Mick Barry
Ceist:1. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach the extent to which he expects to develop the shared island initiative in the context of the resumption of the Assembly. [7450/24]
Ceisteanna - Questions
Cross-Border Co-operation
Brendan Smith
Ceist:2. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the third shared island forum; and the priorities under the shared island initiative in 2024. [7791/24]
Cathal Crowe
Ceist:3. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the third shared island forum; and the priorities under the shared island initiative in 2024. [7799/24]
Paul McAuliffe
Ceist:4. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the third shared island forum; and the priorities under the shared island initiative in 2024. [7800/24]
Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 1 go 4, go huile, le chéile.
Yesterday, Tuesday, 20 February, the Government confirmed a range of funding allocations which affirm our commitment to working with the new Executive and the UK Government to implement cross-Border investment co-operation that will make the island of Ireland a better place to live for all communities. This is the largest ever package of Government funding for cross-Border investments, and is in addition to the near €250 million already allocated from the shared island fund for more than 15 major projects and programmes. These decisions take forward the Government’s priorities for the initiative in 2024, which I set out in a speech to the third shared island forum earlier this month. Our funding commitments also reflect years of co-operation and partnership by successive British and Irish Governments, and with the Northern Ireland Executive and Departments.
First, the Government has decided to make a commitment of €600 million to the A5 road upgrade to Derry and Donegal. The statutory activities are at an advanced stage in Northern Ireland, and I am told it is feasible that construction on the A5, or at least one section of it, could commence later this year. That is why we are confirming the Government’s contribution now. The Government will also advance planning and design work for the related N2 Clontibret to the Border project and the TEN-T Donegal schemes, which will tie in with the A5. This will bring connectivity in the north west and in Ulster more generally on a par with other parts of the island, North and South.
The Government is also making substantial allocations under the shared island fund. This includes a €50 million contribution to the redevelopment of Casement Park stadium in Belfast. This will help to realise a long-planned sports infrastructure project in the city and maximise the benefit for Northern Ireland from the joint hosting by Ireland and the UK of UEFA Euro 2028. This is a North-South project but it is also an important east-west project, and something we are doing together.
In addition, the Government has decided to move ahead with its long-standing commitment to the Narrow Water bridge between the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth and south County Down. We believe the contract for this could be signed as soon as next month.
New co-operation schemes are being developed in the areas of education and enterprise, including female entrepreneurship. The introduction of an hourly peak-time rail service from Dublin to Belfast will almost double existing service capacity and can be done as soon as next year. It will multiply the potential for new business, education and people-to-people connections along the Dublin-Belfast corridor.
The Government has also decided to progress a major investment in a renewed visitor experience at the Battle of the Boyne site to enhance conservation and the heritage and tourism profile of a place of unique historical significance. This includes an allocation in principle of €10 million from the shared island fund.
We are also moving ahead with work to assist a bid for UNESCO world heritage status for the transboundary astronomical observatories of Ireland partnership. Up to €250,000 will be spent on the related feasibility work on how the heritage, tourism and scientific education value of the three sites - at Dunsink, Birr and Armagh - can be harnessed in the years ahead.
The commitments we have made are about realising the potential of all-island investment co-operation, boosting the all-island economy and improving North-South connections. This is about understanding that regardless of whatever the constitutional future of Northern Ireland or Ireland as a whole may be, investing in people, in quality of life and opportunity and in the generations to come is all our responsibility. It is a common good that we can progress by working together. That is the focus of the Government's shared island initiative and we have taken very substantial steps forward.
I warmly welcome the Taoiseach's response and the Government decision yesterday to allocate very substantial funding to a range of projects that will benefit all of our country. I particularly welcome the funding for the N2 scheme between Clontibret and the Border in County Monaghan and the development of the A5, which is a crucial artery in building and strengthening the all-Ireland economy. Thankfully, today we have an all-Ireland economy that is being strengthened. The economy North and South is very interdependent.
At the same time, I would like to see the Ulster final remain in Clones. Cavan has a very good history, having won 40 Ulster titles, by far the most of any county in the province. Many of them were won in Clones. We look forward to winning more Ulster titles in Clones on Ulster final day.
At Question Time yesterday we discussed the potential for collaboration in further and higher education. I am particularly glad that funding was agreed by the Government yesterday for pilot co-operation on educational attainment. In the very dark days of this island, the Wider Horizons programme, funded by the International Fund for Ireland, was very beneficial. The programme brought together groups of young adults between the ages of 18 and 28 from socially and economically disadvantaged areas for training, work experience and personal development. Those young people were involved in projects in America, Australia and Canada, with people from those countries travelling to this island as well. The programme consisted of young people from Northern Ireland and our State. I was very familiar with those projects at the time because a number of them were centred in counties Cavan and Monaghan. Our Oireachtas colleague Senator Diarmuid Wilson, as the Youthreach co-ordinator in County Cavan at that time, was instrumental in putting many of those programmes in place. On a visit about a year ago to the Shankill I met senior loyalists. Some of those leaders said to me that they would love to see us reintroduce the Wider Horizons programme. They told me about individuals from families who had gone on those programmes and were transformed for the better from the point of view of getting skills, getting a job and having a different attitude to the rest of this island. It was transformative for those people and very important for society. From the point of view of education and training, I would love if a programme similar to the Wider Horizons programme could be reconstituted for young people from economically disadvantaged communities North and South.
Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett will speak on behalf of Deputy Mick Barry.
An issue we should bring into the shared island considerations is that of water safety. We have a lot to learn from what is happening in the North and in the UK. It may be of interest to Members to know that 102 people drowned in 2021 in the Republic of Ireland. This is one of the worst rates of drowning in western Europe and three times the rate of drowning in the UK and the North of Ireland. As a lifeguard who came to my office in the last couple of weeks to raise these issues pointed out, one of the reasons is because lifeguards here, for the most part, are only provided for the months of July and August. In the UK they are provided everywhere from Easter to October. In the UK, including Northern Ireland, there is a proper centralised authority, the RNLI, which by the way, is based in Swords but manages Northern Ireland's water safety. It has dramatically improved it. Critically, they are given the equipment they need. A lifeguard here is on the minimum wage and is given a whistle. In the UK and the North, lifeguards are given a whole range of equipment. They are provided with defibrillators, special vehicles to move along coastal and surf areas, radios and so on. As a result of the changes they have made, they have dramatically improved water safety. It is quite alarming that of the 102 deaths that occurred here, just under 50 were of people taking their own lives. If we exclude those figures, as Eurostat does, we have a rate of drowning that is considerably worse than most of the rest of western Europe. It is not even clear who is in charge because when I submit questions about equipment to local authorities, which provide the equipment, those questions are refused because they say Water Safety Ireland is responsible. When I put questions to Water Safety Ireland, it says that the local authorities are responsible for the provision of equipment and the employment of lifeguards. This is a very serious issue of water safety and people's lives. I ask the Taoiseach to look into it and learn from the experience in the North of Ireland.
I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I would like to echo Deputy Smith's comments on the A5. I am really keen that in building the A5, we do not forget about the Donegal TEN-T and the M2 because it is all one project in many ways, or at least it is all the one road, albeit that its name changes when it crosses the Border.
Regarding the Ulster final in Clones, I have never been to the Ulster final but I have been to Dublin matches in Clones. It is not for me to decide whether the final stays there. I hope to get to an Ulster final there long before Casement Park is built, which I think will be a while anyway.
I have heard of the Wider Horizons programme but I am not familiar with it. I will ask a member of my team to contact the Deputy to follow up on it. It might be something we could fund from the shared island fund, unless there is already something similar which has replaced it. I am not 100% sure.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the important issue of water safety. As he mentioned, more than 100 people drowned in Ireland last year, which is a very large number. With the Assembly and the Executive operating again, there is an opportunity to have Inland Waterways Ireland, which is a North-South body, working to its full effect. I am always open to learning from other jurisdictions where they do things better than us. I think Inland Waterways Ireland, not the local authorities, is the responsible body. I will double-check that and look into the issue of extending the lifeguard season. I completely agree that they should have whatever equipment they need. They should not have to provide it themselves.
European Council
Mick Barry
Ceist:5. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach to report on his engagements at the special meeting of the European Council on Ukraine and the EU budget. [7451/24]
Seán Haughey
Ceist:6. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent special meeting of the European Council on Ukraine. [7795/24]
James Lawless
Ceist:7. Deputy James Lawless asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent special meeting of the European Council on Ukraine. [7797/24]
Jim O'Callaghan
Ceist:8. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent special meeting of the European Council on Ukraine. [7798/24]
Paul Murphy
Ceist:9. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to report on his engagements at the special meeting of the European Council on Ukraine and the EU budget. [7879/24]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:10. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on his engagements at the special meeting of the European Council on Ukraine and the EU budget. [7882/24]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 10, inclusive, together.
On 1 February, I attended a special European Council meeting in Brussels.
The main item on the agenda was the mid-term review of the EU budget for the period 2021 to 2027, including agreement on a €50 billion assistance package for Ukraine. We had discussed the proposed package at our meeting in December. While it had been possible to secure agreement among 26 member states, Hungary was not ready to agree at that time. Hungary has since come on board and at our meeting on 1 February, agreed to the budget package on foot of some small adjustments to the text. The package agreed provides an additional financial envelope in the budget of €64.6 billion in total through a mix of new and existing funds being reallocated. Taking account of redeployments of €10.6 billion, and the €33 billion in loans in the money for Ukraine, the net amount of new moneys being committed under the revision is €21 billion. Some €50 billion will now go to the Ukraine facility, comprising €17 billion in grants and €33 billion in loans. That places financial assistance for Ukraine over the next four years on a predictable and sustainable footing. Additional funding will also now be available for priorities that include migration, external action and the solidarity and emergency reserve that assists member states experiencing a disaster.
We also held a strategic discussion on the situation in the Middle East. I once again strongly advocated for an immediate ceasefire that would allow access for the humanitarian supplies so urgently needed in Gaza, as well as for the immediate release of all remaining hostages, which should happen without any conditions and should have happened a long time ago.
We also discussed challenges facing the agricultural sector and significant concerns raised by farmers in several member states.
The evening before the special European Council meeting, I was honoured to attend a commemoration ceremony hosted by the European Commission in honour of Jacques Delors. Later that evening, I also attended an informal gathering of EU leaders over dinner.
I am sure the Taoiseach and the other EU heads of state and government were delighted when Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán held up the €50 billion plan for Ukraine at the European Council meeting in December and made them all return for a special meeting in February. It is great that this four-year package, the so-called Ukraine facility, has finally been agreed.
As the Taoiseach stated, the meeting also discussed the terrible events taking place in Gaza. Unfortunately, yet again no conclusions were reached. Nevertheless the Taoiseach spoke on the margins of the meeting about the possibility of recognising the Palestinian state, the need to review the EU-Israel trade association agreement, given its human rights clause, the need to continue funding for United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNWRA, and as the Taoiseach has said, the need for a humanitarian ceasefire. Can the Taoiseach give us a progress report on any of those issues? Has any progress been made at European Council level? I know it is difficult to get agreement on these matters but I wonder if the Taoiseach could update the House on those four points that were reported in the media?
Long before the current escalation of violence that we have seen, the genocidal attack on Gaza by Israel and the events of 7 October, I pointed out to the Government, and to Ursula von der Leyen when she was here, something that was not lost on the people of Palestine or the Middle East, which was the shocking double standards in EU policy when we contrast Europe's attitude towards Russia's brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine and decades of illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, a 16-year siege of Gaza, which, by any definition, is a crime against humanity and a collective punishment of the people of Gaza, decades of ethnic cleansing and the failure of the European Union ever to impose any sanction whatsoever on Israel. That was the case before October last year. That double standard continues. The Government has, under pressure, frankly, now begun to express what most people in this country and in the world think, which is that Israel is a rogue state and that a state capable of a genocide should be sanctioned and certainly should not be supported or given favoured trade status by Europe.
We are pouring billions into a war in Ukraine that is going nowhere. Understandably, we sympathise with the Ukrainian people as victims of aggression. The Palestinian people would have as much of a case to ask for armed support from the European Union as the Ukrainian people but they are not asking for that. They are just asking countries to stop giving guns to the Israelis so they can kill Palestinians. They are asking other countries to stop treating Israel like a normal state and giving it favoured trade status while it illegally occupies Palestinian territory, ethnically cleanses Palestinian territory, imposes a siege on Gaza and holds tens of thousands of Palestinians as hostages. Now, indeed, Israel is, in effect, holding Irish citizens hostage. Zak Hania and at least two other Irish citizens that I know of are being held hostage by Israel. That is outrageous. Does the Taoiseach not see the double standards? Does he not see how they would enrage, and are enraging, Palestinians and people across the world? The European Union throws the kitchen sink and billions of euro at arming Ukraine to resist what is a brutal and illegal invasion but gives effective support to Israel to conduct over a much longer period the same crimes and worse? It is now in the dock for genocide. What are we going to do about these shocking double standards? Surely the Taoiseach cannot deny they are obscene and stark double standards and hypocrisy.
I recently met representatives of the Western Saharan people. I do not know if representatives of the Government met them but they were here last week. They pointed out the same double standards. Under international law, they are subject to an illegal occupation by Morocco. The European courts have found in their favour but the European Commission is appealing rulings of the European courts against Morocco because of perceived strategic EU interests in backing Morocco in occupying the Western Saharan people. Unless these double standards are challenged in a serious and sustained way, why would anybody believe in international law or the moral credentials or principles of the European Union? Are those credentials and principles being exposed as non-existent?
I thank the Deputies for their questions. I will respond first to Deputy Haughey. This Parliament has already passed a motion in favour of the recognition of Palestine as a state. The Government wants to fulfil that in a way that is meaningful. We could do it unilaterally tomorrow but it would be effectively a press release that would be dismissed by Israel and nobody would follow it. What makes more sense is to do it on a multilateral basis and we are in discussions with approximately half a dozen other countries about doing it as a group and, crucially, linking it to the Palestinian Authority, or, I hope, a reformed Palestinian Authority, taking back control of Gaza and giving it the status of state, and then its engaging with Israel on an equal basis. That is the way we want to do it.
The EU-Israel association agreement that governs relations between the EU and Israel has a democracy and human right clause. It is my opinion and that of Prime Minister Sánchez that Israel is in flagrant and open violation of that clause and is almost boasting about that, quite frankly, which I find shocking. We are pursuing this matter. The Tánaiste pursued it at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council as recently as Monday and I will do so bilaterally and at the European Council in late March.
Deputy Boyd Barrett talked about double standards. To be frank, in foreign policy, there are double standards, triple standards and quadruple standards all the time. That does not mean it is a good thing. There is evidence of double standards in the European Union's responses in Ukraine and Palestine.
I have called that out. The Deputy also engages in double standards sometimes. I could not count the number of times the Deputy has raised Palestine as an issue during Taoiseach's questions and Leader's Questions. He has done so on so many occasions. I could count the number of times Ukraine was raised, probably on one hand or two. That is evidence of double standards. The Deputy's lack of interest in human rights in places like Cuba and Venezuela, because they are socialist, represents double standards. If he were as critical of them as he is of China, for example, he would not be guilty of double standards.
I am very critical of China.
That is the point. The Deputy is not critical of Venezuela or Cuba. There are double standards all over the place.
I am, actually.
The Deputy should do a bit of research and count the number of times he has raised Palestine as opposed to Ukraine, and the number of times he has raised human rights abuses in Cuba and Venezuela as opposed to China.
There is nobody knocking on my door.
He is pretty good at double standards.
The situation in Ukraine is different from that in Palestine. The attack on Ukraine was totally unprovoked. Ukraine is a democracy, not a dictatorship or a theocracy. It is also a European country, in our neighbourhood, and a country that had applied to join the European Union. Indeed, one of the reasons Russia attacked Ukraine was that it wanted to be part of the European Union. Therefore, it is different. The conflict has been going on for two years. There have been many more deaths in Ukraine, and many more people have been displaced, amounting to 6 million or 7 million at this stage. Fundamentally, however, the approach should be the same. When I meet representatives of Arab governments, I ask them why they have not done more for Palestine. Considering all the things European countries have done for their neighbour Ukraine – I am not referring to giving it weapons but to imposing the likes of sanctions and overflight bans and cancelling visas – Arab countries could do a lot more for their neighbour and their brethren in Palestine.
Departmental Investigations
Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:11. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach further to Parliamentary Question No. 44 of 23 January 2024, the precise date on which the investigation was concluded and reported to the then Taoiseach. [6506/24]
In advance of the Government considering the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in January 2021, certain information that related to matters therein was disclosed in a newspaper article. In that context, the then Taoiseach requested that an investigation be carried out. The investigation was conducted by a senior official in my Department and it received full co-operation from all concerned. The investigation was concluded and the outcome was reported to the then Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, on 16 December 2022.
Given that information and documentation relevant to the matters in the commission's report had been circulated widely in advance of the Government meeting, the investigation concluded that it was not possible to establish with any certainty whether information relating to the matters in the report may have been disclosed in advance of the Government's consideration of the report or by whom any such information would have been disclosed.
As the Deputy will recall, on the publication of the commission's final report, the Tánaiste and I acknowledged the State's failures and apologised for the profound wrong that was visited on some Irish mothers and their children who ended up in mother and baby institutions. I said at the time that the survivors of those institutions were a stolen generation because the State stole from them the lives they could have had. Although it is late in the day, the State now has an opportunity to make restitution.
Since the publication of the commission's report, the Government has strongly prioritised giving effect to actions aimed at responding to the priority needs and concerns of former residents of mother and baby institutions or county homes. Those actions include memorialisation; improved access to health services, counselling and housing; access to records and information about residents, including birth certificates and medical records; financial reparations; and a repository to archive documents relating to residential institutions to enable study to be conducted and assist with advocacy.
The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and his Department have made very significant progress in advancing the various aspects of the Government's action plan, and the work is continuing on its implementation.
The leaking of the report into the mother and baby homes was very wrong. It caused considerable distress among the survivors of the homes. This investigation is very strange, and that is God's honest truth. In response to the parliamentary question submitted by Aontú, the Taoiseach stated the internal investigation into the leaking of the report on mother and baby homes was completed in December 2022. It is bizarre that it took 14 months for the Government to complete it and make this public. It is bizarre that it took an Aontú parliamentary question for the Government to decide it was noteworthy to the public.
The timeline is also very interesting. I asked the former Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, on 13 December whether it was he who leaked the report on the mother and baby homes to the media. He did not answer that question but said that there was no update on the report at the time. The current Taoiseach is saying the former Taoiseach received the report three days later. He is saying he received it the day before he assumed the office of Taoiseach, which insulates him from any responsibility in this regard. Those timelines are very hard to understand. I am referring to the Government's decision to tell people about the report only as a result of an Aontú question, to the former Taoiseach's statement that he did not know the answer to the question, and to his receipt of the report three days later, the day before the Taoiseach assumed office.
Why did the former Taoiseach or the current one not think it noteworthy to tell the survivors of the mother and baby homes about the results of the investigation into the leaking of the report? Why did they find out only as a result of an Aontú question? The Taoiseach mentioned senior officials who participated in the investigation. We know Martin Fraser was the senior official involved in the investigation initially but he changed job during the timeframe, becoming the ambassador for Ireland in London. Who took on his role? What were the terms of reference? Who was questioned in the investigation? Given that what was leaked was part of a general report that heavily quoted the former Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was he questioned about it? This is significant because the leaking of reports to individuals in the Cabinet is not new. I once asked the Taoiseach in this Chamber whether he ever leaked reports, my question being related to the contractual document provided to the doctors' representative organisation. The Taoiseach said he did not at that level. We need to have a system with administrative transparency and also accountability in terms of people who do wrong regarding their responsibility to provide information to survivor organisations in the first instance.
I emphasise to the Deputy that, as would be usual, the investigation was carried out by the Department. I was not involved in conducting it, directing it or influencing it, nor was the then Taoiseach. It is important to make clear, although it should be self-evident, that any process such as this should be allowed to be conducted without any interference or otherwise in the process.
Given the cross-cutting nature of many issues the Government considers, it is important to understand that there are often numerous Departments and many people with access to, and that feed into, discussions and documents prepared for the Government. This, of course, means a large number might be encompassed in an investigation like this one. In this case, it could have been 50 people. As I have said, I was not involved in the investigation. I did not conduct or direct it and did not seek to interfere with it in any way. That said, I have no reason to believe there is anything to read into the completion date of the investigation other than that it was finalised at the time in question and reported to the then Taoiseach, who had asked for it to be conducted. It is standard practice for a Taoiseach and Minister to try to clear his or her desk before changing office. I know it is something I have done.
Conspiracy theories abound and are increasingly popular, but I can honestly say to the House that I have no idea who was responsible for the leak or what their motivations were. There are rules on briefings and documents in government. Different documents can have a different status, of course. Some things are official secrets and some are not.
Some things are the subject of Cabinet papers, others are not. In certain circumstances, Ministers have the authority to release information. Indeed, if they do not, who does?
Why 14 months and why not for survivors?
Transport Policy
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:12. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with transport will next meet. [6662/24]
Paul Murphy
Ceist:13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with transport will next meet. [6664/24]
James O'Connor
Ceist:14. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with transport will next meet. [7801/24]
Deputies will be happy to hear that we have 12 minutes and 40 seconds left for these questions.
Do they relate to transport?
Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 12 go 14, go huile, le chéile.
The economic division of my Department assists me and the Government in developing and implementing policy across relevant areas, including economic growth and job creation, infrastructure and housing and climate action and social dialogue. The work especially focuses on the deliver of commitments in the programme for Government and co-ordination of issues that cut across multiple Departments. The division also supports the work of the Cabinet committees on economy and investment, housing and the environment and climate change.
Transport-related issues can arise at each of these committees and others, given their relevance to multiple policy areas, such as climate action, economic growth and provision of housing. For example, the Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change considers environmental and climate change dimensions of transport, as well as the implementation of transport-related policies and measures contained in the Government's climate action plan. The Cabinet committee on the economy and investment oversees the implementation of the programme for Government commitments aimed at sustainable economic recovery, investment and job creation. The Cabinet committee on housing deals with matters of transport as they relate to the support of large scale delivery of housing under Housing for All. This includes the monitoring of the progress of major transport oriented development opportunities. Issues relevant to the sector can arise at other Cabinet committees, such as the Cabinet committee on Northern Ireland and, as with all policy areas, they are regularly discussed at full Cabinet meetings where all formal Government decisions are made. In addition to meetings of the Cabinet and Cabinet committees, I regularly meet Ministers, including the Minister for Transport, to discuss particular issues of concern.
Deputy Boyd Barrett has a minute and a half or two minutes.
We have ten minutes for these questions.
The Deputies will have two minutes each. The Taoiseach might have to cede some time in respect of what I am sure will be the Deputy's substantial contribution.
Are we going on to another group of questions?
I ask for a bit more latitude, given that no one else is here.
I have no objection if the Deputy wants to take three minutes.
I will raise two issues. First, and as the Taoiseach will be aware, I have raised the issue of taxi drivers many times. There is deep concern among taxi drivers about a campaign that seems to involve some of the ride-hailing apps, including Uber and others, suggesting that we are chronically short of taxis and implying we need to deregulate the taxi industry and develop the Uber model that exists elsewhere. Taxi drivers are concerned about that. They would like to be assured that we will not go down that road.
If you were to go out of this building now, you would find lines of taxis on many taxi ranks for which there are no fares. For much of the time, there is no work available for taxi drivers. They acknowledge that there are pinch points, but they feel it is completely wrong that the lack of public transport such as buses, especially at night, in a sufficient quantity and at a sufficient frequency should not land at their door. It is not fair to blame them for that problem. If we deregulate - there was deregulation in this area previously and it had quite disastrous consequences - people who, for example, forked out huge amounts of money to buy new electric vehicles or other new vehicles to use as taxis will not be able to make the income to repay the loans they took out.
It has also been stated that the reluctance of some taxi drivers to work at night is to do with safety issues. Indeed we have heard bus workers talking about similar safety issues. Again, safety problems late at night are not the fault of taxi drivers any more than they are the fault of bus workers. These issues have to be addressed by the Government, the National Transport Authority, NTA, An Garda Síochána and so on, rather than land at the door or taxi drivers. Critically, regarding passenger safety, it has been pointed that when you get into a properly regulated taxi, you know who your taxi driver is, that they are the person supposed to be, that they have the knowledge and so on, but that if we go down the totally deregulated Uber route, the safety of passengers could be compromised. For all these reasons, taxi drivers are asking that if issues need to be addressed in this area, that the NTA and other bodies engage with taxi representative groups that are more than willing to discuss these issues. There should be no question of the totally deregulated model being introduced.
I will briefly mention one other matter. There is a massive backlog regarding driving tests. In my area, it takes a year to get a test. Sometimes, this means that people cannot take up jobs they have been offered and so on. One of the problems is that we are relying too much on temporary contracts for driving testers-----
Thank you Deputy.
-----and they are not taking on enough full-time staff. The union has raised the matter. I ask the Taoiseach to look at that as well.
I raise the post-Storm Babet issues in Midleton and the wider area of east Cork. The Taoiseach will be familiar with the damage that was done to our road infrastructure. Approximately €50 million worth of damage was done to local roads across the east Cork area. That is according to Cork County Council. Several roads remain closed, especially rural and secondary routes and quite a significant amount of infrastructure, including bridges, drains and embankments, need sufficient funding if they are to be fixed.
We saw a huge reaction from the Government in October when this happened. Many members of the Government, including the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, came to visit, but we need to get the level of resources necessary to tackle the issue. Only €14 million has been made available through a severe weather allocation during a recent round of allocations. This is despite the fact that it will cost more than €50 million to repair the damage. Will the Taoiseach bring the issue of the impact the flooding has had to the attention of the Department of Transport and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and ask why there is a deficit of approximately €40 million in respect of what is needed. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Unfortunately, the damage that was done is having an adverse impact, especially on some of the rural areas I represent where agricultural vehicles and heavy goods vehicles cannot access roads to get to and from some farms and other businesses. I would appreciate if this could be done. Deputy Stanton and I met the director of services in the relevant areas and the chief executive of Cork County Council to gauge their concerns. Unfortunately, I report to the House that Cork County Council has a significant issue with the lack of funding that is being provided to deal with the post-Storm Babet issues, especially around road infrastructure. I would appreciate if the Government could comment on this.
Once again, I thank the Deputies for their questions. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of ride sharing. Perhaps I can give some assurance to taxi drivers in that regard. It is something we have all used when we were abroad. Generally speaking, it is a good service. I have used Uber, Bolt and Lyft. With one exception, I found the service provided to be good. However, I have concerns around deregulation. First, it would mean drivers are not vetted or regulated, at least by a public authority, and would mean that the vehicles involved would not be checked by a public authority. We do not propose to go down that road. However, we should try to make it easier for people to provide a service, particularly at peak times when it is most needed., but that is not full deregulation. We do not propose that and I would not support it.
We are working on the driving test backlogs at the moment. Staffing has been increased. There is a backlog that relates to the pandemic, but also, like with so many things, there is a big increase in demand for tests. However, I am now confident waiting times will come down in the next few months.
On Deputy O'Connor's question about Midleton and the Cork floods after Storm Babet, I understand the council has calculated that approximately €54 million would be needed to repair the roads and other public infrastructure. So far, a special allocation of €14 million has been made to the council. It is possible for more to be provided, and I expect that to happen. However, the Department of Transport will have to cross-check the council's assessment. Ultimately, these are central funds and taxpayers' money so due diligence will have to be done, but I am sure a further allocation can be made and it should be. I would be happy to follow up with Deputies O'Connor and Stanton.
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Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 2 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 3 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 2 p.m. and resumed at 3 p.m.