I welcome to the House the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Road Safety
The Minister of State is very welcome. I have been notified that the Minister for Transport is unavailable today. I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take this Commencement matter. I have done this on foot of correspondence I received from a retired commandant in the Army who has been talking to many of his friends about the proposals by TII to shut off lay-bys on motorways. Neither he nor I nor anybody I talk to can really understand why we would have it in very large print on many of the digital signs on motorway that motorists should pull in and take a nap for their own safety when they feel tired. This completely flies in the face of that. It is a ludicrous proposal by TII. I have seen another article in the newspaper where the Road Safety Authority has backed it as well. I cannot comprehend that for one second. I am not going to go on about it or take three minutes to talk about it. It is a ludicrous proposal which the Government needs to look at very smartly and with a fresh pair of eyes. It is the wrong message that we are going to make motorists drive for 60 minutes. If you are driving on a motorway and happen to get tired and it is 50 km to the next petrol station, and you cannot pull into the lay-by, that is nonsense. I have yet to see a lay-by where there have been queues up the road waiting to get into it. This is something that is not broken and does not need fixing. Our lay-bys are fit to accommodate motorists who need to use them as well as commercial and emergency vehicles.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a chur ag tús an tseisiúin inniu. The Minister for Transport, who is unable to be present, has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding in relation to the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland under the Roads Acts and in line with the national development plan, the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with local authorities. TII ultimately delivers the national roads programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the national planning framework and the NDP.
The Government has earmarked €5.1 billion for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030 as part of the NDP. This funding will enable improved regional accessibility across the country, as well as compact growth, which are key national strategic outcomes. The funding will provide for the development of numerous national road projects, including the completion of projects which are already at construction stage and those close to it, as well as the development of a number of others. A major priority in the NDP, in line with the Department’s investment hierarchy, is to maintain the quality and safety of the existing national road network. The NDP foresees an Exchequer allocation of circa €2.9 billion for the protection and renewal of existing national roads over the ten-year period to 2030, allocated fairly evenly across the decade.
The new motorway service area policy is expected to be published by TII by the end of the year. This policy will update the existing policy, which was published in 2014. A draft of the new policy was released for public consultation in July. An Garda Síochána and the Road Safety Authority were consulted during the preparation of the draft policy and are supportive of the changes outlined. Since the 2014 motorway service area policy was published, there has been a significant increase in service area provision along the motorway network, or adjacent to it. As such, the need for such lay-bys for non-professional drivers has reduced. Furthermore, there are significant safety concerns in relation to the usage of the lay-bys by non-HGV drivers. This is particularly the case where drivers or passengers or both leave their vehicles. HGV drivers however will continue to be permitted to use lay-bys.
The statement the Minister of State has been given contains the line that "the need for such lay-bys for non-professional drivers has reduced".
Have people stopped getting tired or are they less tired when they are driving? This whole thing is nonsensical and that is why I am taking the opportunity to raise it. It was mentioned in the reply that the motorway service area policy was published in 2014. That policy was published because of the need for lay-bys for people to pull in and take a nap for road safety purposes. This flies in the face of road safety. There is no way in the wide earthly world that I or many others in this House can support this policy. It is nonsense. I ask the Minister of State to take my very strong words back to the Minister. If given the opportunity, I am sure many other Senators in this House would agree with me that this proposal is nonsense. If we think we are doing this on the grounds of safety, we are very wrong and we are going down a very dangerous road.
I will certainly say that to the Minister for Transport. He does tell me though that the belief is that the need for lay-bys has reduced due to the increase in the provision of service areas. Road safety inspections, carried out in accordance with the road infrastructure safety management directive, have highlighted lay-bys as an area of concern on safety grounds.
I understand the TII undertook usage monitoring surveys at various lay-bys and these surveys indicated that there was significant usage of lay-bys by HGVs. The TII then considered how best to operate and manage these parking lay-bys into the future. Where there are nearby service areas and usage of lay-bys is diminished, the reduction of the use of private car use of lay-bys will now take place. That is according to the TII.
Housing Policy
The Minister of State is very welcome. I thank him for taking this Commencement matter, which relates to the voids programme. Under the Housing for All action plan, each local authority was targeted by the Department to reduce vacancy rates within its council housing stock. Longford County Council was given a target of reducing its 2021 vacancy rate of 7.2% to 3.5% in 2023. This was an ambitious target that was set for the local authority but I know the council was fully committed to achieving it and significant progress has been made on achieving the target in recent years.
We have all heard about price inflation. I will give an example of some of the costs that have increased over the period. The Minister of State should be cognisant of the fact that the grant per house for retrofitting is €11,000. In 2020 the average cost expended was €20,865. In 2022, it was €35,926, which comprises an increase of 72% over the three-year period. In 2023, those costs are projected to be an average of €45,280, due in particular to construction costs inflation. That is coming not just from the local authority but also the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, who are the experts in this regard and are able to put forward those costs. The maximum reimbursement from the Department to the local authority is €11,000 per dwelling, with additional costs to be funded from the local authority's own resources.
To give an idea of the shortfall that has created for the local authority from 2021 to 2023, in 2021 the shortfall was €623,000; in 2022, it was €1.025 million and; the projected shortfall for 2023, based on delivering 71 houses back into stock, is €2.4 million. The reality is that it is not sustainable for any local authority to keep providing the services for taxpayers in Longford. We were the first local authority in the country to increase the local property tax, LPT by 15% in 2019, when we ring-fenced the funding for regeneration projects within the three districts in Longford. Others have followed. We locked in an increase of 15% for this year and for 2024. The elected members in the local authority increased the rates by 5% for this year, to bring in additional funding to help meet the rising costs that are being put on it. The reality is that we must take action if we want Longford County Council to hit its targets, which it is doing.
I was at a meeting of the Oireachtas housing committee council officials attended last January. They were questioned by members of the committee and asked to come back in 12 months to show the council had reduced the number of voids, which it has done. It hit its targets at a severe cost to the local authority. Longford County Council needs to be reimbursed by the Department for those costs in order that we can maintain the other services delivered by the local authority at the standards we are entitled to. I would appreciate a positive reply from the Minister of State for members and the executive of Longford County Council and that funding will be put in place to cover those increased costs.
Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar seo a chur faoi bhráid an tSeanaid. We know that vacancies arise on a daily basis in the approximately 146,000 social homes owned by local authorities. It is critical to the Government and Members of this House that such homes are refurbished and re-let to a family or individual on the waiting list as soon as possible.
Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities under the relevant Housing Acts to manage and maintain their housing stock, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides annual funding support to local authorities in preparing units for re-let under the voids programme. The emphasis of the programme is on minimum refurbishment works to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019, supporting quick turnaround and re-letting times, with all major works deferred and carried out under planned maintenance over the life cycle of the asset. Of note is Longford County Council's average re-let time of almost 100 weeks, as per the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, performance indicator 2022.
There is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent on an individual dwelling under the Department’s voids programme, providing the total amount averaged across all dwellings submitted by a local authority does not exceed €11,000. Where a local authority chooses to do works over and above those necessary to comply with the rental standards, it can impact re-let times and result in additional costs for the local authority. Additional funding is also available where turnaround times are not impacted as local authorities can complete the suite of works applicable to the energy efficiency retrofit programme on a vacant unit with funding up to a maximum of €48,850 available, meaning that, across both programmes of voids and energy efficiency, almost €60,000 is available.
Longford County Council has indicated that in some cases it has cost more to remediate to the minimal rental standards and it was not possible to complete energy upgrades under the retrofit programme. In this regard, officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have been in contact with Longford County Council in an effort to identify additional units and funding requirements to support the local authority to year end. A submission from the council was received and is being reviewed. A further response will issue to the council presently.
I thank the Minister of State for what was a negative reply. Basically, the query I put concerns the fact that local authorities are being asked to deal with voids but they are not being compensated for the cost of doing so. The figure of €11,000 per house was decided in 2020. I have given the Minister of State figures on the increase in inflation, not just from the local authority but from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, an organisation that has put forward figures on the increased cost. It is only right that local authorities be compensated for bringing housing voids to the high standard demanded by the Department. Other services they provide to taxpayers should not be impacted.
The reply indicated that the Department will only consider additional units and will not compensate the local authority for the shortfall of some €3 million it must meet as a result of bringing houses up to the standard demanded by the Department. That is not fair.
Since taking office, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Government have embarked on the largest voids programme ever undertaken. Funding was granted for 3,607 voids in 2020, 2,425 voids in 2021 and 2,307 voids in 2022. The target for this year is 2,300 voids. The funding provided has tackled a large number of long-term vacant stock and brought them thankfully back into use. It has enabled local authorities to get on top of the issue and pave the way for a transition to a radically different approach to local authority housing stock maintenance. This involves full stock condition service of all local authority homes within four to five years, which started in a number of local authorities in 2022; strategic and informed planned maintenance work programmes which will address shortcomings in homes occupied by the sitting tenants; and better value for money by tackling large numbers of homes in single contracts rather than home by home.
Funding of €5 million has been ring-fenced for local authorities to start, and in some cases continue, to transition from a largely response and voids-based approach to the maintenance of local authority housing stock to a planned maintenance approach based on planned work programmes informed by stock condition surveys.
However, as acknowledged, the Department is working with the relevant local authority, Longford County Council, to support additional funding requirements this year.
Wastewater Treatment
I welcome the Minister of State. I am sure he will read a statement from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and highlight the fact that the Department has recently changed the grants for septic tanks. This changes, which are very welcome, include increasing the maximum grant from €5,000 to €12,000 and removing the requirement to have previously registered a domestic wastewater treatment system with the local authority to be eligible for a grant. For the few who can apply and avail of this grant, this will very much reduce the risk from defective tanks. However, there is a pressing need to improve access to the septic tank grant for homeowners. Our rivers, lakes and waterways are huge assets for the environment, tourism and health. Recent findings from the Environmental Protection Authority, EPA, have highlighted that there has been no significant improvement in water quality. We all know that one of the contributors to the decline in water quality is inadequate maintenance of septic tanks and the delay by Irish Water in upgrading wastewater systems. We see raw sewage being emptied into our rivers and seas, an issue we often speak about in the House.
If septic tanks are not properly maintained, they release harmful substances into the environment, contaminating water sources. As the responsible body, the Department has a duty to take action and ensure all septic tanks meet the required standards. Currently, access to septic tanks is hindered by the low inspection rate and a lack of proactive testing by homeowners. Both of these issues need to be addressed in order to alleviate the strain on the infrastructure and preserve our precious water resources. By increasing the rate of inspection of septic tanks through regular inspections, we can identify areas of concern and take action to alleviate and rectify any issues. By investing in additional inspectors and streamlining the inspection process, we can ensure that septic tanks are regularly monitored and maintained to the highest standards. This would go a long way in preventing the release of harmful substances into our water sources and improving water quality.
This year, the European Commission referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to correctly transpose the water framework directive which protects waters from pollution. We are not seeing any significant improvements in the water quality of rivers and lakes. There are approximately 60,000 housing units in County Louth. In the past couple of years, Louth County Council has carried out on average between seven and ten annual inspections. I am not very good at maths but it will take Louth County Council a very long time to inspect septic tanks. The grant is available now, and the Minister has made a move to improve the grant and the access to it. We now need to increase the rates of inspection and the number of homeowners who are eligible to apply for the grant.
Every year - and I am sure it is the same for the Minister of State - I get queries from people about applying for grants for a septic tank upgrade when renovating their house. We should be extending access to the grant.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir. As the Senator will be aware, the Department provides funding for water services in rural Ireland where no Uisce Éireann services are available. The Department's multi-annual rural water programme uses Exchequer funding to deliver improvements to water services in rural Ireland. As part of the funding provided, the Department currently has three separate grant schemes available to households for domestic wastewater treatment systems, known as septic tanks. These grants schemes are administered on behalf of the Department by local authorities. The purpose of the grants is to provide financial help to households for work to septic tanks to protect human health and the environment and to help Ireland meet its commitments under the river basin management plan.
As the Senator is aware, under the water services legislation and regulations, the owner of a domestic wastewater treatment system is responsible for ensuring that it is fit for purpose, including its maintenance and repair, to prevent a risk to human health and the environment. All these grants are focused on the areas of greatest environmental priority and are not general in application. In consultation with key stakeholders, the Department has recently completed a review of the three grant schemes.
The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, listened to the views of the sector and significant improvements have been made to the terms and conditions and to the funding available. For each grant, the maximum amount available has been increased from €5,000 to €12,000 and the qualifying condition that the septic tank must have been registered with the local authority before 1 February 2013 has been removed. I understand that the Minister has no plans to make any further changes to the grant at this time.
I thank the Minister of State for his reply, which is the one I expected. In his response, he said that the focus is on areas of greatest environmental priority and of course that is very important but the problem is that we are only taking action when the horse bolts. Prevention is better than cure. If we have defective septic tanks and homeowners willing to improve and upgrade them, surely the Department should respond responsibly, particularly given how we are failing to improve our water quality. If homeowners want to improve their tanks and need support to do that, surely we should allow for proactive improvement of same.
In making these improvements to the scheme, it is hoped to encourage more householders to avail of the funding available. This will help to reduce the risk of negative environmental impacts from defective septic tanks. The changes come into effect on 1 January 2024 and it is expected that the improvements made will result in more applications for septic tank grants in 2024 and beyond.
Schools Building Projects
My question relates to Clonturk Community College on the Swords Road in Dublin 9. To give some background, this is a fantastic school which opened in 2016. In the short intervening period it has grown to 920 pupils and by next September, just eight years after opening, it will be a 1,000-pupil school. It is a great credit to the principal, the school staff and the entire school community that it is in such high demand. Indeed, it has been oversubscribed by about 2.5 times its intake capacity every year for the last number of years.
My question today relates to the master plan and the progress on a new school building for Clonturk Community College. Since 2020 there have been discussions between the Department of Education and the school about a new school building. A master plan was promised but three years on, there is still no sign of that plan from the Department. We have had announcements from the Department about the new school campus which is going to take in four schools in the area. That will all be brilliant when it is done but I must convey to the Minister of State that there is a growing frustration on the part of parents, the school management in particular, and the school community because of the growing logistical headaches they have to face because of the delays in making proper provision for the school.
The current school building was constructed in 1967. There are inadequate bathroom facilities and no indoor PE facilities. There is a substantial number of students who have additional needs but there are no proper facilities to meet those needs. There is no wheelchair access on site, no special classes and no rooms for the delivery of resource tuition. Everyone understands that we need to get this new campus right but I must ask about the Department's strategy with regard to this school. There has been a continuous delay in meeting the accommodation needs of the school. When the school has made applications, year after year, to try to accommodate its growing student population there have been delays, so much so that the transition year students actually had to spend last year up the road in a local GAA hall. That is not good enough for anybody in this country. The promised prefabs did arrive but they were a year late. It is this snail's pace response that very much characterises so much of the Department's approach to the project.
After the initial discussions in 2020, it took until February 2022 for the Minister for Education to commit to a master plan. Twenty months later, after all of the photos and announcements, the board of management was finally shown the design team brief but it has no dates for when the tender will open and the team will be appointed or when the school building project will start moving. There has been a lot of publicity this year surrounding school projects and the delays and hold ups because of a row between the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and the Department of Education.
We need to hear from the Minister of State that the master plan will be complete and the tender will go out by the end of this year, the design team will be in place and that, effectively, there are firm dates for the school community in looking forward to their new school building. At the moment, they have a public road going through their school that needs to access the farm behind the school. As I said, there is substandard accommodation for those with additional needs and no proper sports or PE facilities. We need to see that put right. I look forward to the Minister of State’s response.
I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it lets me have the opportunity to provide an update to the Seanad on the current position relating to the provision of a new school building for Clonturk Community College. Clonturk Community College is a multidenominational school under the patronage of City of Dublin Education and Training Board, ETB. It was established in September 2016 as a start-up second level school by City of Dublin Education and Training Board with Educate Together as a trustee partner. The school was developed to meet the needs of a growing population in the area and the demand for a multidenominational second-level school.
A memorandum of understanding between the Department of Education and City of Dublin ETB was finalised in March 2022. The memorandum of understanding sets out an ambitious agreement between the two, which delivers strategic benefits across the schools and further education and training sectors by maximising the value of properties across north Dublin city.
Under the proposed agreement, City of Dublin ETB will take a long-term lease over the Cathal Brugha Street-Marlborough Street property and will consolidate some of its further education training provision there, including provision currently made at Killester College of Further Education and Marino College of Further Education.
In return, the Department will take reciprocal long-term leases over City of Dublin Education and Training Board properties and deliver two 1,000 pupil post-primary school buildings plus accommodation, including six classrooms for children with special educational needs, at Whitehall for CIonturk Community College and Ellenfield Community College. It will deliver two eight-classroom primary schools plus accommodation for children with special educational needs at Gaelscoil Áine in Whitehall and Killester Raheny Clontarf Educate Together National School at the Killester site.
The major campus project on the current Clonturk Community College site in Whitehall will deliver two new 1,000 pupil post-primary school buildings for Clonturk and Ellenfield as well as a new eight-classroom primary school for Gaelscoil Áine. Both post-primary schools will provide approximately 1,200 additional co-educational, multidenominational post-primary school places in north Dublin city.
The project will be delivered under the Department's accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering, ADAPT, programme, which uses a professional external project manager to co-ordinate and drive the design team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of architectural planning to tender and construction. The campus project is in early architectural planning, which involves site surveys, school design stages and the preparation of statutory applications.
The programme manager for this programme was appointed in Q3 2023 and it is anticipated that the tender process for multidisciplinary design team consultants will start in Q1 2024 and complete in Q2 2024, subject to no issues arising. As with all school building projects, the exact timeframe for delivery of the permanent accommodation will be dependent on securing the grant of planning permission.
I thank the Minister of State. In particular, there are dates in his response that are to be welcomed in terms of the tender process for the design team in Q1 of 2024. My experience with other schools has been that following the appointment of the design team, we do not see fixed dates set down by the Department, or there is a reluctance by the Department to set down fixed dates as to when it needs to report back and when planning should commence. I really urge the Minister of State because political priority has to be given to ensure that this school campus is developed as soon as possible. Scoil Áine, for instance, is currently in temporary accommodation. The Department has to pay out money year after year for that temporary accommodation. There is a question about the efficiency of the Department's own resources, but that school also has the uncertainty of not knowing where it is going to be year after year and when the staff and pupils are going to move into their new school building. I ask for dates post the appointment of the design team. This is critical in ensuring that the project is delivered in the timely manner.
I will raise those points with the Department. Indeed, the Department will continue to keep the patron and the school updated as the project progresses and with regard to interim accommodation pending delivery of the permanent school building.
I thank the Minister of State for taking all four Commencement matters this morning. We know he is very busy.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 1.35 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 2 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.35 p.m. and resumed at 2 p.m.