I welcome Deputy McDonald.
Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.
The shocking revelations regarding paediatric surgery at Temple Street Children's Hospital have been met with huge anger and disbelief. It is hard to wrap one's head around the pain and damage experienced by the children and families affected, with 19 vulnerable children harmed, traumatised, in what was a catastrophic, unfathomable breach of care and trust, and too many other children still languishing on spinal procedure waiting lists and their parents left living in fear.
Yesterday I met with parents and advocacy groups and they are very angry. They say that Children's Health Ireland and the HSE have not been upfront with them and are seeking to dodge accountability for the scandal. They say that if the external review is to command their confidence, there is no way Children's Health Ireland or the HSE can play any part in drafting terms of reference. They say that if the terms of reference fall short of their needs, they will boycott the review and not allow their children's files to be accessed. They have expressed deep frustration that this scandal is portrayed as involving one consultant at one site; they say that it is much wider than that. Their experience is one of systemic failure of clinical governance, a deep-rooted failure by the State to resource the system properly and a failure to prioritise their children for life-saving and life-changing operations. The parents are angry about inadequate operating theatres and a frightening lack of intensive care capacity and angry that their children's doctors are forced to beg for necessary resources.
At the weekend it was reported in the media that, far from being in the dark about these experimental surgical techniques, meetings on these matters in fact took place at a very high level and included the head of Children's Health Ireland. This morning I shared with the Taoiseach a letter that came into my possession. The letter seems to confirm that such meetings were happening as far back as 2020, suggesting that the head of Children's Health Ireland was involved in these meetings and was even asked by surgeons for guidance on the use of these techniques. This raises very serious questions for Children's Health Ireland, and those questions require urgent answers. Did these meetings happen? What guidance or advice, if any, was given to surgeons and clinicians by the head of Children's Health Ireland? Does the Taoiseach have answers to these questions? Does the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, yet have answers to them? These facts need to be established urgently because this information is fundamental, I believe, to the drafting of any terms of reference. Certainly, these issues add weight to the call from parents and advocacy groups that Children's Health Ireland can have no hand, act or part in drafting terms of reference and certainly cannot be the body to which any of these reviews report back. Tá doimhne níos mó ann leis an scannal seo. Tá ceisteanna tromchúiseacha ann do CHI. Ní féidir ról ar bith a bheith aige i ndréachtú théarmaí tagartha an athbhreithnithe.
It falls to the Taoiseach as Head of Government to ensure that any review is truly independent and holds the full confidence of families and advocacy groups. The letter to which I refer raises fundamental questions of fact that need to be answered urgently and directly by Children's Health Ireland. The Taoiseach can secure these answers and I urge him to do so. I also ask him to guarantee that Children's Health Ireland will not be involved in the drafting of the review terms of reference.
I acknowledge once again that this matter is a cause of great anxiety to many patients and many families attending these services, and I am determined that we will get to the bottom of it. As the Deputy knows, an Irish Medical Council complaint is being considered at the moment and an independent review is being established under the guidance of UK expert Mr. Selvadurai Nayagam. The terms of reference, as is always the case for any review, will of course be done with consultation - consultation with the reviewer himself, who will of course want to meet the interested parties, advocacy groups and families, of course in consultation with the families, and with the advocacy groups. They will not just be written by the HSE or CHI. The review will be independent, but we do need to bear in mind that any review into CHI and the hospitals concerned will be achievable only with the co-operation of the hospitals concerned, and I would expect their full co-operation with the review.
Last week I appealed to politicians on all sides, the media and the public not to come to any conclusions about what happened here until we know the facts. I want to reiterate that now because I have read the letter that Deputy McDonald sent me this morning. It puts a new complexion on this, as she says. I do not know if it is genuine or if it was ever actually sent. I do not know if it was received or acknowledged, and I do not think the Deputy knows those things either. However, it does indicate that there was a level of knowledge at management level about what was happening, and that a multidisciplinary team, MDT involving nurses, doctors and therapists was consulted. It also claims, perhaps correctly or incorrectly, that the families and parents involved consented to what were essentially experimental procedures in a very difficult case, where patients were not fit for any other surgery. That puts a very different complexion on what we have heard to date and is very much at variance with the impression created by some of the stories the Deputy and I read on online media. It is exactly why we should not jump to conclusions. We need to come at this from a sensible, level-headed, calm, considered approach, ensuring that nobody jumps to conclusions until we know all the facts. Of course, the review, therefore, has to be thorough and independent.
I absolutely agree with the Taoiseach that nobody should jump to conclusions. What I am asking him to do, and this is a necessary precursor to getting the terms of reference for the review right, is simply to establish, as a matter of fact, whether a meeting or meetings occurred involving clinicians, and also the head of Children's Health Ireland, CHI, in which these experimental surgical techniques were discussed, whether guidance was sought and if it was given. The establishment of those basic facts - not conclusions, but basic matters of fact - creates a very different complexion and framework for the work of the review. I urge the Taoiseach to do that.
I know the Taoiseach is going to meet with advocacy groups, parents and families. However, I have to reiterate the fact that, according to families, the idea that CHI or the HSE would have any hand, act or part in designing the terms of reference is just an intolerable proposition, given the profound failure of their children and the very big questions that arise. I ask the Taoiseach to address that question again please.
I can assure the Deputy, the families and the advocacy groups that the HSE and CHI will not be writing the terms of reference for this review. It will be independent. Of course, they will have to be consulted at some level about what is going to be in the terms of reference. It would be improper not to do so, and absolutely, the advocacy groups and the parents will need to be consulted too, and the reviewer who is going to carry out the review. That will be done. It might take some, therefore, to come up with terms of reference because I know the reviewer will want to meet the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister will want to meet him. The Minister for Health obviously has political responsibility for this, as we do as a Government. Beyond that, the reviewer is going to want to meet with the advocacy groups as well. It is absolutely right that the terms of reference are done correctly, even if it takes a bit of time for them to be agreed, and that the external review is fully independent.
Of all the kites being flown about the budget, tax breaks for landlords is the most outrageous. Never before have rents or homelessness been so high. Never before has the number of adults stuck living in their childhood bedrooms been so high. Home ownership rates are at their lowest level in more than 50 years and the Government's answer to this litany of catastrophe is tax breaks for landlords. According to the most recent Residential Tenancies Board, RTB rent index, the average rent around the country is now a record €1,550. In Dublin, rents are in the stratosphere. It now costs, on average, €2,100 per month to rent in Dublin. That is more than €25,000 per year. Does the Taoiseach know how much the gross annual minimum wage is? It is €22,916, more than €2,000 lower than rental costs in Dublin. Yet, we are being told that the problem in the rental sector is that landlords are not making enough money and that their passive income should be taxed at a lower rate than workers, who are paying exorbitant rents and cannot afford to buy their own homes.
What planet is the Taoiseach living on? Has he just completely given up on trying to resolve the housing disaster? Is this measure an acknowledgment that his Government has run out of ideas? There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that landlords are leaving the market because of their tax treatment. There is none. In fact, according to research by the RTB, 49% of landlords who left the market said nothing would have stopped them from leaving. They were leaving because house prices are at a record high and they wanted to get the maximum price for their investment.
The Government keeps on claiming that there is an exodus of landlords from the rental system. This narrative was fuelled by a fall in the number of tenancies registered with the RTB. However, the census tells a very different story. According to the census, there were 330,000 households in the private rental sector, an increase of 7% from 2016, and 54,000 more than the most recent figures from the RTB.
If the Taoiseach wants to do something about tax treatment in the rental sector, why does he not do something about the pittance being paid by vulture funds? We know that tax paid by Irish real estate funds, IREFs, collapsed from an effective rate of 17.9% in 2020 to just 5.9% in 2021 and yet nobody in government seems to know why. Given all of this, how can the Taoiseach possibly justify tax breaks for landlords?
First of all, no decisions have yet been made on the budget, either on the tax or welfare packages - but there will be tax and welfare packages - or the general spending package. Those decisions are still being discussed at Government level. A proposal will be put to Cabinet on budget day and then subsequently to the House. That is the procedure and the process that we follow.
What the Deputy and I agree on is that rents in Ireland are too high. What do we do about it? The rent pressure zones are in place. We see from the research now the difference that has made. Existing tenants, for several years now, have seen increases of between 0% and 2% or 4%, and incomes rising at the same or higher rate. We see huge investment in social housing because more social housing for more people means fewer people having to rent in the rental market, and less need for the housing assistance payment, HAP. We have cost rental, a new form of housing in Ireland, for the very first time. It was initiated by the former Minister, former Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and is very much being delivered now by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. That is there for people who do not qualify for social housing but can now get affordable rent. We are going to need a lot more of that in the years and decades to come. We also have the rent credit in the budget, which helped people with their rental costs. As part of our budget considerations we will have to see whether we can increase that or not.
Deputy O'Callaghan mentioned the census, and it is absolutely fair for him to use figures as he chooses. All politicians will be a little bit selective in the figures they use. I am going to be selective too.
It is the census.
Yes but there is a lot of detail in the census. I will give the Deputy some figures from the census.
Go on.
The number of people in social housing, and the number of families who benefit from social housing - and I do not mean HAP or RAS - has gone up by 40,000 in the past ten years. That is 40,000 more families who benefit from social housing than was the case ten years ago. I know the population has gone up. The percentage has also gone up to about 10%. Deputy O'Callaghan's party has consistently alleged, for years now, that this Government and previous Governments are running down social housing and were not committed to it. The census shows that this claim is untrue.
During his time as Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, the current Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Simon Coveney, started the social housing programme again. It is now ramping up to the point where we are building more social housing than at any point since the 1970s, and the census shows an increase in the number of people in social housing in raw and percentage terms. That is the main way we are going to get rents under control. More social housing and more cost rental, which again is going to be a big part of future housing policy. There are also measures such as the rent credit, which helps people pay less tax if they are paying high rents.
We all know this idea of tax relief for landlords is being pushed by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, whose rationale for his housing plan looks increasingly like a game of pin the tail on the donkey.
Random interventions are being stuck in random places while the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government hopes the entire housing system does not collapse. Throwing even more money at landlords is another one of his bad ideas. It is straight from the Fianna Fáil tax breaks for developers handbook. Tax breaks for landlords will not build a single additional home. Not one. Why is the Government not directing all of its energy and resources into the one thing that would make a difference, which is building more affordable homes? We know that not one affordable home was delivered in 2020. Not a single one was delivered in 2021. Only 323 affordable purchase homes were delivered last year and in the first six months of this year, just 101 affordable purchase homes were delivered. That means a grand total of 424 affordable purchase homes have been provided under this Government. That is a drop in the ocean. It is utterly pathetic. Will the Taoiseach abandon plans for tax relief for landlords and instead invest this money in building more affordable homes?
I thank the Deputy. We agree on one point, which is that we need more supply. We need more homes and social housing, and we need more homes that are affordable for people to buy. It is encouraging to see that every week, 700 mortgages are issued to first-time buyers, the highest number since the Celtic tiger period. Perhaps 400 or 500 couples and individuals are now buying their first homes every week. That is the highest number since the Celtic tiger period and that is encouraging. It is difficult for the Deputy to acknowledge that any progress is ever being made but the facts say otherwise. We are acting to bring down rents and increase social housing, as we have been doing for many years. We will do more this year and more again the following year. We are scaling up cost rental as fast as we can because a big part of the future will be providing that option for people who do not qualify for social housing but may struggle to buy or afford to rent.
When the Deputy uses figures and statistics around affordable housing, he is only talking about one intervention by which we make housing more affordable for people. He is not counting the help-to-buy scheme, which his party wants to take away. That would mean considerable numbers of young people having to save for many more years just to get a deposit before they can even bid on a house, never mind what price the house may be. Programmes such as the first home scheme bridge the gap between the mortgage people are approved for and the cost of buying the home. There are also local authority home loans. All those things make housing more affordable for people. What one has to do, if one is being genuine about the situation, is to look at all the people who have got some form of help from the Government to buy their first homes in the past couple of years. There are tens of thousands of such people.
A large cohort of Irish people are struggling with the rising cost of living and, unfortunately, receive little Government support or media attention. These people are Ireland's middle class. They are cash poor and time poor. They are the people who go out to work every day and do not earn enough to be well-off but earn too much to qualify for many State supports. Many of these are young families who are struggling with the soaring cost of living, the cost of groceries, rising energy prices and even the rising cost of fuel, which hits these people hardest as they spend longer in their cars every week commuting to work. This situation is compounded by the fact that some are paying sky-high rents because they earn too much to qualify for social housing or the housing assistance payment, HAP, and cannot possibly buy their own homes on the open market at affordable rates. Others are being crucified by rising mortgage interest rates.
A constituent who came to see me recently is now afraid to open the mail as his mortgage repayments have doubled in the past year. He simply cannot afford any further hikes. This constituent is one of tens of thousands of people struggling to pay their mortgages after the European Central Bank, ECB, increased interest rates ten times since last July.
The cost-of-living crisis is also an enormous problem for older people on fixed incomes and pensions. They have seen their real incomes decline as they also struggle with the rising cost of living. These people are growing increasingly disillusioned. Understandably, many ask why they should get up early and work for a living. The squeezed middle class never feel like a priority and yet they continue to make a huge contribution to the success of our economy and society. All of this is happening while the media report that Ireland will have a record budget surplus of €10 billion this year. In an interview last year, the Taoiseach stated that he wanted the Government to commit to significantly reducing the cost of living for working and middle-income families and to make work pay. He said that people who go to work should earn enough to have a decent standard of living. Unfortunately, the previous budget measures of small tax credit increases have been swallowed up by the rising cost of living. These people continue to find themselves worse off rather than better off. Will the Taoiseach look after the squeezed middle class, older people on fixed incomes and pensions and the most vulnerable in our society in the forthcoming budget?
I thank the Deputy. The answer to his question is that I will. Helping middle Ireland and middle-income people has always been a priority for me and is a priority for this Government. We have done a lot already in recent years but there is always more to do and I acknowledge that. One of our major priorities in the forthcoming budget is to help middle income people and middle Ireland with the high cost of living. There are a number of different ways in which we can do that. As I often say, any household budget has three elements. There is the amount you get paid, the amount you get to keep after income tax, universal social charge, USC and PRSI, and how far the money goes. That is linked, of course, to the cost of services. That is where we are helping. Pay has gone up. The minimum wage for working people went up by 7.8% this year, higher than the rate of inflation, and many people have got pay increases of, on average, approximately 5% across the economy this year. There will be further increases in pay next year. We can reduce income tax, which we have done in the last couple of budgets, and will do again in this budget. Because it is incremental, people sometimes do not add up how much it has been worth to them but we started reducing income tax and USC in 2014. People earning €40,000 or more today pay €3,000 per year less in income tax and PRSI than they did in 2014. A couple who earn €80,000 between them pay €6,000 less in income tax and USC than was the case if they were earning the same amount of money in 2014. That is the cost of what a left-led government would be to middle income people. It would cost them approximately €3,000 per year and €6,000 per year for a couple. That gap is widening with every budget as we reduce income tax and USC and the left-wing parties vote down our efforts to do so.
The third area with which we help is universal benefits. Middle-income people generally do not qualify for support through means tests because they are over the limits. That is why we have ensured that some of the cost-of-living improvements we have made are universal, such as the reduction in the college contribution costs, the extension of free schoolbooks to all primary schoolchildren without a means test and the reduction in childcare costs, which have reduced fees by approximately 25% in the past year. Middle-income working people are the ones who benefit the most from those measures.
On the issue of mortgages, I represent a constituency full of people who are paying mortgages. It has been a big shock for people who have received ten letters in the post in the past year telling them their mortgages have gone up, particularly for those with tracker mortgages. Even people with modest mortgages of €200,000 or €250,000 are probably paying €500 more per month. That is a big increase and a shock to people. It is, however, coming against a backdrop where we had extremely low interest rates for a prolonged period. That needs to be borne in mind.
I understand that cost-of-living measures were introduced in last year's budget. Those were very much appreciated. However, many of them were once-off measures. The forgotten middle class are the people who are paying for everything and availing of practically nothing. It was reported in the Irish Independent last Saturday that 1.1 million of Ireland's full-time workers pay the higher rate of tax. Many of these people are not well-paid. Many are just marginally over the threshold of the 40% tax rate. It is time to give these people much-needed relief as these are the people who often feel forgotten about. Will the Taoiseach introduce significant tax benefits, including a reduction in the hated USC, and a mortgage interest relief scheme to give these people some hope? They are completely disillusioned.
The Taoiseach is right in what he said about the letters people are receiving about their mortgage repayments. The many people who contact my office and those of many Deputies here are afraid to open the letters that come from financial institutions. For some of them, their mortgage repayments have doubled since last July. That is putting an enormous burden on middle-class families. I ask the Taoiseach to look after them in the forthcoming budget.
I thank the Deputy. He is right that more than 1 million people pay the highest rate of income tax in Ireland. One hits the highest rate of tax at a much lower level than would be the case in the majority of our competitor countries. We have raised that threshold. Not so long ago it was €33,000 a year and it is now €40,000. We want to raise it further in forthcoming budgets. We will do as much as we can afford to do within the budgetary constraints with regard to the tax package. The Deputy should bear in mind that unlike some of the one-off measures we have announced in budgets in recent times, tax reductions are cumulative. The tax package of €1.1 billion in the forthcoming budget is on top of the tax package of €1.1 billion in the previous budget, which makes €2.2 billion. We had tax packages of €0.5 billion in previous budgets, so it is all adding up to €4 billion, €5 billion and €6 billion less in tax that those middle-income people pay because this Government is in office and the alternative is not.
I rise today to ask the Taoiseach on my behalf and that of my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group to please intervene in the situation pertaining to An Garda Síochána, the Garda Representative Association, GRA, and the Garda Commissioner. As we know, there was an unprecedented vote, with 99% of GRA members voting no confidence in the Garda Commissioner. There was a great flurry of activity and anxiety and angst in spite of the fact the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, said she had full confidence in the Garda Commissioner, as had the Government. Intensive efforts were made last weekend by senior members of the GRA and senior officials at, I believe, assistant commissioner level to try to resolve this issue of the extra roster being introduced. The Garda Commissioner said last November that he did not have enough members to reintroduce it. That was a great effort and there was great hope. The GRA met the Garda Commissioner yesterday. He just closed the book on them and dismissed any meaningful discussions, which will not be happening. The fifth roster is coming back in on 6 November. The GRA is meeting in emergency session this morning and we are facing a crisis.
I remember the Garda Síochána blue 'flu in 1998, and we do not want that again. Gardaí have to act and I and the Rural Independent Group have full confidence in An Garda Síochána but we have absolutely no confidence in a Garda Commissioner who seems to be out of touch and arrogant and who is not listening to even his senior officers. We have a dilemma here and either the Government intervenes-----
The Deputy is making accusations against somebody who is not in the House and not in a position to defend-----
I am not accusing him.
The Deputy is losing time there.
Unfortunately, I am just stating a fact. When these talks were going on last weekend, where was the Commissioner? He was at the rugby match in France. We think he has no interest in his members. I plead with him to give resources to gardaí in Tipperary, so they can defend themselves and the public. Goodness knows, the community in Clonmel want to thank the Government and everybody involved but especially the gardaí on the way they supported the families following the tragic incident in which four young lives were lost. I met them at the month's mind mass for one of the girls last Sunday. We think of the way the gardaí rallied around and of the unfortunate gardaí who came on the scene first. They mind us all, and we saw last week how they mind us in this House. There is a thin blue line, however, between public order and what the gardaí stand for, and we must support them.
We must have a Commissioner who supports, respects and will listen. Some 99% is an unbelievable figure and it is the almost unanimous view of the rank and file members. We meet them every day and they look after communities and we expect them to do so. We compliment them on the drug seizure yesterday but only for them where would we be? They are not being respected by the Commissioner; it is as simple as that. We face a huge crisis with this Commissioner but the Minister for Justice just blandly says she supports him any which way.
Efforts were made last weekend, which we all appealed for, and we were hopeful that the introduction of this roster would be delayed until we had more talks and time for respectful negotiations. The Commissioner then just closed the book on it yesterday. He was at the rugby match when they were trying to sort it out and this is what happened. The GRA is meeting today in emergency session and we could have some kind of industrial action. We do not want that and cannot afford it because gardaí are under too much pressure on the ground as it is.
I am loathe to comment on any Member's contribution but I believe we are being unnecessarily harsh. I know this matter is in the public arena and is being discussed but it is inappropriate for us to personally criticise the Commissioner or any public official in that way.
The Ceann Comhairle is right.
I call An Taoiseach to respond now, please.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle. At the outset I want to say that I support the gardaí and the work they are doing. In particular today, I want to commend the phenomenal work done by An Garda, the Defence Forces, the Revenue Commissioners and the customs service in interdicting a vessel off Wexford which may be the biggest interdiction of illegal drugs in Irish history. That would not have happened without An Garda, the Defence Forces, the Revenue Commissioners and, indeed, international partners. This is an example of the kind of work they are doing.
I support the Garda Commissioner who was appointed and reappointed by the Government and who, of course, has our support. It is worth pointing out that there have been lots of talks and negotiations on the roster. In fact, the Commissioner extended the temporary Covid roster 13 times while seeking a resolution and an agreement on it. The only way to resolve differences is through talking and engagement and if it cannot be sorted out bilaterally - sometimes these things cannot be sorted out bilaterally between unions and management - it goes to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, or to the Labour Court. The gardaí fought very hard for the right to go to the WRC or to the Labour Court. That is what should happen. That is how disputes across the public and private sectors are resolved all of the time and it seems the logical thing that should happen. There should be short focused talks at the WRC resulting in agreement which will then be put to members to ballot upon. I believe that is possible in the timeframe that is left.
I note the Ceann Comhairle's concerns but 99% of the Garda members do not have confidence in the Commissioner. Its members are contacting every Member, including, I am sure, those on the Government side. It is a crazy situation where the Government is going to give a blank cheque to this Commissioner.
As I said, intense efforts were made by the GRA and senior people in the Department of Justice and An Garda over the weekend and late last week but the Commissioner just rubbished it. The attitude he has to the situation is what is causing the problem. One must sit down and talk, as the Taoiseach said, whether at the WRC or elsewhere. The gardaí must be supported but they feel they are not being supported. That is an overwhelming vote by any standards, which everybody knows. I am surprised more people are not raising the issue in this House because they were being contacted last night and this morning because of this situation.
We need the gardaí, we always support them and we want to continue to do so, but we cannot support the Commissioner if he will not engage meaningfully with his members, will not show respect and will not give them the resources to protect themselves and the public. That is not happening.
Members of the Government are comfortable and minded by gardaí but they do not seem to understand what is happening around the country and in the cities with violence, crime and attacks on people. Gardaí are always on the front line. We must sort this situation out and the Minister or the Taoiseach must intervene here.
That is a cheap shot. Just like him, we live in our communities and just like him we are of our communities and we know what is happening on the ground. Our constituents talk to us as much as they talk to him and none of us would be here and we would not have an elected mandate if we were not in touch with our constituents and with the people who vote for us.
As is always the case in any disagreement or dispute, there are two sides to every story and, often, the truth lies somewhere in between. There is a pathway to a resolution here. The Westmanstown roster, which is the only actual agreed roster in recent times, comes back into force in November. This is only the end of September and there is plenty of time over the course of the next couple of weeks for all sides to commit to focused dialogue and negotiations, ending in a recommendation from the WRC which can then be put to a vote. That is what I think should happen.
The man is not listening, however.