Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 7 Nov 2024

Vol. 1061 No. 3

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Ar an lá deireanach den Dáil seo, caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil cur amú millteanach airgid phoiblí ar siúl ag an Rialtas seo. Tá a fhios againn anois nár inis an Rialtas an scéal iomlán faoin €9 milliún atá le caitheamh aige ar phúitsí d'fhóin phóca. Tá €1 milliún breise le caitheamh gach bliain. Tá ceisteanna móra le freagairt ag an Rialtas faoi seo.

The general election will be called tomorrow and the Government's waste of public money will be high on the agenda of the campaign. The Government's catalogue of waste reads like a bad comedy where the joke is always on the taxpayer, but nobody is laughing. Nobody is laughing at the €336,000 that the Government squandered on a bike shed. People did not see the funny side when the Government wasted €1.4 million of people's money on a security hut. They definitely did not burst out laughing when they heard that the cost of modular units for Ukrainians had more than doubled. People could not believe their ears, especially since so many families are struggling to get by, to pay the bills, to afford the weekly shop, to make it to the end of the week.

Then we come to the craziness of the €9 million that the Government is wasting on mobile phone pouches. People were left shaking their heads in disbelief with this one but it turns out that the Government could not even be straight with the people when it was called out on this issue. The Government was at pains to stress that this was a one-off spend. The Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, went to the media to firm up on that message. The Minister even wrote an article where the headline stated it was a "once-off investment". The Tánaiste did that too. A couple of weeks ago, when I questioned the Tánaiste here in the Dáil on Leaders' Questions on the phone pouches, he stood there and said that this was once-off expenditure but now we know that is not true. Is not that the case, Micheál?

The documents that I have received under freedom of information show that it is not true and they raise a lot of serious questions surrounding the story that the Tánaiste and his Minister, Deputy Foley, spun to the public. First, why were we not told that there would be a cost of nearly €2 million every single year for these phone pouches? Why were we not told that nearly 100,000 of these pouches would have to be replaced every year? Why were we not told that the Minister, Deputy Foley, was intensely lobbied by an executive from Yondr, a company that makes these mobile phone pouches? Why were we not told that the Minister met this executive at a conference two years ago where the executive gave her a phone pouch from Yondr? This does not add up, because I recently asked Deputy Foley, on the Dáil record, if she had any meeting with a representative of a company that produces these mobile phone pouches and she answered, "No.", and it is simply not the case. The meeting happened and a phone pouch was given. That happened over two years ago. This is crazy stuff.

Not only has the Government decided to waste €9 million of the public's money on phone pouches, but its story on why and how the decision was taken is as clear as mud, especially when there was a list provided to the Minister for Education of other commonsense solutions that would have resulted in the banning of mobile phones in the classroom but would have cost the taxpayers zero. The other options would have cost the taxpayer zero. It leaves people wondering why all of this dodginess, why all of the evasiveness? Why is the Government not telling the people the full story here?

What this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cannot be trusted with the public's money properly. It is not only the waste on the mobile phone pouches or the waste on the bike shed or the security hut. Just look at the runaway costs in terms of the children's hospital, if one wants to make that point.

Now is the time to clear all of this up. Can the Tánaiste answer the questions that I put? Why were we not told that it would cost more - €2 million every year? Why were we not told that another nearly 100,000 mobile phone pouches would have to be bought every year because the others would have to be replaced? Why were we not told that the Minister met with an executive of Yondr and a phone pouch was given to her over two years ago? Why were we not told any of this? Why did the Government try to cover all of this up?

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Micheál Martin)

I beg the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence before I reply, as we finish up the Dáil, to put on record my profound thanks to him and to the unsung army of men and women who make the Oireachtas and, through it, our democracy work - the stewards, the catering staff, the cleansing and maintenance staff, researchers, clerks, the media who are based here and the gardaí who are posted here. We are all part of a community and I am very grateful to every one of them for making it work as well as it has. This Dáil was a particularly challenging Dáil. If one remembers, at the start of this Dáil, we had the enormous disruption of Covid-19 and all of those responsibilities had to be transplanted to another venue. Indeed, I was elected as Taoiseach in that other venue. They were strange times indeed, but everybody in this entire community made it work and I am very grateful to them. I want to take this opportunity to put on the record my appreciation and thanks to the excellent public servants and private-office teams in the Department of the Taoiseach, office of the Tánaiste and Departments of Foreign Affairs and Defence for their tremendous support over the course of the past four and a half years and, indeed, wish all those elected representatives who are retiring the very best of health and happiness in the years ahead.

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor maidir leis an méid atá ráite aige. Is léir domsa go bhfuil an-chuid déanta againn. Go háirithe, tá an-chuid foirgneamh scoile timpeall na tíre tógtha againn. Tá an-chuid ag teacht as an infheistíocht sin. Tá a lán bóithre déanta againn anois. Rinneadh infheistíocht chruinn agus mhaith i gcúrsaí sláinte agus mar sin de. I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's assertion in respect of an issue that they are trying to engineer for the election. It is as clear as night follows day the sort of high feigned outrage about the issue in terms of smart phones in schools. The Deputy is desperately grasping at the straws to grab an issue that he thinks might rescue or help him in the election campaign.

The Deputy failed to mention the fantastic school projects that have been completed on budget and on time, from Scoil Mhuire gan Smál in Blarney to the Limerick educate together school in Castletroy in Limerick, and the extension of St. Conleth's primary and St. Mary's infants' school in Newbridge, all significant investments and huge value for money; the primary care centres across the country - we now have 174 of them; and the big road projects in terms of Castlebaldwin on the N4, the N59 Moycullen by-pass, the Dunkettle interchange and the Listowel by-pass to mention just a few of the public investments that have come in on budget and on time, have been good value for money and have helped the situation for many people. If one looks at the Macroom by-pass, for example, right through to Baile Bhuirne, it is extraordinary value for money and has huge impacts for the public as well.

In terms of the bike shed, as indeed the Chairman of the OPW said, it was excessive. I did not ask for that bike shelter. Members of the Opposition did. They wrote in. In fairness, I do not think they expected the level of expenditure that subsequently ensued but the OPW was asked to provide a bike shelter by Members of this House - the majority in the Opposition. That is what happened. It was excessive-----

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Not us.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Your Minister oversees it.

The Tánaiste

-----and not sustainable. It is something that should have been provided for far less than it subsequently was provided for but it was sought by Members of the House.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

Deputy Bacik wanted a second one.

An Ceann Comhairle

Please.

The Tánaiste

I am not naming any names.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

Deputy Bacik wanted a second one.

The Tánaiste

I am making the point. In terms of the security hut-----

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I am not taking that any more from that corner of the House.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

It is a fact. Deputy Bacik wrote to them.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

Many Members, from Government and Opposition, looked for decent bike parking.

An Ceann Comhairle

Can we let the Tánaiste finish?

The Tánaiste

Yes. Anyway, I said what I said in respect of that.

In terms of the security hut, that came from a recommendation from a group. I think it was excessive but often when the Garda recommends certain security measures in Government Buildings, people fulfil what is ordained in respect of security in that regard.

On the phone pouches, I want to make this point.

I have been a long-term advocate for public health in this Dáil. I introduced the smoking ban against many vested interests. Deputy Mattie McGrath might not have been a fan at the time-----

Deputy Mattie McGrath

I was never a fan of yours.

The Tánaiste

-----but I did it in the interest of the public well-being and the public health of our people. We have done other public health measures like the ban on smoky fuels that Mary Harney brought in, which had a huge impact on public health. I met Dr. Fauci recently and he and I have described social media as the public health threat of our time in respect of our children. The impact on children is horrific. Deputy Doherty has been extremely disingenuous in his presentation of the arguments, in his dismissal of that public health dimension to what is a good initiative. One of the initiatives I took in education - I was interrupted a bit, a Cheann Comhairle, if I could just be given 30 seconds.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Breaking the rules again.

The Tánaiste

I brought in a measure years ago in terms of students being allowed to view their exam papers in schools. That cost money at the time because we had to fund it. What he did not mention in the FOI material is how the schools that were consulted said it was a transformative initiative in terms of the utilisation of phone pouches and preventing the use of smartphones during the school day. I will say this to the Deputy. Long after this election, in time to come----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Tánaiste, your time is up and more so than just on this clock. The Tánaiste's Minister----

Deputy Cathal Crowe

Through the Chair.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Am I not speaking?

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no need for anyone to shout. Can we just take it nice and easy, please?

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The Tánaiste's Minister oversees the OPW that spent €336,000 on the bike shed, €1.4 million on a security hut, and the Tánaiste cannot stand there and do a Pontius Pilate and wash his hands of it. His Ministers are all over this, the waste of public money, not just on this but the national children's hospital as well, a runaway train. The Minister for Health oversees that project. He is a Fianna Fáil Minister. I asked the Tánaiste specific questions. He did not tell the truth. The Government kept the information from the public. I asked why we were not told that there would be an additional €2 million cost on the phone pouches every single year. Why did he stand there a number of weeks ago and say this was a one-off cost? Answer that question. The Tánaiste should tell me why he never told us that there would have to be up to 100,000 of these phone pouches replaced and bought every single year? The Tánaiste should tell me why he did not tell the public that the Minister, Deputy Foley, was lobbied by an executive from Yondr, the company that makes these phone pouches. Please explain to me why the Minister, Deputy Foley, in a reply to a parliamentary question on the record of this Dáil, when I asked if she had any meeting with an executive from any of the phone companies, she said "No". It is clear, however, from the correspondence from the executive in Yondr, which starts. "Dear Norma" and hopes she is well. It reminds the Minister that she met the executive at the NAPD conference last October, which was in 2022, where the executive gave her a Yondr pouch for her to see it herself. There was extensive lobbying after that. Why is the Tánaiste not coming clean with the public? He tries to dismiss this as a non-issue. It is a serious issue of waste of public money, of a vanity project by a Fianna Fáil Minister who was extensively lobbied by an executive, who was given a pouch, and who misled this Dáil throughout the process.

The Tánaiste

Deputy, could you explain to me why your party introduced it in Northern Ireland with the Northern Ireland Executive?

Deputy Pearse Doherty

We did not.

The Tánaiste

The hypocrisy of you. Through the Chair, what hypocrisy.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

You cannot answer the questions, Tánaiste.

The Tánaiste

This initiative is already in place in Northern Ireland----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

It is not.

The Tánaiste

-----and the Executive in Northern Ireland financed it and who is the Finance Minister? Sinn Féin holds the Finance Ministry.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Not true.

The Tánaiste

You are doing this for naked political reasons.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Answer the questions.

The Tánaiste

And by the way, Deputy, we all meet people----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Four questions.

The Tánaiste

I do not like the way you are trying to insinuate certain characteristics attributed to the Minister, which is unworthy of the Deputy.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

She said she did not meet them.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

She was given a phone pouch two years ago and she put it on the record of the Dáil. What are you hiding?

The Tánaiste

I am hiding nothing. I am very clear.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The record of the Dáil was misled.

The Tánaiste

During my Ard-Fheis speech during the year, I described social media as the greatest public health----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

She met Yondr two years ago.

The Tánaiste

Please allow me to speak. Have the manners. I allowed you to speak.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

Answer the question.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Answer the question as to why she misled the Dáil.

Deputy Mary Butler

A Cheann Comhairle, why is the Opposition microphone on?

The Tánaiste

I have been interrupted repeatedly now by the Deputy.

An Ceann Comhairle

Please, on the last day of the sitting of this Dáil, do not make me suspend it because of this carry-on. That goes for the Government side as well. Let us have quiet.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

That is fair enough but, a Cheann Comhairle, can I ask, on a point of order-----

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no point of order.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The misleading of the Dáil is an important point and if we have evidence that this Dáil was misled, that she met with Yondr, that she was given a pouch two years ago----

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no point of order. Resume your seat.

Deputy Sean Fleming

Time is up. Goodbye, Mary Lou.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Get on your bike.

The Tánaiste

At our Ard-Fheis last year I described social media, the use of smartphones and so on as the public health threat of our generation. I have been consistent on this. I believe in taking the smartphone out of the school day. I believe in allowing children the opportunity to concentrate and to enjoy.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

That is not the question.

The Tánaiste

In the material that was released, teachers spoke about the use of these pouches-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The material shows that you misled the Dáil as well.

The Tánaiste

-----as freeing up the time for children to do what children normally and naturally did before the invasion of social media.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Why did you not tell the truth? It is €2 million every year.

The Tánaiste

I want to finish by saying that long after this general election is over, I will make this prediction: In years to come, people will look back on this initiative and say it was a good initiative that did some good for the children of that generation. That is what will happen, by the way. This will be implemented.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Why did you not tell the truth? You are not answering any of the questions.

Deputy Mary Butler

Why is his microphone on?

The Tánaiste

It will be impactful long after the election.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Why did he not tell us it will cost €2 million every year afterwards, that the pouches will have to be replaced and that the Minister, Deputy Foley. met the company and was given a pouch? What are you hiding?

Deputy Sean Fleming

Goodbye Mary Lou.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Goodbye Sean Fleming. Slán.

An Ceann Comhairle

We are certainly not doing anything for our standing in the public eye with this sort of carry-on. Please can we maintain some sort of decorum? I know you are all worked up and excited about undertaking the campaign but save it for the doorsteps and let us behave ourselves here, please.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

With respect, I have got a point of order.

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no point of order on Leaders' Questions.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

There is no point of order when I raise it, a Cheann Comhairle, is that the point?

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no point of order for anybody on Leaders' Questions. No point of order. We are going next to Deputy Cairns.

Deputy Holly Cairns

I want to start by thanking all of the staff in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This is a uniquely fraught and adversarial working environment and it is somehow made pleasant by all of you, so I thank them very much.

On the last day of the Thirty-third Dáil, as we prepare for an election, people will be thinking about who they are going to vote for. I hope people will be wary of political parties that have a track record of broken promises. For example, in the last election campaign you promised to deliver 50,000 affordable purchase homes. After nearly five years in government, how many of them have been delivered? Less than 1,000, that is, 988 to be precise. That is just 2% of the Government's target. Last year no affordable purchase homes were delivered in 19 of the 31 council areas. In Dublin City Council not one affordable purchase home was delivered, nor in Galway city and county, Louth, Clare or Wicklow. I could go on. Even in those areas where a small number of affordable homes were built, the prices were nowhere near affordable. In Lusk in north Dublin, the full price of so-called affordable homes is in excess of €550,000, more than half a million euro. How can one call that an affordable home? This is not just an abuse of language, it is a con.

These broken promises come at a huge personal cost to many people. Every week, I meet people whose dreams of homeownership are crushed, people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are still living in their childhood bedrooms, others who are still cramped in house shares because they cannot afford to rent alone. They are people who work hard and do not expect a whole lot in return. They are not looking for mansions, just a modest home, a secure roof over their head, somewhere they can start to build a life and family and put down roots in a community. Whatever they do, it is not enough. I find the worst is when I meet people and they feel their housing insecurity is a personal failure. I want to say very clearly to those people, you have done nothing wrong. You have been failed by this Government and by previous Governments that have turned a housing crisis into a complete housing disaster and have broken commitment after commitment.

This election is an opportunity for people to choose a new approach and vote for something different. The Social Democrats has a fully costed plan to deliver 50,000 affordable purchase homes. To ensure these homes are genuinely affordable, we would support the not-for-profit housing bodies and local authorities to build them, including in early stage finance.

To deliver this, we would zone land specifically for affordable housing and give the LDA powers to acquire that land by compulsory purchase order, CPO.

Does the Tánaiste at least acknowledge that he did not keep that promise he made to voters? How did Fianna Fáil's definition of an "affordable home" increase by €300,000?

The Tánaiste

I thank the Deputy for raising what is the most significant social issue of our generation. This Government, notwithstanding Covid-19, has made very significant progress and initiated a range of actions and initiatives on social and affordable homes of different types and supports for first-time buyers. A total of 125,000 new homes have been built since 2020, notwithstanding the lockdowns. That is way in excess of anything that had happened in the previous years. More homes have been completed in the past four and a half years than in the previous nine years combined, and we will exceed our Housing for All completion targets again this year. The pipeline is extremely strong, with work having begun on nearly 60,000 new homes in the past 12 months. That is almost double the figure for the previous 12-month period. Close to 33,000 homes were completed in 2023, the highest number in 15 years. Under the budget for 2025, for whichever new Government comes in, €6 billion has been provided in capital spending to help deliver social, affordable and cost-rental houses. Planning permissions for over 41,000 homes were granted in 2023, an increase of 21%.

It is clear that very significant momentum has been built up in respect of housing, and particularly on social housing, for example. Over 40,000 social homes had been added to the social housing stock up to quarter 2 of 2024, which is a significant achievement that dwarfs anything that was done prior to this period in government. We have seen the highest level of new-build social homes since 1975, with 8,110 new builds in 2023 out of a total of 12,000 built through various mechanisms, and a strong pipeline of social houses is coming.

In terms of affordability, we have expanded the help-to-buy scheme to support home ownership and 51,500 first-time buyers have been helped by the help-to-buy scheme. We have also introduced the first home bridge the gap scheme, which has significantly enabled a lot of young people to afford a house. We have introduced the cost-rental concept to bring in affordable rents and about 2,200 have been delivered by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA and through the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme. Nearly 6,000 affordable homes have been delivered as a result of all these initiatives. On the first home bridge the gap scheme, about 5,500 buyers have been approved. We have brought 10,000 vacant properties back into use. We have introduced a vacant property refurbishment grant of up to €70,000 where a property is derelict and close to 7,000 approvals have issued already.

By any objective assessment, huge progress has been made, but we need to do an awful lot more. We need to maintain this momentum and build more houses in a faster way over the next five years.

Deputy Holly Cairns

I think the Tánaiste can probably understand why people feel such a huge disconnect between the picture he paints and the reality they experience when they try to buy a home. Every year since the Government has been in office, the cost of an average home has gone up by more than €20,000. I asked the Tánaiste about the delivery of affordable purchase homes and he spent three minutes talking about everything apart from affordable purchase homes. He does not answer the question and he paints an entirely different picture.

While he was painting that different picture, he decided to home in on vacancy. This is a really good example of why what he is saying just feels like spin. At the moment, up to 100,000 vacant properties, in the middle of the biggest housing disaster, lie empty around the country while people are stuck at home in their childhood bedrooms or are experiencing homelessness, and the Government introduced the most pathetic excuse for a vacancy tax, at 0.3% at a time when house price inflation was at 10%. It then put it at zero-point-something-else percent in the budget. If it wanted to tackle vacancy to try to actually bring those homes back into use, it would have matched the rate to, at the very least, the rate of house price inflation.

What it has done is introduce an incentive to continue sitting on a vacant property. We could say the same for stamp duty. The Government could ban the bulk purchasing of homes if it introduced a tax with teeth but it has not done that. It creates all this spin and a picture of introducing a vacancy tax and stamp duty to prevent the bulk purchasing of homes but neither of them is effective because house price inflation is higher than the tax the Government has set for vacancy. That is one example.

I ask the Tánaiste to please go back to the question I asked about affordable purchase homes. The Government promised to deliver 50,000 of those. We have fewer than 1,000.

The Tánaiste

The Deputy has painted a picture that, I would argue, does not represent the very significant progress that has been made on house building in the past four years. Supply is the key to the cost question-----

Deputy Joan Collins

It is not. Affordability is.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

Affordability is.

The Tánaiste

I did not interrupt anybody. I would also make the point that the Social Democrats voted against the Affordable Housing Act. The Deputy might understand why we sometimes feel there is a terrible disconnect between what social democratic parties and others articulate about housing in this House when, in practice, outside of the House they do different things. In here, they opposed the Affordable Housing Act and social democratic councillors-----

Deputy Gary Gannon

Answer the question.

The Tánaiste

-----have voted against housing developments such as Ballymastone in north County Dublin-----

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

That is not true.

The Tánaiste

-----where 1,200 social, affordable, cost-rental, affordable purchase and private homes are now, thankfully, under construction.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

It is not true. We are against the sale of public land to private developers.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

What about the Tánaiste’s running mate in Cork?

Deputy Róisín Shortall

We oppose vulture funds. That is what we do.

The Tánaiste

The Social Democrats opposed that scheme. That is why people do feel, genuinely, that there is a disconnect of the sort Deputy Cairns spoke about, between her party’s actions on the ground and its delivery.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

Do not be so disingenuous.

The Tánaiste

On the vacancy issue, the initiatives of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, relating to grants for derelict and vacant homes have been the most effective way of dealing with dereliction. I do not believe you can tax your way to housing supply.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

You cannot tax-break your way either.

The Tánaiste

I have not seen Deputy Cairns's blueprint for housing. She has been here for four and a half years and her party has not produced any blueprint for housing. She has proposed no solutions other than, I would argue, to dampen further investment in the rental market in particular.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

The Government is building for vulture funds.

The Tánaiste

That is simply not true.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

Fianna Fáil does Fianna Fáil. That is what it does.

The Tánaiste

It is all just empty rhetoric.

Deputy Bríd Smith

Tá rud amháin cinnte domsa inniu agus is é sin gurb é seo mo lá deireanach i nDáil Éireann. Ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuil mé an-bhuíoch de gach duine a thug cabhair agus tacaíocht dom trí na blianta. Tá mé an-dóchasach go mbeidh Councillor Hazel de Nortúin ina suí anseo tar éis an olltoghcháin.

I thank the staff of the Oireachtas. They are incredibly generous with their time and their help. No matter what department or where you look for help in this House, you get it 100%. I also want to say, however, that I am looking forward to not banging my head off a wall. I have done it for the past nine years and have had enough of it. Hazel can bang her head off the wall when she comes in here. I have fantastic colleagues and we have worked really hard to make a difference. We have put forward radical Bills that would change people's lives, make big changes to the climate and environment, make changes to the housing crisis the Government created and dent the desperation people feel in health, homelessness, housing and kids' special needs, and every which way, we have been blocked by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as have other progressive measures from the rest of the Opposition.

I want to focus today on how we end 100 years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. When I was born in 1957, de Valera was in power, and before that, it had been Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael since the State was founded. We still have Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, although they have shrunk so much they have had to join forces. When will these parties stop making promises before an election and then breaking them once they get into power? When will they stop treating people as if they are just tools for their idea of control and power? To be honest, they have always preferred the interests of big business, developers, bankers and the rich in this country and that is why, as we live in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet, we have one of the greatest levels of inequality. It is to our shame that that is what goes on.

I also have a question for all of the Opposition groups and party leaders. When will they stop propping up Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and will they make a commitment to the Irish people that if they are returned in this election, they will not prop up either of these 100-year-old parties of failure? The failure is enormous. There is huge suffering in the homes of Ireland today, with kids with special needs and scoliosis, and people living in crowded, emotionally dangerous conditions, without any hope for the future. Young workers are exiting this country when they have their degrees, whether in education or health, to make a life for themselves elsewhere. As we close the Dáil today, the Government’s refusal to sanction Israel has been an utter disgrace and will be a legacy of the previous Dáil that nobody will accept. It is an utter disgrace that the Government has not passed the occupied territories Bill but it is now kicking it around as if it gives the Government some credibility.

When will the Government stop making false promises to the Irish public and breaking them once it gets into power? We have to end the 100 years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, break the cycle and give people a real alternative. All of us on this side of the House have a responsibility to do that, including, by the way, those who call themselves Independents, who cannot wait to prop up either of the parties after the election.

The Tánaiste

I acknowledge and I am acutely aware that the Government and the country are facing significant challenges in respect of housing, which we discussed earlier, the cost of living, health, climate change and many other important issues, and I look forward to getting out about the country to debate these issues in the time ahead. However, it is important to meet head-on the narrative that the Deputy and her hard-left wing colleagues, along with Sinn Féin, are peddling: that the history of Ireland in the last century is somehow a history of failure and that Ireland is some sort of a failed state. That is a pernicious, insidious lie. The truth is that we have come from being one of the of the most poverty stricken countries in the 1920s to now having one of the highest standards of living in the world, with more people in employment than ever before. These are good jobs. In the past 30 years, the number of people in high-skilled employment has increased by 150%. I know the Deputy genuinely does not have an interest in this. I have noticed that over the past nine years and noticed the views of the party she represents.

The story of our success in attracting leading global firms to the country is talked about around the world. That is what we spent our time doing. The economic model in this country has worked and it should be debated in this election. I believe in the economic model that has attracted enterprise into the country and allowed native enterprise to develop and grow. Less well known, but equally uninteresting to the Deputy, is that our indigenous companies are among the most productive in all of Europe. For every job created in Ireland by a foreign company, Irish-domiciled companies create more than one elsewhere. This makes us one of the top five nations in the world for creating overseas jobs. We are exporting more goods than ever before and we are world leaders in food and drink exports. We export 90% of what we produce and our goods are shipping to more markets and further across the world than ever before.

That economic success has given us the resources to bring about an equally powerful social, educational and health transformation in that 100 years. We now have an education system that is one of the strongest in Europe and the world. The number of children at secondary level and school completion rates are tops across the European Union and the world more generally. Pupil-teacher ratios have never been better.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

There are 36 in school classes.

The Tánaiste

Just more than 50% of the population has completed higher level education and that has doubled in just 20 years. More pupils than at any point in the past century are being taught as Gaeilge. We are living much longer now, with an average life expectancy of 82 years. We are healthier than we have ever been and, for example, smoking is at the lowest level in 50 years. Deputy Smith may not know this but Irish people are now living 25 years longer than they were 100 years ago. Some 20,000 fewer people die in Ireland every year than died a century ago. Our population has grown by 50%. Cancer mortality rates have been declining for the past 30 years while death from heart disease has decreased by two thirds in the past 40 years. In the past 50 years, public health spending has increased. I could go on.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

The Tánaiste has gone on long enough.

The Tánaiste

We have made a lot of progress in this country. It is wrong that Deputy Smith does not at least have the good grace to acknowledge the extraordinary progress the country has made, notwithstanding the challenges that we have. We have made progress as a country.

Deputy Bríd Smith

There is €25 billion of a surplus in the economy, with 140,000 people on the housing list, 14,000 to 15,000 people homeless and rising, 1 million people on waiting lists for health care and 700,000 people living below the poverty line. We can throw figures across the floor at each other but these are facts that the Tánaiste does not address. As a left-wing TD and a socialist, I came in here to try to address them, and that is why I talked about the headbanging exercise. The Government is not interested in ending inequality in this country. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are only interested in looking after the wealthy, the businessmen, the developers and those who gained millions of euro in profit by ripping off people in the cost-of-living crisis in this country. They have never challenged them. Yes, the Government will throw us all a few hundred euros towards electricity bills but it never challenges the profiteering and never challenges those who are milking it in this country. Hence the inequality.

It is not rocket science to say that if there is extreme wealth at the other end and extreme poverty at this end, there is a way of knitting the two together and ending poverty and inequality. That is to tax the wealth of the rich, take the money off them and stop being their favourite guys in the Dáil. Be the favourite guys of the ordinary people. That is why I say to the Members on this side of the House that we have a duty to stop propping up Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and create a real left alternative to run this country.

The Tánaiste

I am the son of a busman.

Deputy Bríd Smith

So am I. I am the daughter of a busman.

The Tánaiste

I came from a working-class community.

Deputy Bríd Smith

So what?

The Tánaiste

I did not interrupt the Deputy. I will tell her "So what?"

Deputy Bríd Smith

I am the daughter of a busman.

An Ceann Comhairle

Order, please. Let the Tánaiste speak.

The Tánaiste

I am the son of a busman who was a founding member of the NBRU.

Deputy Paul Murphy

Same.

Deputy Bríd Smith

So was my da.

The Tánaiste

I was the first to get to second level education in our family and we were the first generation to get to third level.

Deputy Bríd Smith

I was the first to do the leaving certificate in my family.

The Tánaiste

I do not need lectures from the far left, and many from the far left who were educated in far more luxurious schools than I was ever educated in.

Deputy Bríd Smith

But do not address the inequality. The Tánaiste can talk all he likes about his childhood but he has not addressed the inequality.

An Ceann Comhairle

Order, please. Will you let the Tánaiste respond?

The Tánaiste

I had the good grace to let the Deputy speak but she does not have the good grace to allow me to speak. I am a product of the Fianna Fáil-Donogh O’Malley revolution of free education.

Deputy Bríd Smith

God help us.

The Tánaiste

I participated in it. It was not “God help us” because it brought on a lot of us. It gave me a passion for education. That is why I became Minister for Education, and to make sure every child in this country had an opportunity to participate in education.

I do not trade figures across the House. When I mentioned school completion, I mentioned it because I took part in initiatives around school completion.

Deputy Bríd Smith

There are 110,000 children with special needs that are not being met.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy, will you stop interrupting, please?

The Tánaiste

It is because it matters to me. It is why I am in politics. The Deputy does not have a monopoly on care or compassion on her side of the House. Where she fails is in her understanding. She declared she is a socialist and she is entitled to be, but she has never embraced the Irish economic model that has created enterprise and the opportunity for people to grow and develop in this country. That is the fundamental difference between us, and we should debate that in this House.

Deputy Bríd Smith

Not the inequality. Do not debate the inequality.

The Tánaiste

I believe the Deputy and others want to bring down that economic model and want to destroy enterprise in this country, which would make more people unemployed, create more poverty and make us all much poorer.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

Give him a clap, lads.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

I feel like I am flogging a dead dog with this one, but anyway, one last time with feeling, I suppose. I recall listening to an interview between Newstalk’s Kieran Cuddihy and the Tánaiste. He kind of caught him off guard by asking why he wanted to be Taoiseach. His answer was simple: "community". I always felt that the Tánaiste uses the term “community” in the John McGahern sense of the close-knit bonds of tradition, shared experience and the familiarity of your own personal hinterland that shaped you deeply. Watching the Tánaiste's career, it is apparent that the oppressive weight of Cork's expectations, its deep hurts, the poverty and the hopelessness that was seared with the Sunbeam, Ford and Dunlop closures, as well as the gossipy smallness of that conservative little city’s politics, made the Tánaiste's brand of politics. For me, this explains why he felt it was okay to leave so much of the country unrepresented at Cabinet and why a Government endowed with an unprecedented capacity to spend could patronise Cork so unfairly.

The Tánaiste might rationalise that he was just doing what the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly-types did for Dublin in the last Government. In truth, he has just reproduced the hurt felt as a young Cork politician; reproduced it in other parts of the country, particularly the borders, the west midlands and the south east. In other words, in places that do not matter to this Government. This was the dark side of community that led the Tánaiste to renege on his promise to deliver 24-7 cardiac care to University Hospital Waterford, UHW, and to the people of the south east. The Tánaiste first met me when I was a protestor campaigning for this vital service. His fully broken promise restored a seat to his party in Waterford. Watching the Tánaiste and the Government sit on its hands during confidence and supply led me to stand for the people of Waterford and to promise to fight for this and other issues. We thought that having a party with the health portfolio and with our TD installed in the Department of Health, 24-7 cardiac care would finally be realised. Perhaps the Minister thought that too when he repeatedly turned up on Damien Tiernan's local radio show, renewing the forever broken promises of extended hours that have still not happened.

As Maya Angelou wisely said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them". The Tánaiste has shown us who he is and we have no reason not to believe.

The Tánaiste

I am in a state of shock at the Deputy's description of Cork politics and psychology.

Deputy Mary Butler

And Waterford.

The Tánaiste

I must invite the Deputy to Cork. He has had an obsession with Cork, which is quite interesting. I do not know who he has been working with on that but-----

Deputy Matt Shanahan

I have an obsession with inequality, Tánaiste.

The Tánaiste

I think it is a bit much to describe as conservative and gossipy the politics of the city of Cork. Many Cork people would be offended by that. The modern city is broadminded. It is a great maritime city. It is open and inclusive and successful culturally. Cillian Murphy's win at the Oscars is the latest manifestation of the cultural richness of the city. I know the Deputy wants to talk about Waterford, which I have a great affection for and belief in. If I were to make a criticism, I would say that the Deputy has been talking Waterford and the south east down too much.

Deputy Mary Butler

Negatives.

The Tánaiste

This Government has invested very significantly in Waterford. The €170 million for the North Quays' development is transformative in the heart of the city. I am delighted with that. The Deputy has to acknowledge the establishment of the South East Technological University, SETU. Lately, there has been great news about the veterinary college at Kildalton, the pharmacy school now founded in Waterford and the purchase of the former Waterford Crystal site for campus expansion. I was one of the first Ministers to purchase land for the expansion of the university in Waterford. Those are real achievements which will help Waterford and the south east to develop.

At the hospital, a new surgical hub and a new pathology laboratory are on the way. Extra staff has been recruited and there are now 2,796 people working in the hospital. There has been huge advancement in elder care and in mental health services in Waterford. A second CAT lab is open, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with 24 additional staff secured. Some 18 new staff for weekend cover is to be completed. That will give 90% coverage, which is enormous progress during the term of this Government. I want to pay tribute to the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler. Her appointment to the Department of Health has been very impactful for Waterford in terms of the second CAT lab and more generally in terms of mental health developments, in particular around the ADHD team that has been appointed and the crisis-resolution team in mental health which has been appointed.

Some €7 million has been provided for Walsh Park, a stadium which needed investment for growth. Overall, €14 million in sports capital has been provided. I accept that much more needs to be done but in the last four and a half years we have witnessed probably the most significant investment in Waterford, more than in any previous decade.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

The Tánaiste's ability to extol a narrative that does not exist knows no bounds. When people go to bed at night in Cork, they have no worries about heart attack access. However, when people go to bed in Waterford and the south east, they have significant worries, particularly those who have ongoing cardiac issues. In the last three months, three friends of mine have ended up in Waterford hospital, after hours, at night, with a heart attack. All three went to Cork and not one of them got there in under four hours from the time of presentation. The Tánaiste is a former Minister for Health. He knows that the clinical standard is 90 minutes. Four hours means cardiac muscle damage, further ongoing complications and a shortening of life.

The Tánaiste and Deputy Butler stood for a photograph in 2016 and any innocence about what the Tánaiste promised has long since evaporated. As a former Minister for Health, the Tánaiste knows the importance of this. The physiology of people in Waterford and the south east is no different from anybody else's in Ireland. It is palpably unfair that it has taken three and a half years to deliver a second CAT lab, what was done in a private hospital in less than three months. We still do not have a 24-7 service and we still do not even have a seven-day service. That is what I am pointing out and that is the record the Tánaiste is finishing this Government with.

The Tánaiste

The Deputy has to acknowledge that in all of these matters of cardiac care and so on, the clinicians set the standards. This was agreed by most parties about 20-odd years ago, when there were political rows all over the place about where various services were to be located. The idea of national strategies in cancer and cardiovascular were developed, which have had the kind of huge impacts I outlined earlier in a response to another Deputy. Those would not have happened if we had not taken politics out of health, to a certain extent. I sense that we are now bringing politics back into the debate in terms of-----

Deputy Matt Shanahan

Will the Tánaiste address why the extra positions were in the HSE embargo?

The Tánaiste

I am doing so. I am trying to make the point that we have gone back to clinicians to say that we need to do this differently in Waterford, with the result that 90% coverage will be achieved with the provision of the second CAT lab and the extra staffing that will facilitate the weekend cover, which will be key. The clinicians tell us this will give us 90% coverage. Compared to where we were when this Government took office, that is significant progress by any yardstick.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

There are positions under the HSE embargo and emergency appointments that have not been covered.

The Tánaiste

There has been recruitment and there will be further recruitment to the facility. I appreciate the Deputy's advocacy.

An Ceann Comhairle

That completes Leader's Questions but before we move on, Deputy Pearse Doherty, quite rightly and as is his right, has challenged my ruling earlier in respect of a point of order that he wished to raise. Salient rulings 374 and 379 make it quite clear that the Chair can refuse to accept a point of order if it is being made during a period of disorder. However, if the Deputy has a point he wants to make, he can do so now and we will make a determination on it.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I was just looking for some guidance. I know that the Chair, in his elected capacity, has a role in ensuring that parliamentary questions are answered thoroughly. We do have an answer to a parliamentary question on the record of the Dáil which says that the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, did not meet with any executive from Yondr. I have the evidence that this is not the case. I have the email correspondence released by the Department to say that she met the executive and a phone pouch was handed over. I would like direction from the Ceann Comhairle as to whether it is at all possible and within his gift to ensure the record of the Dáil is corrected on this last day.

An Ceann Comhairle

A matter of that nature can be referred to me. Matters are regularly referred to me under Standing Orders, insofar as they apply to written questions. If the Deputy wants to refer it to me, I will adjudicate on it and act accordingly.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.