is a cost that the company should continue to bear.
It is scandalous. These workers are left with no knowledge. The guy who was on the radio this morning, on "Morning Ireland", could not say if this was for weeks, for months, or for a year or longer. That is a horrendous situation to leave workers in. It is completely unacceptable. Will the Government be saying to the company that it needs to put these workers back on the payroll and if it does not do so the Government will consider nationalising the company because these sort of natural resources should be in public ownership? Zinc can be an important part of a just transition. It can be used as an alternative to lithium for electric batteries. The Government should be acting to defend the jobs.
I thank the Deputies for their contributions.
Deputy McDonald spoke about her visit to Letterkenny and her engagement with the chamber of commerce there. I have had the chance to visit the county on many occasions, including in recent months. I visited Tata Consultancy Services, TCS, a multinational company employing over 1,000 people now in Letterkenny, which is great to see. I visited the hospital. I met with families and have been in homes affected by mica. I want to acknowledge some of the real problems that the county faces, whether it is economic development or housing, or the cost of living or mica, but I have to say things are not as bleak as the Deputy made out. I know there are companies thinking of investing in Donegal and investing in the north-west and I hope they are not brought to meet Deputy McDonald because they would probably be put off investing in the region and might choose to invest in another country instead. Far from there being mass emigration, the population of Donegal increased. We know that from the most recent census. It had declined in previous censuses. It is actually now going up again. That is positive. Unemployment is close to, if not at, an all-time low. I am disappointed that the Deputy had nothing good to say about Donegal in her remarks.
In terms of investment in the north-west, to answer the Deputy's question, I will visit the west region tomorrow opening the new road between Castlebar and Westport. I am really looking forward to that. It is the biggest State investment ever in County Mayo. I am very keen to get the A5 up and running, and under construction, which would benefit north Donegal and Letterkenny. The national broadband plan is now a reality. The previous Government, which I led, chose to go ahead with that against official advice. Opposed by Sinn Féin and all the other parties, I do not think anyone now seriously thinks that was the wrong decision because it is allowing remote working to become a real possibility in rural Ireland, allowing new businesses to be established and helping us to get investment into rural counties. There is also the rural fund, which is administered by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. That Department of Rural and Community Development, established on the day I first became Taoiseach in 2017, is really making a difference now. It took years but it is making a real difference. There is the IDA Ireland regional property programme building advanced factories and advanced building solutions around the country, including one we are working on in Castlebar which Deputy Dillon raises with me all the time. There are the new technological universities, again, making a big difference, established by the previous Government in law and made a reality by this Government. There is also regional aid and cross-Border programmes.
Deputy Hourigan asked about the site valuation tax. When it comes to residential properties, we have decided to stick with the local property tax but we are going to give consideration to a site valuation tax with respect to commercial properties because the commercial rates system does not work. It belongs to a different age and there are lots of problems with it which all Deputies will be aware of. Changing to a new system, although a new tax, is never straightforward. There will be winners and losers. People may not like the changes that are being made but certainly as part of that review of commercial rates, a site valuation tax is very much on the agenda and definitely has some merit.
Deputy Brendan Smith raised the issue of additional funding for road maintenance and road restoration. It is something that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and I are engaging with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on at present. By the way, we do not actually know if there will be an underspend at the Department of Transport. I read some newspaper coverage to the effect that there was. There was in the first quarter of the year but we are now well into the second quarter of the year. It is not clear that there will be an underspend but if evidence of an underspend emerges, I certainly believe that we should reallocate funding to local and regional road maintenance and restoration and perhaps also to the local improvement schemes. That is something that we are working on at present. I appreciate that a decision on that has to be made sooner rather than later because this work has to be done in the summer and autumn.
Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan raised the issue of apprentices. I am glad to say that we now have approximately 9,000 apprentices signing up every year, which is a big increase, with two thirds in the traditional craft apprenticeships and one third in the new modern apprenticeships. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has set the target of 10,000 and I think we will meet that.
On cost rental income limits, that matter is under review. I will certainly make sure that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is aware of what Deputy Boyd Barrett said here today.
Certainly, when it comes to Tara Mines, my understanding is that when the staff are on temporary redundancy they remain on the payroll but they do not get paid by the company. They are able to trigger their redundancy rights at a certain point - not at this point but three to six months later. I can absolutely guarantee that the Government will be working with the company to get the mine up and running again as soon as possible and also to secure the future of the mine into future decades through the Tara Deep project.
Cabinet Committees
Neasa Hourigan
Question:10. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [25680/23]
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:11. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [27246/23]
Aindrias Moynihan
Question:12. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28080/23]
Joe Flaherty
Question:13. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28111/23]
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:14. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28116/23]
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:15. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28290/23]
Alan Dillon
Question:16. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will meet next. [28354/23]
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:17. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health will next meet. [28322/23]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:18. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28606/23]
Bríd Smith
Question:19. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28609/23]
Paul Murphy
Question:20. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Health is next due to meet. [28612/23]
Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 10 go 20 le chéile.
The Cabinet Committee on Health met on 29 May and is due to meet again on 19 June.
In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I meet Ministers on an individual basis to focus on different issues. I meet regularly with the Minister for Health to discuss progress and challenges in the area of Health, including the Sláintecare reform programme.
Sláintecare is happening with the support and the oversight of the Department of the Taoiseach through the Cabinet Committee on Health. It is about four main things: making healthcare more affordable, making healthcare more accessible, ensuring better outcomes for patients and reforming and modernising our health service.
We are committed to expanding the core capacity of our acute hospitals, with more health professionals and more acute hospital beds. Over the past three years we have added nearly 1,000 acute hospital beds and 360 community beds, with further additional beds planned for this year and next year.
We have increased the total public health sector workforce by more than 20,000 since the Government came into office. That includes 6,500 extra nurses and midwives, 3,200 social care professionals and 2,000 doctors and dentists.
There is a strong pipeline of capital projects, including several new hospitals and significant new facilities for existing hospitals.
Approximately €443 million is being provided to reduce waiting times this year. Our multi-annual approach resulted in an overall reduction in the number of patients exceeding the maximum Sláintecare waiting time, that is, roughly three months, by 11% in 2022, with a target of a further 10% reduction this year. This includes €123 million on a recurrent basis for the HSE to introduce modernised care pathways and €80 million has been allocated to various primary care and community care initiatives.
The enhanced community care programme continues to improve healthcare at a more local level. This programme, which is investing €240 million in community health services, is easing pressure on hospitals and in more acute settings.
The majority of community healthcare networks, community intervention teams and community support teams are now in place and providing care closer to home.
In the first full year post implementation, it is projected that community healthcare networks and community specialist teams will enable between 16,000 and 21,000 patients to avoid having to attend an emergency department.
Work is ongoing on the reconfiguration of the HSE organisational structures into six new health regions and the establishment of elective care centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway, as well as surgical hubs in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford in the interim. We are also making healthcare more affordable at a time when a cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone. Hospital charges for patients have been abolished, with the exception of emergency department fees. We are also widening the eligibility for the GP card, which will allow many thousands more people to attend their GP without fees. The drug payment scheme threshold has been reduced, so no individual or household has to pay more than €80 a month for their medicines. Additional eligibility initiatives include €10 million provided for access to IVF treatments, the expansion of free contraception to women aged 26 to 30, free home sexually transmitted infection testing kits and €5 million for oral healthcare for children up to seven years of age.
Our health service has its challenges, but our health system is responding and has expanded dramatically in recent years. We are treating more people, with better outcomes, than ever before. Life expectancy in Ireland is now among the highest in Europe. We also continue to see mortality rates for stroke and certain cancers improve, and we will advance these reforms further this year and next.
I am sure the Taoiseach is well aware, as a fellow Dublin Deputy, that community leadership on addiction and in the provision of services is core to how we deal with that issue in our communities. In my community, in 2022, the Government began a review on the north inner-city drugs and alcohol task force. We did not see its terms of reference, but it has been ongoing for nearly a year and a half. I ask that, as a matter of urgency, the Cabinet publish that report and facilitate the immediate return of the statutory representatives to the task force in order that it can resume its vital work in the community.
I raise with the Taoiseach, as I have done here in the past, the issue of reimbursement in the context of how our system is antiquated and insufficient to deal with the needs of patients. Rather than talk about the process at this point, I would like to talk about the previous drawdown from the primary care reimbursement scheme, PCRS. To be fair to the Minister for Health, he has provided €100 million over the past three years specifically for new drugs in this space but, unfortunately, €30 million of that was meant to be drawn down in 2022 and, according to the PCRS, only €9.4 million was drawn down. There might be an accounting explanation for that or there may have been some kind of clerical error but aside from that, if they are the facts, I would like to know why, of the €30 million allocated, only €9.4 million was drawn down. Is the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics not approving enough drugs or is it not doing so quickly enough? If the Taoiseach could clarify the matter, I would appreciate that.
I thank the Taoiseach for his response and the overview he outlined. He mentioned the expansion of the GP card. Budget 2023 committed to expanding the GP card to people on median incomes, that is, some 400,000 people or thereabouts. It is a very welcome and positive measure, especially in a climate where people are finding costs so much more difficult right across their lives. That measure has not been implemented, but there was an expectation it would be earlier this year. I understand discussions are under way with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, the HSE and various other parties in regard to it. Where is the roadblock and why is this stuck? What is happening? How soon can people expect to get access to that expanded GP card? For a great many people, they are not, thankfully, going to be dealing with acute services and their interaction with the health services is in the community and with their GP. Being able to deal with issues there, before they become more acute, is the best approach, so having that access to the GP card for as many people as possible would be positive. Will the Taoiseach outline what the roadblock is and how soon the cards will be expanded to those people, as committed to in budget 2023?
I welcome the Taoiseach's comments regarding the additional allocation of €240 million for the community healthcare networks. The implementation of the Sláintecare vision for primary care facilities is crucial for creating a more accessible and effective healthcare system. There is certainly a focus on increasing the capacity and availability of primary care centres, but one issue I draw to the Taoiseach's attention relates to the delay in the provision of the Ballyhaunis primary care centre, which has been on hold since early 2022. This is deeply concerning for members of the local community who require urgent attention. I recently raised this with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, who informed me the developer is facing difficulties reaching an agreement with the subcontractors due to escalated construction costs. This delay, which I am sure is reflected in other projects, is of real concern. The centre was originally scheduled to be operational in the final quarter of 2021. It is of the utmost importance for the people of east Mayo and the surrounding areas that the challenges are promptly resolved and the centre is completed and operational. I urge the Taoiseach to engage with his Cabinet colleague to find a solution to this issue. It is vital we get swift action to ensure progress on the construction of the Ballyhaunis primary care centre.
It has been reported HSE board members were told the health service needs to recruit nearly 12,000 full-time staff this year but expects to recruit only half that number. Government research tells us job-stay rates are greater in the public and Civil Service when compared with the private sector, yet one in ten staff left the HSE last year to retire or emigrate, and the job churn continues to increase. Despite this, it is only now that senior managers are considering the introduction of exit surveys to understand that phenomenon. As the Taoiseach knows, mental health disability service managers across the community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas openly tell us they do not have the staff needed, which leaves teams operating at partial capacity and people without services. Staff shortages in the health service extend to GP practice nurses, healthcare assistants, consultants, health and social care workers and all the professions. The evidence is that all Government parties have failed over the past 20 years to develop a workforce plan to train, recruit and retain enough healthcare workers to staff the health service safely. In the absence of this staff, the Government can make whatever announcements it wants or set out whatever plans it has, but it has no ability to deliver them. Where is the Government's comprehensive ten-year workforce planning strategy for the health system? Is the Taoiseach taking an active role in ensuring such a strategy is devised and delivered?
The Taoiseach painted a rather rosy picture of the Government's progress in addressing the problems of the health service. A very different picture was presented by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association on Friday in a press statement it put out, detailing that 893,000 people are now on some form of National Treatment Purchase Fund waiting list, that a further 250,000 people are waiting for diagnostic scans and that hospital cancellations could exceed 250,000 a year if the rate continues, with 85,000 operations and appointments already cancelled to the end of April. Emergency department attendances increased by 38%, or 461,000, over the past decade, with average wait times now approaching 12 hours, or double the target in 2013. The association stated this is the first time in six months that the number of people on the outpatient waiting list has totalled over 600,000. It asked about the announced rapid-build programme to deliver 1,500 additional beds, whether the €1 billion capital budget increase necessary to deliver this has been secured and whether the Government is committing to that.
I raise the special leave with pay scheme for workers who are out sick with long Covid. Healthcare workers in particular have had long periods of illness from Covid, and a scheme was put in place in June 2022 to ensure they would get paid if they were out sick with long Covid.
That is due to end on 30 June. Therefore, from 1 July, potentially hundreds of health workers who stepped up to the plate, made sacrifices and put themselves out there for all of us in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic will be told their supports are being cut. Can the Taoiseach please explain why that is going to happen when we are still giving financial supports to businesses and companies with Covid payments that possibly should have been cut long ago? We are now going to cut the supports we give to workers with long Covid, remembering how much we valued and should continue to value the front-line workers who did what they did during the worst pandemic. How are we going to proceed with this? It is a matter of urgency, according to the unions, but we can see we are running out of time. This scheme is due to end on 30 June.
I thank the Deputies again for their questions. Deputy Hourigan raised the issue of the north inner city drugs and alcohol task force. I am afraid I do not have my file on the north east inner city with me but there is a report and an update on it. I do not have it to hand but I will certainly make sure the Deputy gets a reply later in the week on it. I will send it to other Deputies from the constituency as well.
Deputy O'Sullivan raised the issue of funding for new medicines. If I picked him up right, he said that there is €30 million for this year of which only €9.4 million-----
For 2022.
There is €30 million for 2022, so the full amount allocated in that year was not spent. I was not aware of that. I am not sure it is correct but I will double-check because my impression had been the opposite in that any time any additional funding was provided for new medicines it was not enough. If that is the case, there is a problem so I will definitely check up on that this week and get back to the Deputy as soon as I can.
Deputy Moynihan mentioned that budget 2023, including funding to extend free GP care to children aged six and seven and also to those on median incomes or below. If that can be achieved, it will be the biggest expansion of free GP care probably in decades. It will mean for the first time in Ireland that most people will not have to pay to see their GP. That would be a considerable achievement if we can get it done this year. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, is in negotiations with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, about this. We accept that more people having free GP care will result in increased attendances. We have to bear that in mind. It will result in their private incomes falling and I know GPs have a concern about what the next steps after that might be. There is only so much capacity in the system and, as many people will know, it can be hard to register with a GP at all at the moment. Implementation will require additional financial resources and also additional staff resources for GPs such as staff nurses and administrative assistants, for example. Therefore, we are hoping to get agreement on that and it is still intended to be implemented this year.
Deputy Dillon raised the issue of the primary healthcare centre in Ballyhaunis and, as he mentioned, there is an issue with the contractor. The cost of construction has gone up but we have a protocol as to how we deal with that. It involves a degree of burden sharing and negotiation but I will follow up on it with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and with Mr. Bernard Gloster. We are very keen to have that important facility up and running.
Deputy McDonald raised the issue of HSE recruitment. Again, I put on the record of the House that there are 20,000 more people working in our health service now than at the start of 2020. This includes 2,000 extra doctors and 6,000 extra nurses. One would be forgiven for thinking that our entire health service workforce had emigrated to Australia. This, of course, is not the case. People are going in both directions and overall we have been able to increase the number of people working in our health service, including the number of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and therapists over the past three years. This year, the target is to increase the size of the health service workforce by a further 6,000 and we believe that will be achieved.
I think everyone acknowledges we have a huge challenge in staffing our health service, given the rising demand and the availability of new treatments and therapies. It is not a challenge unique to Ireland. It is the same problem in Northern Ireland, Britain, Germany, Australia, and Canada. Everyone is competing internationally for staff because everyone is short of staff. However, the kind of things we are doing, as well as improving pay, are increasing the number of training places for nurses, doctors, GPs, midwives and therapists and engaging in increased international recruitment. We now have a very attractive consultant contract which grants €250,000 if a person commits to public practice. That is a pretty good offer and we believe there are doctors and consultants in other jurisdictions who may be willing to take that up.
We have 12 minutes left for the next grouping.
Cabinet Committees
Bernard Durkan
Question:21. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the various Cabinet committees dealing with urgent issues that have met the least in the past twelve months. [25907/23]
Violet-Anne Wynne
Question:22. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Taoiseach if he will provide on update on recent meetings of Cabinet committees, with particular reference to the committees on housing, children and education and health. [25992/23]
Cian O'Callaghan
Question:23. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach the various Cabinet committees dealing with urgent issues that have met the least in the past 12 months. [27436/23]
Cian O'Callaghan
Question:24. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will provide on update on recent meetings of Cabinet committees, with particular reference to the committees on housing, children and education and health. [27437/23]
Alan Dillon
Question:25. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination will next meet. [28359/23]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:26. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach which Cabinet sub-committees will meet before the summer recess. [28607/23]
I propose to take Question Nos. 21 to 26, inclusive, together.
Cabinet committees meet as appropriate according to their work schedules. In addition to meetings of Cabinet committees, I often meet with Ministers on an individual basis to focus on particular issues, which are also regularly discussed at full Government meetings. From June to December 2022, the Cabinet committees on economic recovery and investment and on Europe met three times; the committee on housing met four times; the committees on health and on environment and climate change met twice; and the committees on social affairs and equality and on Brexit and Northern Ireland each held one meeting. There were no meetings of the committees on Covid-19 or on education.
Since January this year, the Cabinet committees on economy and investment and on EU and international affairs have each held one meeting; the committee on environment and climate change has met twice; the committees on health, on housing and on social affairs and public services have each met three times; and the committee on the humanitarian response to Ukraine and migration, has met five times. There have been no meetings yet of the committees on Brexit and Northern Ireland or on children and education. The new Cabinet committee on children and education will have a specific focus on child poverty and well-being and will oversee the functioning of the newly established child poverty and well-being unit. The Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination has met 17 times. It generally meets on Monday nights in advance of Cabinet meeting on Tuesday mornings. The Cabinet committees on Government co-ordination, on health, on social policy and public services, on EU and international affairs, on housing, on environment and climate change, and on children and education are expected to meet in the coming weeks.
Regarding the Cabinet committee on housing, I ask the Taoiseach about the numbers of people who are sleeping rough. An article written by Laoise Neylon in the Dublin Inquirer stated that last November 180 people were counted as sleeping rough in Dublin by the Dublin Simon Community outreach team. Yet despite this, the official figure of the number of people sleeping rough published by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive Dublin, DRHE, was just 91. How is it possible that half of the people who were counted as sleeping rough were not included in the official figures published? Does the Taoiseach agree that everyone who was counted as sleeping rough should be included in the official figures? Will he contact the DRHE and ask it to stop excluding people who are sleeping rough from the official figures?
In recent years, Ireland has made several applications to host large-scale sporting events, including the Ryder Cup 2026, the UEFA European Football Championship 2028, and the Rugby World Cup 2023. However, we encountered challenges in making a substantial impact once these bids were submitted, primarily due to the lack of co-ordination among Departments and sporting organisations. The independent evaluation report following the decision to award the Rugby World Cup 2023 to France highlighted significant deficiencies in our transportation and venue infrastructure. This outcome served as a wake-up call and emphasised the need for improvement in these areas. Additionally, it was revealed last year that Ireland and the UK organisations opted not to bid for the 2030 World Cup, instead focusing on a bid for Euro 2028. This strategic decision required a comprehensive capital investment strategy that involved co-ordination between many Departments, including the Department of Transport and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, as well as organisations such as Fáilte Ireland, the national sporting groups and local sporting bids. To ensure greater success in our bids for hosting these events, both at European and international levels, it is imperative we establish a co-ordinated or central body to oversee the entire bidding process and ensure all aspects are included. I ask the Taoiseach to give this consideration into the future.
I wish to draw attention to the fact we live in changing times and there may be an urgent necessity for certain Cabinet committee meetings to take place at very short notice to deal with emerging situations. For instance, the former President of Russia made an announcement to the effect that it was in order for the Russian authorities to pursue the various installations, subterranean and submarine, and justified that. There is a need for an immediate reaction and response in those kind of situations.
I am not sure whether the Taoiseach answered on whether the Cabinet committee on housing will meet before the summer recess. He might repeat what he said if he did. It is very important the housing committee meets before the summer recess to tackle a number of things. One of them is the one I have mentioned as it is a serious issue, namely, that the eligibility criteria for cost rental do not align. Huge numbers of the people applying for that, who are supposed to be in the cohort affected, are being told they cannot even apply. It is crazy.
I also want that Cabinet committee to look at the income thresholds for social housing, and therefore for HAP. If the Taoiseach goes on daft.ie and looks at Cherrywood, which is the biggest residential development in the country, he will not find anything for less than €2,600 per month. The homeless HAP threshold is €1,950. A person must be homeless to get that rate and standard HAP is much lower. In other words, the new housing coming on stream in most of Dublin is totally unaffordable to anybody, except the big investors that can go in and buy it up. Something must be done as a matter of urgency to ensure there are some options for people. Otherwise, the number of people going into homelessness is just going to grow and grow. It is increasingly working people with jobs, kids and so on, who pay their taxes, who are being forced into homelessness because there are no options for them.
I want to revisit the issue of housing adaptation grants. Louth County Council is not dealing with any new ones and is just working through its backlog. It also has an insufficient amount of money. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, spoke about the fact there needs to be, and there is going to be, a review of these adaptation grants for those with disabilities and older people with mobility issues. We will have to look at figures on the amounts and all the rest, because at this point in time we are failing and in some cases people are not able to leave hospital or there are people dealing with young people with severe needs and, as I said, we are not able to deliver for them.
I thank the Deputies for their questions. The number of people sleeping rough was in or around 100, or just below that at last count. I do not know what the discrepancy is between the Simon Community count and the DRHE count. I will ask that question. It might relate to the time of night at which it is done. It might also relate to whether it is done on a single night or over an average number of nights, which would be much more accurate than a count done on a single night. Emergency accommodation is available in Dublin for anybody who needs it. That might not always be true, but it is generally true. It is important to bear in mind a large number of people who are sleeping rough are offered shelter but choose, for various complex reasons, not to avail of it. That needs to be taken into account as well.
Deputy Dillon raised bidding for major sporting events. We will give consideration to a central body. It is very much a cross-government effort. It is not just about sport as it is a tourism issue as well. We have to know whether the accommodation will be available or whether we will just be displacing other accommodation. There are issues around travel and access to ports and airports. There are justice issues because policing is needed. Then there is also capital investment, which comes with costs for the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Thus, it needs to be a cross-government effort. Having been involved in some of the bids, successful and unsuccessful, they are very different. There is a world of difference between looking for the Ryder Cup and looking for a stage of the Giro d'Italia, or the Volvo Ocean Race or a major soccer or rugby tournament. They are such totally different beasts that sometimes a central body might not be what is needed and a bespoke body would be better, depending on the type of bid being made.
The Cabinet committee on housing will meet again before the summer recess. As I mentioned earlier, the cost rental and social housing income limits are kept under review and have been revised upwards in the past. I am sure they will be again, but I cannot say when at this stage.
To be clear to Deputies, while the Dáil and Seanad go into recess, the Government does not. Government meetings will continue throughout July, as will Cabinet subcommittee meetings. They will happen in September as well. There might be a three- or four-week break in August where there are none, but we will certainly continue to operate even while the Dáil is in recess.
On the housing adaptation grants, I understand there has been an increase in funding for this. If more is needed we should allocate more. I certainly do not want to see a situation whereby people are stuck in hospital because adaptations cannot be made to their homes. That is not right. It is also a false economy because the cost of somebody being in a hospital bed when they do not need to be there means huge numbers of other people do not get into the hospital or do not get the treatment they need. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about that and if local authorities need additional funding for housing adaptation grants through the course of this year, I am sure we will be able to find it, unless it is a massive amount of money.
The amounts and so on need to be reviewed as well.
Is féidir teacht ar Cheisteanna Scríofa ar
www.oireachtas.ie
.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 1.57 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 2.58 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.57 p.m. and resumed at 2.58 p.m.