I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dinny McGinley.
Adjournment Matters
Arts Funding
I thank my colleague, Senator Michael D'Arcy, for allowing my Adjournment matter on the West Cork Arts Centre to be taken first. The Minister of State has had a taste of what west County Cork has to offer since last week. He went down a treat in Bantry.
I enjoyed it.
I will raise another parochial issue, that of the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen. I highlight the great background work done by the local community, including those involved in the arts, as well as my former colleague and Minister, Mr. John O'Donoghue, who has west Cork connections. His wife comes from the area. He did great work in preparing the framework for the arts centre which is likely to go ahead, as funding has been set aside for it. Those involved were asked to go back to the drawing board to determine whether they could achieve better value for money, which was a reasonable request.
In recent weeks I met a group of local business people who were concerned that, under the new tendering system, west Cork contractors might not get a fair bite of the cherry. The Minister of State visited a gaelscoil in Bantry last week. Not only is the gaelscoil wonderful, but a new community campus was constructed by a public private partnership at a cost to the State of €15 million or €16 million. The companies involved were Pierse Contracting and Sisk & Son Limited, but Pierse Contracting got into difficulty in the middle of the work.
The same problem permeates Skibbereen, in that there are no local contractors, be they plumbers, electricians, plasterers, labourers or carpenters. Any company that undertakes work is not required to be Irish. I hope the work on the arts centre will proceed. When it does, what mechanism is in place to ensure local anchorage? If a contractor from Northern Ireland or England tenders for the job, there will be no local input. We would have a fantastic facility for the area, but there would be no quid pro quo for the local community. In the Bantry example people travelled 60 or 70 miles to do their work and then travelled home. That local people were not employed meant the local economy received no input. This issue should be examined. The tendering process must be followed under EU regulations, but the same situation could obtain in Gweedore in north-west County Donegal just as much as it could in Bantry in west Cork. It is not good for a community or area if locals are not involved in what is a great project.
The Minister of State might confirm whether the news for the arts centre is positive. People in west Cork deserve it, as they have done trojan work behind the scenes. West Cork is a cosmopolitan area, with a mix of artists, important members of the film industry and so on. Will the Minister of State allay my fears and those of the community that, if the project proceeds, local builders and contractors will be denied a bite of the cherry?
I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I enjoyed my visit to west Cork, particularly Bantry last Saturday for the opening of the gaeilscoil. I was impressed by that wonderful facility, which comprised the gaelscoil, the coláiste phobail, the crèche and the naíonra. I thank the Senator for his attendance at the function.
The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has taken a direct role in the provision of grant aid for arts and cultural infrastructure and allocated more than €150 million in funding for capital development of facilities throughout the country in recent years. The arts and culture capital enhancement support scheme, ACCESS, was designed to assist in the provision of high standard arts and culture infrastructural projects, thereby enhancing access to all aspects of the arts. The programme has been widely acknowledged as a significant intervention in this regard. Under the scheme, facilities funded to date include integrated arts centres, theatres and galleries, as well as art studios and other arts production and performance spaces. Almost €86 million has been granted to 120 projects, many of which are community-based arts groups.
The Department provides the bulk of capital funding for building and refurbishing arts facilities, mainly in the not-for-profit sector, while the Arts Council provides the ongoing revenue support for many facilities. Facilities that have been funded to date include integrated arts centres, theatres, galleries, studios and creative and performance spaces.
The first round of ACCESS II funding was announced in April 2007 and some €32 million was allocated to 67 projects. In May 2008 an additional €10 million was allocated to a further 13 capital projects. The emphasis of this round of ACCESS funding was on the enhancement and refurbishment of existing facilities. Only 30% of the funding was provided for new build projects.
Among the major ACCESS II projects assisted were the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Druid Theatre, the Cork Opera House, the Waterford Theatre Royal, the Gallery of Photography, the Model arts centre in Sligo, the Irish Film Institute, the Belltable in Limerick, the Wexford Arts Centre and the Sweeney Memorial Library in Kilrush. The West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen was allocated a capital grant of €1.5 million in April 2007 towards a project costing € 3.7 million. The project may go to tender in August this year. Tendering for the project is a matter for the project promoter, the West Cork Arts Centre, but this process is not yet complete. The timing of invitations to tender for this project is a matter solely for the promoters. Grant aid from the Department is subject to the terms and conditions in the original letter of offer of grant aid, Department of Finance procurement conditions being fully complied with, as well as the availability of funds in my Department. The Department at present is bound by very tight budgetary constraints and some projects will have to wait for capital drawdowns until 2013 and possibly later.
I thank the Minister for his response. It does not, however, allay my concerns. The need for the Department of Finance procurement conditions to be fully complied with could be the devil in the detail but that is not the Minister's problem.
I was slightly amused to note that in the reply that was circulated, the West Cork Arts Centre was located in "Siberian" and not Skibbereen. I know west Cork can sometimes be like Siberia, like this morning at 4 a.m. when I left home, but I hope this is just a typing error.
The Skibbereen Eagle kept an eye on the Russian czar.
That could be the link to Siberia about which I am worried.
We do not have time to debate that issue today. I call the second matter.
Disadvantaged Status
An important issue I have raised for some time concerns several schools that met the DEIS qualifying criteria in 2005 but were not awarded DEIS status by the Department of Education and Skills. I am eager for it to be realised these schools cannot take the same cuts as normal schools.
Courtown, County Wexford, is in the second fastest growing area in the country with a population of 5,000. Its school, Riverchapel national school, met the DEIS criteria in 2005 but did not get the status. It is now expected to take the same reduction in school allocations as other rural schools or those in better-off areas.
I realise the financial implications that giving these schools DEIS status may cause for the Department's budget. However, will the Department identify the schools which met the criteria but were not awarded DEIS status? The Minister and the Department made a mistake with the significant cutbacks to DEIS schools in the last budget. This was rectified on the basis it was wrong. Another rectification is required in this case. We cannot abandon the children in these schools as they are the most vulnerable and exposed in our State. I hope the Minister's response tonight will not be the standard stock response just prepared by somebody in the Department because this matter exercises me much. I want the message to go out clearly that something must be done to resolve this matter. This cannot be a question of sitting back saying, "Ah sure, it will be all right".
I am pleased to have this opportunity to clarify the position on primary schools and DEIS. The action plan for educational inclusion is the Department's policy instrument to address educational disadvantage and which focuses on addressing and prioritising the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities from preschool through second level education. The identification process in the primary sector was based on a survey carried out by the education research centre in May 2005 in line with international best practice. The process had regard to and employed the existing and most appropriate data sources available.
It is important to note that an independent review process was available to schools that did not qualify for DEIS but regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage which was of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The results of the review were notified to schools in August 2006 and schools which succeeded in the appeal process were added to the programme. Schools which were unsuccessful in the initial identification and subsequent review processes have never been admitted to the DEIS programme.
It must be noted that all children from disadvantaged backgrounds in all schools, including non-DEIS schools, can avail of the free books scheme. Families experiencing financial difficulties can avail of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, family income supplement, supplemental welfare service, exceptional needs payments and urgent needs payments, all administered by the Department of Social Protection.
A key priority for the Department is to prioritise and target resources in schools with the most concentrated levels of educational disadvantage. That challenge is significant given the current economic climate and the target to reduce public expenditure. This also limits the capacity at present for the inclusion of any new schools in the DEIS programme. In this context, the Minister has no plans to undertake the type of exercise to which the Senator refers.
It is important to note also that the total provision for educational inclusion programmes in 2012 is approximately €720 million across all levels of education. This includes early education, primary and second level, further education programmes and third level student support schemes. In addition, funding for the National Educational Welfare Board, the school completion programme, youth projects and early education is provided by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. While the majority of schools include among their pupils children with disadvantaged backgrounds, in general, most schools will successfully address the individual needs of these children without recourse to additional targeted resources.
The Minister has stated he will not identify the schools in question but that "a key priority for the Department is to prioritise and target resources in schools with the most concentrated levels of educational disadvantage." He has clearly decided to abandon those schools which should have DEIS status and have met the criteria for it. That is wrong. I will be moving an all-party motion on identifying these schools and I hope other parties will support me on this.
Regional Development
The purpose of this Adjournment matter is to evaluate the performance of the national spatial strategy and Waterford as the gateway city to the south-east region. A recent ESRI report entitled, Enterprise and Labour: Hubs, Gateways and Inter-regional Specialisation, measured the progress made in the ten years since the publication of the national spatial strategy. The figures give rise to concern for Waterford and the south east. It showed Cork, Galway, Dublin and Letterkenny were the only areas that gained employment. Dublin, Cork and Galway saw a combined increase of 12.5% in employment share but the other gateways, including Waterford city, had a decrease of 12%. There is something systemically wrong in the south east and to me there is no natural reason the region should be underperforming. The recent live register figures show the unemployment rate in the region is 19.5%, 5% ahead of the national average, as bad as that is. The south east has most of the ingredients. It has a strong agricultural sector and there are ports in Waterford and Wexford. We also have easy access to markets, and there are recent improvements in infrastructure with the construction of the bypass, the second bridge in Waterford city and the outer ring road. There has been much infrastructural development in recent years.
The $1 million question is why the region is underperforming, and the answer to that partly lies in the region itself. Nevertheless, most of the blame lies in the fact that the national spatial strategy did not come with any implements or tools to back it up. For example, the enterprise agencies have never positively discriminated in favour of Waterford as a gateway city or the south east in general. Government employment policies have not had a real and tangible regional focus, and the south east does not have a university, which puts it at a unique disadvantage. Waterford city is the only gateway without a university.
It is also interesting that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is seeking to merge the two local authorities in Waterford, in the process removing the autonomy of the authority for Waterford city. He is not doing the same for Galway on the basis that it may compromise the gateway city of the west. Why is there one rule for Galway and a different rule for Waterford? These are genuine questions.
Policy is on paper but the national spatial strategy must be backed up with resources and tangible instruments that deliver change. We must get to the bottom of the question of why the south east is underperforming. In the Lower House earlier today, one of the Minister of State's colleagues, Deputy John Deasy, stated that we were not performing because of the reputation of the trade unions. It was a disgraceful attack on the trade union movement and had no basis in fact, and the Deputy was scapegoating the trade unions for Government failures. We must ensure that the region has the resources it needs, that the national spatial strategy does not just exist on paper and that it has the instruments, resources and tools to be able to ensure that places like Waterford and the south east deliver. That is why I have tabled this matter for debate.
I thank the Senator for raising the issue. The aim of the national spatial strategy, NSS, includes achieving a better balance of social, economic and physical development between regions through the co-ordinated development of nine gateway cities and towns, including Waterford, and nine hub towns, together with complementary policies to activate the potential for lasting economic development in their hinterlands and wider regions. The emerging research, which is timely and which I very much welcome, clearly confirms that some of the gateways and their wider regions are performing well, albeit with regard to an individual but very important indicator of employment. National recovery depends on individual regional contributions so the performance of gateways such as Dublin and others must be welcomed.
The research confirms previous work by the Department, in conjunction with the two regional assemblies in 2009 in developing a gateway development index, that some of the other larger gateways, like Waterford, are not performing to their full potential and that is adversely affecting the performance of their wider regions. The conclusions of the 2009 gateway development index fed into the NSS Update and Outlook Report, which was published in October 2010 and reaffirmed the importance of implementing long-term planning frameworks such as the spatial strategy. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, continues to work with other Departments and agencies and the local government sector under the following headings: better alignment and prioritisation of scarce infrastructural investment; improved governance at national, regional and local levels; and the promotion of more sustainable patterns of development, both in rural and urban contexts, through more effective, evidence-based planning policies.
Much good work has been completed already. Through the adoption of updated regional planning guidelines and the introduction of core strategies in city and county development plans, this Government is taking real steps to prioritise the development of the gateways in a way that previous Administrations did not. Taking up the governance theme referred to in the update and outlook report, the Senator will also be aware that the Minister of State is currently finalising a comprehensive policy statement on local government that will address local government structures at regional, county and sub-county levels, their powers and functions, as well as other matters. The rationalisation of local government structures in a number of areas, including Limerick and Waterford, is also live on the agenda at present. This is not just talk about joined-up government but rather implementing the NSS.
I thank the Minister of State for his response, which cites better alignment and prioritisation of scarce infrastructural investment, better governance locally and in the region, and the promotion of more sustainable patterns of development. It does not deal with the critical ingredients we need, such as positive discrimination by the enterprise agencies, their performance for the region and what they must do. National enterprise policies must also reflect what the national spatial strategy was designed to do, which is deliver for all the regions. The response does not deal with the need for increased educational infrastructure and, more critically, university facilities.
The Minister of State might indicate to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the real concern arising from Galway as a gateway city retaining its single authority in Galway City Council. It appears the Government does not want to compromise the gateway status of Galway but it is seeking to merge the two authorities in Waterford. That would potentially compromise the gateway status of Waterford city. At a time when the region and city are underperforming, we must be very conscious of decisions taken by the Government which could make matters worse.
Unfinished Housing Estates
I raise this issue following the announcement by Cork County Council this week that it is to move ahead with a public consultation on the development of a new town on the north-west side of Cork city that will accommodate up to 12,500 homes. It is a relatively long-term project but nevertheless much surprise and frustration followed this announcement in the media this week. It comes against a background of a collapsed property market, with "For Sale" signs all over Cork. We have heard of distressed mortgages and people being put out of their homes. NAMA has a land bank and is taking control of loans associated with property developments. Today I saw on the Internet reference to unfinished housing estates in County Cork which included examples which have not been started and only exist in the form of planning permission. There are no details of the extent to which housing estates are unfinished but the list is lengthy. There are 132 such estates.
What is being done about these unfinished housing estates? There has been a property collapse so why are we talking about developing a new town when we should be getting to grips with the problems we have already? The council statement has let down people who are finding it difficult in the areas in which they live. They want to know what the State is doing in the guise of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government or Cork city and county councils. People want answers to what is being done in their areas and the news that a new town is to be developed in the city is very frustrating.
I have examined figures from the recent census and compared them to the last census in 2006. The population in the centre of Cork city is dropping and the county population has increased. We must consider what can be done in the greater city area and revitalise the city centre before beginning to develop new towns. I know the Minister launched a sustainable development strategy last week.
It is all very well to have the strategy in place, but we must look at the current situation and how we can resolve the issue for those living there, while ensuring areas in Cork city and county can continue to be developed. The docklands has been identified as an area in which potentially 10,000 homes could be provided. Is it now being neglected? Are we abandoning unfinished housing estates and previously identified development areas in the city in favour of building a new town? The talk might be premature and has annoyed many in Cork, particularly those who are suffering in difficult situations. The Minister of State will probably refer to the Cork area strategic plan, of which this new town is part, but it was developed as a strategy for the period 2000 to 2020. However, things have changed utterly since and the many people living in difficult situations want answers about what is being done to resolve the issues involved.
I thank the Senator for raising this matter which continues to affect the lives of thousands of families across the country. Despite the enormity of the problem the Government inherited, we have made significant progress in alleviating some of the problems associated with unfinished housing estates across the country, a large number of which are to be found in County Cork.
Progress to date on unfinished housing developments has required a multi-faceted approach which has included the establishment of an advisory group on unfinished housing developments, the publication of a report in 2011, Resolving Ireland's Unfinished Housing Developments, and the establishment of a €5 million fund under the public safety initiative. To date, there are 167 estates within the initiative, in respect of which submissions have been received in the case of 150. So far, there have been approvals of funding totalling €3.21 million for 132 developments, with a further 35 estates to be allocated funds. We expect the final outturn to be in the order of €3.5 million.
The establishment of the national co-ordination committee on unfinished housing developments, chaired by the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, has delivered a code of practice for stakeholders which defines the rights, responsibilities and inter-relationships of the key parties involved. It has published a guide for residents living in unfinished housing developments, formulated site resolution plans for stakeholders in estates to agree the aspects of their developments which remain incomplete and require resolution, and established a legislative review group to review legislation with a view to strengthening or amending provisions to take account of the issues associated with unfinished housing developments. It is also examining the issue of bonds and their adequacy in the light of recent experience.
The national housing development surveys in 2010 and 2011 established an authoritative baseline analysis of unfinished housing developments to assist in fully understanding the scale and extent of the issues involved. The 2012 national housing development survey is under way and will prove to be an invaluable resource in monitoring the current state of the housing market and inform the future direction of our policies in this area.
The Minister of State is totally committed to this agenda and takes a particular interest in all aspects of resolving the spectrum of issues which have arisen. The issues surrounding unfinished housing developments are numerous and it will take some time and a lot of effort to resolve them. The initiatives I have outlined demonstrate the determination of the Government to tackle these difficulties and reintroduce equilibrium to the housing construction sector which will, in time, allow it to revert to a position where it will function properly.
Can the Minister of State give me any specific information on progress in the Cork area in resolving the issues involved in unfinished housing estates?
I have the total number of developments, but we do not have the figures on a county basis. If they are available in the Department, they will be conveyed to the Senator.
The Seanad adjourned at 6.55 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 14 June 2012.