Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 27 Jun 2023

Vol. 1040 No. 6

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I send my best wishes to my party leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, as she recovers from her surgery.

Tá an pobal míthreorach agus ligthe síos go dona mar gheall ar an scéal faoi íocaíochtaí breise RTÉ do Ryan Tubridy. Caithfidh trédhearcacht agus cuntasacht a bheith ann. Tá muinín an phobail in RTÉ iontach lag agus tá ceisteanna bunúsacha le freagairt go fóill ag RTÉ. The hidden payments scandal uncovered at RTÉ is shocking. Trust must be at the very heart of our public broadcaster. For the public to have confidence in the information RTÉ shares, the truth should be fundamental and non-negotiable, yet that trust now lies in tatters. The recent revelations are an example of a cosy consensus, an insider culture, that has existed in this State for far too long. While many workers, including at RTÉ, work hard day in, day out on ordinary salaries, it is a very different story for those at the top. Journalists on low pay have been locked into trade union disputes, fighting hard for fair pay and conditions. They and their trade union representatives were told by RTÉ's top brass time and time again that there was simply no more money. They and the public were told the top presenters were taking big pay cuts, doing their bit to bear the brunt of the public funding squeeze. Now it has emerged that the money was there all along, just hidden in shady deals that prevented the truth from being known and that ensured those at the top were taken care of without anybody else knowing about it.

Many viewers and RTÉ journalists are wondering how they will be able to trust RTÉ's top executives again. The astonishing web of payments would be appalling in any private company, but is even more astounding when we are dealing with a public sector organisation.

RTÉ and all other public bodies have a responsibility to spend public money in a way that is responsible, fair and transparent. They are accountable to the taxpayer and must act accordingly. The revelations of last week show a total disregard for how public money was spent. People who struggle to pay their annual licence fee at a time of a cost-of-living crisis, and who face significant penalties if they do not pay it, are rightly disgusted by what we have seen and learned over the past week. It is totally unacceptable that in a publicly funded body there would be such disparities in pay, where the well-connected few are on sky-high wages and many ordinary workers are struggling on low and average pay. A culture of secrecy hid this fact. People need to have confidence that RTÉ's top executives are acting with honesty and integrity. That is not asking for much. It should be the bare minimum in any publicly funded body.

Many questions remain to be answered. This cannot be kicked down the road to another inquiry that might takes months or even a year to shed light on the situation. We heard today that the former director general, Dee Forbes, is refusing to come before the Committee of Public Accounts and another committee of the Houses. She has appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts before. In January 2020, she categorically told it that the remuneration of high earners at RTÉ had been cut by 15%. She categorically misled that committee, misled these Houses and misled the public, and she has a responsibility as the former director general of RTÉ to release information into the public domain and to correct the record as soon as possible when she is able to do that.

RTÉ says that it is releasing information about this scandal, but it has made it clear that it is refusing to put any information about the 2017, 2018 and 2019 payments to Ryan Tubridy into the public domain at this time. That is simply not good enough.

We are a week on from the scandal and we are still being drip-fed information. The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has met the chair of RTÉ. Has she asked her about the 2017-19 period of payments? Have the Minister and the rest of the Cabinet been briefed on it? Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to instruct the board to put all of the information covering all of the periods into the public domain today?

The Taoiseach

Thanks very much, Deputy. At the outset, I want to express my best wishes to Deputy McDonald, who is currently recovering from surgery. I hope that she makes a very swift recovery and will be back in action as soon as possible and as soon as she is well again.

The revelations from RTÉ last week are deeply unsettling and they have shaken public trust in what is an important institution. We want to see trust restored quickly because we need a strong public service broadcaster for our State. It is important to acknowledge, as Deputy Doherty did, that the vast majority of staff in RTÉ would have known nothing about this and certainly did not benefit from it in any way. It is important that we put that fact on the record.

As far as we know, at least so far, the issue of hidden fees relates to only one RTÉ personality, not to any of the others. That is now being confirmed at the moment, but it is important that we are fair and do not cast aspersions on people who actually took pay cuts and did not receive hidden fees. That appears to be the case, but it has to be subject to confirmation.

Regarding the former director general, Dee Forbes, I agree that she should appear before a committee. The fact that she is no longer the director general does not mean that she cannot. I believe it is appropriate that she should tell her side of the story and give us her version of events. That has been done to an extent in a statement, but I think people would like to ask more questions and interrogate that statement somewhat.

There will be a further statement from the board, issuing more detail, at 3 p.m. today. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, has secured that commitment from the chairperson of the board. Grant Thornton is examining the issue of the payments made between 2017 and 2019. We will have that information once it is available, but that was prior to the period of this board's office. We will get that information out into the public domain once we have it.

The Government has initiated a thorough review of the governance of RTÉ and the Minister briefed the Cabinet on that this morning. The Minister also wrote to the chairperson of the board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, and the deputy director general, Adrian Lynch, yesterday setting out our expectation as a Government that the relevant members of the board, the executive and all relevant senior staff should attend and engage fully with Oireachtas committees examining these matters and with the independent review.

We expect nothing but full and open discussions and answers from RTÉ. The public and those who work in RTÉ who had no knowledge or involvement in this deserve nothing less. The chairperson of RTÉ confirmed this morning to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Martin, that the executive board is finalising a statement for issue today at 3 p.m. which I understand will set out what happened in greater detail and from the perspective of the executive, detailing the timeline of when decisions were made, explaining how these types of payments are handled, and who had responsibility and awareness in these discussions.

RTÉ in very many ways plays a very important role in our society with its Irish language broadcasting, children's programmes, drama, sport, good quality news, documentaries, election coverage and the provision of important public information including, for example, during the pandemic, and we need to be cognisant of that. If things were done that were wrong, and I believe things that were done were wrong, that needs to stop. It needs to change and people need to be held to account, but the institution needs to be restored and to survive.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

We are a week on and we still do not have full transparency, and even after the board releases its statement, we will not have it. How do I know that? The board is saying that it is not going to put any information into the public domain in relation to the €120,000 of additional payments that Ryan Tubridy received from 2017 to 2019. We should not need a Grant Thornton review. That can be independent but we should be able to hear from senior executives at RTÉ how this came about, who sanctioned it, who approved of it, why it was kept secret and why the public and the Oireachtas were misled.

The Taoiseach, through the Minister, has the power under section 109 of the Broadcasting Act to appoint a person into RTÉ to review those records and bring that information to light. It is not acceptable that two committees of this House, one sitting tomorrow and the other sitting on Thursday, may not have information in relation to any of the transactions from 2017 to 2019. The Taoiseach has called for full transparency but is he calling for it today? Should the executives of RTÉ be releasing into the public domain their knowledge of what transpired in relation to the payments from 2017 to 2019, which they said yesterday they are refusing to do so at this time?

The Taoiseach

We need full transparency on all of these matters as soon as is possible because we cannot have accountability until we have transparency and truth. There will be a further statement issued by the board at 3 p.m. today and board members and executive members will come before committees of this Oireachtas tomorrow and the day after. That will be the opportunity to ask them questions and to press them further. I do not know exactly why it is the case that we do not have more detail on the payments between 2017 and 2019. I will endeavour to find out more information on that today. I know there is an inquiry going on in relation to that and we will get that information. I am not entirely sure why we cannot get it today as opposed to in a few days' time or next week, but I will certainly follow up on that, as will the Minister.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Just on a point of correction, Deputy Doherty, I do not think the Committee of Public Accounts sat in January 2020. You might just check the record on that because the Dáil had been dissolved. Just be careful in relation to dates.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

It was 2022, sorry.

Deputy Holly Cairns

It is now six days since we first learned the bombshell news of RTÉ's secret payments to Ryan Tubridy. Incredibly, we are still waiting to find out the most basic information. For instance, we do not know how the entire €345,000 in excess payments was made to Mr. Tubridy. How is that still the case? How can the national broadcaster, which is in receipt of €200 million in State funding annually, not know how it funded secret payments to its highest earner? RTÉ has been aware of this issue since March, three months ago. How many accounts is it sifting through, looking for these payments? Are its accounts really that convoluted? The whole thing just seems extraordinary.

The drip feed of information from RTÉ has been so bad that The Sunday Times got the scoop before the RTÉ news team on how payments were made. The Sunday Times described how Mr. Tubridy's agent was instructed to send a British media company, Astus, invoices which were labelled as consultancy services. There was also an explicit instruction to anonymise the transaction so that Mr. Tubridy's name did not appear anywhere in the paperwork. Astus then settled those invoices at a cost to RTÉ of more than €230,000, comprising €150,000 for Mr. Tubridy and more than €80,000 in fees. In order to pay Mr. Tubridy €150,000, RTÉ chose to do so in a way that cost it an additional €80,000.

No wonder the organisation is a financial basket case if that is how it goes about its business. The convoluted manner in which these payments were made and the fact they did not appear in Mr. Tubridy's published salary make it clear the entire objective here was concealment. Whatever way you want to spin it, this was a deliberate ploy expressly designed to mask the real income of RTÉ's top earner. Meanwhile, Dee Forbes, in her statement yesterday, stated the object of the exercise was to achieve cost saving. Why, however, was a commercial partner tapped to pay some of the salary of Mr. Tubridy, out of all RTÉ's top earners? Is it so the board could pretend it remained below €500,000 when it published its figures? That is not to mention the whole issue of RTÉ underwriting guarantees it never thought it would have to pay. You would have to question whether it learned anything from the financial crisis.

The Taoiseach stated yesterday that he had confidence in the board, which seems odd when none of us yet know the full facts of this situation. Will he clarify whether he has confidence in the executive board? Does he have any idea when we will learn how the €120,000 payment between 2017 and 2019 was made and if significant fees were associated with that? When will we have all the details of this hugely damaging affair?

The Taoiseach

I am somebody who believes you do not make judgments about things or people until you know the facts. It is a basic principle of justice that people are innocent and should be afforded the principle that they are innocent before they are found guilty. It is on that basis that I say I have confidence in the board and that I have confidence in the remaining members of the executive. Obviously, if new facts emerge of which we are not aware, that changes things, but I do not think it is right in a democracy or from a basic decency perspective to express a lack of confidence in somebody before you know the facts and before you know whether they have done anything wrong. I would not like that approach from any of my Ministers, quite frankly. That is the answer to the Deputy's question in that regard.

There will be a opportunity to question executives and board members. They will be coming before committees tomorrow and the day after and there will be a good opportunity for Members to ask their questions and seek answers and I expect that to be done. In addition to that, there will be a further statement from the board at 3 p.m. today, citing more details, and Grant Thornton is doing ongoing work in respect of the ten best paid RTÉ personalities to confirm there were no secret or concealed payments made to them and to establish the facts around the payments that were made between 2017 and 2019. I do not have those facts yet but I want to see them as soon as they are available.

Deputy Holly Cairns

The organisation was aware of this for three months but it has yet to explain how money was paid between 2017 and 2019. That is where the questions arise. It gives me no pleasure to stand here and criticise RTÉ. It is an organisation that has been responsible for excellent public service broadcasting. The vast majority of its staff are modestly paid and work incredibly hard but this saga has tainted the organisation. Trust with the public and its staff has been shattered, the Government and the Opposition have been misled and incorrect information about salaries was knowingly published and we still do not know why. We do not even know how the payments were made. If RTÉ wants to recover from this, it must be transparent and there must be accountability. This must happen quickly. We are a week into this now. RTÉ has known for three months. The longer it takes for the detail to emerge, the more damaging it will be. All of those centrally involved, including Dee Forbes, must appear at the Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media and the Committee of Public Accounts to answer questions about what they knew.

We have yet to see the board's statement that will be published this afternoon. Has the Taoiseach or the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Martin, had sight of that statement? When can we expect to see the terms of reference for the Minister's review of culture and governance in RTÉ?

The Taoiseach

I have not seen the statement as yet. I understand it will be released at approximately 3 p.m. today. I do not know what its contents are. As regards the terms of reference, the Minister, Deputy Martin, has draft terms of reference, focusing on both the governance and the culture of the RTÉ organisation. We hope to sign off on those terms of reference later in the week - that would be the intention - and then to have the independent inquiry or review up and running as soon as possible.

Deputy Thomas Pringle

On Friday last, 23 June, the Taoiseach's special adviser invited one of my constituents, who is involved in filing a new Standards in Public Office, SIPO, complaint about the undue influence of Uber and Deliveroo on public policy, to a meeting in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with two officials. My constituent was accompanied by the general secretary of the App Drivers and Couriers Union in the UK, Mr. James Farrar, who recently turned down a £100,000 hush-money payment as part of a settlement with Uber following a five year legal battle in the UK's Supreme Court.

During the meeting in question, the officials were asked to do a number of things - I have a full list here. First, they were asked that the precedent set by the Spanish Government in increasing the number of legal working hours per week be followed in order that those in Ireland on student visas might be allowed to work from 20 to 30 hours per week as a cost-of-living measure that will protect them from exploitation and from having to work in the informal economy to afford to live in this country. Second, that it be ensured that stamp 2 and other visa holders can open delivery accounts in their own names legally and that departmental definitions be updated to recognise that the type of work done by Deliveroo and Uber Eats riders in Ireland is not genuine self-employment, as envisaged when the current rules were introduced in 2010. It is clear that these riders are most definitely not conducting their own business here. The third ask was for a commitment to the speedy introduction of a new €6 per delivery minimum payment or an €18 per hour minimum wage for delivery couriers. This would be similar to the deal reached in New York city. The fourth ask was that the Government should ensure that payments can only increase in line with inflation and not decrease, as has been happening since 2019.

As the leader of the Government, will the Taoiseach proactively ensure a reversal of recent trends towards slave wages here? Those trends led to minimum payments for deliveries fall from €4.39 in 2019 to €2.90 in 2021 and to as little as €1.30 and 36 cent per delivery in 2023. This is all happening while Deliveroo advertises free delivery on billboards and as part of Amazon Prime membership. Will the Government follow examples elsewhere by fixing the fee per delivery at €6 or at €18 per hour for this dangerous work? Will it follow through on the other commitments given arising from meetings with delivery workers and their representatives on 10 March 2021 and on 23 June 2023? Will the Taoiseach and his colleagues in Government welcome and fully cooperate with new SIPO, Garda National Economic Crime Bureau and Europol investigations into any potential undue influence and preferential treatment these platform companies may have enjoyed thus far at national and European level? Will the Taoiseach support parliamentary inquiries at national and European level into the types of political influence these companies are trying to exert, especially after Deliveroo shareholders recently voted in favour of making political donations to and incurring political costs for those parties and politicians who do their bidding?

The Taoiseach

I thank the Deputy. I worked on this issue during my previous role as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I met with delivery riders and some of their representatives, trade union groups and others, at my request. I also met with the main company involved. Under the auspices of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, we established a dedicated working group on the determination of employment status which includes representatives from unions and employers. This working group has met three times and is now chaired by the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Richmond. A revised code of practice on determining employment status was published in July of 2021 by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. The code is the guidance document for employers, workers and others in relation to deciding the employment status of a worker. It was revised to take account of new labour market developments, including platform work.

Of particular interest to the Deputy may be the fact that ministers for employment and social affairs agreed on a European general approach to a new European directive to improve working conditions for platform workers. The European Council is now ready to start negotiations on this with the European Parliament. Under the European Council's general approach, which Ireland supports, workers will be legally presumed to be employees of a digital platform, not self-employed, if their relationship fulfils certain criteria as set out in the directive.

On student visas, the rules in Ireland are that students are allowed to work 20 hours a week and no more. Those rules are there to protect them from exploitation. We want students to be studying, not working, for most of their time. We have work permits and work visas which allow people to work a 48-hour week on average but student visas are for students. I do not want students coming here and ending up working full-time and not being able to study.

Deputy Thomas Pringle

Maybe the Taoiseach will recommend students not work for Deliveroo in that case, because they are obviously being exploited. The fact they can only work a 20-hour week is what gives that company the right to exploit them. Maybe the Taoiseach will make that call. It would be helpful. There is an EU directive coming. That will be useful but it will take many years to come to fruition. It has to be negotiated at the Commission and so forth. Surely we can do something now that would make life better for those Deliveroo workers?

In a letter to the Taoiseach dated 18 May 2021, Deliveroo stated, "as discussed at our meeting, Deliveroo is committed to working with you and your officials to find a solution". It also stated:

I note your comments that the Irish definitions of employment and self-employment are currently highly complex, with different interpretations across multiple different departments. As you work through your plans to update and unify these definitions, Deliveroo is more than willing to provide information and evidence as necessary to provide a complete picture of how our riders work. I also appreciated your comments in the meeting that your intent is not to undermine the ability of businesses like Deliveroo to operate.

Is Ireland's contribution to the new EU directive being made on behalf of workers' rights or on behalf of Deliveroo?

The Taoiseach

As is always the case when it comes to any issue, we take into account a number of factors. It is absolutely about workers' rights and ensuring that these are protected and that people have better pay, terms and conditions and security. As the person who, as Minister, brought in statutory sick pay, began the process of bringing in a living wage, protected tips and gratuities and who led a Government that brought in paternity benefit and parental leave, I hope the Deputy will accept my bona fides in that regard. There are few people in this House who can say they have done more than that in the course of their political careers to improve the rights of workers. However, we must take other things into account. This is a service. These are services people use to get takeaways delivered to their houses. We do not want to shut that down. We need to take into account the worker, the consumer and, of course, the wider economic benefits for the State.

One of the most interesting aspects of meeting the riders was actually hearing from them and not just their representatives or people who claim to represent them. The riders had different views. Some would very much like to have the status of employees. Others said - I remember the meeting well - they liked this system of working because they did not want to have a boss, did not want to be told what days they had to work and wanted to choose their own routes. Thus, there are people who want flexible working like this and who do not necessarily want to be employees.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

Ar an gcéad dul síos, on behalf of the Rural Independents I wish a speedy recovery to an Teachta McDonald.

I challenge the Taoiseach about the possibility of abolishing the universal social charge, USC. It is worth remembering that at the height of the Celtic tiger in 2006 the Exchequer was awash with property-based tax receipts and the then Government reported a budget surplus of €5.1 billion. We have stories today of the surplus possibly reaching €22.5 billion by 2024 and 2025. Sadly, there is little trust in the Government's ability to make wise decisions regarding these substantial funds. It is highly likely that these record tax receipts will be squandered. It is time that we do something for the individuals throughout the country who have made such efforts by considering the abolition of the USC.

I remind the Taoiseach of a Fine Gael manifesto which boldly stated that the party would abolish the USC. That was not today or yesterday, and Fine Gael has reneged on that promise totally. The manifesto in question was issued was prior to the 2016 general election. It is time for the Government to abolish this inherently unfair tax, which is imposed on a person's total income without many of the exemptions available with income tax. It is an inherently unfair tax. Everybody knows that. The rates range from less than 2% for income up to €23,000 to 4.5% for income up to between €23,000 and €70,000 and 8% on income above €70,000. For instance, a constituent in Tipperary earning €50,000 a year will pay €1,497 in 2023. A self-employed constituent with an income of €100,000 will pay €4,795 via the USC in 2023. I call on the Taoiseach to honour previous commitments and promises and utilise the record tax revenues to provide ordinary workers with relief by abolishing the USC.

They deserve this. They have put their shoulder to the wheel. We see people outside the House today from the early childcare sector and we saw people last year from nursing homes. Across the whole of society people are struggling. We saw the Government introduce little incentives to help them with the cost of energy. They really need a break from this punitive tax that was meant to be a temporary measure. Fine Gael, in a blaze of glory, promised it would be abolished before the 2016 election. It is time to honour its promises, or do election promises mean anything? The public are well aware of this now and they see. I challenge the Taoiseach, his Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, the Minister for Finance and his coalition partners to get rid of this punitive tax. People are dizzy from listening to all the figures of windfall tax from corporations and so on. The Government must look after na daoine beaga, the ordinary people who carry the can and are sick and tired of scandals such as the hurricane blowing across our public service today. Many good people work in RTÉ and across the public service and all walks of life. They are tired of the Government's promises and empty rhetoric. They are tired to listening to all this talk about massive windfalls as they still struggle.

The Taoiseach

I appreciate the fact that people in Ireland pay a lot of tax, whether it is income tax, USC or PRSI. In budgets over the last number of years we have reduced the burden of taxation on people. In some budgets we reduced the USC, in other budgets we reduced income tax. We intend to do that in the forthcoming budget in October. There will be a package. The exact composition of that package is yet to be determined but it will mean reductions in the amount of tax people have to pay. That is an important commitment that the Government made and that we will honour. The programme for Government says we will index tax credits and tax bands so that when people get a pay rise, they do not see half of that lost in income tax, USC and PRSI. That is the commitment we made in the programme for Government, one we will honour in the forthcoming budget. It is not the intention of the Government to abolish the USC. It brings in €5.3 billion a year. Notwithstanding the surplus we have, a tax package of that size and nature would not be appropriate. It would fuel inflation and endanger the public finances into the future. It is important to point out that when the USC was introduced by Brian Lenihan a long time ago, it replaced two existing income levies. The Deputy will recall the health levy, which had been around for about 20 years, and the income levy, which had been around for some time. People often take the view that it was a new tax. It was actually the health levy and the income levy, which had been around for a long time, combined, and then it was increased. We have reduced it somewhat since then. It is a progressive tax in that those who earn the most pay the most. Those on the lowest incomes are exempt. Unlike income tax, there are very few ways to avoid it. The various reliefs and tax breaks that apply to income tax do not apply to USC. On the commitments my party made in 2016, that was quite some time ago. We did not win that election. There has been another election since then. In the 2020 election we committed to getting to the point where people did not have to pay the highest rate of income tax until they earned €50,000 and would only pay the highest rate on income above €50,000. We have made a huge amount of progress getting to that point, up to €40,000 now, and we hope to make further progress in further budgets.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

I find the reply very lethargic and squeamish. Fine Gael has had several budgets since. It was in government after the 2016 election. The disregard it has for ordinary people is shocking but people looking in can see that Fine Gael is not interested in ordinary working people. It has no time for them. It is the landed gentry party, big business here now, in a whirlwind talking about all the taxes. It is pathetic. Fine Gael has had several budgets since 2016 and made no effort to reduce this punitive tax or get rid of it. It was a temporary measure. I am old enough to remember the PMPA scandal and the temporary measure that came in then. The people outside have copped on to the Government and they do not need RTÉ to tell them. They can see themselves, in other media, the truth of what it going on, that the Government wants to screw the ordinary people and get into bed with the big shots in big business. The ordinary people make up the vast majority of normal families in this country who want to put the work in, put their shoulder to the wheel, educate themselves and house themselves. Fine Gael wants to punish them and keep them down.

In numerous budgets, in the Fianna Fáil supported confidence and supply arrangement since 2016 and in the programme for Government with the Green Party and Fianna Fáil the Taoiseach has made no effort to honour his election promises, blatant promises. People see them for what they are, namely, blatant, naked promises to the people to win votes. Well, he are out of luck this time. The people have copped on and will let him know what they think.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I thank the Deputy and call the Taoiseach to conclude.

The Taoiseach

That is an interesting speech but it is a load of rubbish, quite frankly. Let me tell the Deputy what we have done for all people, ordinary and extraordinary, over the past three years-----

(Interruptions).

The Taoiseach

We led Ireland through the pandemic, saving thousands of lives and hundreds of thousands of jobs at all levels. We helped families and business with the cost of living.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

Does the Taoiseach want to take credit for that?

The Taoiseach

We have given them unprecedented financial support, in particular small businesses and families who needed it most. We have reduced the cost of childcare-----

(Interruptions).

The Taoiseach

We have reduced the cost of healthcare and the cost of going to school for everyone with free schoolbooks in September. We have reduced the cost of childcare for everyone. We have improved patient outcomes. We now have one of the longest life expectancies in the European Union. We have full employment for only the second time in our history. We have strengthened workers' rights. We are building more social housing than in any year since the 1970s-----

(Interruptions).

The Taoiseach

We now have 700 first-time buyers drawing down their mortgages every week and we have secured an agreement with the British Government in regard to Northern Ireland. What on earth has Deputy McGrath done in his political career to help anyone?

A Deputy

He ran away. You ran away from Fianna Fáil Mattie.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

Does the Taoiseach want a medal?