Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:7. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Government Co-ordination will next meet.. [19936/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 5 May 2021
Ceisteanna (7, 8, 9, 10)
Alan Kelly
Ceist:8. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination last met and will next meet. [20486/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Paul Murphy
Ceist:9. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination will next meet. [21775/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:10. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination will next meet.. [21777/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (27 píosaí cainte)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 10, inclusive, together. The Government co-ordination committee generally meets in advance of Government meetings to: 1. review the activity of Cabinet committees; 2. review the agenda for that week's Government meeting; 3. discuss political priorities; and 4. review implementation of a specified element of the programme for Government.
I am a member of the committee with the Tánaiste and leader of the Green Party and the Secretary General to the Government, my chief of staff and the chiefs of staff for the Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party also sit in on the meetings. The committee last met on Monday, 26 April, and its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, 10 May.
A few weeks ago the Dáil unanimously supported the legislation of my colleague, Deputy Ó Snodaigh, to preserve and revitalise Moore Street through the legal recognition of an ceathrú chultúr, a Moore Street cultural quarter. Throughout the debate Teachtaí Dála from every party and political group articulated a shared vision for the most important historic site in modern Irish history, as described by the National Museum of Ireland. The proposed Hammerson plan relies heavily on a huge office development and will not retain the full terrace or preserve the historical building, and as we know, people do not visit Dublin to see more office blocks. Dublin City Council has voted unanimously to make Moore Street an architectural conservation area, a decision which now imposes strict planning controls on the demolition of buildings in the area so it is incomprehensible that the Government would hand over this historic site to a developer which is a busted flush. Hammerson has recorded a pre-tax loss of £1.7 billion last year. It has publicly confirmed that it is its intention to make further disposals to strengthen its balance sheet, and yet the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has repeatedly refused to meet with the 1916 relatives to discuss their architectural master plan, a detailed plan developed by a team of leading Irish architects, planners and conservationists that meets all of the agreed recommendations of the securing history report of the Minister's advisory group, the objectives of the Dublin development plan and so on.
Future generations will be scathing of the Taoiseach's Government if the Hammerson plan is allowed to proceed. I urge him to intervene urgently on this matter and ensure his Minister will meet Deputy Ó Snodaigh to secure and protect Moore Street as a cultural quarter.
Young people with families who are looking to buy a home are absolutely furious over the increasing number of homes being snapped up by outside investment funds and REITs, or so-called cuckoo funds. Fianna Fáil campaigned very strongly in 2019, in advance of the general election, to clamp down on cuckoo funds. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, committed to changing the law to block them from snapping up new developments. Round Hill Capital bought 135 homes in Mullen Park, Maynooth. First-time buyers were on the list to buy these. Local councillor, Ms Angela Feeney, has been dealing with many of them. They are absolutely devastated to see their dreams dashed. The same REIT has bought 112 homes in Bay Meadows, Dublin 15, and 297 apartments in Northwood, Dublin. These are the developments we know about. While first-time buyers are losing out on new homes, I can tell the Taoiseach for a fact that they are also losing out on second-hand homes. Investment funds are highly active in the market, seeking any second-hand homes that are in any way affordable or deemed to be affordable or within the reach of some first-time buyers. These are houses that will never come to the market. What is happening is insidious. The companies are asking for more than the asking price and the houses are not hitting the market. Young first-time buyers are missing out. They do not even know they are missing out because sometimes the houses are not even listed on www.daft.ie and www.myhome.ie. This problem needs to be tackled. It is unseen and causing considerable damage. There needs to be legislation to prevent it from continuing to happen.
The programme for Government makes a commitment to developing inclusive and age-appropriate relationships and sexuality education, RSE, and social, personal and health education, SPHE, curricula at primary and post-primary levels, including an inclusive programme on LGBTI+ relationships and making appropriate legislative changes, if necessary. That is not happening, however. Instead, the Catholic Primary School Management Association, effectively the Catholic bishops, has published a new programme, Flourish, outlining how RSE should be taught in its schools. Not only is Flourish not LGBTI+ inclusive, it is positively homophobic. Let me quote a number of lines from Flourish to the Taoiseach in case he is not aware of it. It states, "The Church's teaching in relation to marriage between a man and a woman cannot be omitted". It describes puberty as "a gift from God" and states "we are perfectly designed by God to procreate with him". It states a Catholic school must consider these topics within "a moral framework that reflects the teachings of the Church". This is very far from what is promised in the programme for Government. What is the Government going to do about it? Does it recognise that the Education Act 1998 needs to be amended along the lines we proposed in legislation still on Committee Stage, the Provision of Objective Sex Education Bill 2018, to prevent the religious ethos of a school from standing in the way of children receiving what they are entitled to?
The Taoiseach should answer the question raised by Deputy Barry, and earlier by Deputy Paul Murphy, on chosen representatives of ESB technicians being recognised by the ESB, a semi-State body, and on respecting the right of people to choose their own representatives in a legitimate dispute about outsourcing. The Taoiseach should intervene in this regard as a matter of urgency.
I want to raise the co-ordination by Departments in key areas, such as providing schools for our children. I raise this because the lack of co-ordination that was highlighted to me by the community of the new multi-denominational Gaelscoil in the Blackrock area, Gaelscoil Laighean, is really quite shocking. Four years ago, it won the competition or vote on patronage of the new school that was to be established in the Blackrock–Booterstown area. At the time, it was told that, for two years, it would be in a temporary location and that it would then be given a permanent location. Since then, there has been broken promise after broken promise from the Department of Education. The school is still in a temporary location. It is now moving to another temporary location. A few weeks ago, it received a letter from the Department stating it had agreed a permanent location for it with the local authority. We contacted the local authority and it stated there is no such agreement on a permanent location. I realise the Taoiseach will not know the answer to this off the top of his head but I ask him to look into the matter and get the Department to plan properly for permanent locations for schools.
Before the house of The O'Rahilly was demolished, I raised the impending danger with the Minister of State responsible for heritage, Deputy Noonan. I also raised it with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Unfortunately, they did nothing and the house was demolished. The day after it was demolished, I raised it with the Taoiseach in the Dáil and he admitted the demolition was wrong and should not have happened. I submitted a question for the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, asking whether he had investigated this. I got a letter back stating it was not his responsibility. I am aware that departmental responsibility for heritage has changed only in the past couple of days. What is going to happen? The building has national monument status, yet nobody is being held to account. Moore Street was the birthplace of the Republic. It was the place of the last stand of the volunteers of 1916. It was, in part, the reason Deputy Micheál Martin holds the position of Taoiseach today, yet the Moore Street lands lie in dereliction today. It is actually a place of defecation rather a cultural hub of the north inner city where locals and tourists alike can engage with our history in a real manner. Right now, the one company involved, Hammerson, is running out of money. It will not have the money to meet its responsibilities in this matter. Will the Taoiseach ensure that it is brought back to life properly?
On the key question on Moore Street, raised by Deputies McDonald and Tóibín, there has been a lot of discussion between political parties in this House and various groupings over the past five or six years. My understanding was that a consensus had been arrived at between the various parties and members of parties. Prior to that, the State had intervened and purchased the key properties and declared them to be a national monument. That was proactive intervention by the State, which has not been acknowledged by Deputies McDonald or Tóibín in respect of Moore Street. That is an important point. That said, my sense is that there has been too much dereliction in that area for far too long. Quite frankly, I get the sense from the current Sinn Féin position that the party will not mind too much if there is dereliction for another ten years, if nothing happens again and we witness the continuing decline of the whole area, not just Moore Street but also the whole of O'Connell Street-----
It is on your watch.
It is not. I am only ten months in office now.
A defective Government-----
I am ten months in office. I do not keep on-----
-----has neglected the inner city of Dublin.
I did not interrupt the Deputy.
And that is on you.
I do not serially object for political purposes and to create political platforms. That seems to be-----
I object to poverty and dereliction and bad government, and I will continue to do that.
-----underpinning your latest development on this front. That is all I have to say.
Can we do this through the Chair?
The State owns the key buildings on Moore Street because it intervened. The Government intervened at the time. It is important to bring the area back to life and to ensure the development will share the history and create an historic trail that future generations can see in a far better way than in the past 50 years. I have been there-----
On your watch-----
And on your watch, too.
On your watch.
I know exactly what you are about and I know what your movement is about. I am not sure it exists for benign reasons. I have to put that on the record because there is one series after another. There was good, constructive engagement on this, yet, as ever, the Deputy's party seeks to gain partisan political advantage over everybody else on the issue and to name-call everybody else who does not go along with its agenda.
I largely agree with Deputy Duncan Smith's point. In our view, institutional investors buying existing supply and buying up entire estates is not acceptable. It runs counter to Government policy, which is to give priority to first-time buyers and make houses affordable for them. We will examine this. I spoke to the Ministers for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Housing, Local Government and Heritage about the very specific development over the weekend.
At the moment, institutional investors and REITs account for approximately 5% of residential tenancies and approximately 1% of the housing stock in its entirety. The original intention of previous Governments was to bring in investment to facilitate high-density build-to-rent developments in Dublin in particular and some of the larger cities, and not in any shape or form the residential developments of the type that was the focus of the purchase at the weekend.
Deputy Smith might remind me of his latter point.
Second-hand homes are being snapped up as well.
Clearly, that has to be examined as well.
To respond to Deputy Murphy, the Government is developing a national relationships and sexuality education programme and all children attending all schools will have to have the State RSE programme provided to them. A review into RSE and its provision is on the way. The 1998 legislation, through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, provides for the development or modernisation of curricula in all subjects and that still prevails.
As for the ESB situation, I answered that earlier. The issue should be resolved within the framework of the ESB. It has had a positive industrial relations framework for years. It is a State body and will remain so. There is no intent to privatise the ESB.
I will raise with the Minister for Education the issue of the Gaelscoil that Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned. There were, and continue to be, issues with schools getting early recognition but not being given permanent accommodation. There can be reasons for that, such as when there is activism on the ground and a school is created, but the time lag between a school being sanctioned and granted permanent accommodation is too long in many instances.
Will the Taoiseach get on to the Minister about it?
I think I dealt with the issue of Moore Street raised by Deputy Tóibín. I will revert to him with a response from the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in respect of the home of The O'Rahilly and accountability for what was a terrible deed, namely, the demolition of that very important building