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Departmental Administrative Arrangements

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Alan Kelly

Question:

1. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [25398/20]

View answer

Alan Kelly

Question:

2. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the status of the national risk assessment for 2020. [27098/20]

View answer

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

3. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [27113/20]

View answer

Mick Barry

Question:

4. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [28555/20]

View answer

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

5. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [28557/20]

View answer

Oral answers (15 contributions)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together.

The economic division of my Department assists me and the Government in developing and implementing policy across relevant areas including economic growth and job creation, infrastructure and housing and climate action and social dialogue. This work is focused, in particular, on the delivery of commitments in the programme for Government, for example, the development of a new national economic plan as well as co-ordination of issues which will cut across multiple Departments.

The economic division supports the work of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Investment, the Cabinet Committee on Housing and the Cabinet Committee on the Environment and Climate Change. The division also leads Ireland's participation at the annual European semester process, liaises with the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and provides me with briefing and speech material on economic and related policy issues. In addition, the division jointly leads work on preparedness for Brexit along with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other divisions of my Department.

Finally, the economic division is also responsible for publishing the national risk assessment, NRA, which has provided a high-level overview of strategic risks facing the country since it was first published in 2014. Given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the priority attached to responding to the crisis within my Department and across Government it is not intended to publish an updated national risk assessment in 2020. However, I intend that the national risk assessment process will resume for 2021.

In doing so, the Department will consider any learning and examine options for further strengthening the NRA process including in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The intention is to evaluate how best the process can be used with a view to ensuring it can continue to play a role in identifying these strategic risks facing Ireland. Given its role, the division works closely with colleagues in the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and with colleagues in other Departments which have legal responsibility for specific policy areas.

First, yesterday at the Taoiseach's announcement it was strongly reported that he was going to announce a new bank holiday.

Yes. He can deny it was even in his thoughts or part of his assessments but it was strongly reported. In fact, it was assumed for some reason. A date was even given out. It was to be around Christmas. He can come back and let us know if that was in his thoughts. If it was not, he should just say it out straight. If it was considered, he should tell us why he dropped it at the last minute.

Given where we have gone in recent days - I am not trudging over old ground - we need to consider how we plan to support people. I hope this Cabinet committee is considering that. What are the Taoiseach's thoughts about the pandemic unemployment payment? Have his thoughts on the €350 changed since yesterday? What is to happen with the ban on evictions? We are now in a different scenario from last week. What is happening with the payment moratorium on loans and mortgages?

The hospitality industry has a specific issue. Last week, on Leaders' Questions, I asked the Taoiseach about sectoral requirements in the hospitality industry, the events industry, pubs and restaurants. Obviously, the budget is coming up. Tourism and hospitality businesses are being affected more than others. I ask the Taoiseach to consider this.

On risk assessment, I know that the Taoiseach responded to me earlier on private hospitals. The previous Minister for Health left with an agreement on ICU capacity and private hospitals sitting on his desk. The current Minister never took it up and it is time he took it up or did something with it. That buffer zone would give the public considerable security. Obviously, there are issues with ICUs, but the two biggest risks which I want the Government to address in this pandemic are as follows. The first is non-Covid healthcare. The Taoiseach has until tomorrow to provide figures - at least I gave him a week's notice - on coronary care, cancer care, diagnosis and also how people are being treated versus last year. The second risk, the real one, is how the Minister, despite what he announced in the winter plan, will get 12,500 staff into the system by next April. That is the biggest risk. I do not know how it will be done based on what I have heard so far. I hope those two risks are at the top of the risk register that the Taoiseach discussed.

The Tánaiste launched a really cynical, politically motivated attack on the public health team in order to cover over the Government's failure to use the summer period to resource our ICUs to the level we need, our hospitals generally and a tracing regime that would allow us to chase the virus, rather than be chased by it, as is currently happening.

Regardless of the cynicism of the Tánaiste's attack, if infection rates continue even at their current level or if, as predicted by the modellers at NPHET, they get worse, the economic, human and social damage will be even worse. If the Government is to deal with that situation and take the measures that will be necessary one way or another to protect public health, it will need to protect the incomes of working people. The taxi drivers in their thousands will be on a socially distanced drive protest this Friday because along with other groups they have seen the Government slash their pandemic unemployment payments, forcing them back to work when there is no work. The same is true for those who work in events, the arts and music, along with bar workers and hotel workers. Effectively, from a financial point of view, the Government has stabbed them in the back at the time when they need support. It has lifted the eviction moratorium and the mortgage repayment moratorium that would have allowed them to survive this period. It has failed to give them supports and has reduced their supports. Tomorrow, we will debate a motion calling for the restoration of those payments. Will the Government do that? Irrespective of our dispute with the Government about restriction levels and so on, if it wants public compliance, it cannot do anything other than restore the income supports for people who have lost their jobs as a result of this pandemic. Will the Government do it?

Seven minutes remain in this slot and we need to bear in mind that the Taoiseach needs to have time to answer.

I ask about the plight of two groups of workers, namely, the Aer Lingus workers and the Debenhams workers. The Aer Lingus workers have been submitting short-term working forms to Intreo offices to try to get the back-money due to them from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection from before 1 September. Why are they getting satisfaction in some offices and not in the majority? For example, the Intreo office in Drogheda will process the claims, but Intreo offices in other areas are not doing so. This is all wrong. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection needs to issue a directive to follow the Drogheda example and to process those claims. The workers are in dire need.

The Debenhams workers will have been on strike for six months this Friday. They are now forced to picket in the cold and with the virus on the increase. On 8 September, the Taoiseach told the Dáil that KPMG and Mandate should talk. Mandate officials are ready and willing to talk, but since then - a month ago - KPMG has not only ignored the Taoiseach's words, but it has introduced non-union workers into the shops, who have passed picket lines to pack the stock at the centre of the dispute. KPMG has also involved the Garda in the dispute on more than one occasion.

Given that the Taoiseach's first call was a month ago and given the actions of KPMG since then, is the Taoiseach prepared to amplify that call and tell the Dáil today very loudly and in no uncertain terms that KPMG must come to the table and negotiate seriously, in other words, put on the table an offer that is better than the paltry increase proposed the last time?

Yesterday, 12 trade organisations and 429 businesses from the hospitality and events sector wrote an open letter to the Taoiseach. I assume he has read that letter. He will know that the vast majority of these businesses are indigenous. He will know that they are now at their wits' end and are calling on the Government to make a series of emergency interventions to ensure their businesses are not lost. In next week's budget will the Government reduce the 13.5% VAT rate to 9% for the hospitality and tourism sectors? Will it extend the commercial rates waiver? Will it provide enhanced grants for the sectors worst affected by the Covid-19 restrictions? By that, I mean those sectors that simply cannot function or sectors whose turnover is down by much more than 30%. Will the Government grant aid those to ensure they survive?

We have moved to level 3 meaning that tens of thousands of workers will be laid off across the State. Given that turn of events is due to a Government decision, I ask it to revisit the wage subsidy scheme, particularly in respect of workers on very low pay, many of whom are students and women, but all of whom are low-paid and vulnerable.

The case to reverse the Government's cut to the pandemic unemployment payment is now unanswerable. The Government's decision to go to level 3, the recognition that we are still in the grip of this pandemic with all the uncertainty and jeopardy that presents for businesses and workers, means that it must reverse that cut.

I cannot call Deputy Paul Murphy because of the short time remaining. I will give the Taoiseach the three minutes remaining.

I must resist the attempt to underplay and undermine the progress that has been made in ramping up key aspects of the health service. The testing and tracing capacity has been significantly enhanced with an onshore laboratory capacity for 100,000 tests and 2,000 per day offshore.

We are currently increasing capacity onshore for November and December and we will continue to have offshore capacity during the winter period. As such, there has been a very significant ramping up of the testing situation. A total of 90% of our tests are completed end to end in less than three days, more than 91% of GP referrals get an appointment in less than 24 hours, more than 95% of people get the result less than 48 hours following the swabbing appointment and, overall, end to end, the median period between the referral and the end of tracing is less than two days. There has been substantial progress and it is time to acknowledge that. It is not where it was in March; it is far better. There are higher volumes. We are testing far more now than we did in the early part of the pandemic and that has to be accepted.

On the hospital system, there has been a 30% increase in ICUs once the winter initiative is implemented: 25% since March and a further 17 as a result of the winter initiative. Admittedly it will be challenging to get the staff but the funding has been made available. It is the largest funding for a winter initiative ever in the history of the health service. It is designed to try to increase capacity both on the ICU side and also on the general hospital side, to increase staffing and to release healthcare staff who had come to the rescue in the early phase of the pandemic back to their front-line services. Substantial recruitment is under way and as I said earlier concerning contact tracers and swabbers, very significant progress is being made on that front. No proposal on private sector capacity was left on any desk. The HSE has been continually negotiating and that is ongoing. There is a bridging agreement of €25 million. It has completed a new procurement agreement to deal with diagnostics and general services, and negotiations are ongoing about need in the event of a surge.

The PUP was originally meant as a 12-week provision. It has been opened to new entrants and, therefore, anyone who is laid off as a result of us going to level 3 will be able to avail of it; it has been extended out to April of next year. The Government has to look at beyond April 2021 to make the PUP sustainable. It also has to look at other social welfare recipients. There are 213,000 people on jobseeker's allowance on €203 per week and then there are carers and lone parents and the whole area of child poverty. There is a range of payments across social protection that we have got to look at as well in addition to all of the other commitments. Deputies are having an each-way bet. On the one hand, Deputy McDonald talks about thousands being laid off in hospitality because of a Government decision. Covid has forced that decision. The Government does not willingly lay off people or cause sectors to close. Other Members will say we should have gone to level 5, which would have meant hundreds of thousands of people being laid off overnight. These are the calls and choices that Government has to make.

We have to move on to Question No. 6. Time is up.

The budget will hopefully deal with some of the issues to which Deputies are referring but I cannot pre-empt it today and I do not intend to.

A Thaoisigh, you cannot answer the questions. If Members consume all the time asking the questions, you cannot be expected to answer them so we have to move on to Question No. 6.

I will come back to it later.

I again appeal to Members asking questions to please give the Taoiseach time to answer them.

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