Last night the Short Strand area of Belfast saw its second night of serious disturbances. While it has been a flashpoint for decades, both the scale and nature of the violence are extremely serious. The only point on which there is clarity is that there are small groups which seek to inflame and exploit the situation. I am sure all Members will agree such people cannot be allowed to succeed. Any influence they are allowed to gain will send a grim signal to many other communities throughout the North. The Taoiseach will by now have had an opportunity to receive a full briefing on the position in the Short Strand. Will he outline to Members his contacts with the Northern Ireland Executive and the Secretary of State? Has he made known to them our support for all necessary actions by the security services to defend the local community and bring the situation under control? In particular, will he indicate what he knows about the involvement of the UVF leadership in organising the attacks? In addition, he should inform Members whom he believes are most likely to be behind the shots fired from the Short Stand. He will be aware of both the iconic nature of St. Matthew's Church and the danger in allowing a security vacuum to develop in this area of the city. He has indicated that he will make his first working visit to the North some time within the next few weeks. Will he reassure the House that the need to tackle sectarianism will be at the top of the Government's agenda and that the North will receive continued proactive attention from the Government?
Leaders’ Questions
I condemn the disturbances in Belfast both last night and the night before. This situation demands the Government's serious attention and I have pledged on its behalf that it will continue to work closely with the newly elected Assembly and Executive in Northern Ireland. I note the joint statements made by the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister in bringing a sense of reason and calmness to a situation that is of concern. Obviously, I have read and seen the reports on the photographer who was injured in last night's shooting. I commend all those involved at local level in bringing a sense of understanding and calmness to what is a situation of concern. The community in question gains nothing from episodes such as that which took place last night and the night before.
I note the comments made by the senior police officer, Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum, who stated the troubles had been orchestrated by the loyalist paramilitary group the UVF. It is perfectly obvious there have been internal tensions within the UVF. The chief superintendent also stated two men were being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds. A total of 11 shots were fired, six from the Nationalist side and five from the loyalist side. As Deputy Micheál Martin is aware, the newly elected Assembly and Executive with devolved authority has a Minister of Justice, as well as the PSNI which has the support of the entire community.
I commend all those involved in public and community life who are arranging meetings in a cross-community sense and have stated this is a situation that demands calmness and reason. I make the point that those involved cannot and will not be allowed to disrupt the normalisation of relations across the community for which so many have worked hard for so many years. I share the concern expressed by Deputy Micheál Martin. He may take it that in so far as the Government can assist and co-operate in any way, it will be happy to so do. However, I note the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister have made joint statements on the necessity to deal with this issue effectively. I hope to be in touch directly with them shortly about ongoing and unfolding events in the North.
The prize of peace has been hard won and the two Governments, together with the Northern Ireland Executive, must act with absolute resolve. It is clear the institutions which have been built up through the peace process are strong and that what is now needed is a redoubling of efforts on all sides to reach communities which are being targeted by such groups which wish to return to an endless cycle of pointless sectarian violence. I accept and acknowledge that there is no easy programme to implement that would get at the root causes of division and conflict at community level. It takes painstaking and relentless work. The Government has a vital role to play, in addition to all other parties, and the success achieved can be seen in the many communities in which loyalists are now in regular and positive contact with both Nationalists and groups in the Republic. There has been much ongoing dialogue and engagement with different strands, traditions and communities. Will the Taoiseach agree to ask the Cabinet to bring forward additional proposals to increase the Government's work with communities in the North? I refer, in particular, to building on the reconciliation grants that emanate from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the peace agreements through European Union programmes. Given the seriousness of what has occurred, a stronger and more proactive role should be taken on board by the Government.
I thank the Deputy for his comments. The pursuit of the normalisation of relationships in Northern Ireland has always had cross-party support in this House. Unemployment and lack of activity are the cancer that eats away at the heart of the peace process. This requires constant vigilance in respect of fragile communities in which young men, in particular, have a perception that the peace process may not be working in the manner they had envisaged with regard to careers and opportunities. That is the reason for highlighting the importance of the education process, direct intervention from the Assembly with the assistance of the two Governments, as well as international help from both the United States and the European Union. All these issues have been and are important and will continue to be so. That is the reason I took the opportunity to speak directly to Senator Patrick Leahy in Washington about the Appropriations Committee and the continuation of funding for Ireland. I raised directly with President Obama when he was here the importance of this kind of funding being used as an opportunity to leverage further important moneys from the EU. I intend to travel to Derry on Saturday for the opening of the new bridge and I may also have the opportunity to visit Altnagelvin's radiotherapy facilities which will be supported by this Government. When I make final arrangements for a visit to Northern Ireland, the dissidents, sectarianism and violence, as referred to by Deputy Martin, will be top of the agenda. This peace process was hard-won and we should not allow any incident or any event to disrupt the people and the communities from focusing on that future.
As I said in reply to questions, the attitude and the atmosphere surrounding the North-South Ministerial Council meeting, the first of its meetings involving the new Northern Ireland Executive and this Government, was exceptionally workmanlike. The Deputy can be assured that Ministers of this Government will interact consciously and actively with their counterparts in Northern Ireland in order to do as the Deputy suggests, to continue a work programme that will demonstrate to everybody that both Governments and the Executive are serious in the interests of continuing the peace process so hard-won and which has so much dividend to pay for the future and which can produce so much potential for the communities and the lives and futures of everybody concerned.
I share the Taoiseach's concern about the situation in east Belfast. I was in touch overnight with people from Belfast. We need to appeal to everyone to be calm and to show leadership but also we need from this Dáil acts of practical solidarity with those communities. I encourage Teachtaí Dála from every party to go quietly to Belfast and to make an arrangement to visit some of these areas. Sinn Féin held a conference in Dublin last Saturday, a uniting Ireland conference, with representatives from some of those communities speaking at the conference about their particular concerns and fears.
This morning, I wish to return to the crisis in our health services. The economic mismanagement by the previous Government is now being continued by this Government which is committed to a deeply flawed bailout plan. Banking executives and senior politicians and heads of State bodies are walking off with big pensions while our health system is grinding to a halt. Today there are 329 citizens on trolleys——
Fewer than yesterday.
——and yesterday, the Sinn Féin spokesperson on health, Deputy Ó Caoláin, revealed the existence of a plan to end HSE ambulance transport services for hundreds of dialysis and cancer patients in the west, all the way from the tip of County Donegal down to Limerick.
I have a letter which sets out this plan very clearly. I note that the Taoiseach's own ceantar i gContae Mhaigh Eo is the áit ina gcaithfidh daoine freastal an méid is faide. Tá a fhios ag an Taoiseach é sin go soiléir. The management of the hospitals have been told that from 1 July 2011, the ambulance service will no longer be available to take these very ill people to and from hospital for lifesaving treatments. I ask the Taoiseach to announce in the House today that he will set in train plans to ensure this axing of the service from 1 July is stopped.
I do not share in the Deputy's scaremongering words.
Shame on the Taoiseach; he should read the letter.
If Deputy Ó Caoláin will allow me finish, Deputy Adams, with his experience in Northern Ireland should know full well that coming as he does from Belfast the situation in Northern Ireland was actually dealt with by the creation of a special delivery unit to deal with waiting lists which were eliminated over a period of 15 to 18 months. The Minister for Health received government approval to set up a special delivery unit here to tackle that very issue and not to have a situation in which 329 people are on trolleys or anyone on trolleys but this will not happen overnight after the legacy of inactivity for so many years. A fundamental aspect towards addressing this issue is that the special delivery unit is now headed up by a specialist person and will be in a position, with ministerial assistance, to ask consultants how one consultant has a two-year waiting list when another consultant's waiting list is three months. I assure the Deputy it will be dealt with.
No decision has been made in respect of the withdrawal of services for those who need them in the region from Donegal to Kerry. Meetings are being arranged by the Minister for Health this very day to deal with it. Just three weeks ago, Deputies raised in a proper fashion the issue of the fair deal scheme and the Minister had to find out where funds of €100 million had gone down a different route. Between today and 11 July, the position in respect of the non-consultant hospital doctors is being examined and we will not have a situation in which junior doctors are in an unsupervised environment when treating and attending patients in hospitals.
I am as concerned as the Deputy about the situation in which elderly people might not be in a position to receive the attention they deserve. As the Deputy knows, in some cases over the years, people within the health system have provided brilliant opportunities and assistance while other cases highlighted in this House over the years have shown up the inefficiency in many respects of a health service that was allowed to run out of control. I am as concerned as the Deputy that every person who needs medical attention should get it to the highest standard and the highest level of treatment. The Deputy can take it from me that the Minister will focus on this aspect at the meetings he is attending today.
There are two issues, the substantive issues which we raise and the way in which they are dealt with by the Government and the Taoiseach. I am not scaremongering. I am not here to raise any fears in people. I am referring to a letter which says——
Ceann Comhairle——
This is disgraceful.
The letter states, "I wish to inform you all that the ambulance service transport budget for 2011 has now been expended. This includes expenditure on dialysis and cancer care services." I will not read all the letter——
Please do not read it, Deputy, as you only have one minute.
The letter continues, "The final bookings will be made for patients——
This is important.
——up to and including 30 June 2011". Sin é. Is é sin an fhírinne. There is no scaremongering. These are cancer patients and dialysis patients, including some from the Taoiseach's county. They have been told there will be no ambulance services to bring them to and from hospital for treatment. On the issue——
Could we have a supplementary question, please, Deputy? You are over time.
This is not a supplementary question, with respect; it is the same question being put twice.
I have to control the proceedings. The Deputy has one minute and he is over time.
I asked the Taoiseach to make a statement in which he makes it clear that he will end this crisis——
Could we have some silence please? Thank you.
When a Member is speaking I ask other Members to allow them speak.
Not every person who goes for treatment or to attend at facilities travels by ambulance. I met a woman recently who had breast cancer treatment. She had to travel by bus at 5 a.m.——
Answer the question.
Answer the question.
Please, Deputies.
——and she had to make a round trip of 180 km to Galway for a treatment lasting four minutes. In many cases there are clear inefficiencies in the way the service is being delivered. I confirm to the Deputy that no decision has been taken to withdraw transport facilities and these facilities will be maintained——
It says it in the letter.
The letter states that the ambulance service budget has been expended. The reason this Minister for Health is in situ is to restructure the way our health services deliver treatment and standards of care for our people. This is why priorities have to be determined within that budget and every other budget. The Deputy referred to the ambulance budget being expended. It also involves the transport of people to hospital for treatment and to avail of facilities. A transport system has to and will be maintained for people who need it. The Minister for Health is meeting groups and organisers associated with this matter today. He will be happy to report to the House when he has sorted out another problem which has arisen.
On a point of order——
No, we are over time.
I have to be allowed a point of order. The Taoiseach made the same commitment——
That is not a point of order.
It is a point of order. He made a commitment that the Minister would make a statement. He did not make a statement.
Resume your seat, Deputy. I call Deputy Finian McGrath.
Yesterday outside the Dáil I met hundreds of parents of children with special needs. I and other Members of the Technical Group decided to listen very carefully to their views and to campaign actively on their behalf in respect of the cuts in the numbers of special needs assistants, SNAs, in the education service. They told us of their hurt, pain and genuine concerns. We listened very carefully to them and 16 Members of the Technical Group were there to support them.
Why is the Taoiseach cutting services for children with special needs? Does he understand the upset and hurt of many parents of children with a disability? Has he and his Government thought of the consequences of cutting these services? If a service is cut at junior infant level, it damages the start to a child's education. Would the Taoiseach, as a former teacher, not agree with that?
The parents of a child with a disability wrote to me recently, saying: "We could go on and on telling you about the struggle of trying to help our son and the roads that we have to go down to help him achieve his potential. Luke is great but he needs help". How does the Taoiseach respond to those parents? They also said, which is important: "Our biggest fear is that Luke and other children like him will become lost in the system and things in Ireland will go back 30 years where children with special needs were left in a corner". What does the Taoiseach have to say to that family? Will he change his plans to cut these services and give the Special Needs Parents Association a commitment today in the Dáil that he will reverse the cuts?
I understand the frustration of parents who have children who are challenged and have particular difficulties. These situations can transform the entire lifestyle of a family. It is important to note that the Minister for Education and Skills has set out the situation. Schools are being advised of their special needs assistants for the coming school year this week.
The last Government decided in December 2010 to cap the number of SNAs at 10,575. There are currently 10,802 posts, which is 227 over the cap that has to be reached by the end of 2011. As the 10,575 cap must be met by the end of the year, that reduction will take place. I assure the House that the existing level of SNAs in special schools will be maintained.
I also assure the House that all schools which enrol children with special needs will have special needs assistant support. All such children will have access to the support and no school in the country will lose all its SNA support. Any school that has even one child like Luke will have SNA support. The perception that there are serious cutbacks is simply not true. The Minister for Education and Skills announced 90% of the allocation of SNAs. That means he held back 10%, a total of 475 posts. Those posts will be allocated specifically for children like Luke who need SNA support.
The report on the value for money and effectiveness of spend highlighted a situation — the Deputy will know this — where in some cases children were allocated SNAs not because of their particular challenge or disability but for a variety of other things, such as for therapeutic or pedagogical reasons. It became an understanding that schools could get SNAs for practically anything and that system could not continue.
I strongly support the SNA system. I know many of them who give great attention, commitment and diligence in helping children who need them. The Minister for Education and Skills will continue that system. The 475 posts that he has held back would address the particular priorities and cases where children need SNAs. There is a reduction of less than 2% in the overall number to maintain the cap by the end of 2011.
It is not true to say that schools will lose all their support and that any child who needs SNA support will not have it. They will have it and the support will continue because it is important for the education of children as they move through the system.
I never said that there would——
Please give the Deputy an opportunity to speak.
Everyone knows where I stood on the cuts and I walked on the issue. Everyone knows that. I will not take any lectures——
Deputy, please resume your seat. Please have some order. The Deputy has one minute. Please give him the opportunity to speak. This is a democracy we live in.
I never voted for any cuts in my life.
Do not be inviting——
The Ceann Comhairle has asked me not to invite the Deputy, but I will deal with him another day. Can I respond?
Yes, please do without inviting interruptions.
The Taoiseach said this is about perception. Yesterday the Technical Group spoke to families on the front line who would be directly affected by these cuts. The reality is that the cuts are coming in this week. There will be 227 fewer posts in the service. That is the reality. There will be a reduction in services to children with special needs.
Is there a supplementary question?
Can the Taoiseach clarify the position? He mentioned other children with different needs. It was a reality and I accept his valid point. If services are removed from children with special needs, they may have to leave school and we will end up paying more money for them in the provision of other services for them.
The Deputy is over time.
Does the Taoiseach want to go down in history as the Taoiseach who cut services for children with a disability?
He is better than the Del Boy you supported.
Let me confirm for Deputy McGrath that any school that requires the assistance of the SNA support scheme will have it. Any child who needs SNA support will have access to it. I did not have the opportunity, as the Deputy did yesterday, to meet the parents of children from St. Senan's in Templeshannon in Enniscorthy. Had I had an opportunity I would have had no difficulty in meeting them. There are three special classes for autism spectrum disorder at the school.
There are 13 SNAs catering for 18 pupils in these three classes. This is far higher than the recommended ratio for SNA class groups of one SNA per three children. This is a situation where, given the constraints that apply across the board, everybody has to do more with less. I do not want to see any child who really needs SNA support go without it and no child who deserves it will go without it.
Is the Taoiseach saying they do not need special support?