Ivana Bacik
Question:13. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach the mechanism by which his Department will review progress made in implementing the programme for Government [24220/22]
View answerWednesday, 1 June 2022
Questions (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:14. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress of the programme for Government. [24773/22]
View answer
Paul Murphy
Question:15. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress of the programme for Government. [24776/22]
View answer
Cian O'Callaghan
Question:16. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach the mechanism by which his Department will review progress made in implementing the programme for Government. [24809/22]
View answer
Mick Barry
Question:17. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach the mechanism by which his Department will review progress made in implementing the programme for Government. [24936/22]
View answer
Paul McAuliffe
Question:18. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach the mechanism by which his Department will review progress made in implementing the programme for Government. [26195/22]
View answer
Niamh Smyth
Question:19. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress of the programme for Government. [26196/22]
View answer
Cormac Devlin
Question:20. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress of the programme for Government. [26197/22]
View answerCian O'Callaghan
Question:21. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress of the programme for Government. [26646/22]
View answerOral answers (13 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 to 21, inclusive, together.
The Government has been working hard to implement the commitments in the programme for Government across a wide range of issues in all Departments. The ten Cabinet committees established by this Government reflect a broad range of policy areas that it will work on during its lifetime, as set out in the programme for Government. Cabinet committees meet regularly to continue this work. Strategy statements prepared by Departments reflect the key national priorities as outlined in the programme for Government. My Department has been involved in progressing some key programme for Government commitments in recent months, including ongoing monitoring and management of the impact of Covid-19 on the provision of both Covid and non-Covid healthcare; driving delivery of our commitments to a shared island on a whole-of-government basis through the shared island unit in my Department; the establishment of a unit in my Department to help support social dialogue; implementation of the Housing for All strategy, which is driving delivery of key housing-related commitments; the delivery of the economic recovery plan 2021, which focused on driving a sustainable jobs-rich recovery and under which significant milestones and progress have been achieved, including in the transition towards a decarbonised and digital economy.
The number of persons in employment is now over 2.5 million, which is in excess of the Government target contained in the economic recovery plan. In 2022, we will spend a record €21 billion on our health and social care services. This will allow us to reduce waiting lists, increase capacity, protect our most vulnerable, address inequalities and deliver the right care in the right place at the right time. Work is continuing 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, waiting list reduction and taking steps towards the establishment of elective care centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
Significant progress has been made in education, including plans for a reimagined senior cycle of education; a €32 million increase in Department of Education expenditure on the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, programme to benefit 347 schools, which is the largest ever increase and expansion of DEIS; a commitment to a reformed multi-funding model for third level education; and measures to reduce the cost of education for students and families through changes to the student grant scheme.
The Government will publish a second report on Ireland's well-being framework imminently, entitled Understanding Life in Ireland: A Well-being Framework. This report outlines the longer-term approach for embedding the well-being framework into the Irish policymaking system over time. This includes the development of an analysis of the well-being dashboard, which will be published alongside the report and which is to be reflected in the annual budget process. In February, we published Harnessing Digital - The Digital Ireland Framework, which seeks to position Ireland as a digital leader at the heart of European and global digital developments. It sets out a framework to drive and enable the digital transition across the economy and society.
We signed into law the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, the marine planning framework and the Maritime Area Planning Act, as well as publishing the climate action plan 2021 and adopting the carbon budget programme. Engagement is ongoing with EU leaders to advance a range of high-level objectives in the programme for Government, in particular in relation to Brexit, Covid, the European Union budget and the European Union green agenda, as well as pursuing a strong, collective response to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Other commitments in the programme for Government being progressed include the implementation of Global Ireland 2025; supporting the work of the United Nations through our membership of the UN Security Council; progressing work on the Government's response to the Future of Media Commission report; the establishment of a transitional team in my Department to progress the administrative elements of the establishment of the electoral reform commission, anticipated later this year; completion of the work of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and the establishment of two further citizens' assemblies, one dealing with the issue of biodiversity loss and the other with the type of directly elected mayor and local government structures best suited for Dublin. There is also ongoing oversight of the implementation of A Policing Service for our Future, the Government's plan to implement the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. Ensuring progress on implementation of the programme for Government will continue to be a priority across all Departments, as well as through the work of Cabinet committees.
The issue that dominated the general election that brought this Government to office was the housing crisis. In the programme for Government, the Government promised action to address that crisis, particularly in the area of homelessness. It reads:
Reducing and preventing homelessness is a major priority for the Government. We recognise the particular challenges of homelessness [facing] families.
I am just off the phone from speaking to a young, vulnerable and very frightened woman. It could be somebody else on another day because I get such phone calls virtually every day. This is a woman with three children. Her landlord is evicting her on the grounds that a relative is coming to live in the house. She will be made homeless on 30 June, as will her children. Teachers report that her children are now crying in school because of this. One of them now requires counselling while the woman herself is being seen by a psychiatrist. She has been told all she will get is homeless emergency accommodation in Dublin city centre, approximately 15 km away from where she lives and where her children go to school. It is absolutely shameful. I wonder what "preventing homelessness" in the programme for Government means to her. I would like to be able to tell her this Government has a priority to stop her going into homelessness with her children.
I am also struck by another case I have mentioned a few times of a mother who is now three and a half years in homelessness emergency accommodation. She works with vulnerable children as an agency worker for Tusla. Because the Government has refused to raise the income thresholds, she is now not entitled, even though she is in emergency accommodation, to even the housing assistance payment or social housing. She is wondering where the priority is to get her and her child, who is now also getting counselling, out of homelessness accommodation, where they have been stuck for three and a half years. She has been told she is not entitled even to any housing support.
Will the Taoiseach tell me what the Government is going to do for those two people in order that I can pass back the message? They are just two examples. I am telling them at this stage that I am in such despair that the only thing they can do is get out on the streets and march on 18 June as part of the cost of living coalition because the Government is not listening. If that is not true, will the Taoiseach give me advice I can give to them about how they can get out of being homeless?
At this stage I have run out of fingers and toes to count the scandals about An Bord Pleanála that have been revealed by The Ditch. There have been multiple incidents of what certainly look like clear conflicts of interest not being declared. There is a pattern of inspectors' reports being disregarded to favour the wishes of developers. There have been reports of at least three incidents of inspectors being pressurised to change their reports to bring them into line with the interests of developers. The director of planning is reported to have participated in a meeting of institutional landlords, giving them advice in regard to applications to An Bord Pleanála. There are question marks over the appointment of two members of the board, including a sister of a Fianna Fáil Deputy nominated by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and the deputy chairperson of the board, who was nominated by the Irish Rural Dwellers Association at a time when it was defunct and did not exist as an organisation and could not have had any nominating rights for more than a year. The very latest is a story published yesterday on The Ditch about the director of planning having an issue in terms of ruling on applications that relate to her husband.
What is the Government going to do about this? It has announced a review, but it is a review into the actions of one member of the board in respect of just three specifics. That is simply not good enough. Does the Taoiseach not accept that, at the very least, the review needs to be expanded to include all the operations of the board, including the role of these so-called nominating bodies?
I want to ask about the commitment in the programme for Government regarding the divestment of schools. The programme for Government commits to ensuring plurality in regard to choice in education and progress on this has been extremely slow. Survey after survey shows the majority of parents want to send their children to secular, co-educational schools but the places are not there to meet the demand. In my constituency, a survey of parents in one area showed just 5% of the respondents wanted single-sex, religious secondary schools, yet five of the seven secondary schools in the area surveyed are single-sex, church-run schools.
What is the Government doing to accelerate the process of divestment? Will it commit to prioritising funding in order that new, secular, co-educational secondary schools will be provided?
Approximately 50 households have been or are being evicted from the Shannon Arms apartment complex in Limerick city centre. The notices to quit were issued to households that include a woman who is eight months pregnant, a person with terminal cancer and a family with five kids. Several landlords are involved in issuing the totality of these notices to quit. One of them is the Supermac's boss, Pat McDonagh. Many of these families face eviction into homelessness. On average, just six homes are available to rent in Limerick city each month. I congratulate the tenants on choosing to organise and fight back and the Community Action Tenants Union on the help it has given them.
Does the Taoiseach agree these landlords should meet face to face with these tenants and their representatives to discuss the issues at hand? Does he accept that his decision and that of his Government to end the ban on evictions is directly responsible not merely for the fact more than 10,000 people are now forced to live in emergency accommodation but also for the very particular nightmare these people in Limerick are being forced to live through?
The Taoiseach has just three and a half minutes for a response.
I have been very clear, and have repeatedly said in this House, that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our country at this time. Through Housing for All, we have provided action with a wide range of initiatives relating to social housing, homelessness and affordable housing. Access to housing is fundamental to our security, stability, health and progress as a nation; there is no doubt about that. The Government has been in office for two years. We had two lockdowns, unfortunately, which impacted on construction, although we managed to keep quite a number of social housing projects on the go. This year will see - I hope, and we are heading there - a record number of social houses built everywhere in the country, but we need to keep that rate going every year. I cannot comment on individual cases whose detail I am not familiar with but supply is the vital part of this. We need to build more houses of all types as quickly as we possibly can. That is the key intervention.
We have provided the resources. A total of €4 billion per annum will now be provided to enable the construction of social and affordable homes. We have also taken significant action on, for example, voids and on making sure local authority houses bring their voids and empty houses back as quickly as possible.
What do I say to these people?
More than 6,000 voids have been brought back into use in the past two years as a result of the initiative of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on that. We want to get to at least 33,000 a year. I think the target this year is about 24,000 and last year, about 20,0000 was achieved, given Covid had an impact on that. Interestingly, from March last year to March this year, we had the highest ever number of commencements, at about 35,000. The war on Ukraine, the cost of materials and commodities and inflation are having an impact, but the recent co-operative framework for tenders announced by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will give some capacity to try to finish projects and enable people to tender for new ones.
Homelessness is a very key issue for us. Again, the Minister has taken a lot of initiatives, particularly working with the sector and with all the non-governmental organisations in respect of homelessness and the approved housing bodies, to do what we can to provide homes for the homeless and to prioritise them through Housing First and so forth. The current level of family homelessness is too high at 1,308. It is 26% below the peak figure recorded in July 2018, but it is increasing and a range of factors are behind that. It is not as simple or straightforward as is sometimes articulated. Our priority will always be to do what we can, working with the non-governmental organisations, to increase the supply.
We are almost out of time.
Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the issue of the divestment of schools. We operate a pluralist model and plebiscites are held in different locations regarding new schools, for example. Certainly, we want to see more divestment, greater plurality and greater access. Significant investment has been allocated to Educate Together, for example, and that will continue.
An Bord Pleanála?
I apologise. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, has appointed a senior counsel to investigate the issues raised in respect of An Bord Pleanála and one individual on the board. It is important we allow that report to be completed without further comment until the senior counsel brings it to finalisation.
Is féidir teacht ar Cheisteanna Scríofa ar
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Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 1.59 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 2.58 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.59 p.m. and resumed at 2.58 p.m.