We may proceed as the Deputy who submitted the first selected Topical Issue and the Minister of State who is responding are present. Before we start, I am reminded that, for many years, we had a superb individual in the Government Whip's office, Alice Kearney, who had the ability to foresee the future. She always ensured that Ministers and other participants were in the Chamber when the time for the Topical Issue Debate arrived. However, we are where we are. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, to deal with the first important matter I have selected, which is from Deputy Mairéad Farrell.
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Early Childhood Care and Education
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as an Saincheist seo a thógáil. Is Saincheist fíorthábhachtach í seo mar gheall go bhfuilimid ag breathnú ar chúram oideachais do pháistí óga sa Ghaeltacht. Táim cinnte go bhfuil sé arduithe agam leis an Aire cheana, ar ábhar éagsúil, an tábhacht a bhaineann le cinntiú go bhfuil seirbhísí ar fáil do cheantrachaí Gaeltachta. Is seirbhís luathoideachais atá i gceist anseo. Tá an t-ionad tacaíochta teaghlaigh ar an bhfód ó 2009 agus bhí deacrachtaí éagsúla aige. Tuigim go raibh rudaí nua agus cabhair nó tacaíocht ón Rialtas a bhain le cúram leanaí ach tá an t-ionad anois an-bhuartha go mbeidh air a chuid doirse a dhúnadh ag deireadh na míosa. Ar ndóigh, tá go leor teaghlaigh sa cheantar faoi bhrú uafásach dá bharr mar tá 120 páiste ag freastal ar an seirbhís seo go laethúil agus ní hé seo an chéad uair go raibh ar bhainisteoir an ionaid é a fhágáil. Léiríonn sé arís eile go gcaithfimid breathnú ar an íocaíocht a bhíonn á fáil ag daoine atá ag obair san earnáil seo ar an gcéad dul síos. Chomh maith le sin, caithfimid breathnú ar sheirbhísí sa Ghaeltacht ina iomláine chun a chinntiú go bhfuil an tacaíocht ann do dhaoine a bheith in ann obair sa Ghaeltacht. Más rud é gur ar an luathoideachas atáimid ag caint ar, nó ar an dara leibhéil nó pé rud é, caithfimid a chinntiú go bhfuil an tacaíocht sin ann. Tá sé sin fíorthábhachtach, ach go háirithe má táimid i ndáiríre go bhfuilimid ag iarraidh go mbeadh teaghlaigh óga in ann a gclann a thógáil sa Ghaeltacht. Ar ndóigh, tá deacrachtaí eile ann mar gheall go mbíonn ar na tuismitheoirí taisteal níos faide agus iad ag dul ag obair toisc go bhfuil siad ina gcónaí sa Ghaeltacht.
I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical issue. This relates to an ionad tacaíochta teaghlaigh that has been open since 2009 and specifically deals with children from six months to 12 years of age and early education. I am sure the Minister of State has heard me speak about the issue of making sure that we have services in the Gaeltacht in the Chamber before. It looks like this service will have to close by the end of the month because the manager will be leaving and there are serious difficulties with recruitment. My colleague, Deputy Funchion, has long been raising the issue of ensuring there is adequate pay in the sector. I am fully aware of the things the Government has done in relation to childcare but I am deeply concerned about the impact this is having on the 120 children and their families who are dealing with this particular service every single day and the people working in it. To me, it is also about the services that are needed, whether in early years education or childcare. We see the same issues in secondary education, where it is harder to recruit in these Gaeltacht areas. If we are serious about maintaining the Irish language and people being able to raise these families in these areas, we need to address them. There is a deep concern now. The ionad has been on the go since 2009, but there have been issues continuously with managers having to leave. It is about providing supports for the early education sector.
I thank Deputy Mairéad Farrell for raising this issue and offering the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister. First of all, tá brón orm a rá nach bhfuil mórán Gaeilge agam agus gur mhaith liom an cheist a fhreagairt as Béarla.
With State funding in early learning and childcare at an all-time high, and set to reach €1.109 billion this year, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Government have demonstrated a strong track record in this policy area. This funding is delivering two years of free preschool education to all children through the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme and supporting record numbers of families to offset the cost of early learning and childcare through the national childcare scheme. The Government acknowledges that many early learning and care childcare services report staffing difficulties in relation to recruitment and retention. A central factor is the level of pay in the sector, which impacts on staff turnover. Recruitment challenges may be compounded in Irish-medium settings, given the need for staff to have Irish language skills as well as meeting sector qualification requirements.
On the issue of pay, it must be stressed that providers of early learning and childcare are private businesses. As the State does not employ staff in these services, the Government does not set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector. However, there is now, through the independent joint labour committee, JLC, process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate terms and conditions of employment, including minimum pay rates for different roles in services. The JLC is continuing to meet to discuss possible changes to employment regulation orders first introduced in 2022, and the committee recently published its new draft proposals, indicating a 5% increase in all current minimum rates of pay.
The Government is committed to the continued improvement of pay and conditions for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners through the provision of public funding to providers via the core funding scheme. In relation to recruitment, Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare 2022-2028 aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in the sector, to raise the profile of careers in the sector and to support recruitment and retention. The Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, recently established a subgroup of the early learning and childcare stakeholder forum specifically to discuss current staffing pressures and additional measures that may be needed. The subgroup had its first meeting on 13 December and the next meeting is planned for this week. Proposals that may arise from that subgroup will be presented to the Minister for his consideration.
As for supports for the Irish language, the Department of children is currently working on development of a comprehensive plan for Irish language provision in the sector. Core funding, introduced in 2022, offers greater stability and sustainability for providers by substantially increasing the overall investment in the sector, particularly through a supply-side funding approach. It operates alongside the ECCE programme and the national childcare scheme, and provides payment in respect of the number of child places rather than based on child registrations or attendance. This intentional and deliberate differentiation of approach in the new funding model means the core funding element of a service's income is a more stable income source that will not fluctuate year on year. An additional €44 million in core funding for year 3 will support the delivery of a range of enhancements to the scheme to support improved affordability and accessibility for families, improved pay and conditions for the workforce and improved sustainability for providers.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. Maidir leis an gceist a bheadh agam i ndáiríre, tá sé soiléir go bhfuil cineál géarchéime leis an ionad tacaíochta seo. Léiríonn an t-ainm atá air, “ionad tacaíocht”, agus an téarma “crann taca” go dtugann sé tacaíocht do theaghlaigh sa cheantar ach, má bhreathnaímid ar an nGaeltacht ina iomláine agus ar na príomhsheirbhísí atá ag teastáil agus a gcaithfear a chur ar fáil sna ceantair seo ionas gur féidir le daoine a gcuid teaghlaigh a thógáil iontu, céard go díreach atá an tAire agus an Roinn ag déanamh chun breathnú ar an mbealach trínar féidir tacaíocht a thabhairt agus cén cineál acmhainní gur féidir a thabhairt don earnáil seo sa Ghaeltacht? The issue is coming to a head with regard to the specific early education provider that we are talking about here. It shows what can happen more broadly in Gaeltacht areas in terms of resources. What are the Minister and the Department doing in respect of specific resources for Gaeltacht communities and for Irish language resources in this sector? If we want to be realistic about people being able to raise their families through Irish in the Gaeltacht areas, we need to make sure these basic services are provided. One man contacted me to say that they were so happy to get the place in order that they could raise their children in the Gaeltacht area.
What specifically are the Minister and the Government doing on that?
I thank the Deputy for her contribution. A number of safety nets are in place to ensure that all services can remain sustainable and are adequately supported, including a case management support system. It is important that I put that on the record. The Department of children oversees the case management process through which the local city or county childcare committee, CCC, and Pobal work together to assess and provide support services for those experiencing difficulties and through which sustainability funding may be granted should the need arise. If any service has viability concerns, it is encouraged to reach out to its local CCC to start availing of these supports.
It is also understood that the service in question has engaged with the Galway CCC and the CCC is available to provide assistance to both the service and the families of children using the service. Staffing pressures in early learning and childcare services are caused primarily by the high level of staff turnover linked to pay and conditions, as I said. As the State is not the employer, it cannot set the pay levels. That is why we have been dealing with the joint labour committee, JLC, process since September 2022. More than 70% of staff in the sector have seen pay increases and the JLC is continuing to meet. The Government and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, continue to support the process through the core funding scheme. I thank the Deputy for her comments and I will pass these directly on to the Minister. As I said, the Galway CCC is available to provide assistance to both the service and the families of children using the particular service.
Heritage Sites
Once again, I am forced to bring to the attention of the House the ongoing issue of Castletown House in Celbridge, which is in State ownership, along with 235 acres. There is a stately home and a collection of various artforms not only relating to Celbridge but the country in general. It is an invaluable collection which needs to be housed securely. The building itself has to be maintained in an order which keeps the collection safe for future generations. In the last couple of years, there has been a huge increase in the traffic volumes through Castletown House by virtue of the interest shown in it and the promotion by the OPW. As a result of that, it has come to a situation whereby we have to plan for the future.
Unfortunately, a private arrangement was entered into for the last 15 years between the then owners of Castletown House and the State to gain access to Castletown House and the car park via the M4, which was sufficient to cater to any needs the State might have for the maintenance and servicing of the house and its environs. Unfortunately from the State's point of view, the adjoining property was sold. It is private property of 260 or 270 acres. It is the other part of the Castletown estate which is in private ownership. It was put up for sale and tender. The OPW failed to secure the property in the sale. As a result, the new owners are in the course of removing the facility that was there for the last 15 years on a temporary basis and have said it is all over. It puts all the property in jeopardy. It puts the services and the money that the OPW has spent on the estate over the last 20 years in jeopardy.
It has put in place a very difficult situation for the local residents and the OPW. The local residents continue to be blamed for causing an impasse on the basis that they have caused that, but they have not caused that. They have merely raised questions about the manner in which the OPW proposed to resolve the access problem that was presented to it in the month of September. That proposal was to widen the existing gates that were built at the time the house was built with angle grinders and to bring the traffic through the main gate. That is not feasible or practicable. The house was built 300 years ago, when the traffic on the main street in Celbridge was zilch except for the traffic going through the main gates, including horses and carriages and so on. It is not reasonable to expect that is the way that traffic will be handled in the future. The OPW said that it is all right, that everything is in order and that it has alternative entrance, access, egress or whatever it wants to call it, but it does not. It is not achievable, because it is 300 years since that access was deemed to be sufficient for the traffic likely to go through onto the main street. Now everything has changed. We now have a different situation which means that the local authority or OPW, together or apart, need to define who has access and by what route, and whether they can maintain, by way of court review or whatever, the access for the public and the valuable collection there indefinitely.
I thank Deputy Durkan for his ongoing interest in Castletown House and estate. He has raised this issue on a number of occasions in the House, representing the local community and the people affected by the situation. In October 2023, the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy O'Donovan, initiated a working group to progress the reuniting of the historic demesne and access issues to Castletown House and estate. The group includes representatives of the community and all the political representatives in the area, including Deputy Durkan as a TD for the area. The working group has held three meetings to date to agree the terms of reference. To date, these meetings have focused on staff access.
I welcome that the Deputy is a member of the Castletown House and estate stakeholders working group. As the Deputy is aware, the OPW does not have permission from the private landowner to access their privately owned lands between the M4 motorway and the State-owned lands at Castletown House. This has been the situation since September 2023. The only access for the OPW is via the Celbridge bridge gate and Lime Avenue. This is the historic entrance to Castletown House and estate. The key challenge remains that the OPW does not have vehicular access to Castletown House and estate. Without vehicular access for the OPW staff at Castletown, it will not be possible to welcome school tours, active retirement groups and other visitors to Castletown House in 2024. The key challenge remains that vehicular access is required for the OPW staff to access Castletown House and estate due to local community protests. There is a continuing protest to any OPW vehicular access on Lime Avenue. However, it is critical to note that this does not extend to Kildare County Council or to Uisce Éireann staff.
It is critical to understand that OPW staff have not had vehicular access to their workplace since September 2023. Their union withdrew their members on 25 October 2023 until the OPW can provide a safe working environment or safe access and egress for their members to attend their workplace. A skeleton staff continues to undertake minimum operations on the site.
The OPW and the staff at Castletown House want to return to normal working arrangements and longer opening hours to welcome visitors from the local area and beyond. The OPW wants to develop a plan to welcome children for school tours, to welcome visitors to guided tours of the House, to reopen the café, to plan exhibitions and to undertake all the biodiversity work that Castletown House has become a leader in over recent years. This is not possible with the skeleton staff it has at present.
The officials of the OPW have been in ongoing intensive contact with all members of the local community, with ongoing direct contact. They have made themselves available to meet with representative groups and individual members of the community on an ongoing basis. Despite ongoing intensive efforts, it has not been possible to get agreement for the OPW staff to gain access to their workplace. I would urge the Deputy, and indeed all elected representatives, to assist with sharing accurate information with the local community. As the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, has already shared, and this was reiterated to the Deputy on 25 January, it is fully agreed that Lime Avenue is not suitable for the approximately 250,000 cars and 1 million visitors that came to Castletown estate in 2022. The overwhelming majority of visitors to the estate are from the surrounding area. People on a guided tour of Castletown House account for less than 1% of visitors. As has been made clear to the local community, the OPW does not have any permission to access Castletown House and estate from the M4 access road.
I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. This is about the 12th time I have raised this issue since September. My frustration and that of local people stems from the lack of progress since then. I am not blaming the Minister of State for that as this is not his area of responsibility, but something has to give. The situation cannot continue whereby local public representatives, including me, strive to resolve matters in the shortest possible time, but there is no progress to report. As long as the situation remains the same, then nothing will ever happen. At the end of the day, there is potential for damage to the collection at Castletown House, to the roof of the building, and all the trappings that go with that. It is an area where there has been great expenditure in the past. It needs that expenditure. It also needs continuous traffic from visitors.
It is now essential to attempt to have a judicial review on whether there is a case for the State to ensure that it has access to the property in question. It is the State's property. If it is the case that the State is to be prevented from servicing and visiting its own property, and allowing its employees to visit and maintain the property, it is time to go for a judicial review on whether a mutual agreement can be reached with the adjoining landowner whereby the State can do its job, while at the same time allowing the neighbouring landowner, who is the new owner, to continue his or her work regardless. It is a question of sharing the entrance and finding the legal means of doing that. The reticence in this matter so far is due to the example of Lissadell in County Sligo. There is no comparison between Castletown and the situation at Lissadell at all. I ask that we go for either an interim injunction or a judicial review to prove it.
I reiterate that the OPW is not seeking to bring significant volumes of traffic through the Celbridge gate and the lime avenue. The OPW envisages the lime avenue operating as a pedestrian-priority road in line with current practice across numerous OPW sites, such as St. Stephen's Green and Farmleigh. The OPW has given written commitments that the volume of traffic will be approximately 20 vehicles per day for OPW staff and essential contractors. People with a disability will also be facilitated at that entrance.
At this time, Castletown House and estate will not be offering car parking for visitors to Castletown. The practical implementation of this new reality, and ensuring that it does not have a negative impact on the local community in Celbridge, is a key area of discussion for the working group. To date, the independent facilitator has convened three meetings. I understand that a fourth meeting is due shortly. The OPW remains committed to acquiring the additional lands that form part of the original estate, where they become available, in order to reunite the historic demesne. As the Deputy knows, the State tried to acquire these lands in 2022 but were outbid by the current landowner. The OPW has had commercial negotiations with the landowners over the past nine months. These discussions have included the options of purchase of either a portion of the land or the entire portfolio or, alternatively, to seek renewal of the previous licence agreement.
The OPW continues to engage with the private landowners at Castletown estate with a view either to purchasing all or a portion of the lands under consideration at an acceptable cost or to find an agreed means for the public to pass over the lands in private ownership. The OPW is aware that the landowner has recently applied for planning permission to retain and substantially develop the existing M4 access road and car park. While in principle the OPW welcomes efforts to facilitate public access to Castletown, it will examine this application in detail to ensure that it is aligned with OPW's remit to protect and preserve the historic setting of the house and to ensure all biodiversity requirements are accounted for.
Public Transport
I thank the Minister of State for being present to take this matter. As he knows, Citywest, which is in my constituency, was meant to be a planned and phased, mixed and relatively modest residential development area. In fact, an area plan was advised for it just over ten years ago. The decision by the previous government to introduce strategic housing development areas, which essentially ran a coach-and-four through normal planning regulations and protocols, and overrode local area and county development plans, has meant that Citywest has developed rapidly, with great density and height, in the past two or three years. One of the reasons or factors used as a supporting argument by developers applying for planning permission there is that developments are adjacent to the red line Luas. This is used as a reason to provide very little private parking in developments, which has led to a plethora of issues with parking, including people asking residents with driveways if they can rent a space in those driveways. This is well accounted for in local media. There is also the forced parking of cars along national secondary routes because there simply is not adequate provision of parking.
Public transport, therefore, is key and was looked on as a key reason for enabling the granting of dense and high-rise developments with a very transient population in Citywest. In the past number of months, the very vibrant and hard-working Citywest Community Council, led by a very dedicated chair and committee, has raised with Transdev and the National Transport Authority, NTA, the issue of Luas trams that are outbound, particularly from the city, destined for Citywest and Saggart, actually stopping at Belgard in Tallaght and not continuing on to Saggart. This forces passengers to disembark and to wait and queue until the next red line tram bound for Citywest and Saggart comes along. This is not acceptable late at night, never mind at other times during the day, especially for particular cohorts of our society, including students and young women.
The response of Transdev to Citywest residents' association regarding service disruptions was quite interesting. On 3 October, Transdev stated that cancelling of services is the last option exercised when responding to any problem on the line. It also stated that occasionally, due to operational reasons or during times of service disruptions, Saggart trams are redirected to Tallaght to regulate the line and reduce delays. The problem is this is never flagged. Someone can get on a tram in the city or between the city and, for example, Red Cow, get on the red line expecting it will bring him or her to Citywest, but it is not announced that the service to Citywest is cancelled. Sometimes, trams do not show up.
This matter has been raised. The chair of Citywest Community Council was with me in Buswells Hotel when the NTA made a presentation. The council raised this issue with the NTA, which stated it would revert, but despite repeated emails and correspondence the NTA has not reverted. This needs to be addressed. Trams need to go where they say they are going and where timetables say they are going. This situation does not seem to happen on the green line. Will the Minister of State ask Transdev whether there are any plans to extend the length of tram, similar to the green line, which has substantially longer trams than the red line, to help accommodate the increasing number of people who want to use the red line?
I thank Deputy Lahart for raising the important topic of the inadequate and inconsistent Luas red line services to Citywest. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I will clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the NTA. The NTA works with public transport operators, which deliver the services and have responsibility for their day-to-day operation.
That said, I reassure the Deputy that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options. Public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal.
To support this objective, under budget 2024, a funding package of approximately €613.463 million has been secured for public service obligation and Local Link services. This package includes funding for the continuation of the 20% fare reduction on PSO services, the extension of the young adult card on both PSO and commercial bus services to include 24 year olds and 25 year olds, and the continuation of the 90 minute fare until the end of 2024. Funding has also been secured to support the continued roll-out of new and enhanced bus and rail services this year. As Deputy Lahart is aware, the Government is committed to improving public transport services and is backing that up with a commitment to significant infrastructure investments on the network.
I understand that intermittently throughout 2023 there were issues affecting Luas performance on the red line. These issues arose primarily due to tram availability and driver absences. Tram availability is primarily related to the Luas operator and maintainer being able to keep up with preventative and corrective maintenance on the 40 red line trams, and the 27 known as peak vehicle requirement, PVR. If a tram has not gone through the preventative maintenance cycle, it cannot enter service. Driver absence on Luas is typically in the region of 5%. However, at times in 2023 it was higher than 12%.
The combination of these factors unfortunately had a negative impact on service provision on the red line service last year. However, I am advised that so far in 2024 the Luas service has performed well in terms of tram availability. I understand that there was also a disruption of services on sections of the Luas red line in August and September 2023, which were mainly due to signalling faults at Cookstown. I am advised the root cause of the issue was identified, and there has been no re-occurrence of this technical fault since 9 September 2023.
However, I reassure Deputy Lahart that Transdev is working towards a strategy of enhancement of Luas services. This includes work on timetable improvements, exploring the potential for shuttle services and the replacement of the red line fleet. These changes are subject to funding and the availability of the required maintenance personnel. I understand that Transport Infrastructure Ireland is currently considering a Luas fleet renewal programme, and they have initiated a market consultation on this process. I am advised the fleet renewal programme, which will extend over a number of years given the procurement and subsequent tram building and commissioning phases, includes a proposal to increase the number of trams assigned to the Luas red line which runs from Tallaght to the Point and from Saggart to Connolly Station, covering 21 km of light rail track with 34 stops. I also reassure the Deputy that the Department of Transport, the NTA and Transdev are working to ensure the optimised deployment of resources across the public transport network to match changing passenger demand patterns.
I thank the Chair for the additional latitude, which I appreciate. Some of the items the Minister of State has brought to us are really good news. The first is that Transport Infrastructure Ireland is considering a Luas fleet renewal. It is not overdue, but it is welcome, as is the fact that it is looking at increasing the number of trams assigned to the Luas red line. I would encourage the Minister of State to bring feedback to the Minister and tell him that would be really worthwhile. I certainly support it, as I know do all of the TDs for the area. Will the Minister keep us in touch with the timelines for that?
The driver absence rate going from 5% to 12% is unacceptable. The Minister needs to know why that is happening. While he says he does not have statutory responsibility he is the Minister, and every so often he needs to call people in, knock a few heads together and ask them to explain why absences were so high last year. There are consequences to absences, which mean trams do not show up. They do not run according to timetables and people get stranded at tram stops late at night. There are security concerns. There is a highly mobile workforce in Citywest that is reliant on public transport for all the reasons I have mentioned.
In addition, the chair of Citywest community council made a point to the NTA last November and it has taken until now for the NTA to put response on the record. There is no surprise there. In terms of communications, the NTA needs to up its game. It was indicated to it that there are seven more apartment complexes almost complete in Citywest, and more to come. The provision of public transport, in particular the Luas, is vital. The improvement, extension and expansion of red line services, new trams, longer trams, bigger trams, greater capacity and more regularity is absolutely vital to this growing suburb of Dublin in my constituency.
I again thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Minister for Transport believes that expanding the public transport network and increasing service levels throughout the country will lead to a more balanced service being provided across the entire country, especially into the built-up areas at the edge of Dublin city. It is also significant to point out the growth in passengers on that line for a period during 2023. The number of passengers was 1.734 million. For the same period in 2024 it was 1.828 million, which is growth of 5.4%. That obviously also increases demand on services. On the infrastructure project I say that it is a longer term process and takes time. Design, procurement and construction of the trams will take time. However, because of the increasing patronage on these lines TII has instructed Transdev, the Luas operator, to devise a new Luas timetable to provide for additional service on weekdays and at the weekend. Providing additional services will involve recruiting and training new drivers, maintenance staff and security staff. Given the lead-in time involved in recruitment and training of staff it will be early in 2024 before the new Luas timetable becomes fully operational. That will be appreciated by a number of people. We all know that when there is crowding and a lot of passengers on the platform it takes longer for passengers to get off the line and longer for people to get back on the line. That crowding causes extra delays in its own right, so I hope the new timetable will be a help in that area.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar athló ar 4.47 p.m. go dtí 2 p.m., Dé Máirt, an 13 Feabhra 2024.
The Dáil adjourned at 4.47 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 13 February 2024.