Micheál Martin
Question:5. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach if he met Independent Deputies recently about the programme for Government. [27552/17]
View answerTuesday, 27 June 2017
Questions (5, 6, 7)
Micheál Martin
Question:6. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach if he will publish all agreements with all Independent Deputies that are supporting the Fine Gael-led minority Government. [28818/17]
View answer
Gerry Adams
Question:7. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach if he has had engagement with Independent Deputies recently regarding the programme for Government and its implementation. [29060/17]
View answerOral answers (39 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5, 6 and 7 together.
A Programme for a Partnership Government, published in May 2016, sets out the agreement between the parties and Deputies who are participating in, or supporting, the Government.
Independent Deputies brought their own vision and ideas to that programme, to how our country should be governed and how we need to deal with the myriad challenges we face. I believe that this partnership Government will continue to give us an opportunity to mobilise the many talents around the table in achieving the best outcomes for our citizens.
The impact of this input is tangible. Over the past year, the Independent Deputies have led on important policy issues such as medical cards for people in receipt of domiciliary care allowance to child care, judicial reform and broadband.
My recent meetings with the Deputies focussed on a range of commitments within the existing programme which the Government remains firmly committed to implementing over its lifetime. As you know I outlined some of my priorities when I presented my Cabinet to the Oireachtas last week.
The programme for Government annual report was published on 10 May last and sets out the progress made on more than 300 commitments across all of Government over its first 12 months.
The report provides a comprehensive update on the progress of the commitments and highlights very specific plans which have been put in place to address in the short and longer term key areas of housing, homelessness, education, rural and regional development, job creation, broadband, agriculture and climate change.
The report also highlights the ambition and steps to improve services for families, children, people with disabilities and mental health problems and older people including key reforms necessary in the health and justice sectors.
Significant work has also been undertaken in advance of and following the UK's referendum on EU membership to ensure an effective whole-of-government approach to the Brexit negotiations that takes full account of the Government's negotiating priorities.
The Government will continue to implement its programme, striking a balance between addressing urgent priorities and engaging in long-term planning so that lasting solutions are implemented to secure a strong economy and a fair society.
During last week’s Question Time the Taoiseach used a series of dodges to avoid directly answering challenging questions. The pattern is similar today.
Deputy Lowry has said that he has not made a deal with the Taoiseach, even though he voted for the Taoiseach's nomination and talked to the Taoiseach at least twice before the vote. He angrily informed the Dáil that he is entitled to be able to contact Ministers directly on constituency matters and to have full access. The fact is that this facility is not available to the majority of Deputies. In Tipperary specifically, Ministers have regularly given one Deputy preference in early notice of information which he has claimed shows his influence on the Government, to the exclusion of other Deputies in the constituency. Why is a Deputy who the Taoiseach says has no arrangement with Government able to claim influence on the Government?
Central to the Taoiseach’s election was the agreement with Independent Deputies and one part of this related to Stepaside Garda station on which the Taoiseach gave a commitment to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Trade, Deputy Ross. I have no problem with reopening Garda stations which should never have been closed. The issue is the pressure put on the Garda Commissioner – was pressure put on the Garda Commissioner? – to provide an interim report to facilitate the Taoiseach's nomination. It is very curious that an interim report emerged at all because this is not a question of 100 stations but of a small number and, hey presto, one interim report came out at a very opportune time relating to Stepaside. I am somewhat curious to know whether the Commissioner got divine inspiration in producing this interim report on Stepaside at that Cabinet meeting when a lot was going on. The report was due within weeks and would have covered the whole country yet the Garda Commissioner was asked to produce an interim report before the Taoiseach's nomination. Can the Taoiseach confirm whether he had any role in this process, whether the Tánaiste had, and the date on which it was confirmed to the Taoiseach that an entirely unnecessary interim report would be produced?
In response to the question about Deputy Lowry, there is no agreement between my party and Deputy Lowry. We did speak by telephone on two occasions in the run up to the vote for the Taoiseach and for the new Cabinet. He is free to contact Ministers directly about matters that are in the programme for Government or constituency issues but he has not sought any particular commitments in that regard. That facility is open to other Independent Deputies not just those who support the Government and also to those who abstain and even those who vote against the Government-----
Not in Tipperary.
I cannot speak for everyone else in government but certainly in my year as Minister for Social Protection I would have been regularly in contact with Deputy Mattie McGrath on particular queries he had relating to social protection-----
He is on side so.
----- and he was afforded the same courtesy as was extended to other Independent Deputies.
How many did the Taoiseach actually ring?
The interim report was a long time coming. The decision that we would open six Garda stations on a pilot basis and that there would be a review of the Garda stations that were closed was made over a year ago. That interim report was a long time coming and it recommends six new Garda stations, some brand new and some old ones being reopened such as Rush and Leighlinbridge in County Carlow, and Stepaside. I did not have any role in the report.
What does the Tánaiste say?
The Deputy will have to ask her.
Deputy Varadkar is the Taoiseach. Surely, he knows.
I do not know everything everyone else knows.
He does not know whether the Tánaiste asked the Garda Commissioner.
I call Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. Can we have order, please?
The timing is extraordinary. The Taoiseach must accept that. It is not a straight answer to a straight question.
We will let Deputy McDonald in.
This is the modus operandi of the cosy relationship across the floor. It is quite all right.
It is not that cosy.
I have resigned myself to it. Is it true that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, threatened to pull the plug on the Taoiseach's Administration on the basis of the handling of the appointment to the Court of Appeal? Is it true that he threatened to pull the plug unless the Taoiseach guaranteed that the judicial appointments legislation would go through the Houses before the summer recess? It is essential that the Taoiseach answers those questions. They are clear questions which require clear answers because it is not only me but the public who needs to understand the workings of Government. I am not asking the Taoiseach to breach Cabinet confidentiality - perish the thought - or any other long-standing convention. I am simply asking him to answer in plain language whether the Minister, Deputy Ross, threatened that course of action and if it was on the basis of the Taoiseach's handling of the appointment to the Court of Appeal. Did the Minister resile from the position on the basis that he would get what has been described as "his legislation" on judicial appointments over the line prior to the summer recess?
As with many other Ministers, I speak to Deputy Ross regularly. We spoke just last night, for example, and obviously met at Cabinet this morning. We had two phone calls last Sunday, and on no occasion during either of those phone calls did he threaten resignation to me. I have seen reports that he may have done so in the newspapers, but perhaps that was in conversation with other people or Ministers. Certainly, in neither of the telephone conversations he had with me did he threaten resignation. I am happy to clarify that and I think I have clarified it already.
The process for appointing two High Court judges and one Court of Appeal judge, Ms Justice Máire Whelan, by the President was done in the normal way. My office contacted the Áras to see when the President would be available and that was the time when we were both available. The Taoiseach or the Minister for Justice and Equality must go and, obviously, the President has to be there also. There was no undue pressure put on the Áras whatsoever to speed this up.
I did not ask that.
He is shadow-boxing.
It is very much the norm that when a judge is nominated, he or she is appointed by the President, often within a matter of days and sometimes within a week or two, for the obvious reason that someone cannot take new cases the minute he or she is nominated.
Am I to take it from that response that whereas the threat to bring down the Government was not made directly to the Taoiseach, it was, in fact, made to another Minister?
I only know about that from the newspapers. Absolutely no threat was made to me in either telephone conversation on that particular Sunday. The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill was due to be in the Dáil on 20 June anyway and was actually put back a bit.
There is a bit of shadow-boxing.
Has the Taoiseach ascertained or established with his colleagues if there was a threat to bring the Government down? That is what I am asking.
If I had to ascertain with Government Ministers every piece of gossip that appeared in the newspapers, I would have no time to get any work done.
I call Deputy Howlin.
It is a rather standout piece of gossip.
There are 20 things every day if one actually reads the papers.
Deputy Howlin to conclude on the matter.
The Taoiseach told the House last week that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill would be in the House on Thursday of this week. When was it determined that the Bill should begin its passage today? Was it part of an agreement with the Minister, Deputy Ross, to bring it forward because only seven days ago it was to be in the House on Thursday? Is there any understanding at Government level between the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Ross, on amendments to the Bill or is the Bill open to any amendment from any side of the House before it passes? Is there to be any timeline on the available space for the House to enact the legislation?
The Bill was due to be in the House on 20 June. That was the case several weeks ago when we were in discussions with the Independent Alliance on the election of a new Taoiseach and Government. It was delayed a week because Deputy Charles Flanagan, who was newly appointed as Minister for Justice and Equality, did not want to take it on his second or third day in office. It was put back a week rather than rushed forward, which is the impression that some people have created. It was due to be in the Dáil on 20 June. We have no understanding on amendments and any amendments put forward will be considered case by case basis in the normal way by the Minister for Justice and Equality. The Bill is provided for in the programme for Government which stated specifically more than a year ago that we would introduce a judicial appointments Bill providing for a lay chair and a lay majority. We would be going against our own programme for Government as agreed by Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Independents if we were to support amendments which changed that aspect of it.
What is the timeline for enactment?
The timeline is dependent on the House. There are nine and a half hours provided for Second Stage and it can be on Committee-----
If Deputies are offering at the end of that, it will just go on.
No one has requested a guillotine.