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National Economic and Social Council

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 April 2018

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Ceisteanna (6, 7, 8)

Mary Lou McDonald

Ceist:

6. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if the appointment of independent members to the National Economic and Social Council has been finalised. [16169/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Joan Burton

Ceist:

7. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach the progress on filling the vacancies on the National Economic and Social Council. [17614/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Brendan Howlin

Ceist:

8. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the appointment of members to the National Economic and Social Council and the vacancies that exist. [17615/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (7 píosaí cainte)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 8, inclusive, together.

The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, has a membership of 28, reduced from 34 in the previous council. Members are appointed in accordance with the National Economic and Social Development Office Act 2006 and the National Economic and Social Council (Alteration of Composition) Order 2010, that is, 15 members are nominated by the five sectors - business and employer, ICTU, farming and agriculture, community and voluntary, and environmental; six are public servants and there are seven independent members. Appointments also comply with the guidelines on appointments to State boards. Currently, four vacancies exist on the council in the independent category. These vacancies were advertised on www.stateboards.ie on 31 January last. The process of seeking expressions of interest and assessing suitability for appointment was managed by the Public Appointments Service, PAS, and has now concluded. Just before Easter I received the names of those deemed suitable for appointment by the PAS assessment panel and I am considering these at the moment.

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Taoiseach as an cheist seo a fhreagairt. The closing date for the receipt of applications for these four vacancies was 21 February. The Taoiseach says the process has been completed and that he has a list of proposed appointees. When does the Taoiseach propose to announce who the individuals are? I imagine there were any number of applications for these vacancies and posts, given the nature and function of the council. How many applicants were there from whom the Taoiseach had to choose the four successful candidates? How many were on the list that was handed to the Taoiseach for decision? I seek a bit more detail on the numbers.

One current area of work for the council is on land use, land value and urban development. I note a recent workshop on the issue in late February, which focused in particular on housing affordability. There were presentations and examples from the Netherlands and Austria where Vienna boasts one of the best housing systems of any capital city globally. Given the Taoiseach's love of all things European, can we expect recommendations from the NESC to enhance State and local authority involvement in affordable housing?

From the way the Taoiseach approaches the NESC, it seems he has not made up his mind as to whether he wants this body at all or, if he wants it, what it should be doing. There are a lot of infrastructural bottlenecks, as the Taoiseach has been telling us. In particular, the Minister for Education and Skills has significantly slowed the refurbishment of older schools and almost completely abandoned their refurbishment in favour exclusively of brand-new schools. The NESC has done valuable work in the past on identifying priorities. It is fair to say that the way the Government is approaching housing is a mystery to everyone. For instance, a small problem which could be addressed and an area in which the NESC could show us the way involves all of the vacant sites in the possession of Dublin City Council. These include O'Devaney Gardens, the bottom of Dominick Street and about 40 others I could list. That is not to mention the pervasive dereliction in the north inner city, which looks like an individual with two front teeth and gaps everywhere else. The Taoiseach was in the north inner city recently and he could not have failed to spot this. Given the brain power in the NESC, it might be in a position to advise the Taoiseach on some way out of the housing situation, wasted empty sites and the failure of local authorities to do anything.

To follow up on the four vacancies remaining in the independent member category, the Taoiseach says he has already received nominations from the appointments to State boards process. As he knows, Ministers, or in this case the Taoiseach, set out the criteria to determine eligibility for a vacancy. What was the set of skills the Taoiseach looked for to fill these vacancies?

Three current issues are being examined in the work programme of NESC, namely, jobless households, climate change and land use. We all agree the most pressing issue is Brexit. Should the economic, transport and other implications of Brexit be considered by NESC? Has the Taoiseach asked for people with the expertise in this particular area to supplement the existing skill sets of members of NESC? If he has not, will he consider doing so, as this probably will be the most important economic issue we will face for the next decade or does he believe those skill sets already exists on the council?

Caithfidh mé a rá i dtús báire nach bhfuil aon fhianaise ann go bhfuil an Rialtas báúil le NESC. Ní dóigh liom go dtuigeann an Rialtas cé chomh éifeachtach is atá NESC maidir le polasaithe sóisialta. Tá cumas ag NESC dea-chomhairle a thabhairt don Rialtas. Níl an Rialtas ag cur aon bhéim ar an gcomhairle seo.

The delay in appointing independent members of NESC seems to suggest the Government has not been eager for the council to be as active as it can be. That is a great shame, given how important NESC has been in the past in producing common-sense yet detailed reports. Yesterday, the council began a joint lecture series on homelessness with Focus Ireland. This is operating at a high level of independent academic expertise on the dynamics of homelessness. The Taoiseach will agree that the failure of the Government to even understand homelessness figures demonstrates a serious problem. It is now six months since the Taoiseach told his own party, "we have a plan, the plan is working". For the past two months, however, record numbers of people caught up in homelessness show the plan is not working. Will he accept that the statement from the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, that he does not know why the figures are so high and has asked for a report does not suggest he is on top of it?

Before the Taoiseach starts quoting rough sleeper numbers again at us, those numbers are down purely because of the exceptional efforts of voluntary organisations during the extreme weather. When will the Taoiseach be able to explain why announcements in January that everything was fine have been followed with record increases in homelessness?

Is the Taoiseach putting a priority on filling these vacancies in NESC? What role will the council play and is the Taoiseach putting the need to deal with the housing and homelessness crisis as a central urgent priority? There may be issues competing for the title of the most pressing economic and social issue but I believe it is the housing crisis.

Yesterday, a bus driver, who would be on the average industrial wage, came to my office because he and his family are now facing homelessness due to rent increases. He cannot find housing anywhere. If people on average industrial earnings are facing homelessness because there are no council houses, rents are out of control and their earnings will not allow them to get a mortgage, one can hardly state that the Government's housing policy is working.

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, which People Before Profit certainly does not control, passed a motion stating Rebuilding Ireland had failed. Wexford County Council passed a similar motion. The evidence is there for all to see. The fact that the Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland, Simon and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions took to the streets as part of a national demonstration recently is also evidence there is simply no faith that the Government's housing and homelessness policy is delivering. How much of a priority will this be for the Taoiseach and the role he will assign to NESC?

There are four vacancies in NESC that I intend to fill in the next two to three weeks. There were 31 applications in total which were short-listed to eight by the Public Appointments Service. It passed these on to me with the various curricula vitae. My intention in approaching these appointments is to have regard, first, to gender balance as there is a degree of gender imbalance in NESC at present. Deputies will be aware that 52% of people appointed to State boards last year were female while 48% were male. I intend to ensure two of those four appointments go to women who were short-listed.

They largely come from academic institutions. Accordingly, I do not want to appoint all four from the one part of the country or the one academic institution. I will have regard to the advantages of having people from different parts of the country and, perhaps, even having members from Northern Ireland or outside of the country. Having representation from Northern Ireland or international expertise could add to the skill mix and skill base that NESC has.

I tend to see NESC as a think tank for the Government. We have many different ways of engaging with different partners through the labour employer economic forum, LEEF, the national dialogue and various other mechanisms. NESC has produced some good work over the past several months. For those who have not read it, I commend its report on the circular economy. It is worth reading. I read its draft land use study over the past couple of days, which it will publish soon. It provides valuable analysis as to what additional policy actions on better use of land around the country could be put in place.

The Government has taken two actions on derelict sites. The first was the creation of the derelict site levy, which is starting to take effect. It was never going to take effect overnight because we were required for constitutional and common-sense reasons to give people notice that their sites would be levied if they did not develop them. That is kicking in now this year. Anecdotally, I am told it is making a difference in some places in terms of a vacant sites being brought into use.

We also announced we intend to establish a land regeneration agency, which is part of Project Ireland 2040. We will have more details on that in the coming weeks and months ahead. Our intention is to use that agency to take existing State land and acquire additional land for development. It would be following something similar to the model being used by the Grangegorman Development Agency and, before it lost the run of itself, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in actually using State lands and adding private land to that to make it available for development.

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