Mary Lou McDonald
Question:1. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the national reform programme 2018. [43710/18]
View answerWednesday, 14 November 2018
Questions (1, 2, 3)
Brendan Howlin
Question:2. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the national reform programme 2018. [43839/18]
View answer
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:3. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the national reform programme 2018. [45636/18]
View answerOral answers (8 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, together.
The national reform programme is an important element of the European semester. This is the annual cycle of enhanced economic and fiscal policy co-ordination at EU level. Each semester is commenced by the publication by the European Commission of the annual growth survey, which identifies economic priorities for member states for the period ahead.
In April, Ireland, along with other member states, submitted its national reform programme to the European Commission in conjunction with a stability programme update. The national reform programme provides an overview of structural reforms and policy actions under way, including in response to country-specific recommendations given to Ireland as part of the preceding year's European semester. It is co-ordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach with input from relevant Departments and agencies. Stakeholders were consulted and submissions were received from 11 groups before the programme was finalised. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs was also invited to share its views on the European semester.
Ireland’s national reform programme for 2018 reported on policies in place to respond to the main challenges and imbalances Ireland faces, including those identified in the 2018 country report published by the European Commission and Ireland’s country-specific recommendations for 2017. The programme also reported on progress towards Ireland’s Europe 2020 targets in the areas of employment, research and development, climate change and energy, education and poverty reduction. Finally, the programme provided an update on Brexit and reported on the use of structural funds.
The national reform programme justifiably highlights the disparity in employment rates between men and women, which have widened once again in recent years. However, it completely fails to mention the disparity in pay that women in the workforce experience. Yesterday marked the Work Equal campaign's day of action to highlight the gender pay gap in Ireland. It was in effect the date on which women stopped receiving an income for their work for the remainder of the year relative to their male counterparts. CSO data show that on average, women in Ireland are paid 14% less than men. Ireland is not an outlier in its failure to address the gender pay gap and addressing it should form part of the national reform programme. European Unequal Pay Day was marked on 31 October. The bottom line is that Irish women, like many women across Europe, work two months out of 12 for free when compared with men.
I understand the general scheme of the Gender Pay Gap (Information) Bill will be before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality next week for pre-legislative scrutiny. While gender pay gap reporting is an important tool that will assist in identifying pay differentials and might assist in tackling the pay gap issue, there are other tools at the disposal of the Taoiseach. The programme for Government commits to strengthening the role of the Low Pay Commission in tackling the gender pay gap as well as in-work poverty and also commits to strengthening regulation on precarious work. Women workers are disproportionately represented in low pay sectors such as retail and hospitality. What actions have been taken to strengthen the role of the Low Pay Commission in tackling in-work poverty, precarious work and the gender pay gap?
On the country-specific recommendations and the national reform programme, there is a call for specific emphasis on resolving long-term non-performing loans through resolution strategies, that is, making provision for write-downs to allow indebted homeowners to resolve their debt and be able to secure their family home. The same would be true for viable businesses, as is referenced in the reports, as well as for households. Ireland is unusual in that there is very little evidence here of any debt write-downs at all. Instead, the debt is being sold to vulture funds. There is much suggestion from those in government that the vulture funds are in some way nicer and easier to deal with. I do not think that is true. The principle of debt reduction is to allow indebted people to get back into an arrangement with their bank.
Will the Taoiseach instruct AIB and PTSB, for example, to deliver debt write-downs to their remaining customers who are in serious arrears? Billions of euro of loans have been sold to vulture funds at a steep discount. This is not being passed on to homeowners. The country-specific recommendations called for better targeted measures in terms of tax expenditures and general government expenditures.
On 1 December, the National Housing and Homelessness Coalition will be organising another demonstration on the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis which we have talked much about in this House. The national reform programme makes significant reference to the Government's plans to address the housing situation, and reiterates its targets under the Rebuilding Ireland plan. Does the Taoiseach accept that even at this point in the year, the Government is not meeting even those completely inadequate targets? The figures at the end of quarter 2 for the building of social housing show a total of 1,400 units and just under 500 council houses. The Rebuilding Ireland targets were for 6,385. The Government is way below the targets it set itself in Rebuilding Ireland, which are totally inadequate compared to the number of people on housing lists and in homelessness and emergency situations. Does the Taoiseach accept that Rebuilding Ireland is failing even on its own terms, and that what is stated in the national reform programme in respect of it is simply not going to happen? What is the Taoiseach going to do to address that?
The reform plan makes reference to research and development and how it has underpinned innovative ideas, particularly over the last 20 years. However, there is a sense that we are not putting the resources or emphasis into further research and development to allow policy makers and others to bring forward the best possible ideas. In respect of the Higher Education Authority, major issues have developed in how they are going forward. Does the Taoiseach accept that there is a major issue affecting research and development? It has been shown over the last 20 years that solid research and development has underpinned many innovative ideas but we do not seem to be putting the emphasis into getting the best possible research before we go into changing policy. The Taoiseach might comment on that.
Closing the gender pay gap is not in the national reform programme but I agree with Deputy O'Reilly that just because something is not in the national reform programme does not mean we should not do it. We should do it and we have a number of actions under way. The first is the gender pay Bill, which is going to the Oireachtas joint committee next week. I encourage all parties to work together to make sure we have pre-legislative scrutiny done next week and can progress the legislation. It will require companies and employers with more than 250 staff initially to be phased subsequently to 50 or more staff, to produce data on their gender pay gap so we can see where it exists.
It also enables us to drill down a bit more into the reasons for gender pay gaps among different employers. There can be many different reasons.
We have had equal pay for equal work since the 1970s but that is different from gender pay and very often it is because it is much more difficult for women to make their way up the promotional ladder. In higher education institutions, for example, 50% of lecturers are women, but only 25% of professors are women. That can be seen across the public service and in private sector companies as well. We need to push the promotion of more women in the workplace. Deputies will be aware of the package of actions published by Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, on Monday. We need to do those kinds of things across all parts of the public sector and in the private sector. In the next few weeks I will be involved in an initiative to encourage the promotion of more women to the boards of private companies, similar to what has been done in the UK. We have already made some good progress with State boards in that regard. More than 52% of people appointed to State boards through the PAS process were female - a majority for the first time. More than 40% of members of State boards are now women.
Actions such as increases in the national minimum wage disproportionately benefit women because more women are earning the minimum wage. In January, the fourth increase since 2011 will kick in. There are many other similar actions.
I had an opportunity to look at the Central Bank report on the code of conduct on mortgage arrears in recent days. The percentage of people in mortgage arrears of more than 90 days is 7%. People may often miss payments, but the number who are more than three months in arrears is now down to approximately 7%. That is a really dramatic fall. The number of people in mortgage arrears used to be 15% to 20% and it is now 7%. Some 120,000 mortgage loans have been restructured, which is a considerable number. Sometimes that means changing the term; sometimes it means a reduced interest rate; sometimes it means making it a split mortgage; and sometimes it can involve write-downs as well. Some 93% of people are paying their mortgages and are meeting their repayment schedules. Many of them are also struggling to do so, but are meeting them. However, tens of thousands are still in mortgage distress and we need to put in place workable solutions for them. Every circumstance is different and no one size fits all. In some cases it will involve restructuring the loans. There are many ways to do that, such as reduced interest rates and longer terms. In some cases it may be write-downs and in some cases it may be people voluntarily surrendering the home they are mortgaging to move to a smaller home for which they are better able to afford the rent or mortgage. There are many different solutions and it is necessary to look at each case individually.
It is not lawful for me or the Minister for Finance to make directions to the commercial banks even where we own a portion or a significant portion of the shares. They must operate independently and commercially. There are many reasons for that under European and Irish law. I would be happy to send on to Deputy Burton a primer explaining how it works.
Core to the solution to the housing issue is the supply of new homes and apartments. We need more homes and apartments for people to live in. Last year, the population increased by over 60,000. It stands to reason, therefore, that we need to be building at least 30,000 new homes and apartments every year just to meet the rise in demand of a country with an expanding population and an expanding economy. However, we are not doing that yet. We need to ramp up the supply of new houses and apartments of all sorts. We need homes for people to buy, homes for people to rent and also social housing. We need all those kinds of housing and also need cost rental.
We are making progress. We will build between 18,000 and 20,000 new homes this year, which is up from 15,000 last year - it was less than 10,000 the previous year and perhaps 5,000 the year before. If we could ramp it up quicker, I guarantee that we would. However, there are capacity constraints and limitations as to how quickly we can ramp up the building of new homes. To have gone from less than 5,000 a few years ago to nearly 20,000 this year, with more new homes being built this year than in any other year this decade represents considerable progress. I fully accept that it is not happening fast enough. We will do everything we can to speed up the rate of construction growth until it gets to the sustainable level of 30,000 to 35,000 new homes being built every year which is what we need to meet and get ahead of demand.
The CSO figures released this week speak for themselves. A total of 4,673 new homes were built in the three months to September, which means that 4,673 individuals and families in those three months being able to move into new homes and apartments. The big increase was in housing schemes. The increase in one-off housing was only 26%, but the increase in housing schemes, housing estates essentially, was 40% year on year, which is a pretty big increase in the number of new housing estates being built. It is disappointing that we have not seen a similar increase in the number of apartments being built, particularly in the cities where many single people want one-bedroom apartments and many people want to rent. The number of apartments being built is not increasing at all.
It is below target though.
That is a matter of significant concern. Of course, these figures do not include a further 2,000 student apartments, the reconnection of 654 vacant dwellings or unfinished housing developments that have now been completed.