Ruth Coppinger
Question:4. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet sub-committee on social policy and public service reform last met. [20695/16]
View answerTuesday, 19 July 2016
Questions (4)
Oral answers (10 contributions)
Ceist Uimh. 4 is in the name of Deputy Ruth Coppinger.
Thank you, Acting Chairman.
The Taoiseach is to go first and then the Deputy can speak.
My apologies. I thought the Acting Chairman was calling me first and giving me priority.
I will give Deputy Coppinger my reply. The Cabinet sub-committee on social policy and public service reform last met on 4 July.
Deputy Coppinger, the floor is now yours.
I thank the Taoiseach. His reply was worth waiting for.
There was purpose to the question. In light of the fantastic economic figures released last week, I thought we might be adjusting completely our social and public sector policies. I am sure the Taoiseach read the article in the Financial Times last week. It opened by stating:
The Irish have written some notable works of fiction - James Joyce and Flann O'Brien produced imperishable classics. Now there is a new addition to the national [canon] - the official narrative of the country's economy. According to data released on Tuesday, it grew by 26.3 per cent last year.
Arising from this and the previous Government's policy of creating a tax haven in the country and other such incentives for multinationals to locate here, we are now disguising the real economic figures and making ourselves an international laughing stock. I do not know how the Taoiseach was greeted in Europe last week but the idea that there has been a 26% growth in the economy - I do not know if even Soviet Russia in the 1930s exceeded these figures - means we have all now heard the phrase leprechaun economics being bandied around internationally.
Has the Taoiseach reconsidered this country's policy of having the lowest rate of corporation tax in Europe, particularly when we have the most acute housing emergency? The Government has just released a plan which, unfortunately and sadly for those on housing lists, will continue to see people waiting up to 15 years to be housed and puts housing in the lap of the private sector. Meanwhile in the real world, while these figures were making us a laughing stock, according to Social Justice Ireland the number of people living in poverty in Ireland has increased by more than 110,000. Today, more than 750,000 people in the State live in poverty and 18% of adults with incomes below the poverty line are in employment.
The Taoiseach had a mantra during the election about making work pay. In actual fact, work does not pay for a huge number of people in the country. I am sure the Taoiseach has also noted the Low Pay Commission's derisory and insulting awarding of a 10 cent an hour increase to the minimum wage. Many have commented that it would have been better if no increase had been awarded because a 10 cent increase just adds insult to injury.
Will the Taoiseach reconsider his sacred policy of multinational domination of the economy? The policy allows them to have brass plate operations here and to source so much of their operations here they are distorting economic figures. It is now impossible to determine the rate of growth.
I will finish by mentioning the pursuit of Apple. Will the Taoiseach now drop his opposition to the European Commission's pursuit of Apple for back taxes in this country? These are estimated to amount to €17 billion. Imagine the houses we could build if we had €17 billion to hand. Will the Taoiseach consider bringing into effect the headline rate of corporation tax, which would increase our fiscal space of €2 billion this year alone? Those are the kinds of things we need to do to solve the housing crisis and not the kind of thing released earlier on today, which offers little hope to people.
I do not accept the premise of Deputy Coppinger's response at all. She states that we created a tax haven in the country. We did no such thing. Not only that, we have been very much upfront with the OECD in terms of the presentation of our corporate tax position. We abolished the double Irish concept. We got rid of the stateless concept. We were the first country to have a fully compliant regime in terms of the OECD requirements for countries. We have introduced the first fully OECD compliant knowledge development box with a tax rate of 6.25%. We defend strongly our corporate tax rate of 12.5% and will continue to do so. I note that other countries intend to reduce their corporate tax rate as well.
The Deputy mentioned last week's CSO figures. We dealt with them. Obviously, they do not reflect the average growth in the economy. The figures were impacted by the scale of aircraft leasing in the country, contracted manufacturing in other countries where firms are based here in Ireland, the transfer of public limited companies, plcs, to Ireland and the transfer of significant amounts of intellectual property rights to the country. These are all issues which impact on our economy, but clearly the figures produced last week do not impact in terms of job creation and job numbers.
The Cabinet sub-committee on social policy and public service reform has been dealing with quite a number of issues. It is important to reflect on the benefits of a rising economy on social injustice, unfairness and inequality and to demonstrate that Government does care about the quality of people's lives. My visits to the north inner city are a case in point. Within 100 yards of the IFSC, I witnessed people who deal in misery for money on the streets. Garda resources and facilities are needed to deal with these things and clean up these places. We also need to help those who have been waylaid.
In recent years, we have protected the primary weekly social welfare rates. We have put in place a proactive approach to helping those who are unemployed through the provision of Intreo offices. We held a referendum on children's rights. We strengthened child protection through the National Vetting Bureau. We published the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill, which is going through the legislative process now. We launched the new junior cycle reforms. We increased the time spent on literacy and numeracy skills in all primary schools and introduced a comprehensive action plan on bullying. We ended the practice of sending 16 year olds to St. Patrick's Institution. We published the national positive ageing strategy and the national dementia strategy. We established the Child and Family Agency. We increased provision for special needs assistants to 12,600 until the end of 2016, which is an increase of 2,300. We put in place the Irish refugee protection programme to take in 4,000 persons to the country. We approved amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act to give the Garda greater power to deal with the problem of illicit trade in street medicines. We introduced a two-week period of paternity leave and associated social welfare payments. Priorities for this year include the new model of in-school speech and language therapy and the implementation of the national plan for equality of access to higher education. They also include expanding the preschool provision under the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme, which will see the number of children benefiting rise from approximately 67,000 to 127,000 in the programme next year. We published the Government's action plan for education inclusion.
I will give an example to Deputy Coppinger. We have been dealing with the issue of resource teachers for years. This is a sore point with people and rightly so because it means an awful lot to those for whom it should mean most - the students. The model was developed by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, with Mr. Eamon Stack. It was discussed by the Cabinet sub-committee twice under the last Government. It was piloted in 47 schemes and the feedback has been positive.
We are going to roll it out nationally in a way that does not create any losers in the short term and at a once-off cost of €72 million. The situation in regard to some learning support schemes was wasteful and inequitable. In one example, if school A has 250 students with ten needing learning support while school B has 250 students with 75 needing learning support, both would get the same level of learning support under the current system and that is inequitable, wasteful and harmful to those who do not get the necessary support. We are changing all that with a model designed for Ireland by the NCSE which will eliminate that type of situation and will mean the accompanying stress and pressure will not be put on parents and children. All these matters are important and reflect inequality, unfairness and social disadvantage so we must focus where we can on using the resources of a rising economy to deal with them.
As I said to Deputy Adams on a previous occasion, there needs to be an output from this type of investment in order that we can help people. Last week I met reformed alcoholics, reformed drug addicts and women who had suffered the most horrendous physical violence in their relationships and who have tried hard over the years to make a comeback and live their lives again. We must and will continue to work in that area.
That was a cook's tour of everything. The Taoiseach was going off mike but I think he mentioned domestic violence. He said he had met victims of domestic violence but he has cut all the funding for the agencies that deal with violence against women and domestic violence. It was a strange example to pick.
The Taoiseach mentioned special needs, but in my area, which has massive schools of 900 pupils and more, mainly because not enough schools were built, there is huge concern at the way the Government is planning to change the allocation of resources for children. Meetings have been called in Castleknock on this subject. People should get special needs allocations because they need it, regardless of income. Taking from Peter to pay Paul does not create equality and the Government is planning, for its own ends, to take from one school to give to another.
I gave the Taoiseach an example from the multinational sector and asked him a specific question about Apple. Does he not now agree that he should drop his opposition to the European Commission's pursuit of Apple? It would allow the €17 billion in question to come into this country to be used for the housing crisis and for people on the ground who need it.
We have been upfront and clear as regards all multinationals wishing to invest here. The Deputy will be aware that the European Commission is following up on quite a number of countries and quite a number of firms, but the Irish position with regard to the Revenue Commissioners has been very clear over the years. We have been clear about the transparency and accountability of our corporate tax rate system, which applies in all areas of the country without discrimination. Other countries have different measures and higher and lower rates, depending on the sector, but ours have always been a cornerstone of our foreign direct investment policy and will continue to be so. The European Commission will make its own findings in its own time.