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Cabinet Committee Meetings

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

Ceisteanna (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

Gerry Adams

Ceist:

7. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D, infrastructure, last met; and when it is scheduled to meet again. [1286/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Michael Moynihan

Ceist:

8. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on Cabinet committee D, infrastructure. [1400/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceist:

9. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D, infrastructure, will next meet. [1832/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Joan Burton

Ceist:

10. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D, infrastructure, last met; and when it plans to next meet. [3005/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Brendan Howlin

Ceist:

11. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D, infrastructure, last met; and when it plans to meet next. [3377/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (27 píosaí cainte)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 11, inclusive, together.

Cabinet committee D has met twice, on 12 September 2017 and 23 November 2017. It is scheduled to meet again on 1 February 2018. As I previously indicated, Cabinet committee D was established to cover the areas of housing, climate action, infrastructure investment and delivery, the national planning framework and the ten-year capital plan.

In regard to housing, the Government has announced a number of additional measures following a review of Rebuilding Ireland. A second housing summit was held on Monday, 22 January and a range of new affordability schemes were announced including the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, the affordable purchase scheme, and the affordable rent scheme.

Additional actions previously announced include measures contained in the budget to increase expenditure, taxation changes, and the establishment of Home Building Finance Ireland to provide additional finance to developers. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has also announced further actions in relation to the rental market, and published updated draft guidelines for planning authorities on apartment development, to ensure that the right stock of homes is being built, in the right locations.

Rebuilding Ireland is working but it will take time. In 2017 a total of 25,892 new households had their housing needs met under Rebuilding Ireland, an increase of 36% compared to 2016. That is 100 individuals and families being housed by the State every working day. The latest available housing market data show that residential construction activity is now picking up.

On climate change, Ireland is committed to concerted multilateral action through the Paris Agreement. While the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, and his Department have responsibility for climate change, Ireland’s response to climate change is about broad cross-cutting issues that requires a whole-of-Government response, in addition to engagement with our EU partners.

Ireland’s first national mitigation plan, published in July 2017, sets out the Government's collective approach to reducing Ireland’s own greenhouse gas emissions. It represents the first in a series of roadmaps across all sectors to make progress towards Ireland’s national transition objective. In addition to the national mitigation plan, Ireland's first statutory national adaptation framework was published by the Minister, Deputy Naughten, on 19 January. It specifies the national strategy for the application of adaptation measures in different sectors and by local authorities in order to reduce Ireland’s vulnerability to the negative effects of climate change. Climate Action will also be one of the main themes of the forthcoming ten-year infrastructure plan.

Cabinet committee D is contributing to the development of the national planning framework and new ten-year capital plan. This long-term approach will provide clarity, coherence and certainty in relation to planning and capital expenditure. The ten-year plan will be finalised in tandem with the national planning framework in the coming weeks.

Will the Taoiseach comment on reports that the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, proposed restrictions on the right of charities dealing with homeless citizens to speak to the media? Can the Taoiseach state whether Cabinet committee D at any time discussed this proposal and if the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, or his officials, had any act or part in this action by the DRHE?

Second, the Oireachtas housing committee published a report authored by my colleague, Teachta Ó Broin, last week entitled Safe as Houses which received cross-party support. It makes 26 recommendations to ensure better compliance with building standards and to strengthen consumer protection for homeowners and council tenants. Given the ongoing efforts to encourage building it is imperative that the building control system in place is robust and consumers are protected. Has the Taoiseach had an opportunity to read this report? Will Cabinet committee D discuss it? Does the Taoiseach accept that greater accountability and protections are needed in the construction of homes and will the Government seriously examine implementing the recommendations?

Finally, President Trump last week at Davos again denied the existence of climate change and global warming. Last November Professor John FitzGerald of the Climate Change Advisory Council warned that this State is going to miss its 2020 greenhouse gas emission targets.

That could cost the State hundreds of millions of euro in fines. When published, the national mitigation plan was widely criticised for its lack of ambition. The national adaptation framework was published earlier this month. Its headline grabbing measure was the establishment of regional climate change offices and the requirement for Ministers to produce sectoral adaptation plans. Will the Taoiseach indicate when these offices will be established and how long it will be before Ministers will produce specific sectoral plans?

In recent months, the Taoiseach's refusal to answer simple factual questions has been a feature of this series of exchanges. Several times I have asked for basic information about decisions on infrastructure and investment. What tends to happen is that the Taoiseach goes on talking about other issues that have not been asked about but not about the specific questions asked.

The infrastructure plan will soon be published. It was first drafted well over a year ago. The main figures in it were used by the Taoiseach when he was campaigning for the Fine Gael leadership. It has been repeatedly delayed to prepare for the new propaganda campaign that will get under way once it is published.

Will the Taoiseach tell us how many of the projects in the new ten-year plan have already been announced in the current five-year plan? Will he give us guarantees that detailed costings have been sought for the projects that will be announced? Will the Taoiseach give us an assurance that the role of independent agencies will have been respected in deciding on the location and nature of projects? As I have said, I have come across evidence of where Ministers are ringing people to tell them to get their applications in fast without the due diligence or needs assessment that should have informed such presentations.

I put it to the Taoiseach that all this glossy stuff and all the propaganda will follow. When we look at the example of Tallaght, as I gave it to the Taoiseach earlier, it puts all of this in context. A tender was issued in December with the intention of awarding the contract in March. The HSE has now extended the tender process to October with the contract due for early 2019. It is for a renal unit. Therein lies the codology and the three-card trick nature of what is going on.

Of the many pressing infrastructure needs the country has, the most pressing is being able to put an affordable roof over the heads of our citizens. This is vital from a social and economic point of view. Given that in the budget the Taoiseach committed, between the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, and Home Building Finance Ireland, approximately €1 billion in supports for private developers to deliver housing, what, if anything, is the Government doing to ensure that we are going to get an appropriate return in terms of affordable housing? It amounts to public investment being given to private developers.

When the LIHAF proposal was first introduced, for example, the Government announced that 40% of any development supported by LIHAF was going to be affordable. Within a month, that was gone. Now, there is no guaranteed percentage and no definition of affordability. All this money is going out but nothing is guaranteed. The same applies with Home Building Finance Ireland, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and NAMA land. There are no guarantees that for anything built, in some cases in particularly large developments, any significant or guaranteed proportion will actually be affordable.

I wish to remind the Taoiseach that prior to the crash we were building 90,000 houses per year. They were unaffordable. That is part of the reason we had a crash. We can up the supply but if the prices being charged by private developers are unaffordable, it is not sustainable. What commitments are we getting on affordability?

I am sorry to tell the Taoiseach about this although he may have some personal experience of it. It has been happening every morning since the new Luas to Broombridge opened. It is a fine development that I strongly supported in government and I am delighted to see it open. However, the centre of Dublin, our capital city, is completely gridlocked every morning. Thousands of people are between half an hour to an hour late for work every day. I see Deputy Haughey nodding in agreement, I think. It affects anyone who is a user of public transport in this city. It is simply desperate. The bad news is that we seek the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport here and there but he does not seem to be anywhere.

Deputy Burton will find him in Stepaside.

Nothing will change unless the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport intervenes at the Taoiseach's request. Most of the big trams are not arriving – they are late. They are not coming until March. At that point, the whole of the central area will close down. I imagine the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, is familiar with this as well.

I regularly go on the bus simply to see if there is any improvement. The drivers are beyond their wits' end. There is chaos on the main streets of our capital. The queues on the quays are backed up to Prussia Street and Aughrim Street and all along the quays. All of the northside is the same and, I am told, it is the same for people coming in from the southside.

The Taoiseach represents a Dublin constituency. The Luas is a great achievement. The Taoiseach uses phrases like "inter-connected-whole-of-government". Will he find the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and put him on a tram or bus or get him to walk? I do not care which option he chooses. Will he get the Minister on a bus to allow him to see and feel the frustration of the staff and especially of the passengers?

It seems we are as bad as the trains and buses at keeping time – some of us, anyway.

The Ceann Comhairle knows that I am very disciplined on these matters.

I want to deal with the capital plan as well. I am glad the Minister for Finance and Public, Expenditure and Reform is present. When will the capital plan be published? Earlier, in a different debate, the Taoiseach told us that it would be in the coming weeks. I do not believe for a moment that the Government propaganda unit, with its €5 million to spend, has not already got detailed plans, colour documents, logos and websites planned. Specifically, when will the capital plan be published?

My next question is specifically about public private partnerships. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, will recall that when in government I restricted PPPs to 10% of the total capital spend. We could not get as much money as we needed. In the worst of times people did not lend us money. We could not spend it because of the restrictions on spending in any event, and thus PPPs were an option. After the experience with Carillion, I hope that the 10% ceiling will not be breached. I listened with care to the arguments to the contrary from Fianna Fáil at the end of last year when the party demanded significant expansion of PPPs.

Will the Taoiseach provide an update on where we are with Carillion? My understanding is that it now falls to the PPP company, which is now the Dutch infrastructure company, to re-award the construction contract to either the subcontractor, Sammon Construction, or to some other entity to ensure the unfinished schools can be completed. As I understand it, there are two completed schools now. Loreto secondary school in Wexford, the project I am most familiar with, is ready to be occupied and was to be occupied last week. Will the Taoiseach give an update on when those schools can be occupied?

Deputy O'Reilly asked about Cabinet committee D. We did not discuss any proposed gagging clause for service providers. That matter did not go before the committee. Certainly, it is not something I would agree with. At the same time, though, I expect public money to be spent on services and not on other things.

The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, in line with Government spending rules, is now carrying out an audit of the different charities and NGOs that operate in the housing and homelessness sectors because the funding for them has exceeded the €100 million threshold. The figure will be €113 million or €120 million this year.

That is amazing.

It is appropriate, in line with Government rules, to carry out an audit of how the money was spent to ensure the money is spent on providing services for people and not duplicating other activities.

I have not had a chance to read the Oireachtas committee report yet but the Government will examine the report and provide a reasoned response. All of us, through our constituency work, will be familiar with people who live in houses or apartments that were not built up to standard. These people will now be stuck with those consequences for the rest of their lives, or if not for the rest of their lives, for a long time at least.

On climate change, as we all know, the 2020 targets will be difficult to meet. We had a lost decade, a recessionary period during which we could not make the types of capital investments we would have liked to make. In addition, when the targets were set they did not fully comprehend the fact that Ireland's economy does not have much heavy industry. Many countries are meeting their targets by closing down dirty heavy industries that we did not have in the first place. These are the two reasons it will be difficult for Ireland to meet the 2020 targets. However, the 2030 targets are probably more achievable and we must ensure we meet them.

On the ten-year investment plan, as it is still in draft form, I am not yet able to indicate how many projects it contains and what proportion of them are existing projects. However, it would be fair to conclude that many of these projects are in progress. It is a ten-year plan running from 2018 until 2027 and some of the projects in it are not new. Metro north, for example, which is due to start in 2021, will obviously be restated in the plan, as will projects such as the national children's hospital, which are only starting now. Sites at which construction has commenced include St. James's, Blanchardstown and Tallaght hospitals. While I accept that a renal unit is not yet under construction in Tallaght hospital, the paediatric unit is under construction and it is great to see cranes beside the hospitals again.

What does the Taoiseach make of the shifting sands?

We have not yet set a date for the publication of the capital plan and no decision has been made on the public private partnerships, PPP, rule.

What is the position regarding Carillion?

I do not have an update on Carillion, except to note that the National Development Finance Agency and the Department of Education and Skills are working to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. I heard a radio report this morning on children and teachers who are very keen to get into their new school and we are keen to make that happen as soon as possible.

On Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, the Government made a decision today to prepare legislation for the HBFI. It is important to make a distinction between loans and grants. HBFI will provide loans to developers who will use the money to build houses and apartments - homes for people - and then repay it with interest. I have read some poor commentary comparing the amount of money we are providing for social housing with the amount we are providing to HBFI. There is a difference between grants and loans. With the latter, one gets all the money back plus interest.

We also get all our money back with social housing.

This vehicle will not cost us anything. We will make a profit out of it because the developers will have to repay the full loans with interest, which is much different from grants. In the meantime, the developers will use the money to build houses and homes and increase the supply of all forms of housing at all different price levels, which is what we should be doing.

LIHAF, the local infrastructure housing activation fund, is different because it is the State doing what it should do, namely, building infrastructure to make lands accessible. It provides funding for housing infrastructure such as roads and water.

I very much agree with Deputy Burton on traffic in Dublin. It was particularly bad this morning.

The position is desperate.

It took me 75 minutes to travel into the city. It was not as bad last week.

It was just as bad last week.

I am not sure the problem has been caused by the Luas. As Deputy Burton stated, additional Luas carriages will come on stream in March. Much of the reason for the increase in traffic is that the economy has bounced back. It is recovering and expanding and there are more and more people working, which will require much more investment in public transport, particularly in the city of Dublin. We intend to do exactly that.

We have less than ten minutes remaining for the next group of questions.

I thought I was finished.

That is a case of wishful thinking.

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