The Order of Business shall be as follows: No. 6, statements on Mental Health Services (resumed). It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that Private Members' business shall be No. 14, motion re domestic water charges, and the following time limits and sequence of speakers shall apply: proposer – 40 minutes; Government – 20 minutes; Fianna Fáil – 25 minutes; non-group – 20 minutes; Labour Party - ten minutes; proposer – 30 minutes; Government – 20 minutes; and proposer (to reply) – 15 minutes.
Order of Business
There is one proposal to be put to the House today. Is the proposal for dealing with Private Members' business agreed to? Agreed. I call Deputy Micheál Martin on the Order of Business.
I was a little taken aback by the Taoiseach's comment during Leaders' Questions about the murders that are ongoing. He said that he could not stop this. No Government should admit defeat by these criminal gangs, and there is an obligation on Government to do everything it possibly can across the board, involving an inter-agency response, to stop these murders and put an end to them. Governments should be clear and determined in the message going out to these groups that this will stop.
Part of this is the need for legislation to criminalise the sale of prescription drugs. This is an issue the Garda has raised in the north inner city area, where young children are now distributing tablets and so on. There is an issue around that legally. Whatever issues are there should be dealt with in legislation as a matter of urgency, because this has been going on for quite some time, apparently. It has not been resolved and I am asking for the appropriate legislation to be introduced as a matter of urgency.
There is a strong commitment in the programme for Government on housing and "to provide political leadership on resolving the housing shortage and homelessness crisis". This is one of the "first 100 days" actions contained in the programme for Government. According to Focus Ireland, there are now 2,000 children in emergency accommodation. This represents a 90% increase from this time last year. The inaction in recent years has given rise to this crisis. Everyone in the House is now agreed that this is completely unacceptable. A total of €45 million will be spent in 2016 on emergency hotel accommodation. Children are spending years of their childhood in hotel rooms in this city. When can we expect a list of Executive actions to get to grips with this as a matter of urgency? Will the Taoiseach outline to the House the Government's response to the latest figures, which are truly appalling and worrying?
In the programme for Government there is a commitment to implement new procedures to ensure more efficient and timely recruitment of nurses. Yet, essentially, despite what the Taoiseach said earlier, the HSE is still applying an embargo on staff recruitment. There is an estimated shortage of 3,600 nurses and midwives throughout the country's hospitals. The health service and hospitals are already operating under severe strain due to the lack of staffing. The embargo is making an intolerable situation utterly impossible. Will the Taoiseach indicate the position in terms of the programme for Government's commitment to implement new procedures to ensure more efficient and timely recruitment of nurses? This needs to be accelerated, especially in Drogheda, where the hospital is short 100 staff. How will the Government put flesh on the bones of the commitment in the programme for Government in terms of changing procedures to make it more effective?
The representatives of the local drugs task forces came to the House last week to speak to Members about the kinds of issues they face. They made it clear that, apart from alcohol, the number one substance abuse problem they are dealing with now relates to prescription drugs, including benzodiazepines and the so-called Z drugs. I have been raising this with Government for the past three or four years. What is required is for the Minister to sign new regulations under the Misuse of Drugs Act. This issue was constantly ignored by the last Government. Prescription drugs are being dealt on every street corner in the capital city and in every town and village throughout the country. It is about time we had Government action. Will the Taoiseach take this up with the Minister for Health and ensure action is taken in this area as soon as possible? It is a major problem throughout the country and it has arisen as a result of inaction by the last Government. It needs the Taoiseach's urgent attention.
I wish to speak on one of the issues raised by Deputy Martin.
Yes. Briefly, please.
During the past week the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, made a number of comments on housing matters, which, as we are all aware, are in a dire situation. Following the comments of the Minister, is legislation or Government action on these issues imminent? The first issue is the scandal of an estimated 250,000 empty houses in the State. To use the Minister's words, is urgent, radical action going to follow to ensure these houses are made available for people who are homeless or rotting on a housing list? On the same subject, I heard a worrying comment by the Minister in respect of the Irish Glass Bottle site to the effect that he hoped we might get 10% of it for social and affordable housing.
That is not what I said.
That is what he was quoted as saying.
Let us not get into an exchange on the matter.
My point is that it is NAMA property - publicly owned property. Is the Minister going to clarify his comments? We should be getting 100% council and affordable housing on what is public land.
Can we get an answer from the Taoiseach, please?
We need clarification from the Government of the intentions for the Irish Glass Bottle site.
I will refer to Deputy Martin's question first. I made the point that this is a vicious, murderous campaign between two families which I, as a person, cannot stop. However, I assure Deputy Martin, the House and the people that, as Head of Government, whatever resources, facilities and backing the Garda Commissioner requests from the Government to protect our citizens and to deal with this will be made available. That point has been made clearly by the Minister for Justice and Equality on a number of occasions.
The Government will not lie down in the face of this particular continuing murderous onslaught. Let me make that perfectly clear.
The Deputy made a valid point about prescription drugs which Deputy Shortall raised as well. I will take that matter up with the Minister for Health, and let us have a discussion about it to see what is actually possible.
It is very urgent.
Yes, it is urgent, and I will take it up as a matter of urgency.
In respect of housing and homelessness, the first thing we did was to make this an absolute Government priority, with a Minister for housing, planning and local government. We have set up the Cabinet committee. Within the first 100 days the Departments of housing, planning and local government, Finance, Transport, Tourism and Sport, Justice and Equality and Social Protection will respond by putting together the facilities and tools necessary for the Minister for housing, planning and local government to be able to do his job. He has already made an agreement with Dublin City Council to keep emergency accommodation open.
I am glad to note in the employment figures that 10,000 extra people are working in the construction sector. I admit that much of that is in the commercial sector, and we need to get it now into the domestic and social housing area. The Deputy is aware that the requirement under Part V is for a minimum 10% social housing in every development. I agree completely with Deputy Martin that it is not acceptable to anybody that large numbers of children, or any children, are in bed and breakfasts and hotel rooms or have to go into adult accommodation late at night when there is no other accommodation available. The Minister is working and will work flat out to see how we can best deal with this, because it is an emergency situation that applies nationally.
Deputy Boyd Barrett wanted 100% social housing. It is a 10% minimum under-----
On public land? That is new.
-----under Part V. The figures that the Minister quoted-----
That means 90% is being sold off.
The Deputy should stop trying to twist the truth.
That is the truth.
----are from the 2011 census. That is for 240,000 houses, excluding 60,000 further houses that are holiday homes.
That means 90% of public land is being sold off.
The Deputy is trying to twist the truth.
Tá dhá cheist agam, ceann amháin faoi sheirbhísí sláinte i gclár an Rialtais agus ceann eile faoi bhean óg darb ainm Grace. Grace, as the Taoiseach will recollect, was the young woman with intellectual disabilities who remained in a foster home at the centre of abuse allegations. We are waiting for terms of reference for the commission of investigation into this case. I am led to understand that the Cabinet was expected to get an update on this case two weeks ago from the Attorney General. Was that briefing provided? Is the Taoiseach now in a position to clarify when the terms of reference will be made public and when the commission of investigation will start its work? Can the Taoiseach say whether a separate case in which a young person with an intellectual disability was left in a foster home in the Cork-Kerry area will now be part of the commission of investigation?
A commitment in the programme for Government obliges the Government to commence a State-wide review of bed capacity and the length of time patients wait in emergency departments. In February, a HSE report revealed that 2,700 citizens aged over 75 years had spent more than 24 hours on trolleys, and yesterday there were 257 patients on trolleys. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in my constituency, had the highest number of patients on trolleys in the State. Today, nursing and midwifery staff in that hospital are undertaking a work to rule to protest at the vacant 104 whole time equivalent posts that urgently need to be filled. In response to another question, the Taoiseach denied that a moratorium was in place. He then went on to say that if the hospital has the resources it can recruit. If the Government does not give the hospital the resources then it cannot recruit. When will the hospital bed capacity review commence? When will it conclude? How does the Government expect to reach the target set in the programme for Government for a reduction in emergency department waiting times if it cannot fill the jobs that are vacant and is imposing a moratorium on new jobs? There are 104 vacant posts in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
We have not had a briefing on the young woman named Grace from the Attorney General. I will come back to the Deputy on this matter to say what progress has been made.
In regard to the bed capacity review, I did hear the discussion this morning about Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and the 104 vacancies there. There is no embargo on recruitment, provided the hospital in question has the resources to recruit if they are available.
It is the same thing. What can they do?
I listened carefully to the discussion that took place, and there is no embargo in respect of critical appointments such as that. I will have the new Minister for Health advise the Deputy of the commencement of the bed capacity review and its completion date.
I was taken aback by the shocking admission of the Taoiseach that the Government could not do anything to stop the feud in Dublin. He said the feud could not be stopped.
That is not what he said.
It is on the record. The previous action involved intelligent policing utilising other agencies, not simply armed guards. I have been in the north inner city and have seen those roadblocks. They are there and visible and I think they give comfort to the communities. What is required is intelligent policing, as was deployed, for example, in Limerick and previously in Dublin in the 1990s, using the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. Are there any plans to amend legislation on the seizure of assets to ensure the criminal gangs that have taken the place of previous criminal gangs are put off the streets?
On another issue, we heard yesterday that responsibility for rural broadband would be split between two Departments, the Departments of communications, climate change and natural resources and the Department of regional development, rural affairs, arts and the Gaeltacht. Would the Taoiseach not agree that when this is a national priority, dividing responsibility between two Departments will guarantee that nobody is really accountable and nobody is really driving it? What is the logic of approaching it in that way?
It worked very well in the Department of Finance for several years, as the Deputy will be aware.
I was in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Let me just repeat for Deputy Howlin, because he is not a man who misunderstands things: when I said I cannot do anything about it, I meant myself, as a citizen, in the murderous dispute between the Kinahans and the Hutches-----
The Taoiseach is speaking for the Government.
The Taoiseach is not ignorant.
As Head of Government I want to make it perfectly clear that the Government will make available whatever resources, backing and facilities our gardaí need to deal with this matter and these matters. CAB arrests have been made, court cases are pending and people will be brought before the courts. As Head of Government, as Taoiseach and with my privilege to serve here, I will see to it that whatever is required will be made available so that the Garda Commissioner and her police force can deal with these situations. I hope that clears that up for Deputy Howlin.
The Taoiseach should go after them in Spain.
That is being done.
In respect of the roll-out of rural broadband, the contractual obligations with regard to the contract to service areas throughout the country are the responsibility of one Department and remain so. When that contract is awarded, the roll-out of the requirement for broadband and task forces throughout the country will shift because of the emphasis laid in the past 80 days on regional and rural development.
That is hardly efficient, is it?
The complications in trying to extract the contractual details from a Department would be enormously complex. The contract will proceed in the Department as is. When that contract is signed and awarded, its roll-out will take place through the Department of regional development, rural affairs, arts and the Gaeltacht-----
That is a recipe for inefficiency.
It is pathetic. I cannot believe it is in two Departments.
-----and by task forces throughout the country, the contract having been awarded.
I refer to page 57 of the programme for Government, which deals with medical cards. The Taoiseach must listen to and understand what I have to say. The parents of a child who is waiting for a prosthesis have been refused a medical card. A man who has been on a waiting list for a kidney transplant for three years was refused a medical card. A person suffering from cancer is waiting for a medical card.
I follow this issue very closely and I make this point with the utmost respect, as do other Members who are tuned into the issue of medical cards. Within the past 25 days, for some reason or another, the criteria of the medical deciding officers in the PCRS unit have changed. They have stopped issuing medical cards on discretionary grounds. Why has this happened? There are far more experienced Members in the House, such as Deputy Ferris, who have been here a lot longer than me.
A question, please. You have made your point.
Why has a change happened in the past 25 days? Who pushed the button? Who told officers to stop issuing discretionary medical cards? As I said, people who have far more experience than me realise this is happening.
It is in the programme for Government.
Page 57 of the programme for Government refers to medical cards. We put it in there to ensure discretionary medical cards would continue to be issued.
Taoiseach, who pushed the button?
Deputy Healy-Rae understates himself when he says there are far more experienced people than him in the House. I can assure the Deputy that there has been no change of policy in the Department of Health or the HSE in respect of discretionary medical cards. Given that the Deputy deals with such a volume of inquiries about medical cards, it may well be the case that a number have come through with particular difficulties. I do not know the details of the child who requires a prosthesis, the person who is waiting for a kidney transplant or the cancer patient to whom the Deputy referred. Let me assure him that what he put in here stands. The is no change of policy in respect of discretionary medical cards. Perhaps he could forward the details of the cases he has and it could be demonstrated whether that is so.
I refer to medical cards. Last Thursday I raised an issue on the Order of Business. We fought with the Department and HSE to resolve the issue over the weekend. A letter was sent by a consultant to a patient stating that the patient was terminally ill. A letter was sent by a GP outlining the extent of the cancer from which the patient was suffering. The medical card section refused to accept the letter and sent an e-mail seeking clarification on whether the patient was receiving end-of-life treatment.
I asked the HSE on a number of occasions on Thursday and Friday what part of "terminally ill" it did not understand. There is an issue. What happened over the weekend in regard to the patient to whom I referred was disgusting. The matter has been resolved and I thank those who helped to resolve it, but something has happened with regard to the issuing of discretionary medical cards. Consultants do not refer to end-of-life treatment on application forms or letters for obvious reasons.
The Taoiseach said there had been no change in policy. I would like to bring to his attention an issue that I am dealing with. A 99-year-old woman is being cared for at home by her son, who is an old age pensioner, and another family member who lives nearby. She is incontinent and previously received, through her medical card provision, a supply of nappies. Under a new policy it was decided that her supply of nappies would be cut by 50%. How can any Government justify that? She is living at home and saving the State a fortune. There has been a change in policy.
Consultants usually only write letters to point out a deterioration in the circumstances of patients or when there is a requirement for a card to be issued. They are called discretionary medical cards because discretion can be applied, even if only for a short time. I do not know the individual or official who made the decision to which the Deputy referred, but it seems to be extraordinary for a senior citizen of such venerable years. It is not good enough. I ask him to bring it to the attention of the Minister for Health. It is not acceptable.
Is it the intention of the Government to reinstate the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill? The Minister for Justice and Equality said it was the most comprehensive and wide-ranging sexual offences Bill to be introduced in almost a decade.
Is it also the intention of the Government to hold a referendum on repealing the eighth amendment? If that is the policy of the Government, when will the referendum take place?
In respect of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, the Minister for Justice and Equality will next week bring a motion to the Cabinet restoring the Bill to the Order Paper and it will proceed from there.
I find the tone of the Taoiseach's reply to Deputy Martin's question on the series of shootings in Dublin very ironic. Let me remind the Taoiseach that some time ago we had a similar situation in Limerick, and Fine Gael, then in opposition, expected us to solve the problem and roundly condemned us every time someone was shot. I can just imagine what the response of the Taoiseach would have been when he was in opposition if we had given an answer like his.
When will the mobility allowance be restored? The Taoiseach is aware that it has been three years since the mobility allowance was stopped. The Ombudsman decided that the scheme should be broadened, but instead the Government stopped it and set up a committee. Last week the Tánaiste, in reply to Deputy Adams, said the matter was being worked on in the Department of Health. Strangely enough, about four months after the mobility allowance scheme ceased, I had a similar query and received precisely the same answer, namely, that the Department of Health was working on the issue. That was two years and eight months ago. How much work does it take? When will this significant volume of work be brought to a conclusion? When will the mobility allowance be restored?
In case the Deputy did not hear me properly, let me assure him again that the Government will provide whatever resources, facilities and capacity are necessary for the Garda Síochána to tackle gangland shootings, killings and murders. This Government will see to it that those resources are made available as and when they are required.
The mobility allowance is not as simple as it seems. I have examined the issue. It involves devising a scheme that is appropriate in the current circumstances. What was in place before meant that those who were receiving the payment were allowed to continue receiving payments while work was done on the introduction of a new scheme. Determining the limits of eligibility under the scheme is the problem. There were different variations of the scheme which were not appropriate. The review is still being worked on in the Department of Health. I will advise the Deputy of progress made on that shortly.
The programme for Government has a great deal in it about rural Ireland, which is welcome, but very little about urban Ireland. As somebody who grew up and spent most of my life in Dublin's north city, I am very concerned about the fear that is now stalking the area, particularly among children. Will the Taoiseach agree to establish a task force to actively assist schools and parish organisations and provide additional reassurance to children and their parents?
It is terrifying, first of all to go home and to be met at lunchtime, teatime and at night-time by armed response units carrying fairly heavy weaponry. Adults can welcome that, but it is terrifying for children. Will the Taoiseach tell the House whether he will set up some kind of task force that will respond to the needs of children and their parents, particularly through the schools, that have to deal with much of the fear and anxiety, and to help the parents as well?
In the context of the paternity leave Bill, no legislation is scheduled for this week or next week in the Dáil. That is stunning in terms of a new Government which should be stepping into its stride. If the paternity leave legislation is not passed soon, it will not be possible to pay a paternity leave social insurance payment from September. What are we waiting for?
As Deputy Burton is aware, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, the Deputy's successor in office and constituency colleague, is dealing with the issue. The Bill will be brought to the House and the measure will be effective from September, as was originally intended.
The Minister for Justice and Equality has had detailed discussions with the communities and groups in respect of how one brings forward the inter-agency response in respect of children and their fears.
The fear at the moment is unprecedented. There have been seven killings - seven murders.
No, Deputy Burton has asked the question. I call An Taoiseach.
I am just confirming to Deputy Burton that the Minister for Justice and Equality had detailed discussions-----
I am just telling the Taoiseach. I know there are a few Deputies present from the north city and Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan was present earlier.
-----with those communities.
The Taoiseach should please not get drawn into a debate. If the question is answered, it is answered.
The Taoiseach needs to understand the situation.
I call Deputy Eamon Ryan.
I welcomed the announcement last week of the plan to develop a strategic development zone, SDZ, on the Irish Glass Bottle site. However, a commitment was given in the programme for Government to a cost rental model of social housing, which would be perfect for this site, and there was also a commitment to move towards a more sustainable transport and housing system. The site is a key one which could be developed in a high standard way. I welcome the intention of the Minister for housing, planning and local government, Deputy Coveney, to consult on the plan. However, in the absence of a directly elected mayor for Dublin, or a mechanism for Deputies to interact on the issue, could the Government commit to consultation with local Deputies in Dublin in terms of how the site is developed because it is a key, landmark site for the development of the city? What would be the process for that interaction?
There will be a full public consultation process. Dublin City Council will bring forward the master plan for the entire site and it is expected that there will be a broad mix of accommodation with at least 3,000 units on the site.
I thank the Taoiseach very much. That concludes the Order of Business. My apologies to those Deputies who did not get the opportunity to contribute.