Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 24 Oct 2024

Vol. 1060 No. 5

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Bheadh aon duine a bhí ag léamh na bpáipéar ar maidin buailte leis na scéalta tithíochta agus an méid scéalta atá ann. Insíonn gach ceann acu a scéal féin. Is scéalta iad faoi theipeanna an Rialtais, faoi ghealltanais atá briste agus faoi spriocanna nach bhfuil bainte amach. Is é an rud is tábhachtaí ná gur scéalta iad faoi fíorfhulaingt ghnáthdhaoine na tíre seo. Inniu, cluineann muid go bhfuil níos lú tithe tógtha ag an Rialtas i mbliana go dtí seo ná mar a bhí anuraidh. Tá sé dochreidte.

Anybody reading this morning's paper will be struck by the number of housing stories jumping out of the pages. Every one of these articles tells a story of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael failing in housing. They are stories of broken promises, missed targets, real human suffering, the long-promised crackdown on Airbnb abandoned, 2,000 renters at risk of homelessness in three months alone, vulture funds given a free rein under the Government to buy up more than 6,000 homes last year and the charging of rip-off rents. All the while, ordinary people struggle to buy a home they can afford. Probably the most shocking revelation is that the Government will miss its target of 40,000 completions this year by a country mile. Everyone knows the Minister's plan is failing and his targets are too low. That the Government built fewer homes in the first nine months of this year than last year shows a level of sheer incompetence that is off the charts. Sinn Féin has shown the Minister time and again through our housing plan how we can end the housing crisis and deliver and make homeownership affordable. It is a radically different approach that will bring homeownership back into the reach of ordinary working people. All the Government is capable of is more of the same. It is nowhere near meeting its targets despite all of the spin, which has been laid bare clearly by the CSO today. It tells us that in the first nine months of this year, just 21,634 houses were completed, compared with 22,325 in the same period last year.

The Minister tells us that housing is a priority for the Government. How in the name of God has the Government delivered fewer houses so far this year than it delivered last year? It is incompetence that is off the charts. It is why house prices are out of control with a 10% increase in the past year, why rents are out of control and why we are seeing the highest level of homelessness ever. Every month, new records are broken by the Government. Its plan is in tatters. Every person and their dog knows that the Government's target of 40,000 homes is far too low in the first instance. The Housing Commission, the Opposition and experts have told it that. What is needed is a radically different approach but all this Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is able to give us is more of the same. The situation is spiralling out of control. That is why so many young people, for whom homeownership has collapsed, have decided to emigrate because they cannot see a future here under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In the dying of this Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael still cannot tell us what the new targets will be, never mind how they will deliver them. I have a simple question: does the Minister accept that there is no chance, despite all of his spin and all of his huffing and puffing, that the target of 40,000 completions this year will be reached? It is simply not deliverable. Will he continue with the delusion that his plan is working, despite all the evidence to the contrary?

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Darragh O'Brien)

Anois, an fhírinne. Ní aontaím leis an Teachta Doherty. Tá Sinn Féin i gcoinne gach rud agus gach plean a chuireann an Rialtas os comhair an phobail. Tá sé soiléir go bhfuil siad i gcoinne úinéireacht tí. Tá siad i gcoinne an deontais do dhaoine atá ag iarraidh a gcuid tithe féin a cheannach don chéad uair. Tá siad i gcoinne tithe ar phraghas réasúnta agus i gcoinne an scéim cíos agus ceannach. Tá sé sin soiléir freisin. Nílim cinnte cad iad na rudaí a bhfuil siad ar a shon, ach tá mé fíorchinnte faoi na rudaí a bhfuil Sinn Féin ina choinne. Tá ár bplean, Tithíocht do Chách, ag obair. Tá cúrsaí tithíochta ag dul chun cinn anois - tá sé sin soiléir freisin. Ní oibreodh plean an Teachta. Táim cinnte faoi sin freisin.

I will give the Deputy the truth. He takes facts and twists and turns them to suit his own political narrative. We have seen this in spades over the past two weeks. I will not conflate those issues. The reality is that the quarter 3 completion figures which were announced this morning at 11 a.m. are the highest on record. I know this will disappoint the Deputy. I will correct some of his figures. The target this year under Housing for All is 33,450. I have consistently said we will exceed that target. I still confidently predict - the Deputy and his colleagues in Sinn Féin will be disappointed - that it will be the high 30,000s to low 40,000s this year. There will be record completions in the last quarter of this year. Interestingly, Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson is not here this morning to hear this but the highest completion level in any local authority area in quarter 3 was in his constituency - and that of my ministerial colleague - in Clondalkin. That is even with all of Deputy Ó Broin's objections.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

That is not true; take it back.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I can give loads of examples. The Deputy's party in this city alone-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Deputy Ó Broin has not objected so please-----

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I did not interrupt the Deputy once.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Stop lying.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

The Deputy's party-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Stop lying.

An Ceann Comhairle

No.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

It is a lie. I ask him to withdraw it. He should withdraw it.

An Ceann Comhairle

It is not in order to accuse a colleague of lying.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I have asked him to withdraw it a number of times. He knows it is not true.

An Ceann Comhairle

It is not in order and it will not happen here. You are not going to accuse a colleague of lying. Withdraw that statement, please.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I ask him to withdraw the statement which he knows is not true, and I am defending-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Please. Do not-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Let me say this - he is deliberately-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Resume your seat-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

You asked me a question; I am going to answer it.

An Ceann Comhairle

I will suspend the House. Withdraw the statement that a colleague has lied.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I will put on the record that he is deliberately misleading the Dáil because he cannot defend the fact that he delivered fewer houses this year than last. That is the problem. It is deflection.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Calm down, Deputy.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Tá an fear feargach ar ais arís.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

It is okay for you; you might own your own home. I am talking about people who cannot own their own home.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

I do not, in fact. Calm down.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Stop for a second; just relax. It will disappoint Deputy Doherty that we will exceed our target substantially this year, as we have done in every year of Housing for All. We have delivered 125,000 new homes. More than 500 first-time buyers a week are drawing down their mortgages using the supports this Government brought in, such as the help-to-buy grant. For people watching in, the help-to-buy grant is €30,000 of the tax they paid back in their pockets to help with their deposit. More than 50,000 households have claimed it. Sinn Féin and its housing spokesperson would abolish that even though many of his colleagues still submit parliamentary questions to me and my colleagues asking us to extend it. There is the first home scheme, the bridge the gap scheme, which has had more than 11,000 registrations and offers about €70,000 of supports. That is €100,000 combined for first-time buyers and the Deputy is against it. To get back to it, it is a fact that the Deputy's party members in Dublin city and county alone have objected to more than 6,000 homes in the past two years. For anyone, particularly a member of his party and Deputy Doherty as deputy leader, to accuse anyone else in this House of lying after his performance in the past two weeks is galling.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The facts speak for themselves. The CSO has cut right through the Minister's bluster and spin. The CSO has told us they are not their figures or what they are presenting. The CSO has told us in plain English this Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has delivered less housing in the first nine months of this year than in the same period last year. That is a simple fact. The Minister tells us housing is a priority. He has told the House over and over again the housing target and output would be close to 40,000 units. That is not achievable. Will the Minister continue to live in the delusional state of expecting to deliver something like 19,000 homes in the next 12 weeks? It is not credible and everybody knows it is not credible.

Even if he delivered on those abysmally low targets, it is not enough. We have told him over and over again these targets have to be increased yet he will not provide new targets. We have shown him in our plan, which brings homeownership to an affordable level, how it can be done. That is why house prices increased by 10%, why we have record rents and why the Minister is allowing vulture funds to run amok. They bought 6,200 houses last year in the city of Dublin. Does the Minister believe in the delusion he has presented up until now of 40,000 units being delivered this year, or does he accept he has delivered fewer houses so far this year than last year?

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Beidh díomá ar an Teachta because déanfaimid níos mó ná ár sprioc an bhliain seo. Táim cinnte faoi sin. We will deliver high 30,000s or early 40,000s this year. I talk to people who are building and I am out around the Twenty-Six Counties of the Republic. Deutsche Bank's report confidently predicts over 40,000 units this year. Cairn, one of the home builders, also predicts over 40,000 this year. The Deputy should know but probably does not that the highest level of delivery last year and in previous years was in the last quarter. The Government has delivered 125,000 new homes since it came into office, including affordable homes for the first time in a generation. We built more-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

You built 100 affordable homes.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Come on, Deputy. Stop now.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Affordable homes are not €470,000, Minister. Cop on.

An Ceann Comhairle

Please.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

That is delusion.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Pearse, can I-----

An Ceann Comhairle

I have asked. Please go on.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

The fact of the matter is this Government delivered more new social homes last year than has been done in 50 years and will do more this year. We will achieve our social housing new-build targets this year and will exceed our affordable housing targets this year. We have more first-time buyers than we have had since 2006 with the supports we have brought in, which the Deputy would get rid of. He and his party are against homeownership.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Homeownership has collapsed under this Government. It is ridiculous.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Your plan should be called "A home you'll never own" because what are you replacing our supports with?

Deputy Pearse Doherty

One hundred thousand people under the age of 40 do not own their home anymore compared to when Fine Gael came into government.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Excuse me, Deputy. You are going to ask people to buy a property on land they do not even own-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

For €250,000.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

-----tell them who they can sell it to, how much they can sell it for and where they will live.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

That is delusion.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

What planet are you living on, Deputy?

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Fewer houses. It is unbelievable.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I return to the issue of housing. It is the single biggest issue we all hear about every day across every constituency and community. It is at the root of so many problems holding back our country and people. The Minister and his Government colleagues are well aware of this. There is the exodus of nurses, midwives and doctors from our shores, which was one of the issues debated in a Labour Private Members' motion yesterday; teacher shortages, with half of our schools understaffed this year, which I raised with the Taoiseach yesterday; and the misery of homelessness, people evicted onto our streets and rising numbers of people, families and children in emergency accommodation. All of this is due to the housing crisis.

Threshold reports today a 17.5% increase in the number of households seeking its assistance compared to last year. The Minister is in office more than four years. His Housing for All plan has been in place for three, but by any objective standards - just looking at this calmly and rationally without trading insults across the floor - the plan has failed. Rents, evictions and house prices are up and, most worryingly, the number of people in homelessness is up. Tomorrow we will learn how many people are homeless in the updated official figures.

Here is how the Minister could and should have spent the past four years: giving renters legal protections by passing our renters rights Bill; protecting children from homelessness, on which Labour put forward the Housing (Homeless Families) Bill; and, crucially, increasing building targets and building more homes. The single biggest impact he could have had is through the construction of more social and affordable homes. Building such homes takes adults out of childhood bedrooms, families out of emergency accommodation and renters out of an overcrowded and overheated private rented sector.

The problem is that housing targets are a fiction. Last year we put it to the Minister that at least 50,000 new builds would be needed each year to meet demand. Some of his colleagues scoffed at that at the time but the Minister has now admitted Housing for All targets are too low to meet the real level of need. The Tánaiste has admitted this, as have the Taoiseach and his predecessor, Deputy Varadkar.

Despite the fact the Minister consistently falls short of his own inadequate social and affordable targets, he continues to boast of exceeding overall objectives. He did it on Tuesday during oral questions on housing and just now he made reference to the quarter 3 output figures and said completions are likely to be in the late 30,000s or early 40,000s units this year. We welcome that and any increase in delivery of housing. Everyone in opposition and government should do that, but we have to acknowledge, as does the Minister, that that is still not enough. The level of need is far greater. Every objective body from the CSO to housing and construction experts tell us this, so it is ridiculous to be self-congratulatory on meeting targets when the dogs in the street know the targets are too low.

I have been asking the Minister for years when we will increase the targets, as have others. Each time he says revised targets are on the way. We are approaching the end of October. Can the Minister say whether the revised building targets will be out in the next two weeks or will we have to wait until the next Dáil term?

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Housing remains the number one societal issue for this State, unquestionably. There is no self-congratulatory tone from the Government side. I was honest with people when I had the honour of being made housing Minister in 2020 that the Government was bringing in a new housing plan and was dealing with much unmet demand. There was a ten-year period when, for many reasons, not enough homes were being built to meet demand. There is still a legacy of that. All I state here today are the facts. The fact is that since the Government came into office, it has delivered 125,000 new homes. That is a significant amount. We will do more. We will add to that significantly in the last quarter, to the disappointment of some opposite.

I will get back to the Deputy's specific points. If I look at the targets for this year's new-build social housing and social housing across the board, we will attain those. I remind the House that last year we delivered just short of 12,000 new social homes across all delivery mechanisms. When we came into government, there were no affordable homes being delivered in 2020 - none. We went from zero to 1,757 the first year, to 4,011 last year and our target this year is 6,400. We will exceed that target this year, which is very significant.

To take the Deputy's point in the constructive way she raised it, of course we need to do more but we have shown how we can scale up delivery. When the Government came into office, 20,000 homes were built in 2020. This year, even though Deputy Doherty will be very disappointed with this, we will deliver close to 40,000, nearly doubling output. Do we need to scale that up further? Absolutely we do.

I listened to Threshold's chief executive John-Mark McCafferty this morning on radio. He is someone I hold in high regard. He was very complimentary about the tenant in situ scheme and how that works. Last year we set a target of 1,500. We changed tack last year to protect tenancies. We bought over 1,800 homes. We ended unsecure HAP tenancies and converted them to social housing tenancies, adding to our social housing stock. We will exceed our target of 1,500 this year. It has been an important preventative measure. Separate to that, in the period the Government has been in office, 14,000 HAP tenancies have been converted into new social homes. The Simon Community, Focus Ireland and Threshold all recognise, unlike some, the progress being made and that there is more social housing stock now and more options for our people.

The number one issue remains - I agree with Deputy Bacik on this - those who do not have a home at all and those who are in emergency accommodation. What gives me cause for optimism is in quarter 2 this year we exited 630 families from emergency accommodation into permanent secure homes. People are spending less time in emergency accommodation now. The numbers are still rising and I am acutely aware that behind those numbers are people, families and kids. I know that. It is the first thing I think about every single day when I wake up. That is what drives us and the Government to deliver more social homes. Supply is the answer there.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I thank the Minister, but with respect he has not answered the question about when the revised housing targets will be published. He referred to the legacy shortfall, but we acknowledge that. I think everyone recognises that. To go back to another canine analogy, we talked about the dogs on the street, but it is a bit like saying the dog ate my homework for the Government to say this is a legacy issue and it is trying to deal with it.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

It is your legacy.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

The Minister and his colleagues need to be dealing with it with more urgency and ambition precisely because of that shortfall and because there is a cumulative impact to inaction and falling short of targets. The longer targets are left unmet or too low, the more difficult it is to play catch-up. That is what we are hearing from the construction industry, which is trying to build but has so many different obstacles in its way. Housing targets that are revised upwards really make a difference by setting out the level of ambition and emergency needed. The Minister has spoken about emergency accommodation and people moving out of that. The problem is so many families are moving into it just as the Government is moving people out. The tenant in situ scheme is simply ineffective for far too many families I hear from. We hear now that regulation of short-term letting, which was promised, will not be delivered. I ask the Minister again, in the dying days of the Government, to set out what he will do on revised housing targets to ensure better delivery.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

The scaling up of investment in housing is unprecedented. This year we will invest €5.1 billion in housing, which is the highest amount ever. Next year we have budgeted for over €6 billion through all the funding mechanisms. The revised targets are being worked through right now in conjunction with the revised national planning framework. I cannot give the Deputy a definitive deadline on that, but it is important we set new targets. The three parties set targets, and I am sure the Deputy's party will do so as well. It is also important that we show people how we are going to get there, because there are some people in this House who will just pluck a figure from the sky and expect people to believe they can deliver 60,000, 70,000 or 80,000 houses in a year. They come forward with plans that do not stack up, with regard to new tenures of housing and various different ideas, but the people will decide upon that. We have always been very deliberate in our approach to setting targets and showing how they will be attained. A particular tool in our armoury to do that is the reform of our planning system. That is why we worked so hard to bring forward the Planning and Development Bill, which the President has signed into law. It is the single biggest reform of our planning system in over a quarter of a century, but not all parties here supported it. It will bring clarity, consistency and certainty to our planning system, which we need to underpin the increased delivery this State needs.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

We will not see the targets this side of the election.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

He will not answer the question.

Deputy Denis Naughten

Last week at a Cancer Trials Ireland event, patient advocate Patrick Kivlehan spoke out about how participating in a clinical trial probably saved his life. He highlighted that delays in opening clinical trials to Irish patients could be a matter of life or death. I acknowledge that access to clinical trials is a Government priority. The current national cancer strategy aims for 6% of cancer patients to participate in clinical trials. Unfortunately, we are far short of this target, with only 1.5% of patients on interventional trials, which is a decrease from 2019.

One of the most significant barriers to patient access to these potentially life-saving trials is not money or staff, but red tape in the form of the general data protection regulation, GDPR. The root cause of the problem lies in the application of GDPR in Ireland. Instead of protecting the public interest, it is costing patient lives. As senior counsel Paul Egan pointed out, our health system should be more concerned with making people well than in conforming to a uniquely Irish overinterpretation of the GDPR. The Irish Cancer Society recently highlighted this issue and pointed out that Denmark has three times as many clinical trials open to patients as Ireland. Industry figures show that Ireland was included in just 11 of the 3,500 industry-sponsored clinical trials started in the first six months of 2024 across Europe. This is less than 1% of industry trials opened in Europe this year, despite Ireland being a global hub for pharmaceutical development and manufacture.

To address this problem, we need to revise Ireland’s data protection regulations on health research, as outlined by Cancer Trials Ireland in its recent position paper on GDPR. We also need uniform national guidelines for all hospitals regarding the interpretation of data protection in clinical trials to remove any set-up delays or document duplications. Will the Government commit to promptly delivering on such reforms?

The shared Ireland fund, which was set up by the Tánaiste, has supported key cancer research projects. It should be enhanced to fund actual clinical trial activity to allow patients to access trials in cancer units immediately. Cancer Trials Ireland, in partnership with key stakeholders, has developed a proposal to run an all-island genomics trial with cross-Border referral pathways with the aim of implementing precision cancer treatment on this island to save lives and reduce health service costs. Will the Government commit to such an initiative?

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I thank the Deputy for his questions and the points he has raised on this very important issue. He has been and continues to be a strong advocate for the expansion of clinical trials and of access to them. The Minister for Health has been very clear that he wants to double the number of clinical trials taking place in Ireland. Patients involved in clinical trials can, as the Deputy said, receive cutting-edge therapies, often years before they are widely available. Some patients can experience much better outcomes if the experimental treatment proves positive and effective. Trials can be empowering for patients and make a really vital contribution to medical knowledge and the development of new drugs and devices.

In line with the programme for Government, the Department of Health has made a commitment to expanding clinical trials in Ireland. Deputy Naughten has made a fair point in comparing Denmark and Ireland. This comparison shows that we need to scale this up further and scale up our ambition. The commitment we have made and the Department of Health has made under the programme for Government is embedded strategically across key policy initiatives, including the national cancer strategy, the national strategy for accelerating genetics and genomics and Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy. The positive impact of research activity, including clinical trials, on the care of patients is universally accepted. Research supports the recruitment, retention and motivation of clinical staff who will drive the development of quality services.

To be fair, significant progress has been achieved in recent years, but challenges remain. The Government is determined to build on the progress to date to ensure we have the best-in-class clinical trials landscape that delivers better patient outcomes. Over the last 15 years, the Department of Health has invested more than €150 million in clinical trials and research supports. I was reading about this with interest on Monday. The Deputy will have heard Dr. Austin Duffy, who is director of the clinical trial unit in the Mater Hospital, on “Morning Ireland”. I very much welcome that a new clinical trial unit has been opened at the hospital. That start unit hopes to have about 50 patients enrolled in the first year of phase 1 trials. It will be a free service for suitable patients. That is the type of thing we want to see rolled out across our expert hospitals.

There is not a family in the country that has not been affected by cancer. Our oncology services are excellent. The treatment is excellent and some of the best in Europe. I agree with the Deputy that in order to ensure that clinical trials are done and we continue research and trials to bring forward new drugs and treatments that are going to improve patient outcomes, which is a priority, this area needs to be scaled up. We need to scale up not just the ambition that is there, but also the delivery in that space. When compared with some other countries, we have ground to make up. I am delighted to see that clinical trial in place in the Mater Hospital, which will be significant in itself.

Deputy Denis Naughten

In what is my last-ever intervention during Leaders' Questions, I return to the issue of genomics and cancer. Today there 2,435 people on the waiting list at St. James's Hospital for hereditary cancer tests, including for breast cancer. Some of these patients are mothers of young families waiting over 18 months to access a potentially life-saving test. Cancer genetic counselling is essential to access these tests, but there are only six counsellors at St. James's Hospital and we fall short of the 20 needed to meet the international standards per capita. The demand for these services is increasing. We must act now to develop a comprehensive genomics strategy, establish a single national laboratory and ensure timely access to diagnostic services.

These steps can save many lives.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I agree with Deputy Naughten. As this is, as he has mentioned, his last contribution on Leaders' Questions, I will commend him on his years of service in this House since he won that by-election in 1997. Whether in government or in opposition, as he is now, I have always found him to be an excellent and constructive colleague. First and foremost, he has the well-being of his constituents at heart but he has also driven a number of matters, including this one. He will know that we, as his colleagues, have been thinking of him over the last week or so. I wish him and his family the very best in the period to come.

Deputy Naughten has put forward very clearly how we can scale up the implementation of that ambition. We have some of the very best people, clinicians and researchers. In many areas, Ireland is at the cutting edge of research. The clinical trial piece really helps to extend that further. In July of this year, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, established a national clinical trials oversight group. This is developing recommendations on increasing the number of trials taking place in Ireland and improving patients' access to participation in such clinical trials. Those recommendations will be important. The Minister and the Department of Health have told me that the interim recommendations are imminent. We all agree on how important this area is. It will be for all of us to ensure that the interim recommendations are implemented and moved on as expeditiously as possible.

An Ceann Comhairle

Before calling Deputy Nolan, I will join with the Minister in acknowledging the enormous contribution Deputy Naughten has made during his long years of service here. I extend the sympathy of all Members to the Deputy and his family on their recent tragic bereavement. We hope the next phase of his life will be as successful as the one he is bringing to an end when the election is called.

Deputy Carol Nolan

I will add to that contribution in respect of Deputy Naughten. We also convey our best wishes. The Deputy and his family are in our thoughts and prayers.

Last week, I was privileged to facilitate a briefing in the audiovisual room from parents and educators associated with the national Therapists in Special Schools Alliance. There was a very encouraging level of cross-party attendance. That was very welcome because I, for one, have absolutely no interest in seeing this issue used as a political football. Everybody, those of all parties and none, must work together to rectify this matter. I accept that many people, including the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, are acting in good faith but the fact remains that the special schools system has been forced to offer care and education in a state of near-permanent crisis for many years now. My sole interest is in identifying possible solutions and moving forward so that these special and beautiful children are no longer subjected to ongoing and highly distressing levels of regression and deterioration. At last week's briefing, we heard the heartbreaking stories of many people, including parents. They were saying that their children had been forced into residential care because the supports were not there. That is a national scandal. We have to do better.

I am aware that the HSE chief executive, Mr. Bernard Gloster, has written to parents and schools in my constituency regarding the ongoing work in progressing the disabilities roadmap and national policy. I am also aware that a communication was issued to each CHO area last February, confirming that additional therapy capacity available in other organisations could be commissioned to provide supports to children and families under the governance of the CDNTs. This included provision for children in special schools. This followed on from an initiative in Wexford where the local HSE used time-related savings from vacant CDNT posts to commission private therapy hours for a specific special school. However, as one parent put it to me, despite this communication from the HSE over eight months ago, children are still being left to deteriorate without vital therapeutic supports. In addition, essential therapeutic equipment is also lying idle for years because staff have not been trained to use it.

It is clear that something is very broken in this whole system. We need to look at solutions. The regional executive officer for the southern region made the correct decision to fund private sector therapy in St. Killian's special school in Cork for one term. This has to be done. Other REOs need to be able to make that same decision in order to help the special schools.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue. As she has correctly stated, it is an issue that transcends politics. We all want to see the best of education for all our children. We particularly want to see supports in place for those kids with additional and special needs. We have made significant strides in that period. I will come to the Deputy's question directly but I will first put it in context. I recall the level of special schools, special needs assistants and therapists when I first entered the Dáil in 2007. We have moved on substantially. However, we have a growing population and we can be thankful that we also have better diagnosis and early identification of special needs among kids. More supports are therefore needed.

Let us look at what has been done in education and how it needs to be complemented by health measures. More than a quarter of the entire education budget is being spent on special education, as is only right. More than 28,000 children are now being supported in special schools and classes. Since 2020, almost 1,700 new special classes have been established in mainstream schools and 11 new special schools and 7,600 more special education teachers have been provided. Budget 2025, which we have just passed, will add a further 768 special education teachers. We have recruited more than 4,000 special needs assistants since 2020. Again, budget 2025 will fund a further 1,600 special needs assistants, bringing the nationwide total to 23,000. Under budget 2025, nearly €2.9 billion has been allocated to provide additional teaching and care supports for children with special needs.

I agree with the Deputy that we all have families coming to us with issues in the area of early diagnosis and the provision of additional supports. That has been very difficult for parents and kids. We have made a lot of progress but there is still more to be done. We have looked at providing additional therapists. A total of 85 people have already been recruited to these additional posts. We went further in August with the Government decision to introduce the pilot programme the Deputy referred to whereby therapists will provide therapy supports to children in special schools. That was piloted across 16 schools in Cork and Dublin. The first six have been identified.

Unfortunately, there has been some delay in getting therapists on site. There have been some industrial relations issues there. I really hope these will be surmounted. Agreement could not be reached with regard to the redeployment of any current CDNT staff member to the pilot. That is regrettable. There is no doubt that progress has been made but I agree with Deputy Nolan that a sharp focus on this area is needed. Looking at the pilot programme and the difficulty we have had with redeployment as a result of industrial relations issues, people should really put the care of the kids first. We can work out any other issues after that. I assure the Deputy that all of us, as TDs, fully understand. I deal with parents and kids in my area who have had really good outcomes and who enjoy excellent special schools and SNAs, whom I thank for the work they have done. However, there are other families who have been waiting for far too long to get the support they need.

Deputy Carol Nolan

I thank the Minister for his reply. Everyone certainly needs to work together, but this is an emergency situation. Private therapists need to be brought into our special schools quickly. The only way that can be done is if all the REOs are directed to provide the funding to allow for these private therapists in the meantime, because the children are really finding it difficult. It is extremely challenging for the teachers.

This week, I visited Offaly School of Special Education, which is in my constituency. I heard at first hand from those teachers and SNAs. They are doing fantastic work but they need supports and they need them quickly. I was a teacher for 12 years and I experienced situations in which I was constantly fighting for resources for children in the school. I saw that clearly. Parents are becoming frustrated and are battling all of the time. Will the Government commit to writing to all regional executive officers and directing them to renew their focus on the issue of funding for private therapists? Will the Government commit to initiating reform of the children's disability network teams model, especially those aspects that are making the problems worse for schools like the Offaly School of Special Education and Kolbe Special School in Portlaoise?

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I will certainly take every point Deputy Nolan has raised and raise them with the Minister for Education and the Minister for Health. We discuss this issue at Cabinet regularly.

As regards private assessment of need, that is, being able to utilise the private sector to work through the private assessments, we allocated just under €7 million in May 2024, as the Deputy will be aware. That will fund approximately 2,500 private assessments of needs for long-waiting families - families who have waited too long. I want to be very frank on that.

As for Deputy Nolan’s question about getting a commitment that all the regional leads would be written to again, I agree with her. That should happen. However, let us be clear: that should be happening anyway. I want to be clear on that; it should be happening now anyway.

All of these people do magnificent work. I was in Portmarnock, in my area, two weeks ago and met a number of SNAs. The work they do is incredible but they are under pressure. They need the support that is there. We have upped the resources. I will not go through all the figures again. We must recognise that where something is not working as it should, that needs to be said. Lots of kids are being helped but more need to be. I will make a commitment to talk directly to the Minister, Deputy Foley, who has been a really strong advocate in this space, and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to ensure there remains a specific and clear focus on this. Deputy Nolan’s suggestion to issue further correspondence to the regional leads is a good one. I will certainly pursue that.