Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions – Dáil Éireann (33rd Dáil) – Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

The Government plans to lift the eviction ban in ten days. If it does this, where are the working families, single people and pensioners at risk of losing their homes meant to go? This question has been put to the Taoiseach repeatedly and those people still wait for an answer. Without putting any measures in place, the Government intends to remove this protection for renters during an unprecedented housing emergency. Homes to rent are at an all-time low, rents are at an all-time high, housing supply is too slow and housing prices are through the roof. We have record homelessness and emergency accommodation in many areas is full. Now, the Government's decision to lift the eviction ban throws renters to the wolves. We are talking about people who work hard, pay for everything and do all the right things to build a decent future. We are talking about tens of thousands of people trapped in the rental market who, in another generation, would have had the opportunity to buy a home of their own. This is a nightmare for renters who have been hit with an eviction notice. Thousands more are terrified of that call from their landlord with the news that they must leave their home. One family in Wicklow, including two children, have received an eviction notice. They have lived in their rented home for 11 years. They are now considering renting storage units and living out of a car.

By lifting the eviction ban, the Government makes the political choice to escalate a housing emergency that was already out of control, and it is working people who pay the price. To be clear, the eviction ban is not a permanent solution. What it does is buy time for the Government to deal with the underlying issues. The Taoiseach says he is worried about landlords exiting the market. Then give local authorities the clear instruction and financial firepower they need to buy those houses to keep tenants in their homes and expand the scheme to cover those not on the social housing list. Approved housing bodies are ready to act. We have thousands of vacant homes but the Government is too slow in bringing them back into use. We need pace. The Government must streamline the process and remove the stifling bureaucracy involved.

We know that new technologies present the way forward for housing construction. Where is the initiative from the Government to harness these technologies? Where is the ambition? Ultimately, we need the biggest housing programme in the history the State and the delivery of genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy. Ireland is a great country. Our people are up and at it and our economy is strong. There is scope within the public finances for a transformative housing plan. What we need is a Government with the ambition to get the job done.

Nuair a ardaíonn an Rialtas an cosc ar dhíshealbhú ar 1 Aibreán, cá bhfuil sé i gceist ag daoine dul? Caithfidh an Rialtas an cinneadh a chur ar ceal. Ní mór an cosc ar dhíshealbhú a shíneadh amach go dtí deireadh na bliana.

Sinn Féin’s motion tonight calls on the Government to reverse its decision and extend the eviction ban. I ask every Deputy to think very carefully about the renters in their constituency and protect them by voting in favour of this motion.

Should the Government proceed with this cruel decision, my question still stands: where are those people facing eviction from 1 April meant to go?

The Taoiseach

As was always the case, whether six months ago, before the moratorium was in place, a year ago, three years ago or five years ago, it depends on everyone's individual circumstances. It is not the case that every notice to quit turns into an eviction, and it is not the case that every eviction results in somebody living in emergency accommodation. Deputy McDonald conflates the three things, and it is not accurate to do so. Some people will find alternative accommodation, while others will need to rely on the State to help them find accommodation. That is the way it was six months ago, before this moratorium existed. It is the way it was three years ago. It is the way it would have been in February or March if Sinn Féin were to have its way and extend the eviction ban until then. This was a temporary measure. It was put in place only for the winter period and it will end on a phased basis from the end of March of this year.

Unfortunately, when the moratorium was in place, it did not reduce the number of homeless people in Government-provided emergency accommodation precisely because there are so many other factors at play when it comes to the number of people who are homeless. There are lots of different reasons people become homeless, including family breakdown, for example, and there are lots of different reasons it is difficult to lift people out of homelessness, although we are doing that all the time. What it did do is provide time. It provided tenants with a number of additional months to find alternative accommodation, where possible, and provided the Government with time, and we used that time. Over 6,000 new social houses were built in the last quarter of 2022 as well as the provision of extra emergency accommodation if needed.

The moratorium also caused real problems which should not be dismissed. People have not been able to move into the property they own. Some people coming home from abroad - 30,000 citizens every year - have been unable to move back into the homes they rented out before they left. People who have bought properties, often for their children to live in if going to college, will not be able to house their children that way in September, which is what Sinn Féin proposes. The ban also pushed more landlords into leaving the sector, and I believe it discourages new landlords from coming in, all making the supply situation, which is at the heart of this crisis, all the worse.

Sinn Féin's plan is clear. I have read its motion and I do not think it is a good one. I know that people will read the motion, but I ask them to consider it carefully before they vote for it if they choose to do so. It proposes to continue a ban on people being able to move back into their own properties and people being allowed to move children or family members back into their own properties. Sinn Féin has put in no exemption for that in its motion. Sinn Féin also says we should extend the ban until January because it believes that things can be made fundamentally different in such a short period. The truth is that it would probably just make matters worse than they are now. We might see even more landlords choosing to sell up, and that would be a mistake, or Sinn Féin would discourage more landlords from coming in.

Simply kicking the can down the road is not a housing policy, in my view. The solution to this is a different one. It is more social housing, which we are doing. It is the tenant in situ scheme, which we are doing. It is more supply such as through Croí Cónaithe and changes to the fair deal scheme. It is tax changes to encourage more landlords to stay in the market and more to re-enter it. It is also increasing funding for homelessness prevention.

We agreed in the countermotion today a number of things. We agreed there would be a tax package in the budget for small landlords, and that will take effect this year to encourage them to enter and to stay in the sector. This was after consultations with our parliamentary party and some of the Independent groups. We have agreed to extend the Croí Cónaithe refurbishment grant scheme for people who are doing up derelict properties for the purpose of renting them and those built prior to 2007. We have agreed that if people rent out rooms in their houses, it will not affect their social welfare entitlements or their medical card entitlements. That is open to local authority tenancies as well. We have also agreed, as I said earlier, to give local authorities the authority to buy up to 1,500 homes where people are facing a notice to quit. That will be a solution for many people.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

When Deputy Varadkar re-entered the office of Taoiseach in December he said housing would be his priority. Now his first major housing decision is to put thousands of renters at risk of losing their homes. With his eyes wide open, the Taoiseach intends to lift the eviction ban knowing that it will spell disaster for so many. It will mean people losing their homes.

It will mean some looking for homeless emergency accommodation that is not there. For others, it will mean sofa-surfing or moving back into the box room of their parents' home with their children in tow. Either-or, we are looking at a tsunami of misery again visited on our people. Now, the Government cobbles together measures or reiterates schemes that are not working efficiently or to scale as some kind of appropriate response. It is not.

The Taoiseach sounds to me like somebody who has thrown in the towel and thrown renters to the wolves. He does not actually believe these things can be solved, but they can.

Deputy Matt Carthy

Hear, hear.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

To protect renters, we need an extension of the eviction ban and we need Government pace and ambition. As a matter of fact, we need a new Government.

(Interruptions).

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

That much is evidently clear.

The Taoiseach

As is so often the case, the Deputy seems to think the solution to the housing crisis is just her being Taoiseach and her party being in government.

Deputy Matt Carthy

It would be a first step.

The Taoiseach

She puts no solutions forward in her contributions, nor does she do so in the Sinn Féin motion. It seems to me that she sees housing not as a crisis to be overcome, or a problem to be solved, but a political issue to be exploited. There are four things the Deputy could do to help, if she is interested in helping. One, she could stop objecting to new housing.

(Interruptions).

The Taoiseach

The Deputy objected to 2,000 homes in her constituency alone. Her party has objected to 12,000. She particularly objects to one-bedroom accommodation because the people who live in them are "transients", to use her language, and build-to-rent accommodation, even though we need more properties to rent.

She could drop her opposition to the help-to-buy and first home schemes. Many first-time buyers know an election is coming in the next two years and are starting to read about Sinn Féin policies. We had more first-time buyers in January than in any month since records began in 2010. They know Sinn Féin will take away the help-to-buy and first home schemes and are concerned about it. Sinn Féin should take that threat off their backs.

Deputy Matt Carthy

Where will the families go when they are evicted?

The Taoiseach

The third thing the Deputy can do is to stop threatening landlords with increased restrictions and regulations and more taxes. That will just cause more of them to leave the market.

(Interruptions).

Deputy Matt Carthy

Where will the families go?

The Taoiseach

Deputy McDonald could acknowledge that Sinn Féin's plan to extend the eviction ban until the end of January will do only one thing. It will make the situation worse but perhaps that is what she wants.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

No, it will not. Continuing in government will make the situation worse.

(Interruptions).

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

We are way over time.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

On 9 February, six weeks ago now, the Labour Party called for an extension to the eviction ban in our motion. The Government voted it down. It voted down our proposal for a series of constructive measures that would have served to increase the number of homes available to people. Despite positive indications the Government was going to extend the ban in the meantime, at the last minute it has confirmed that it will indeed lift it at the end of next week, in ten days' time. This decision is already causing immense distress and devastation to those families and renters throughout the country who are facing a cliff edge of eviction from 1 April.

Since our motion was defeated, answers to parliamentary questions we received confirmed that the Government did not undertake any modelling as to the effect its decision would have on increasing homelessness. The responses from the Government have also confirmed that the primary consideration for choosing the duration of the ban in the first place was that of weather, meteorological conditions, which is incredible. Further responses confirmed that no new or clear direction was given to local authorities by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to mandate the purchase of homes occupied by renters facing homelessness. In other words, the Government has wasted the breathing space afforded to it by the ban. It could have used the six months the ban was in operation to plan, put contingency measures in place, added extra homes for people and added extra conditionality to ensure, for example, that landlords moving back into their own homes could be catered for. It is extraordinary and incomprehensible to all of us that the Government instead went ahead and decided to lift the ban from the end of next week without any plan B or any contingencies.

Nothing the Government can float this week - and we have seen in the past 30 minutes apparently leaked details of the sorts of measures that will be in its countermotion - will help those who are due to lose their homes from the start of April. Nothing. No kite-flying this week will provide the reassurance parents who are contacting us need. These parents cannot bear the thought that they will have to take their children out of school because they simply cannot find another place to live in their own community. In my constituency, I hear from parents in this position. I hear from renters who will now face hours-long commutes because they cannot afford a home in a community near their workplace.

It is not too late, even now at the eleventh hour, to reverse the Government's decision and to extend the ban.

The Government should vote for the Opposition motion tomorrow, as it seems some Government Members are proposing to do. If the Government does not do so, the Labour Party has proposed a constructive alternative. As the Taoiseach knows, I wrote to him last Thursday with draft legislation which we are calling on the Government to move this week. Our legislation provides a mechanism to keep the ban in place until monthly homelessness reports show reductions for four successive months. This is a compassionate and evidenced-based approach. It is results-based rather than time-based and an approach that homelessness agencies have urged the Government to adopt.

Will the Taoiseach admit that the Government has made a mistake? Will he stop defending the indefensible and reverse his decision? If not, he will leave us with no choice but to table a motion of no confidence in his Government next week. This is a measure we do not take lightly but it is one which we believe is justified by reference to the devastation the Government’s decision is causing to so many thousands of families and renters around the country.

Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

Hear, hear.

Deputy Ged Nash

Hear, hear.

The Taoiseach

We were always clear when this was introduced that it was a temporary measure. If one reads the regulation, it says winter period. It was very clear that this was to be a temporary measure for the winter period and would end on a phased basis from 1 March. It gave tenants facing or receiving notices of termination a few more months to find alternative accommodation and gave the Government time to act, and we did act. Over 6,000 new social homes have been built. The tenant in situ scheme has been scaled up and a very clear direction has been given by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the local authorities that we want that scheme used. It also allowed us to provide additional emergency accommodation in case it is needed.

There is one thing I think we all agree on. We all seem to agree that an eviction moratorium has to end at some point. No matter when it is ended, it will be difficult and problems will arise. The view from the Sinn Féin Party is that we should have a time-based extension until January and let us just hope it is better then.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

Do your work.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

Listen to the Labour Party proposals.

The Taoiseach

The truth is that extending the eviction ban until the end of January just means it is going to be much worse then and it will be in the middle of winter.

In fairness to the Labour Party, it has put forward a different proposal. It is proposing that the eviction ban can end if we see the number of people in emergency accommodation fall for four months. That needs to be thought through. It might fall by 50 in one month, ten in another month, 55 in the next month and perhaps two in the month after that. It might fall by as little as four. We would then lift the ban and what does the Labour Party think would happen then? It does not make sense.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

These are real solutions that will make a difference.

Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

Where were they six months ago?

The Taoiseach

Different mechanisms to kick the can down the road definitely will not work.

Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

The Taoiseach does not have a notion.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

I remind the Taoiseach of the words he delivered in Waterford in July 2017, when he signalled he was the future. He said, "So long as I am Taoiseach Waterford will not be neglected or forgotten." I remember well the hope his speech inspired as a signal that the vicious perishing unleashed by the Administration of his predecessor, Enda Kenny, was coming to an end. We surveyed the wreckage of the then Government's disastrous hospital groups strategy, which had led to the chaotic asset-stripping of our regional hospital system by a parochial Cork. That left us with what is still the worst funded model 4 hospital in the country: an outlier with the lowest ratio of staff and beds to citizens and patients of any model 4 hospital. For the Taoiseach's information, by some margin Cork hospital is the best resourced model 4 hospital in the group. It is odd that we never hear much about the best and worst resourced parts of our public sector. Precious few comparative data are ever made public by the Government.

Of course, the Taoiseach knows all of this. He knows what his successive Administrations have done in Waterford and done to Waterford. That is likely why his party, which in 2011 had half of the seats in the south-east region, or seven of the 14 available, today has just two. He knows the data on health spending and he knows the efficient and the competent versus the incompetent and the wasteful. He certainly knows well run from mismanaged. He is also acutely aware of the politically protected parts of our public sector. Those outside such protections are fair game for the plucking. After 12 years, I think it is fair to say the Taoiseach also knows the shell game of commissioning a report to hide a political decision he or his Government cannot defend. The trouble is that we in Waterford know it too.

Will the Taoiseach deliver 24-7 cardiac care to Waterford and the south-east region before the end of this Government? Will he give a commitment to that? His Government still stands behind the Herity report, which was commissioned in 2015 and is a shoddy and shocking piece of work that got basic facts completely wrong. In fact, there still remains a typo in the headline title. With Dr. Herity's abysmal efforts blown out of the water, the Taoiseach's Government commissioned a national review of specialist cardiac services, which started its work in 2018, over five years ago - six months, in fact, after the Taoiseach's "Waterford will not be neglected" speech. Five years have passed, and we have never heard from it again. When will the Taoiseach's Government stop protecting Cork consultants' private practices? When will the people of Waterford and its surrounds have an equitable, 24-7, lifesaving standard of emergency cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford?

The Taoiseach

I thank the Deputy. I remember that speech well. I made it at Bausch + Lomb, on the outskirts of Waterford city, at a jobs announcement, and I committed to a number of things happening in Waterford. I was back there recently - the Deputy was with me for some of it - and I was so pleased to see the amount of progress that has been made in the five or six years since then. I said there would be a focus on getting good, well-paid jobs into Waterford. About 600 IDA jobs have been announced in Waterford in that period, with major investments happening, as the Deputy has acknowledged in other forums. I said we would finally deliver a university for the south east and that has been done with the South East Technological University, which I visited a few weeks ago. We said we would get the North Quays development under way. The Deputy was there for the sod-turning, in the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and me, not too long ago. This €200 million investment in the south east will transform that city and make it the vibrant urban centre of the south east that it should be. I said we would invest in Waterford hospital and we have, with the Dunmore wing in particular, which I visited only a few weeks ago. I was really impressed to see that. The Deputy knows how much things have improved in respect of the emergency department and overcrowding there, palliative care and many other things.

The particular issue the Deputy zeroed in on in his question, which is entirely reasonable, was the cath lab. When I made that speech in 2017, it did not exist. There were questions as to whether there would ever be a second cath lab in Waterford. I was in the second cath lab in Waterford a few weeks ago. The Government delivered on that and built it, and it is now ready to be used. As things stand, it is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.

The hospital has confirmed that extended cardiac service hours for the existing cath lab commenced from 5 September. That means the existing cath lab is now open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. The next step, which we are committed to making happen, is to ensure there is a service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week and then to build up to a 24-hour service. Previously, we did not have the infrastructure or the staff. We now have the infrastructure. It is now a case of putting all the staff in place, agreeing the rotas and so on. The lab does exist, however. Waterford has a second cath lab and we will be able to move to a seven-day service next. The plan is to move to a 24-hour service after that, subject to being able to get the staffing in place.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

I am glad to hear the Taoiseach finally acknowledge there is a roadmap to get to a 24-7 service. It is the first time that has been acknowledged in this House. I invited him to come to Waterford and visit University Hospital Waterford, so I was very glad to see him there. As I pointed out to him in private conversation, there are still exceptional challenges at the hospital, not least the lack of capital expansion. At least four projects there have, in essence, been mothballed for the past year and they are critical in getting community services and other services off the acute hospital site so that capacity can be expanded. I have engaged with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, through the past year to drive policy to deliver that expansion but, unfortunately, it is not happening.

I point out to the Taoiseach that the estates office for the HSE is based in County Kilkenny and the regional model 4, covering the south east, is based in Waterford. It is about time for there to be an estates office on the campus of University Hospital Waterford in order that it can be liaised with directly to understand what is causing all these delays.

The Taoiseach

It is only right to recognise that there has been considerable investment in the hospital in recent years, with a 20% increase in staff and a 20% increase in the budget since the Government came into office. The new Dunmore wing is an impressive addition to the hospital, with extra bed capacity, as well as extra services in the palliative care wing. There is finally now a second cath lab in the hospital, which is great to see. Given the number of meetings I had on it through the years, it was great to visit it and see that it exists. It can now be made proper use of in the coming months. I acknowledge the hospital needs further investment. The Deputy is right about that. The only thing we will see in Waterford is an increasing population and, like other parts of the country, an ageing population. We need to see the hospital developed and we need it to have more services, including additional bed capacity, added. That is the kind of thing I discussed in detail with the clinical team and the hospital manager when I visited the hospital. I am determined to work with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to get the funding to make sure that happens.

Deputy Michael McNamara

Greenways are a success story and have the potential to be an even greater one. In general, tourism in Ireland is a success story. A significant number of tourists come to Ireland but their visits tend to be concentrated in exactly the same places as were popular with tourists in Victorian times. There are various campaigns, such as Ireland's Hidden Heartlands and so on, to try to disperse tourists and get them to consider other areas, with a degree of success. Greenways have significant potential to disperse people across the country and develop a new type of tourism. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is present. The greenway in County Waterford is a success story, and there are others. Waterways Ireland has developed a greenway running from Dublin to Athlone. It will continue from Athlone to Galway, dipping south through Portumna, Woodford, Gort and Kinvara and across the Slieve Aughty mountains.

I wish to focus on a particular greenway of which the Taoiseach is aware. Eoin O'Hagan of Tourism East Clare previously brought it to his attention. It is the Limerick-Scarriff greenway, running along the banks of the oldest canal in the country, namely, the Errina Canal, and from there skirting to Parteen Weir and then along the River Shannon up to Scarriff. It is an exciting project in an area that needs an injection of tourism. There were many tourists in east Clare when I was growing up but there are fewer now. I celebrate the success of places such as Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point but it is clear there is an imbalance.

We need to maintain a balance and we need to grow tourism in other parts of the country too. I believe this has the capability to do that, not only in and of itself and but also because, as I mentioned, the Athlone-to-Galway greenway will dip south through the Slieve Aughty mountains, which means it will go through the parish of Scarriff at Loughatorick, some 11 km from the village of Scarriff. There is an obvious potential to link them up, which would mean that one could walk or cycle along a greenway from Dublin to Kerry via east Clare, or from Galway Bay to Kerry via east Clare. That is hugely exciting.

There is a pinch point, however, at O'Briensbridge. It is ironic, really, because it is a village that was effectively bypassed by the Shannon scheme. It is a beautiful village but one that needs investment and tourists coming into it as it would have had historically. That pinch point is the ESB and Parteen Weir, which is a fantastic project that I saw as recently as this morning. It is something to which tourists would flock. The ESB has said that it cannot have a greenway with tourists going along its embankment. That may be the case. It may have legitimate concerns. If the civil engineering capability existed 100 years ago to harness the River Shannon, the civil engineering capability exists now to overcome this minor point. I ask the Taoiseach to make sure that Waterways Ireland and the ESB work constructively together to overcome this to ensure there is not an obstacle to what is a hugely exciting project for east Clare and beyond.

The Taoiseach

I thank Deputy McNamara for raising the issue of the Limerick-to-Scarriff greenway. I am aware of the project, which is very exciting. I am a big fan of greenways both as a local active amenity for people who live in the area but also as something that can be very attractive for tourists. It very much speaks to the Government's current strategy of trying to get longer-stay tourists to come into the country for more sustainable breaks.

The project is at phase 2 where technical advisers are examining options for a preferred route and undertaking extensive stakeholder engagement. Proposals to allow the use of ESB lands for the greenway are currently being considered by the ESB and further meetings are envisaged. Thereafter, and subject to agreement with the ESB, it is proposed to finalise the route options, and a preferred route consultation is expected after the summer. A figure of €70,000 has been allocated to the project so far, and a further €80,000 will be allocated in 2023.

Waterways Ireland, Clare County Council and Limerick City and County Council are currently engaged in the phase 2 option selection process. All reasonable feasible route corridors will be examined and their costs, benefits and effects on the environment will be interrogated to identify a preferred option. If approved, the project will then progress to phase 3, which is design and environmental evaluation. That includes assessment of the routes through the ESB lands between Cloonlara and O'Briensbridge. All relevant stakeholders are working together collaboratively to identify the best route and are confident that a solution can be found in the near future.

Deputy Michael McNamara

I have outlined to the Taoiseach the importance of this with regard to dispersing tourists. Obviously, that is why I have continually pressed the issue of the Shannon Heritage sites. I understand a deal is now imminent. I would like to express my thanks to the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. I also see the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, in the Chamber. I thank all who contributed to that deal. It is indeed good news. We need to make sure that tourism is dispersed, and it is part of Clare County Council's strategy to do so. Clare County Council is also developing the west Clare railway, which is progressing well. It is moving to design stage and the Kilkee to Kilrush leg will be the first one to be constructed and opened.

I want to go back to the greenway, however. Yes, the ESB is engaging with Waterways Ireland. Waterways Ireland has a really good track record for a relatively new body - it is very new, in fact; it is only approximately 20 years old - in what it has done. It has done all of it without going through the compulsory purchase order, CPO, process for a single centimetre of land. That is a huge achievement. The ESB wants it to go elsewhere and obtain land through a CPO. That is not the Waterways Ireland approach. It is the ESB approach. It loves obtaining land through CPOs and is quite good at litigation. It is not the Waterways Ireland approach. The ESB needs to work more collaboratively. I acknowledge the ESB's goodwill towards this, but it needs to work harder on it. I ask the Taoiseach to make sure his office brings that collaboration about.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 21 Mar 2023