Bríd Smith
Ceist:1. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the gender pay gap report from his Department. [4421/23]
Ceisteanna - Questions
Gender Equality
Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:2. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the gender pay gap report from his Department. [5645/23]
Mick Barry
Ceist:3. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the gender pay gap report from his Department. [5795/23]
Gary Gannon
Ceist:4. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Taoiseach to report on the gender pay gap report from his Department. [5889/23]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together.
The Department of the Taoiseach, in line with the rest of the Civil Service, actively encourages equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The Department is committed to a policy of equal opportunities for all staff and recognises that a diverse workforce helped by an inclusive culture can improve organisational capacity, boost creativity and innovation and lead to better decision-making.
The 2022 gender pay gap report for the Department of the Taoiseach was published on 23 December 2022. The report sets out the gender pay gap statistics, incorporating 240 staff employed during the reporting period which was from July 2021 to June 2022. The information in the report was calculated in accordance with the principles laid out in the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021, which required organisations to report on their gender pay gap, that is, the difference between the average hourly wage of men and women across the workforce. For 2022, the Department's gender pay gap was 8.82% in favour of male employees. This means that the average hourly rate of pay for male employees was 8.82% higher than the average hourly rate for female employees during the relevant pay period. The latest EUROSTAT figures show the latest gender pay gap for Ireland is 11.3% and an EU wide average of 13%. Ireland is doing better than the EU average and the Department of the Taoiseach is doing better than Ireland but there still is a gender pay gap we need to close.
The Department's current gender distribution is 60.2% female and 39.8% male. This includes a significant level of female staff in middle management positions and a balanced gender distribution at principal officer and management board level. All employees are aligned to published civil and public service pay scales. This ensures equal pay for the same work irrespective of gender, with incremental progression based on years of service and satisfactory performance. Publishing the Department's gender pay gap data helps the Department to bring a specific focus on gender diversity and to continue the alignment of our actions for improvement in gender equality as part of the broader work to enhance equality, diversity and inclusion across the Department.
The Department of the Taoiseach will also continue to review its actions to improve gender equality to smooth career progression and promotion of more women to senior positions. The Department also offers a range of flexible working arrangements to all staff, including shorter working weeks and blended working arrangements and offers additional assistance to all staff in career development and to pursue promotional opportunities throughout their employment journey.
Recruitment to the Department is mainly through the Public Appointments Service, PAS, which plays a central role in recruiting diverse talent in line with its own equality, diversity and inclusion, EDI, strategy. While equal pay and equal opportunity are cornerstones of employment in the Civil Service, there is clearly more work to do to eliminate gender inequality not just in the workplace but right across our society. Government is showing leadership in this area, building on the extensive programme of work initiated when I first took up the office of Taoiseach, including the gender pay gap legislation, which is now the law, funding additional parental leave, reducing the cost of childcare, ensuring better gender balance on company boards as well as State boards and increasing gender candidate quotas for Dáil elections, which take effect this year.
I am glad to see the Taoiseach's Department is bringing down the gender pay gap, which is good. However, an 11.2% average nationally is still not good enough.
Women earning less than men in comparable jobs is something that should be confined to the history books and should not be the current situation in the 21st century. It is also worth noting that there is a gender pension gap and that the Joint Committee on Social Protection heard that women retire earning 35% less than their male counterparts. The proposed auto-enrolment plan will do nothing to address this point. Here is an issue that has an impact into retirement and beyond working lives and about which the Government could do something by bringing in social protection measures to address this income gap.
It is not a mystery or unexplained why it is that women suffer lower pay than men. It is overwhelmingly because they are employed in professions and sectors that involve child-rearing duties or teaching, and this impacts on how and where they can work. With the general relegation of caring, nursing and teaching and in the sorts of professions in society, in hospitality and in retail that are often dominated by women, we find high levels of precarious work and low levels of pay. While we welcome the statutory rule that employers must report the gap, we need much more than reporting to address this issue.
I thank the Deputy. I call Deputy McDonald.
We can say we have formally legislation passed by the Dáil that has provided equal pay for equal work, but we need action. Really, the question we should be discussing here is how we can address it through union organisation and the right to join a union to fight for this equality.
The Taoiseach's response indicates the huge amount of work that is still to be done yet on the issue of equal pay for work of equal value. I wish to raise a related matter with the Taoiseach, if I can. It is the domestic violence leave reduced rate of pay provision that is contained within the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022. The legislation, as the Taoiseach knows, enables the Minister to make regulations to prescribe "the daily rate of domestic violence leave pay". The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, has indicated he is considering pay parity with sick pay as against full pay. Applying a reduced pay rate in this instance is just wrong. Women's Aid strongly believes domestic violence leave should instead be paid in full at a person's normal rate of pay, and I agree with that.
The Taoiseach himself has acknowledged we are experiencing an epidemic of domestic violence and violence against women in particular. Penalising victims of domestic violence with a cut of up to 30% in their pay will cause immense hardship and, worse again, will potentially be a safety risk because, where a victim's payslips or bank accounts are monitored, any change in pay will alert an abuser that she has not attended work as usual. This level of control is more prevalent than we might imagine and should not be dismissed by the Minister. I am asking, therefore, that we follow international best practice from places like New Zealand, Italy and Australia and have domestic violence pay leave be paid in full. Will the Taoiseach intervene on this matter?
I thank the Deputy. We are way over time. I call Deputy Barry, who will help me gain some time.
The progress being made on closing the gender pay gap globally is glacial. At the current rate, it will take 257 years to close this gap fully. In his contribution at the start, the Taoiseach said a gender pay gap in Ireland of 11.2% compared with an EU average of 13% showed this State was doing better. I put it to the Taoiseach that a better way to phrase that would be to say that in this country we are doing less badly than the EU. There should be no pats on the back here. There is a long way to go.
In this country, a key contributor to the gap is the State's grossly inadequate and expensive system of childcare, which forces many women to take a longer break from work than they would like. Whereas in Germany a household spends on average of 1% of its net household income on childcare, and 3% in Austria and 5% in Sweden, in Ireland the equivalent figure is a whopping 28%. The Government is currently putting more money into a childcare system that is run, in large measure, by the private sector.
Go raibh maith agat.
What we need here, and I will conclude on this, is a totally new approach. We need to treat childcare and early learning like primary and secondary education, being universal, public and free at the point of use.
I thank the Deputy. I call Deputy Boyd Barrett, who has up to one minute.
You learn something new every day and I learned something today from a meeting with representatives of housekeeping attendants or domestic attendants in hospitals. They represented people who previously might have been categorised as cleaners in hospitals and they came from University Hospital Limerick, Cork University Hospital and Letterkenny hospital. What I learned was very interesting. As one woman put it, when she first became a cleaner 18 years ago, she was given a cloth, a bucket and mop. Today, it is necessary for these people to do courses on fumigation and electronic stuff that I do not even know what it is called-----
There is some homework.
-----and on PPE, infection control and a whole range of things. It has become a seriously skilled job, particularly after Covid-19 and especially concerning the whole question of infection control. If we do not have people cleaning places properly and who know how to do it in a professional way, then we will not have safe hospitals. These people had an evaluation done of their jobs. Other grades were given a new categorisation and, as a result, pay increases because there was a recognition their jobs had changed and they should be valued more differently.
I thank the Deputy.
The application of this group of cleaners to have their job recategorised was not accepted and they have not seen the evaluation report. I know the Taoiseach will not know the answer to this question but I ask him to look into it on behalf of these workers. The point is the vast majority of them are women.
Childcare and early years education are very important for the development of young children. It is also, though, very important for mothers and fathers to have access to work and income. The sector has been in crisis for many years. Under the stewardship of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, there has been welcome investment in recent times which has helped to reduce the costs to parents somewhat. Much damage has been done, however, especially to the early childhoold care and education, ECCE, sector, and this has seen hundreds of businesses close, especially in small towns, making it more difficult for mothers and fathers to find places for their children.
Information I received today indicates there are many workers in the childcare services sector, especially those services that receive core funding, who are not qualified. I understand this is against the law. I also understand it is against the provisions of insurance coverage. I understand it is the job of Tusla and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to make sure this is not happening. Will the Taoiseach talk to the Minister and see why he is funding services that are employing staff who are not qualified in terms of childcare and to ensure this does not happen in future?
As I mentioned, Ireland's pay gap is 11.3%, which is a narrower pay gap than the EU average. I am happy to say this is less bad and not better than, if Deputies prefer. It would be in line with some of the Nordic countries, which are often held up as examples for us to follow in terms of gender pay. My view is there should be no gender pay gap at all. The objective, therefore, must be 0%, or at least as close to statistical 0% as can be achieved. This will take some time. Very often, many factors are at play. Among these is not enough women being in senior positions. It is only as these vacancies arise that more women can be promoted into these senior positions. There is also a whole issue around increments. Men may be in employment for longer and have built up increments over time that give them higher pay for the same work. I do not think anyone in this House would propose that we remove increments to achieve gender equality, however.
In terms of the gender pay gap, there is a difference between the State pension and occupational pensions. I do not know what the gender pay gap is for the State pension, but I think it is much smaller than is the case for occupational pensions. Occupational pensions are related to the number of years people work and the amount they pay in. As more women enter the workforce and get better paid jobs and as we introduce auto-enrolment, I believe we will see this situation improve. It is fundamentally linked to the amounts people pay in. This is how that pension system works and that is fair.
Childcare is very expensive in Ireland. It is the objective of the Government to reduce the cost of childcare and early education for parents and to improve the quality of it. We have taken a big step forward in recent weeks by reducing the cost of childcare by 20% to 25%, which I think is significant. We want to reduce it further in 2024, subject to the public finances allowing this.
That can make a big difference in both reducing the cost of living for families and making it easier for parents, usually but not always women, to re-enter the workforce sooner than they otherwise would, if that is their choice. However, it is never as simple as just childcare. I think I remember reading of one of the Nordic countries - it might have been Denmark, Sweden or Norway - which has a public model of childcare and has very inexpensive childcare, and it actually has the same gender pay gap as we do or possibly a bigger one. We need to bear in mind that many factors are at play.
The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is introducing plans for paid leave for victims of domestic violence. This is a new form of leave and a significant step forward. We need to take into account that it will be an additional cost on employers, including very small businesses that might only have one or two staff and businesses along the Border which we always need to bear in mind because successive administrations north of the Border have failed to keep up with us in terms of workers' rights. That in turn holds us back because we need to have regard to the failure successive administrations in Northern Ireland to keep up with those when it comes to workers' rights and the impact that then has on small businesses on our side of the Border, for example. Deputies will be aware of many proposals for new forms of leave, which we need to consider in the round.
Childcare staff not being properly qualified is a matter for Tusla, but I will certainly inform the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, that Deputy Tóibín raised it in the Dáil today.
I broadly agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett's analysis of cleaners. Being a cleaner is increasingly a skilled job, more so than it was in the past and increasingly so in a healthcare setting where there are blood spills, personal protective equipment, PPE, and a need for infection control. There is an employment regulation order for contract cleaners. I am not sure if that applies to the group the Deputy is talking about. I have not seen the evaluation report but I will make some further inquiries about it.
Programme for Government
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:5. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government [3405/23]
Paul Murphy
Ceist:6. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [3410/23]
Bríd Smith
Ceist:7. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [3412/23]
Cian O'Callaghan
Ceist:8. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [4445/23]
Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:9. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [4089/23]
Ivana Bacik
Ceist:10. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [4377/23]
Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:11. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [4788/23]
Jim O'Callaghan
Ceist:12. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [4696/23]
Mick Barry
Ceist:13. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [5796/23]
Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:14. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [5798/23]
Cormac Devlin
Ceist:15. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the programme for Government. [5853/23]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 15, inclusive, together.
Government has been working to implement the commitments in the programme for Government, which are advanced through the co-ordinating mechanisms of the Cabinet committee structure. The ten Cabinet committees recently established by Government reflect the core policy areas set out in the programme for Government on which it will continue to focus. Cabinet committees will meet regularly to accomplish their work. Strategy statements, currently being prepared by all Departments, will reflect the national priorities outlined in the programme for Government.
The Department of the Taoiseach continues to help advance the programme for Government commitments in the following priority policy areas: implementation of the Housing for All strategy, which is driving delivery of crucial housing-related commitments; the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, the publication of the Climate Action Plan 2023, the launch of the national retrofit plan, adoption of the carbon budget programme and agreement of the sectoral emissions ceilings; advancements in Sláintecare, the health reform programme, such as an implementation plan for regional health areas and the publication shortly of the Sláintecare progress report for 2022 and the 2023 action plan for Sláintecare; ongoing oversight of implementation of the third domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy; the ongoing development of the well-being framework for Ireland; publication of a report in June, detailing significant progress achieved under the 2021 economic recovery plan, which focused on driving a jobs-rich recovery and encouraging the transition towards a decarbonised and digital economy; driving the implementation of our commitments on a shared island, through the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach; driving implementation of the New Decade, New Approach commitments, in conjunction with Departments North and South; strengthening British-Irish relations, including with London and the devolved governments; ongoing engagement with EU leaders to advance high-level objectives in the programme for Government, in particular, energy security, Brexit, economic issues and external relations, as well as pursuing a strong, collective response to Russia's war on Ukraine; 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; progressing citizens' assemblies, with the Dublin-related citizens' assembly having submitted its report to the Oireachtas in December and the biodiversity loss assembly following suit shortly, with two further citizens' assemblies, one dealing with matters relating to drug use and the other on the future of education, under consideration, which will be subject to Oireachtas agreement; and the publication of the Future of Media Commission report and the Government's response, which constitutes a strategic programme of work for public service content across media in Ireland. Work to implement the report's recommendations and develop a new funding model is under way.
As was discussed earlier, far-right elements utterly without justification are trying to target vulnerable immigrants and migrants for the housing crisis. That is why, on 18 February, we need to get out on the Ireland for All demonstration which has been widely backed by trade union and community groups, anti-poverty groups, housing groups and many others. Simultaneously, we need emergency measures to address the spiralling housing and homelessness crisis. Will the Taoiseach take a few emergency measures in that regard? The Government needs to start treating it as an emergency. A cliff edge is coming with the end of the moratorium on evictions. Even the Government's own estimates reckon that 3,000 people could be homeless if that moratorium were not in place. That moratorium is not fully covering many people. As a matter of urgency, the Government needs to announce clearly that it will not allow more people be evicted into homelessness.
As night follows day, racist violence follows anti-refugee protests. In recent weeks we have seen a dramatic escalation of violence against migrants in Dublin in particular. On Saturday, 28 January, homeless migrant men were attacked with dogs, sticks and a baseball bat at Ashtown. On Monday, 30 January, a building in Sheriff Street burned down seemingly because it was wrongly suspected of being planned for use by asylum seekers. On 1 February, footage emerged of someone attempting to drive over a pedestrian after asking them, "Are you an immigrant?" On Thursday, 2 February a group of international students were racially abused and physically attacked at the Broadstone Technological University Dublin Luas stop.
The vast majority of people abhor this and abhor seeing protests outside vulnerable people's temporary inadequate accommodation. That is the reason thousands will be on the streets on 18 February. The Taoiseach said earlier we should not give any succour to racist arguments and I agree. Does he agree therefore that he should stop the discrimination against migrants and against asylum seekers from countries other than Ukraine? We should not be putting them on the street with a Dunnes Stores voucher and €5 in phone credit.
Since Fine Gael took office in 2011, rates of home ownership have fallen very significantly. To counter this, we need at least 10,000 affordable homes each year. In the first three quarters of last year, fewer than 1,000 affordable and cost rental homes were delivered. At the same time, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is returning hundreds of millions of euro unspent to the central Exchequer. This money could be used to build much-needed affordable homes. Given the scale and depth of the housing crisis, why are hundreds of millions of euro, which could be used to build homes, being returned to the central Exchequer?
Later this year there will be a look-back independent inquiry into the State's handling of the pandemic. How will nursing home deaths be dealt with? I encourage the Taoiseach to meet families whose loved ones died during the pandemic. These include families from Dealgan House or Ballynoe nursing home in Whites Cross. They will tell a story of systemic institutional failure that resulted in an absence of oversight, governance, accountability and training, and inadequate staff ratios. Care Champions has catalogued the families' experiences and I strongly urge the Taoiseach to hear of them and from them. More than 3,000 submissions of concern were made to HIQA between 2020 and 2022 regarding nursing homes. These failures continue as families are still being refused access to their parents' or their partners' nursing home records, which is inexplicable to me. Does the Taoiseach agree these records should be released? Will he meet representatives of Care Champions and the bereaved families to better understand why a public inquiry into nursing home deaths during the Covid pandemic is absolutely needed?
I call Deputy Tóibín. If the Members are not brief with their questions, there will not be sufficient time for the Taoiseach to answer them.
This week the Government received advice from the Attorney General. Let us be clear: litigation by the Government against vulnerable people is a political choice. The Government also has a responsibility to do right by citizens. The truth of the matter is that, right now, most people, when in battle with the State, have to fight tooth and nail for justice, and many have to fight right up until their death to receive justice. Some people even have to fight among the debris of their shattered lives simply to get justice.
Today, we in Aontú found out that 44 families are now engaged in legal action against the Government on the circumstances of their loved ones who died in nursing homes or hospitals during the Covid-19 crisis. We in Aontú have put forward a Bill which would provide for an investigation into their experiences. The Government has refused to back that Bill and has so far refused to carry out an independent investigation itself. We are now seeing the floodgates open where people are forced to go to court to get justice for their families. Will the Taoiseach commit to a proper, full and independent investigation in respect of how people were treated in nursing homes and hospitals?
The programme for Government commits the Government to step up funding for high-performance sport. The Taoiseach will be aware of one of our most successful sporting teams, the Leinster Rugby team, which, as the Taoiseach knows, plays its matches at home in the RDS. I know the Taoiseach has been there recently and he will no doubt be aware the condition of it is very poor. The grandstand there, or rather the Anglesea Stand, was constructed back in 1927. The ground needs to be refurbished. The RDS, which provides a broad service throughout the city and country for all types of different events, is seeking some State support. Will the Taoiseach give a commitment that there will be some Government funding available to refurbish the main arena at the RDS?
The nursing home charges scandal is the latest in a long line of aggressive legal strategies employed by the State to deny justice to vulnerable people. It must now be added to a list that includes the CervicalCheck women, the hepatitis C women, the denial of disability payments for those in long-term care, the denial of redress to a large cohort of mother and baby homes survivors, and many others. The Attorney General’s report defends a policy that was cold, callous and calculated.
I see the leader the Labour Party is calling for a redress scheme. I support that call, but is it not unfortunate that the Labour Party did not support such a call when it held the position of Minister for Health, under Deputy Howlin, and instead implemented the no-payment policy against the vulnerable people? Why would the Taoiseach be opposed to redress?
The Taoiseach will be aware the programme for Government commits to dealing with asylum applications as quickly as possible to ensure people seeking international protection here do not have to endure long delays to have their cases assessed or determined. Given the significant increase in applications over the past 12 months, it is clear the Immigration Service Delivery, the International Protection Office and the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, IPAT, will need extra resources. For example, I understand that IPAT fees to barristers determining the appeals have not changed since 2011 and this may have an impact on recruiting sufficiently qualified personnel for that. Will the Taoiseach advise what measures are being taken to support these institutions which are responsible for determining these cases?
On the final matter raised, we completely accept we will need to increase staffing and resources given the large increase in the number of people who have applied for asylum and international protection here. We will need to ensure we are properly staffed to make decisions quickly and to enforce them.
On the question raised by Deputy Jim O’Callaghan, I put on record my strong support for the RDS project. I am a big supporter of it and have met with the RDS. It has planning permission and is ready to go quite soon. I would like to see it go to tender this year. State funding has already been committed but I understand that, because of the increase in building costs, the RDS is looking for additional State funding, and it is not the only such body in that boat. We need to look at that in the round and there are other sporting projects that also need to be considered. I would also say that it will not just be of benefit to Leinster Rugby but will also be a centre for women’s sport, which gives us an added value.
On the Covid-19 inquiry, this is being scoped out. It will be wider than just the health response and will take into account the economic and other responses. We hope to have it established by mid-year and we will be guided by what they are doing in other countries. They have different legal systems but they have also set up inquiries, and it is right that is done. We intend that it will also examine how nursing homes handled Covid-19. We also need to be fair to the management and staff of nursing homes. This was an unprecedented event in our lifetimes with a pandemic and a new virus. I do not think anyone had a manual or roadmap as to how it could be best managed. It is an area we will inquire into.
When?
On the home ownership issue, I acknowledge what Deputy Cian O'Callaghan is saying, that homeownership rates have fallen in recent years, and we want to reverse that. We made significant progress in the past year, where more than 16,000 people, couples and families bought their first home. That is the highest figure we have had in 15 years, and we have to go back to the Celtic tiger era to find an era when so many people bought their first home. We have a long way to go yet and there needs to be a great deal more than that done.
In respect of the underspend in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, I am not aware how much that underspend will be yet, incidentally, but it will be much less than some of the figures that have been aired publicly. There are two reasons it has occurred. One is the record resources and the amount of money that has been given to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which has increased dramatically in recent years because of our commitment to solving the housing crisis. When spending is ramped up rapidly, it can be difficult sometimes to spend it, if, of course, it is being spent correctly. There are constraints in respect of the availability of staff, skilled labour and materials. All of those things can also create difficulties.
On the wider issue of housing, we have already taken many emergency measures on housing, whether they are the rent pressure zones, the eviction ban, the fund for compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, or fast-track planning legislation, and we will always consider further emergency actions that might help with the situation. We always have to remember the unintended consequences. I am aware the Deputy mentioned that the eviction ban is not working fully. The ban is also harming some people. We have both read and heard stories and have even met people who went abroad for six months or for a year and who now cannot move back into their own home. That is also a problem.
They are getting rent.
If we are going to extend the ban,we have to bear that in mind.
National Economic and Social Council
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:16. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [3406/23]
Cian O'Callaghan
Ceist:17. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [4446/23]
Ivana Bacik
Ceist:18. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council [4378/23]
Paul Murphy
Ceist:19. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [4428/23]
Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:20. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [5644/23]
Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:21. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [5797/23]
Brendan Smith
Ceist:22. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [5799/23]
Cathal Crowe
Ceist:23. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council. [5873/23]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 23, inclusive, together.
The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advises me on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. The NESC work programme currently includes six main areas, which are as follows.
The first is housing, land and sustainable development. In 2022, the council discussed housing at its June and September meetings. These discussions led to a focused council report on the role of private rental accommodation as part of an effective housing system. This report, Private Rental in Ireland, is with me at the moment and will be submitted to Government in the coming weeks.
The second area is the economy. The council is finalising work that focuses on the nature of the Irish economy, its underlying strengths and areas of vulnerability. It is expected that the final council report will be submitted to the Government in the first quarter of this year.
The third area is climate action, just transition and agriculture. This work is exploring, in practical terms, how climate targets and the transition they entail for Irish agriculture can be achieved in a manner that encompasses social equity and inclusion, environmental resilience and economic well-being. A final council report will be prepared in the second quarter of 2023.
Shared island is the next area. NESC will continue to engage with the shared island unit, and this work will include a focus on social enterprise in 2023. A report will be discussed at the NESC council meeting in March 2023.
In the good jobs area, NESC will engage with relevant stakeholders to help provide a basis for work in essential sectors of the economy in which an emphasis on good jobs could provide a mechanism for improving worker well-being, driving innovation and enhancing productivity.
The final area is inequality and well-being. This work by NESC will deepen the understanding of inequality in Ireland and will consider how Ireland’s well-being framework can help identify inequalities and how it can point towards new means of confronting such inequalities.
The NESC-published reports can be found on its website. As reports are finalised in the relevant areas, they are brought to the Government for discussion and noting in advance of publication.
The Taoiseach stated that NESC was looking into the issues of poverty and inequality. I put it to him that almost everything has changed since some of those reports were done. There needs to be a sort of an emergency response, again, to the shocking levels of poverty that are now becoming apparent.
The Barnardos report published today is really shocking. The number of people accessing food banks has doubled to one in ten of the population. The number that has difficulty putting food on the table for their family is now one in five. This is one of the richest countries in the world. According to a report yesterday, the food inflation rate has gone up to 16% in the 12 weeks until the middle of January. As we speak, people are being driven into poverty.
There has to be some awareness. At the time of the budget, we predicted, I hate to say, that the budget increases in social welfare, wages, pensions and so on would leave people in a worse situation and would leave more people driven into poverty. It is now happening. There has to be a response. We need an emergency budget. We cannot have tens of thousands of people, especially vulnerable people and children, without enough food to eat and turning off the heating because they cannot afford it. We cannot have that.
It is especially nauseating that a few weeks ago, there was a report about the number of people who have more than €4 million in personal wealth having doubled in the country. We have to do something about this inequality. An emergency response is needed. We need an emergency budget and further emergency measures on the cost-of-living crisis.
Is the Taoiseach ashamed to lead a Government in one of the richest countries in the world and yet have a situation where one in ten parents are forced to go to food banks or rely on food donations to be able to feed their children? It is an incredible indictment of what is happening in this country and the policies of the Government. We know that the price of groceries has increased in the course of the past year by more than 16%, obviously far outstripping any meagre wage increases people are getting or meagre increases in social welfare payments. We also know that last year food companies, globally, and the same goes for Ireland, doubled their profits. There is a relationship between those two things. The driving factor behind the very high increases in food prices is incredible profiteering by the food companies.
We clearly need an increase in people's wages. We need an increase in social welfare payments. However, I ask the Taoiseach whether he agrees the Government should use the power it has under consumer protection legislation to introduce price controls on key food items. I draw the attention of the Taoiseach to his sister party in Greece, New Democracy, which is in government. It has introduced a list of 50 basic goods on which supermarkets are expected to freeze prices or scale back future increases. Does the Taoiseach not agree we need price controls in this country?
In response to my last question on paid domestic leave entitlements, the Taoiseach cited the North as a reason for holding entitlements back. I will put on the record that north of the Border, there is an entitlement to ten days of leave on full pay. I reiterate my call to the Taoiseach to go back to the Minister and to ensure that domestic violence leave is at full pay.
I will raise the NESC findings from focus group work undertaken in the north west. Not surprisingly, the region's historically poor transport connectivity loomed large. There is no motorway, direct rail or air route from Dublin to Derry. Bear in mind Derry is the fourth-largest city in Ireland. An air connectivity review is committed to under the New Decade, New Approach agreement, which includes the Dublin-Derry route. Following a meeting with the cross-party delegation of councillors from Donegal, Derry and Strabane last year, the then Taoiseach indicated he was open to Government funding of Derry airport. The Minister of State at the Department of Transport subsequently met the board of management of City of Derry Airport.
Reopening the Dublin-Derry air route would create enormous economic and social opportunities for the north west. When can we expect the Minister for Transport to conclude his consideration of the data provided by Derry airport management? When will the air connectivity review be completed and published?
The GAA has introduced a policy of getting rid of cash at GAA matches throughout the country. This is the wrong decision. It means that many people, especially older people who cannot buy GAA tickets online or use technology are effectively banned from matches. I know of older people who have gone to matches. They have not been able to procure a ticket and they have had to go home.
The GAA is a wonderful organisation. It is the most successful community organisation in the country. That is why it is disappointing to see this policy being introduced. The policy is excluding people. It is hitting the people who have been isolated the most during the Covid crisis. Age NI has come out to publicly pronounce against this policy. AIB was forced to reverse its policy when it started to get rid of cash, especially in rural branches.
Aontú is campaigning, North and South, for the re-introduction of cash in at least one turnstile at each match. Will the Taoiseach join with us and ask the GAA to be more inclusive in terms of access to GAA matches?
Some months ago during Taoiseach's questions, I welcomed the initiative of the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach in having NESC undertake work on its behalf, in the context of the economy and regional development. I hope the Taoiseach can take on board what I suggested at the time, in the context of discussions he said would be taking place in March between the shared island unit and NESC, that a particular work project should be undertaken on the specific challenges faced by the Border region, especially the central Border area of Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Armagh and Tyrone.
As the Taoiseach knows, that region is very dependent on the agrifood, engineering and construction product sectors. Our key market is Britain. All of the issues with regard to Brexit and the protocol are not yet resolved. We sincerely hope they will be but any disruption to trade has a major impact on businesses in our region, both North and South of the Border.
NESC should devote a particular part of its work to the challenges facing that central Border area because as we all know, the more highly-developed and concentrated areas such as the east coast, Dublin-Belfast axis will weather economic storms. Our region is not as well prepared or well resourced to weather economic storms that can arise through international turbulence or through turbulence between the European Union and Britain. It is very important that we prepare for any eventualities that might impact on the economy in that region, both North and South.
I had hoped to be in earlier. On the inquiry into how the State dealt with Covid, the Taoiseach is talking about it being scoped out. Would it be possible to get a timeline on how long this scoping exercise will take? Can we get the detail as soon as possible about the remit and whether we are talking about individual modules, as well as a timeline on the inquiry? I spoke to the Taoiseach previously about Dealgan House and the 23 people who died there. The fact RCSI Hospitals Group took over there makes it different. The families have been promised by Ministers that a mechanism will be provided to provide answers and closure. We need to ensure this happens.
On the last matter, we are scoping out the Covid inquiry at present. We hope to have it established by the Oireachtas mid-year. It will not just be about the State's response; it will be about the wider response from all society, including the private sector. It is impossible to put a timeframe on it but given the scope and scale, it could take a long time. That is the truth of it. I cannot possibly put a time on it.
With regard to the first matter raised, it is important and was not acknowledged in the questions that poverty had been trending downwards in Ireland for a number of years, as had income inequality. Ireland, as judged by the Gini coefficient, is one of the few countries that has not seen inequality increase in recent years. That should be acknowledged and it is largely down to the policies pursued by Government in recent years.
However, the cost-of-living crisis changes things and it has caused a considerable set-back. I acknowledge that many families are really struggling to make ends meet and to pay for very basic things, whether it is energy, fuel or food.
We are taking a lot of action. There have been wage increases, with the national minimum wage rising by 7.8%. That kicked in in the last few weeks and is in line with inflation. We are now likely to see inflation of less than 7.8% this year. It might not have been in line with inflation last year but if one takes inflation over a three, five or ten-year period, the national minimum wage has increased ahead of the rate of inflation and ahead of the cost of living. We had the public sector pay deal as well and we have increases coming through by way of employment regulation orders and across the private sector pay increases are happening as well. We have pension and welfare increases which just kicked in in the last few weeks, amounting to an extra €12 per week. There have been more targeted measures like the extension of the fuel allowance to tens of thousands more people. There have been income tax reductions, including the rent credit which I know will be welcomed by a lot of renters. We are taking action on the social wage by reducing the cost of public transport, school transport, childcare, college fees, and providing free schoolbooks. All of these things make a big difference.
They are not enough.
There is also the energy credit, with another €200 being knocked off people's bills in March. Research by the ESRI and others has shown that for a lot of people, these measures largely or fully insulate them from the cost-of-living crisis but I absolutely acknowledge that is not the case for everyone. Certainly when it comes to deciding what we do in the March, April and May period, we will have regard to the fact that we need to target those who are suffering the most.
To be very frank, I do not think price controls are a good idea. They have been used in the past in Ireland but they did not work very well. While the Government can cap what retailers can charge for a certain product, it cannot cap what the retailer has to pay to get that product. Where price controls and price caps are introduced, it often leads to shortages. We might find, if we introduced a price cap of 120 cent per litre for petrol or diesel, for example, that we just have no petrol or diesel because there is no margin there for the retailer. That is often one of the problems with price controls. Another problem which we saw play out in the UK when it introduced energy price caps was that the Government just had to keep increasing the caps because the wholesale cost of energy kept going up. I do not think it is the panacea that some Deputies have suggested.
What about Shell and BP? They are making money.
I accept Deputy McDonald's point in relation to domestic violence leave in Northern Ireland but I do not think we can view things in isolation. If one take's sick pay for example, what we offer people in terms of sick pay is more per day than people get per week in Northern Ireland. One has to look at things in the round. The same also applies to the minimum wage, for example.
What about the GAA?
To be honest, I have read a bit about that matter but I am not fully across it. Decisions on ticketing are ultimately a matter for the organisations concerned but there should be some provision for cash. One of the issues that came out of the report on the retail banking sector, led by the former Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, was that while we do want to have electronic payments and make them the norm, and they are the norm now, cash is still legal tender and we should make some provision for the use of cash. That said, I do not understand the practicalities of having one turnstile that accepts cash. I just do not know enough about it to make a judgment on it.
Will the Taoiseach respond to Deputy Brendan Smith's issue?
I asked about the central Border area.
I asked about Derry Airport.
I am sorry but I will have to ask the Minister for Transport to respond to the Deputy on the air connectivity issue. I will have a chat with Deputy Brendan Smith afterwards about the matter he raised because I did not fully catch what he said while I was trying to jot down the other questions.
Is féidir teacht ar Cheisteanna Scríofa ar
www.oireachtas.ie
.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.