Brendan Howlin
Question:5. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach the number of Cabinet committees and the number of meetings held since September 2016. [37412/16]
View answerWednesday, 7 December 2016
Questions (5, 6)
Gerry Adams
Question:6. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach the number of Cabinet committee meetings scheduled between now and the end of December 2016. [38776/16]
View answerOral answers (13 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.
The Government has established ten Cabinet committees, on the following topics: housing; health; social policy and public service reform; justice reform; European affairs; regional and rural affairs; economy, trade and jobs; infrastructure, environment and climate action; arts, Irish and the Gaeltacht and the Islands; and Brexit.
A total of 20 Cabinet committee meetings have been held since the beginning of September. The Cabinet committees on housing and Brexit have met four times each; the committee on economy, trade and jobs three times; the committees on health, social policy and public service reform and regional and rural affairs twice each; and the Committees on European affairs, infrastructure, environment and climate action and arts, Irish and the Gaeltacht and the Islands once each.
Currently eight Cabinet committee meetings are scheduled between now and the end of the year.
The Taoiseach informed the House that the committee on infrastructure, which I take it deals with transport, had met once. What date did the committee meet? Did the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, attend the meeting? Did he give any heads-up to the committee on the information he gave to Cabinet yesterday to the effect that Bus Éireann, one of our most important commercial semi-State companies, could be insolvent within two years and that up to eight routes could be axed with projected losses of €6 million this year? Surely this cannot have come out of the blue yesterday as there was a claim before the Labour Court, of which the Minister was aware and on which he must have given some sort of heads-up to the Cabinet sub-committee and the Government.
Some months ago the Minister told the national airwaves that managing the transport sector had been a doddle since taking office. Since that statement we have had various disputes, including at the Luas and at Dublin Bus, upsetting tens of thousands of passengers and commuters, and now there are projections that one of the most important transport companies in public ownership is facing insolvency. Did the Minister give a heads-up on these matters and when was he made aware of the perilous situation on which he briefed Cabinet yesterday?
There is an issue here. Questions submitted to the Taoiseach concerning Cabinet meetings are restricted to obtaining information on the number of meetings that have taken place, the dates of those meetings and the proposed dates of future meetings. The basis of this procedure emanates from Article 28.4.3° of the Constitution, which states: "The confidentiality of discussions at meetings of the Government shall be respected in all circumstances save only where the High Court determines that disclosure should be made in respect of a particular matter." Consequently, questions related to the activities of individual Cabinet committees are not in order.
I fully accept the Ceann Comhairle's ruling on this but if that article of the Constitution applies to Cabinet sub-committees, surely it applies to the Cabinet itself, yet the same Minister can go onto national television and tell us what he briefed the Cabinet on yesterday. If the Minister is able, in that manner, to brief us in defiance of the constitutional embargo on what he told Cabinet it is hardly unreasonable to want to know if he told the Cabinet sub-committee in advance.
Maybe the Taoiseach can enlighten us.
Will there be meetings of the health committee or the committee on judicial reform before the end of the year? I ask because of the ongoing crisis in the health services which need constant attention and new policies, although the latter are probably an argument for another day. I was particularly taken by an interview on "Morning Ireland" by a doctor from south Tipperary who described the appalling conditions in south Tipperary hospital as a catastrophe, warning also that all other hospitals in Munster were facing the same difficulties. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and Louth County Hospital in Dundalk have the same problems. The doctor identified the problem as arising from too many beds being taken out of the system and too many hospitals being closed down. The Government slashed over 1,500 hospital beds and closed hospitals. How can one take such capacity out of a system without it having a knock-on effect, particularly with an ageing population? Today there are 485 citizens on trolleys and 34 patients aged over 70 were left on hospital trolleys for over 24 hours on every day of every week in the past seven months. We know the story of a 93 year old woman from north Dublin and a 103 year old woman who spent almost 15 hours on a trolley in Tullamore. Can the Taoiseach give an indication that this committee will meet to deal with this ongoing emergency?
I raise the same issue as regards the justice reform committee. Yesterday the Government agreed the heads of a Bill on judicial appointments. The Government's confidence and supply party, the absentionist party known as Fianna Fáil, states it will not support the Government's Bill if the new body is not chaired by the Chief Justice.
The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, who takes up everybody's portfolio but his own, has demanded and, we are told, received agreement that the new body will be chaired by a layperson and that there will be five other laypersons, making up a majority of the 11 appointments. This is significantly different from what Fianna Fáil is proposing. One Fianna Fáil member has described it as a dark day for the partnership Government. Following this morning's Cabinet meeting, can the Taoiseach provide a firm date for the publication of the judicial appointments Bill and the judicial council Bill? Is the Taoiseach concerned that the Bill will fall, given the stated position of his partners, or will they do what they have done so many times in the past, namely, flip-flop on the issue?
I thank the Deputies for their questions. Deputy Brendan Howlin raised an interesting point. Long before he and I came to the House as Deputies, it was always an issue.
It seems to be very open nowadays.
Issues, for whatever reason, emerged from the Cabinet, sometimes before they had even been dealt with by the Cabinet. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, who now approaches from on high, is entitled to comment on decisions that have been made by the Cabinet. Yesterday, I asked the Minister to brief the Cabinet members on the situation regarding Bus Éireann, given that I was aware that Bus Éireann was going before the Labour Court. The Minister gave a full and accurate account of the situation. He pointed out that a firm was examining the question of strategies for Bus Éireann and was going to report in January.
I can supply everybody with the numbers of committee meetings that have taken place. I think I have five or six of them next Monday, including the committee on health and the committee on justice, as far as I remember.
The situation in South Tipperary General Hospital is a source of concern. At 8 a.m. 30 people were on trolleys awaiting admission. The full escalation plan has been activated and the special delivery unit is liaising with the hospital. On 9 September, the HSE published the winter initiative plan for 2016 to 2017. It provided an extra €40 million for winter preparedness and to help alleviate the pressures in a number of our hospitals. As part of the initiative, the HSE has identified the emergency department as needing additional support, and the hospital and the special delivery unit have agreed a series of process improvements to be implemented over the coming weeks in order to streamline the admission of people and their movement through the hospital.
As part of the winter initiative, South Tipperary General Hospital will be able to avail of increased expansion of access to community intervention teams services and an additional three home care packages per week will be provided in the south Tipperary area. A tender process to establish a national framework agreement for temporary accommodation is being evaluated and, based on the outcome of it, the HSE will consider options to help the situation at the hospital. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, and his Department are meeting with senior officials from the HSE on a weekly basis in order to monitor the emergency department performance and the winter initiative.
Yesterday, the Cabinet approved the schedule in respect of the judicial appointments commission. What is involved is a different way of nominating persons of capacity, experience and competence for appointment as members of the Judiciary. Currently, the system operates under the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan brought forward a Private Members' Bill which went to the committee without pre-legislative scrutiny. Both Bills will now go to the justice committee and can have pre-legislative scrutiny in parallel.
When will the Government Bill be published?
The Cabinet approved the Schedule yesterday. The Bill will be published shortly and will go to the committee for pre-legislative scrutiny in parallel with Deputy Jim O'Callaghan's Bill. The intention is that the programme for Government requirements will be implemented. We have brought into being the independent Policing Authority, with which Deputy Brendan Howlin is very familiar. It is chaired by a layperson and it makes appointments to the most sensitive positions in the country, namely the Garda Commissioner, assistant commissioners, chief superintendents and superintendents. It is entirely removed from the political process and from the Garda Commissioner of the day. This means the committee, chaired by a layperson with lay competence is authorised and responsible, by direction of the Government, for making those appointments independently.
The Government has set out in the programme for Government that there should be a lay chairperson and a lay majority on the commission process for nominating persons of competence to be considered by the Cabinet for appointment as members of the Judiciary. The new approach is to assist the Government of the day in fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities in appointing members of the Judiciary. Both Bills can be given detailed scrutiny at the committee and I hope it is a good experience for everybody.
Regarding the Government's decision yesterday to have a lay majority in the selection of judges, will this policy decision impact on all public appointments? Will we have a lay majority in the appointment of doctors, consultants, architects and other professionals? Can we expect this new policy to be implemented across the board?
The new policy is in respect of a judicial appointments commission. As the Deputy is aware, it is done by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, which has a majority of legal personnel with some members from lay society. The programme for Government sets out a process by which it would be changed and made more transparent and very accountable, with a lay chairperson and a lay majority. The outcome of the deliberations of the commission will be to send a smaller number of names of people who are deemed to be competent and experienced to the Government for consideration to be appointed as members of the Bench. It is a different and more transparent method of assisting the Government in fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities regarding the appointment of members of the Judiciary.