Mary Lou McDonald
Question:1. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [2175/22]
View answerCabinet Committees
Questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Gino Kenny
Question:2. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [3614/22]
View answer
Alan Kelly
Question:3. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [4370/22]
View answer
Dara Calleary
Question:4. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [4633/22]
View answer
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:5. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health last met. [4700/22]
View answer
Paul Murphy
Question:6. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health last met. [4703/22]
View answer
Aindrias Moynihan
Question:7. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [4902/22]
View answer
Mick Barry
Question:8. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [5135/22]
View answerOral answers (19 contributions)
I propose to take Questions No. 1 to 8, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on health oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to health, receives detailed reports on identified policy areas and considers the implementation of health reforms, including Sláintecare. The Cabinet committee last met on Thursday, 9 December. It is currently scheduled to meet next on Monday, 28 February.
In addition to meetings of the full Cabinet and Cabinet committees, I meet with Ministers on an individual basis to focus on different issues. I meet regularly with the Minister for Health to discuss priorities in the area of health, including Sláintecare and, in particular, our management and response to Covid-19. The health sector faced significant challenges this winter with the surge of the Omicron variant we saw over the Christmas period. We will now refocus our efforts on the resumption of non-Covid health and social care and progress commitments to reform the health service.
The year 2022 will see the biggest ever investment in the health system to deliver Sláintecare, reduce waiting lists, increase capacity, protect the most vulnerable and address inequalities. Over the coming weeks and months, work will continue to advance a number of priority programmes of work identified in the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy and Action Plan 2021-2023, including progressing six new regional health areas, the multi-annual waiting list reduction plan and taking steps towards the establishment of elective care centres in counties Dublin, Cork and Galway.
We will continue our investment in an expanded public health service and embed the lessons learned in the pandemic into community and primary care services. In this regard, the Minister for Health last week announced the establishment of a public health reform expert advisory group. The expert group will initially focus on identifying learnings from the public health components of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland, with a view towards strengthening health protection generally and future public health pandemic preparedness specifically. The expert group will then examine the key components of the existing delivery models for public health in Ireland, with a view to recommending an appropriate operating model to develop and oversee the delivery of public health in Ireland into the future.
When the Taoiseach meets with Children's Health Ireland, CHI, it will confirm for him that 649 children are waiting for scheduled or elective orthopaedic surgery, 56 of whom have been waiting between one and four years. I invite the Taoiseach to confirm for the House that he will instruct the Minister for Health and the HSE to release the necessary funding as a matter of urgency to ensure that this list is cleared and these children have the care they need.
I also wish to raise the issue of St. Brigid's District Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir. It was closed in the midst of Covid-19 with the promise that it would be reopened. Locals have learned that this reopening is not now going to happen. I commend their campaigning efforts. In fact, the local campaigners will be before the Joint Committee on Public Petitions today. They have gathered 11,000 signatures in support of reopening the hospital and seek a meeting with the Taoiseach. Will he agree to meet with the campaigners and ensure that the commitments made to retain services at St. Brigid's District Hospital are honoured?
In the context of the Cabinet committee on health, as we move into the next phase of Covid-19, has the Taoiseach discussed the future role of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and what shape and size it will be going forward?
I know the Taoiseach in his previous ministerial role did a huge amount of work in the area of strokes and stroke care. He may have seen this morning the audit of strokes in Ireland, which is a really interesting piece of work highlighting the challenges facing stroke treatment. Will that be discussed at the Cabinet committee on health to ensure that we improve our responses?
Over the weekend, concerns were expressed by Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, representatives and other organisations about the need to attract specialists into our regional hospitals, in particular, specialist consultants. It is becoming increasingly challenging to get consultants to take up positions in regional hospitals. There is no sense in us piling into the city hospitals when we have really good regional hospitals and health infrastructure regionally. I ask that a focus be given in terms of enhancing packages to attract people.
The north Kerry child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, scandal brought to light a much longer-term scandal of the over-medication of young people compensating for the chronic lack of staffing and resources in our mental health services.
I want to ask particularly about the utter lack of community psychology and primary care psychology. One aspect of this, and I have been trying to point this out for a long time, is that CAMHS gets overrun, and often with referrals that probably should not even go to it, because of the lack of community psychology and talk, occupational, speech and language therapy. This is not just for child and adolescent community psychology, or the lack of it, but also for others.
I am aware of a case at the moment of a man whose doctors referred him for psychology. He was told by community psychology in my area that he will have to wait six years for a psychologist. What happened to primary care? It does not exist in the area of psychology. As I have raised repeatedly with the Taoiseach, why do we make it difficult for young people who want to be psychologists to qualify because we do not fund educational and counselling psychology? We have massive fees of up to €15,000 and similar obstacles in the area of psychiatry for people being qualified.
I wish to raise again the heartbreaking case of Ava Cahill, an 11-year-old old from Tallaght. She has spina bifida, which results in her feet being turned inward making everyday tasks very difficult. Putting on her shoes on a daily basis is a challenge. She needs help to put on her trousers. She has been left waiting for more than a year and a half for corrective surgery with her condition worsening on a daily basis. Imagine what it is like for her and her family. They do not even have a date for surgery to look forward to. Worse still, if her condition continues to deteriorate, it could end up being inoperable. She is just one of 649 children waiting for surgery, including 56 children with spina bifida. It is a national scandal.
The Taoiseach's earlier response seemed to suggest it is not the Government's problem and that the hospitals have the funds so why do they not just do it? I put it to the Taoiseach that this does not make any sense. We need to provide the resources to clear the waiting lists rapidly and build a top-quality Irish national health service.
There is a shortfall of 15 neurology nurses at Cork University Hospital, CUH, which is the State's number two neurology centre according to the neurology clinical programme. The programme made a request last year that the HSE would fund posts for at least two new neurology nurses at CUH this year. The HSE decided not to do so.
This underfunding impacts negatively on the lives of people with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease and others. It is happening on the watch of the Taoiseach and a Fianna Fáil Minister for Health. Will the Taoiseach agree with me that what is happening here falls short of what should be acceptable in a civilized society? Will he undertake to look very closely at this situation as we head towards the Estimates process this year?
Talking about our health services, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the pay for the Secretary General of the Department of Health went up yesterday by €3,000. That is on top of the increase last November of €3,000.
That is on top of the additional €81,000 on which the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Tánaiste collectively agreed, without any process, rationale or justification. There is no justification. His salary now stands at €297,869. Compare that with the head of the British NHS, whose salary is £199,000. Does the Taoiseach recognise just how disgusting this scenario is when he is looking for plaudits for giving front-line healthcare workers €1,000? He has done virtually nothing for all those workers and families who are struggling to make ends meet. Yet, he took €87,000 of their money and handed it to one of the highest paid civil servants in the world. Does the Taoiseach regret his role in this grubby affair? Will he now move to restore the salary to the Secretary General level at a rate that was based on some level of process?
The Taoiseach has just over five minutes to reply.
Deputy McDonald again raised the issue of Ava Cahill and the orthopaedic situation. Government is responsible overall for the delivery of healthcare. The point I was making earlier was that the funding has been allocated. A figure of €5 million is not an issue. I want to make that clear. Since 2018, which was before I came into office, to be fair, an extra €9 million had been allocated each year to the HSE specifically for the funding of orthopaedic services. This additional funding supported the recruitment of approximately 60 extra staff in 2018 and 2019 to enable the expansion of paediatric orthopaedic services.
Improving capacity to allow for additional activity is the key enabler to improve waiting times. Proposals by the HSE under the waiting list action plan are for funding to extend theatre capacity in Crumlin and in Temple Street. There has been additional theatre capacity at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh since April 2021 for day case surgery. CHI has advised that this should result in a positive impact in reducing long waiting times for general orthopaedics, in addition to consequential capacity gains for scoliosis patients.
In 2022, CHI was planning to undertake a range of inpatient day case and outpatient orthopaedic appointments in Cappagh. There is also planning for additional orthopaedic scoliosis theatre sessions using private facilities that were supported to HSE procurement agreements. Huge funding has been provided to the health service, both in 2020 during Covid-19 and in 2021, and I mean non-Covid-19 health expenditures. There was a €600 million allocation given very early in the winter of last year with a view to ensuring that capacity would be increased right along the line.
We have said repeatedly to the health service operators that where they can get capacity quickly, whether this is theatre capacity or bed capacity, please go and do so. We said the same for recruiting staff. A record number of staff was recruited last year because of that extra funding. This figure was less than they said they were hoping to recruit. The health service had resources to recruit more last year. However, because there is obviously a huge demand on key positions and so on, they were not in the position to recruit as many as they would have liked to. Yet, they still managed to recruit a record number in any one year. Likewise, the same happened in 2020.
That said, as far as I am concerned, anything that can be done to make sure that Ava Cahill gets her operation and that other children are not waiting an inordinate length of time has to be the priority. It is not about funding. They need to get the capacity in place so that they can do whatever can be done in the shortest possible term to get it done.
Tell the HSE that.
I have.
On Deputy Calleary's point, the work on the stroke units was an important piece of work. Since stroke units came in well over a decade ago, they have been transformative in terms of the impact on survival from strokes, improvements and prevention. I heard the consultant on “Morning Ireland” this morning in relation to this. We will examine that audit. Those clinical strategies are the most effective in health. While they do not get the same headlines, they have proven to be the most effective way to improve health, prevent injury and prevent disease through cardiovascular strategies, cancer strategies and stroke strategies. They have been the most effective in improving healthcare and survival rates in this country. The Deputy is absolutely correct about the challenges facing all of us in attracting specialists to the regions. That is both an academic and an advanced medicine problem. Many consultants and clinicians want to be in centres of tertiary care so that they can get experience, as well as for their career development and so on. That is where the magnet is.
The hospital groups are now developing strategies, including a bespoke model, if you like, to enable those at the centre to provide services to hospitals within the group. I believe that is the way forward. We need to engage with the colleges, such as various colleges of anaesthesia, surgery or whatever, to tell them that we need new models to ensure that we can maintain and retain capacity in the regional hospitals. That is an ongoing challenge to health here and all over the world, but particularly in Ireland in our rural and regional areas.
I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett on community. There has been a 19% reduction in waiting times in primary care for psychology for under-18-year-olds. There has been additional investment put into the primary care psychological services. That is a 19% reduction among under-18-year-olds years who have been waiting more than 12 months to access primary care psychology. We need to do more in relation to that.
The Taoiseach is over time.
I and many of the NGOs support intervening much earlier.
I have dealt with Deputy Paul Murphy’s point in my response to Deputy McDonald. On Deputy Barry’s point, again the investment has been provided. Very often, this depends on how local management and regional management prioritise key services, as well as how they allocate the large funding that has been allocated to them.
On Deputy Carthy’s point, the health service needs radical reform. The Department itself needs to be developed strongly. It needs to be the place to go to, if I am frank about it.
It needs to be transparent-----
I have a lot of experience in health. I have been a Minister for Health. Regularly, in various Oireachtais down through the years, people raise health issues-----
I thank the Taoiseach. We are eating into the next slot. I am sorry but-----
I asked if the Taoiseach regrets his part in this grubby affair. It is a grubby affair.
This goes on all the time.
Everyone is going to lose out as there are 15 minutes per slot. We are moving into the next slot now. We were already two minutes into it. I am sorry.
Cabinet Committees
Questions (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
Neale Richmond
Question:9. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will meet next. [3070/22]
View answerMary Lou McDonald
Question:10. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will next meet. [4366/22]
View answer
Seán Haughey
Question:11. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will next meet. [4635/22]
View answerNeale Richmond
Question:12. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will next meet. [4687/22]
View answer
Peadar Tóibín
Question:13. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will next meet. [4714/22]
View answer
Brendan Smith
Question:14. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will meet next. [4741/22]
View answerAlan Kelly
Question:15. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will next meet. [4805/22]
View answerOral answers (9 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 15, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland was formally established by Government on 6 July 2020. It had its first meeting on 29 October 2020. The Cabinet committee last met on 4 March 2021. The meeting scheduled for Monday, 29 November 2021 had to be postponed. Relevant issues arising on Brexit and Northern Ireland are regularly considered at meetings of the full Cabinet. For example, after the meeting that was scheduled for 29 November 2021 was postponed, Cabinet considered two comprehensive memos on the North-South co-operation, as well as on the shared island initiative in December. The next meeting of the committee has now been scheduled for Thursday, 24 February. The Cabinet committee on Europe also discusses related matters.
In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I also meet with Ministers on an individual basis to focus on particular issues, where required.
While I appreciate there are regular interventions and engagements between the Taoiseach and Ministers in a whole host of areas, it is slightly concerning that it has been a while since there has been a dedicated meeting of this Cabinet committee. It is important and I am glad to hear it is resuming at the end of the month.
I very much hope by the end of the month that we still have an Executive in Stormont. I hope that the idle threats being made on a daily basis by certain members do not come to fruition. The latest by the North's agriculture minister is in regard to stopping checks altogether. Acting unilaterally is yet another indication of the disappointing approach taken to an international agreement by so many parties.
As a supplementary question, will the Taoiseach in his response expand on the preparation that has been made at Cabinet level for any political eventualities leading up to the Assembly elections in the North in May? It is important this Government plays the most important role within the EU with the UK and with the Executive in Northern Ireland to ensure Brexit issues are kept front and centre. There is a concerning level of drift. As Europe and the UK understandably get distracted with other areas, it lands on Dublin. It lands on the Taoiseach’s Government to ensure this remains a centre focus.
The Taoiseach is aware the DUP continues to boycott the North-South Ministerial Council. As has been said previously, the party leadership continues to issue threats to the North's political stability. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that these actions do not serve anybody in the North well. What is his view on, and the Government's response to, the DUP's boycotting of the North-South Ministerial Council? What recent engagements have the Taoiseach or officials had with their British counterparts in respect of the proposed amnesty legislation? What was the outcome of these discussions?
This week marks two years since Britain formally Brexited, or exited from the European Union, bringing the North with it despite majority support there for remain. The resumption of talks at the joint working committee on the withdrawal agreement on 21 February signals another crunch point for the North. What actions is the Government taking at a bilateral or European level to advance observer status for the North at a European level?
Where stands the Government's outstanding commitment to a referendum on presidential voting rights? There is cross-party support for voting rights to be extended to citizens living beyond this State. When does the Taoiseach expect the Minister to bring heads of Bill to the Government for approval?
The UK has been out of the EU for over a year now. What analysis is being undertaken by the Cabinet committee on the effects of Brexit on the Republic of Ireland? Some headlines in recent weeks have made reference to the effective end of the so-called land bridge, in that there has been a dramatic fall in Irish lorries using British ports and a rise in direct ferry routes to mainland Europe. Goods imports from Britain to the Republic have decreased by 20%. At the same time, cross-Border trade has increased substantially while exports from the Republic into Britain have increased by 20%. These statistics are compiled by the Central Statistics Office. We need to establish what is going on here. We are also told that Brexit has boosted international banks based in Ireland to the tune of over €500 billion and that Ireland is in second place behind Germany when it comes to the value of assets relocated to EU banks from UK banks after Brexit. We are all agreed that there is no such thing as a good Brexit. Has the Cabinet committee been able to consider a comprehensive report on the effects of Brexit one year on? What do the statistics tell us about the fallout from Brexit at this stage?
The Taoiseach referred earlier to the pension age in the North being increased to 66, which is certainly not a good thing. I would suggest that hiding behind that fact is not an excuse for not returning the pension age to 65. This is a point I have often made to the Taoiseach. Surely if we want to encourage people to be part of a united Ireland, we need to make being part of a united Ireland a more attractive option. It should be a better and different place for ordinary people and that is a good reason for us to restore the pension age to 65. In any event, raising the pension age was simply an austerity measure that was brought in during an economic crisis precipitated by bankers and developers, an emergency which has now passed. In France, the pension age is 62, while it is 65 in Belgium, 62 in Malta and 65 in Austria. There is simply no justification for raising the pension age. We should restore it to 65 in the interests of fairness for working people.
In the first instance, I take Deputy Richmond's point. We cover the Brexit issue at the EU Cabinet committee as well and we have had meetings with the key Ministers and party leaders in the context of the EU and in respect of key moments for Brexit. I have met the British Prime Minister on the protocol issues specifically and made matters very clear. There was a very energetic engagement at the time of COP26 when there was commentary to the effect that Article 16 might be invoked. Our engagement was sustained across Government and all Ministers involved had an impact on the re-evaluation of that by the British Government. The British Government retains the right to do what it feels it needs to do but I accept the Foreign Secretary's statement that it is committed to reaching a resolution of the protocol issues through negotiation with the European Union process. There are challenges with regard to timelines and in that respect there is a need to bring these discussions and negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom to a positive conclusion that creates an environment within Northern Ireland where the institutions established by the Good Friday Agreement can work to the fullest extent possible. On the preparation for what might happen, we have to be aware of self-fulfilling prophecies. All our focus and attention is on the institutions staying intact and I have been very consistent on that with anyone I have met. People should fulfil all aspects of those institutions, including North-South engagement.
We acknowledge that there is an issue with the protocol. Unionist political parties have raised that and parties representing nationalism, to use a broad term, have also said they do not have an issue if restrictions are reduced and if we can make the operation of the protocol more efficient. Maroš Šefčovič engaged in very good faith with the Northern Ireland parties and continues to do so with the British Government. The EU has made very significant advances on the earlier position on a number of fronts. The issue of the protocol is a constant focus of the Government and there is constant engagement at multilateral levels or multilayered levels between the European, British and Irish Administrations. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, is also working on this with the Foreign Secretary. Primarily it is still a negotiation between the European Union and the United Kingdom as this is an agreement they had entered into.
Deputy McDonald raised the matter of the DUP. As I said, we acknowledge that there are issues but in our view it is not right that the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are not fulfilled, particularly the North-South dimension and the sectoral meetings. That is wrong. No positive agenda at all is served by the breakdown of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. The people want politicians to work on their behalf and to work for them. The Commission has listened and I will continue to engage on the matter. I met with the Orange Order on Monday and had a lengthy and frank discussion about the protocol. The benefits of the protocol are beginning to manifest themselves.
I have written formally to the British Prime Minster, as I said yesterday in my speech dealing with legacy. I have also spoken to him, of course. I recently met the British ambassador and had a lengthy discussion where I made very clear again the absolute necessity not to take unilateral action in relation to legacy and to respect the views of the families of victims.
Deputy Haughey's point is very valid and important. It is early days yet in some respects with Brexit. There will be a need for a much more comprehensive analysis of the impact of Brexit. Some of Brexit has not happened yet, such as export controls. We still have unfettered access to the UK market and customs or regulatory frameworks. The Deputy's earlier statistics are correct. When I was at the British-Irish Council the Welsh First Minister was very concerned about the drop in trade and the volume of trade coming from Holyhead. Irish businesses have adapted very quickly and are now taking the direct route to the Continent so there is a huge worry in Wales about the impact on its ports.
Even though it is a year on, it is still early days as to how this will settle and the protocol is important in that respect. More than that, with regard to the banking issue, benefits have come our way in some respects. Overall, we do not agree with Brexit and think it was a wrong thing to do from a policy perspective.
In terms of Deputy Boyd Barrett's contribution on the pension age, the point I was making and I do not want to go into it, was that a decision was taken to raise it to 66. Much work is to be done to make sure we have a sustainable pension for the coming 30 to 50 years. That is the work of the Pensions Commission and the Commission on Taxation on Welfare and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands which has produced a report to feed into that process.
It is not about making Northern Ireland more attractive-----
Making a united Ireland.
The fundamental issues are identity. It came across in the meeting yesterday again. It is about identity. We need to accommodate different identities and have parity of esteem between different traditions on the island. That is why we have progressed the shared island initiative very energetically and strongly. It is an important initiative.
Think about a united Ireland.
Departmental Meetings
Questions (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:16. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach the groups chaired by the Secretary General of his Department. [3188/22]
View answerDara Calleary
Question:17. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Taoiseach the groups chaired by the Secretary General of his Department. [4634/22]
View answer
Cian O'Callaghan
Question:18. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach the groups chaired by the Secretary General of his Department. [4706/22]
View answerPeadar Tóibín
Question:19. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if a list of the groups which are chaired by the Secretary General of his Department will be provided. [4715/22]
View answerAlan Kelly
Question:20. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach the groups chaired by the Secretary General of his Department. [4806/22]
View answerOral answers (11 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 20, inclusive, together.
The Secretary General of my Department has responsibility for the effective management and functioning of the Department which operates at the centre of Government. The core activities of the Department are set out in the statement of strategy and include delivering the executive functions of the Taoiseach and Government and supporting me as Head of Government to carry out my duties and implement the Government's priorities over the coming period.
My Department engages with the formulation and implementation of Government policy, especially through the Cabinet committee structure and ten such committees have been established by this Government to reflect the full range of policy areas that it will work on during its lifetime. In carrying out the responsibilities associated with his role, the Secretary General of my Department may also attend a range of cross-government groups, including the ten Cabinet committees established by the Government.
The groups currently chaired by the Secretary General of my Department include the Secretary General post-Cabinet briefing; Civil Service management board; climate action delivery board which is co-chaired with the Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications; Housing for All delivery group; Secretary General Brexit group; Covid-19 oversight group; high-level steering board on policing reform; national security committee; north-east inner city oversight group; senior officials group on commemorations; senior officials group on the Creative Ireland programme; cross-government group on the creation of a national memorial and records centre; and national economic and social council. The Secretary General also chairs regular meetings of the Department's management board.
The Taoiseach notes the Secretary General's work on the national memorial and records centre. This is an important commitment by the Government and its delivery will ensure that Ireland meets its moral and human rights obligations to the women and children who endured institutional abuse overseen by the State. The Government's action plan for mother and baby home survivors commits funding to support this process. Will the Taoiseach confirm the budget allocated for this year and next? Will he state when he expects the Secretary General to conclude his work on what role the Oireachtas will have in this process?
I also want to raise the views of the special rapporteur on child protection on the final report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes. Professor Conor O'Mahony advises that:
Any redress scheme which excludes children who were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, forced labour [or] medical experimentation in [through] non-consensual vaccine trials would be inherently defective and a denial of the right to an effective remedy.
Yet, this is precisely what the Government has done by applying an arbitrary timeframe to enable access to the scheme. The special rapporteur recommends that:
redress for rights violations in foster homes should not be confined to children who were [boarded out] as an exit pathway from Mother and Baby Homes or County Homes, but should encompass all children who experienced ill-treatment or forced labour in foster homes.
Has the Taoiseach considered extending access to the redress scheme, following publication of the Annual Report of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection?
The Taoiseach has outlined part of the role of the Secretary General. I acknowledge the service of the incumbent who I know will move on to a different position. Does the Taoiseach have any plans to review the responsibilities of the position? Will he outline the recruitment process for the new person to fulfil the role?
I will ask the Taoiseach about the Stardust inquest. The families who lost their loved ones in the Stardust have been waiting almost 41 years for truth and justice. It is completely unacceptable that their grief and trauma has been compounded by uncertainties and delays around the inquest. No venue is confirmed for when the inquest will take place and no arrangements are in place to ensure there will be a jury for it. When will a venue for the inquest be confirmed? Will the Juries Act 1976 be amended to ensure a jury will be in place for the inquest?
There have been many requests, including those I have made, that the Taoiseach's Department take responsibility for an area that crosses many departmental demarcations as a result of which there is no proper integrated and cohesive approach, namely, disability. The Taoiseach has to look at this again. I will give him a simple example.
I have raised ACTS with him a few times, the door-to-door transport service for people in wheelchairs and with disabilities in my area. It could go under at the end of this month for the lack of €50,000 and the replacement of some of its buses. That voluntary-run, door-to-door service is advertised on Transport for Ireland as a service available for people with mobility problems who cannot use the normal transport system. It does not get one cent from the Department of Transport and is about to collapse, because it is voluntary run, for the lack of €50,000 for running costs and money to replace some of its buses for some of the most vulnerable people.
Why on earth is there no joined-up thinking between transport and disability, for example, to maintain an absolutely critical service for such vulnerable people? That is an example of why we need the Taoiseach's Department to spearhead the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, and a cohesive approach to disability services.
Last week, the Taoiseach warned here about the danger of spiralling wage costs and a wage price upward spiral. Does that include Secretaries General under this Government? One such civil servant has now got two pay rises in the past four months. His wages have jumped more than €80,000 to almost €300,000, which is almost as much as those of the President of the United States. He got a 36% raise, while low-paid public sector workers are told to make do with 1% and private sector workers have to gear up for industrial action, just to fight for a raise above the rate of inflation. How can the Taoiseach justify this gross inequality? Will he act to cut the bloated salaries of those at the very top of the Civil Service or, at the very least, will he support similar rises for ordinary workers across both the public and private sectors?
Deputy McDonald raised a number of key issues in terms of memorialisation. There has been considerable engagement with survivors and former residents. Memorialisation is considered a very important part of the healing process for those affected and the State should progress the national memorial records centre. The Secretary General has chaired that group and funding has been secured. I intend to bring a memo to Government in the coming weeks in respect of this, with an overarching vision and a proposed approach for the creation of a national centre.
There will be other aspects to that as well. I hope to have further details for the House in relation to that. It will be a significant investment but it has to be done right as well, obviously in consultation with all involved. That work has been progressing and it is fairly advanced. We intend to bring that to Government.
In respect of the report of the rapporteur, there is a significant process involved in the redress scheme. The Minister went beyond the recommendations of the commission. There was an interdepartmental group. The Minister went beyond that also in recommending to Government that we extend the range of the redress scheme.
In respect of children who were boarded out, that is very challenging. The Minister is looking at further means of trying to develop a better analysis in respect of children who were boarded out because it was not really central to the commission's report. It is also a more challenging area in terms of records and so on. It is a piece of work the Minister is looking at.
The redress legislation is before the House. The Minister is engaging with Members and will continue to do that. The redress scheme is extensive and is allied to all of the other initiatives that were taken. The Minister will engage with the House and Members as the legislation goes through in respect of it.
On the Stardust inquiry, there had been a venue, as Deputy Cian O'Callaghan will be aware. It was through no fault of the Minister for Justice that it fell through. I think it was in the RDS. Every effort is being made to secure premises as quickly as we possibly can. I will come back to the Deputy in respect of the Juries Act.
Deputy Calleary spoke of-----
I was next.
I am sorry. On disability, I agree with the need for a more singular focus on disability. The Government took a decision to move disability out of the Department of Health and over to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth because it was felt that health was such an enormous area that disability was perhaps not getting a co-ordinated focus. The view was that we would move it.
Disability is wide-ranging. I was involved in the area for many years as Minister for Education and Science and we did a lot of good stuff. We were able to do it much quicker in the education system, in terms of special needs assistants, etc. I am of a view - there have been pilots on this - that therapists being in the classroom may be a faster way of getting access for children to occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. We have provided additional funding this year for more therapists in the health service through the progressing disability programme but that has created its own problems in terms of how it is being developed and progressed.
I hear what the Deputy is saying in terms of the Department of the Taoiseach co-ordinating this, and I will look at that. However, the Deputy will see from the list that the Department of the Taoiseach has been expanding over the years in terms of that co-ordinating role. He can see it in the range of issues involved, from policing reform to climate change co-ordination. The trend seems to be in that direction whereas, under the Constitution, we have functioning Departments whose primary responsibility is the delivery of services that fall within their remit. That is something the Oireachtas needs to reflect on too, as the Government is also doing.
We can keep on expanding. I notice now, for example, that an Oireachtas committee may produce a report and then non-governmental organisations will come forward on specific policy areas and all of them will recommend that the Department of the Taoiseach do this or that. The bandwidth or operational capacity is not there within the Department of the Taoiseach to do all of that. However, it can do so effectively on some key areas. In housing, there is a strong delivery mechanism chaired by the Secretary General of my Department which works with the Secretaries General of the Departments of Finance, Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Public Expenditure and Reform to make sure there is a full-on public service response to housing across all Departments. Those delivery mechanisms can work. It worked spectacularly in the late 1980s for financial services in which there are now between 30,000 and 40,000 people working. That took a delivery focus. Likewise with climate change, it has to happen in terms of delivery focus. The key issue for Government to deliver is that cross-departmental co-ordinated piece. Departments should not work in silos but in a non-territorial way, if I may use that phrase, and just get things done. That is my constant agenda. I hear what the Deputy is saying in relation to disability and I will come back to him on that.
To respond to Deputy Calleary, there will be an expression of interest sought for the post in question when it becomes vacant in the public service, along with the traditional way that this post has been filled. I hear the Deputy's acknowledgement of the public service the current incumbent has performed over many years in different capacities within the public service on issues of key national importance, as well as international importance, for example, Europe, Brexit and Northern Ireland, the economy and, not least, Covid-19. We have a good public service in this country overall. It has its weaknesses and its challenges, but the public servants in this country work in a committed way for the benefit of the country. I want to put that on the record. It is important.
Deputy Paul Murphy raised the issue of a wage-price spiral. Wages have increased. As I said last week, if wages increase in line with productivity, that is okay. Those comments were made in the context of the cost-of-living crisis. The Government has to look at ways to protect people against what is undoubtedly a very serious issue now in terms of cost-of-living increases and do so in a way that is not inflationary but protects people's disposable incomes, particularly their access to the necessities of life.
In relation to the Department of Health and the Secretary General, I have been clear about this. The Executive took a decision on this from a different perspective, and looking at it through a different prism. The health arena needs absolute focus and significant reforms right across all layers. Of all Departments, it oversees an enormous budget and a range of other issues.
Thank you, Taoiseach. We are over time.
Apart from the firefighting on a lot of issues that arise every day, there needs to be a fundamental paradigm shift in health. The Deputy and I can agree or disagree. The approach taken in relation to the HSE was the correct one; likewise with the Garda Commissioner and so on.
Is féidir teacht ar Cheisteanna Scríofa ar www.oireachtas.ie.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ag 1.58 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ag 2.58 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.58 p.m. and resumed at 2.58 p.m.