Bernard Durkan
Ceist:12. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [13634/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 18 April 2023
Ceisteanna (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Rose Conway-Walsh
Ceist:13. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination will next meet. [14963/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Cian O'Callaghan
Ceist:14. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [15171/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:15. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [15432/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Bríd Smith
Ceist:16. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [15434/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Ivana Bacik
Ceist:17. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [15095/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Mick Barry
Ceist:18. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [16419/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraCian O'Callaghan
Ceist:19. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination will next meet. [16725/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:20. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach how often every Cabinet committee meets, with particular reference to the committees on health, housing and education. [18062/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (10 píosaí cainte)
Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 12 go 20, go huile, le chéile.
Cabinet committees meet as appropriate according to their work schedules. The Cabinet committee on health has met twice so far this year. The Cabinet committee on housing has met three times, most recently yesterday. The first meeting on the Cabinet committee on children and education will take place shortly. The committee on environment and climate change has met once and is scheduled to meet again on Thursday. The committee on EU and international affairs has held one meeting, and the committee on the humanitarian response to Ukraine has met three times. The Government co-ordination committee has met ten times and is scheduled to meet again on Monday. Other committees will meet in the coming weeks.
The reason for this inquiry is to identify issues of a particular importance that arise from time to time and the need to respond by bringing forward the relevant meetings of the committees, if necessary, to deal with these. In particular, I mention housing, which is an ongoing issue that needs to be dealt with very regularly. I also mention health, which is an obvious one because we need to get back on a straight and level path with a view to identifying the issues at an early stage and with a view to resolution. The third issue relates to education and school places and transport. School transport has been an issue of particular importance throughout the country for quite a number of years but without resolution.
I said to the Taoiseach earlier that I believe his decision to lift the eviction ban was cruel, heartless, and stupid. He obviously intends, for now at least, to persist with it but we in People Before Profit intend to persist in campaigning for its reinstatement because thousands of people are facing eviction and potential homelessness. Our view is that people in this situation, where there is nowhere else to go, where there is no council housing available to most and where there is no affordable rental or purchase, should overhold rather than simply walk into homelessness. I refer to the people in Tathony House. A woman I am dealing with was on the radio over the weekend. She is now overholding for several days. She is working and has children and so on. Are people not right to overhold in that situation if the Government has not provided the alternatives for them, either to buy their homes so they can stay in them, or provide them with council or affordable housing? Does the Taoiseach think people are right in that situation to overhold or does he seriously expect that they should walk into homelessness if he has failed to give them an alternative of secure or affordable housing? I certainly think people will have no choice. If the Government refuses to reinstate the ban, people have little choice but to overhold until it actually delivers the alternatives.
My question is on housing as well. A couple of weeks ago I raised with the Taoiseach the role of gardaí in illegal evictions. There was a very shocking piece on Twitter which Members may have seen. A Dr. Raheel was threatened with an illegal eviction by a very angry and violent landlord who used a chainsaw or some kind of a cutting mechanism, which looked pretty lethal, to get through the door and then threatened him and his family. When the gardaí were called, they said this eviction was a civil matter. I explained at the time that I had the same experience, mainly as a councillor. When illegal evictions were taking place and you rang the gardaí, they said it was a civil matter. However, when is civil not civil when a landlord with an electric saw chases after a doctor's family or, as in the case I witnessed, when a bunch of thugs came with hacksaws, machetes and hammers to evict two young men from a house in Kilmainham some years ago? These scenes will be repeated.
Given that the eviction ban has been lifted and that there are a lot of residual issues out there, will the Taoiseach clarify if new guidance, instructions and a protocol are to be given to gardaí to do more than to say to somebody who is frightened and terrified for their own life and the lives of their family members that this is a civil matter? I think the Garda Representative Association or one such body has already asked the Government to do this.
When will the Cabinet committee on health be reviewing or considering the report by Maura Quinn into the proposed secondment of the former Chief Medical Officer, CMO, to Trinity College Dublin? In our view, the report raises a number of serious issues about dysfunction at the heart of Government. First, there was a total lack of proper processes in the appointment as outlined. Second, there was a failure of ministerial accountability where it appears the Minister for Health did not know about, or was not made aware of, what was going on with very senior officials in Government. Most critically, it reveals serious accusations being made by senior civil servants against each other at the heart and centre of Government. This raises particular concerns at this time, especially when so many postgraduate researchers across third level are having difficulty in accessing funding. It is unedifying to see these findings. Will the health committee be considering the report, and if so, when?
Until yesterday the record for the number of patients admitted but without a bed at Cork University Hospital was 90. This morning that record was broken when 92 patients were without a bed. Until this morning the record for patients admitted but without a bed at Mercy University Hospital was 38. This morning that record was broken too. There were 40 patients at this hospital without a bed this morning. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation representative, Liam Conway, said this morning:
Our members are calling it for what it is inside the Mercy - dangerous. Patients are being cared for near exit doors and in areas blocking fire safety equipment, this is not acceptable.
Limerick was the capital city of hospital overcrowding. On the Taoiseach's watch, and on the watch of the three quiet men, namely, the Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, that mantle seems to be passing to Cork University Hospital. It is not good enough. What actions does the Taoiseach intend to take to reverse the situation?
The Children's Rights Alliance recently published its annual report card on progress for children under the current programme for Government. The performance in delivering adequate youth mental health received the lowest grade for a second year in a row. The alliance notes that the Maskey report on child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in Kerry, and the Mental Health Commission interim report, revealed just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to failings in the provision of mental health services for children and young people. In the year to September 2022, the number of children waiting on their first appointment with CAMHS almost doubled. Figures released to my colleague, Deputy Ward, last week tell us that waiting lists for CAMHS in Kildare, west Wicklow, Dublin west, the south city and south west are up 260% since 2020.
It is deeply concerning that very vulnerable children and young people are not able to access an initial appointment. Children and young people continue to be inappropriately admitted to adult psychiatric facilities that are not designed to support their needs. It is welcome that the number of children admitted to adult units last year fell but it remains deeply alarming that Government has decided it will not legislate against this inappropriate practice despite it not aligning - in fact, conflicting absolutely - with the rights of children. I ask the Taoiseach to reconsider the Government's position on this matter and to legislate against this archaic practice.
I ask about libraries. They have become the new target of far-right activists who have been going into libraries, removing any books that refer to LGBTQ+ people in any sort of positive light and abusing staff by calling them paedophiles, groomers and so on. This is obviously reminiscent of the book burnings carried out by the Nazis. One of the worrying parts of this is how the State has responded. Two weeks ago, gardaí escorted far-right activists into a library so that the activists could speak to staff and give their opinions. I have no idea why that happened; I do not know if the Taoiseach does.
Equally, however, new instructions have been issued by the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, to libraries changing the procedure whereby young people can get books out. As it was previously, once a young person went from being aged under 12 to being over 12, he or she was then able to access books in the young adult section for those aged from 12 to 14. When young people reached 15, they were then able to access young adult books for those aged 15 to 17. This policy has now been changed. Young people now have to get express, written permission from their parents to move on and to be able to access books. This seems to be an incredible concession to these far-right activists and giving them precisely what they want. It is creating a scenario whereby a young person could have, for example, a homophobic parent who does not want him or her accessing age-appropriate material, and let me stress this is what we are talking about. Has the Government discussed this matter? Surely this policy should be reversed and young people should be able to get age-appropriate material in the libraries.
Good question.
I thank the Deputies for their questions. Starting with Deputy Durkan's question on school transport, I agree with him regarding how important this issue is, especially in rural areas, for children accessing school. We have done a lot in the last couple of years to improve the situation. Fees have been reduced significantly for school transport, which has been a big benefit for families struggling with the cost of living. We have also expanded the programme to tens of thousands more children. We are now also thinking ahead and working towards the September period to ensure that improvements are put in place before then. While this is not a major issue in my constituency, I would struggle to count the number of phone calls I get from other members of my parliamentary party in the run up to September concerning children unable to get tickets or places on a bus. We just have to ensure we do better again this year than in previous years.
Regarding the issue of overholding, I am very conscious of remarks made by the Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, in recent weeks. We must all be careful about advising people that they should overhold. I have never advised anyone to overhold. I should make this clear. People do sometimes overhold. It does depend on individual circumstances. This is not new. Long before there were any temporary eviction bans and before anyone even called for eviction bans, overholding was an issue. In some cases, people will overhold with the permission of their landlord, while in other cases they will not. We must, however, ensure that anyone considering doing this gets advice and also knows the risks involved, because there are risks. It can go against people in terms of their record as tenants and potentially they could also have a judgment against them.
It is important that those campaigning in this area ensure they do not fail to advise people of the potential risks if they do overhold. I encourage the Deputies from People Before Profit, and others, if they are telling people they should overhold or encouraging them to do so to ensure, and they have a duty of care in this regard in my view, that those people whom they are dealing with know the risks as well and the potential consequences for them in respect of getting future tenancies or other things that could be held against them. There is a duty of care in this regard. People should not be used as pawns in political campaigns. They are individuals and families and the Deputies have a particular duty of care in this regard and I hope they will fulfil it.
Regarding the role of the Garda, it is to keep the peace and to enforce the law. Evictions are a civil matter. I do not know the details of the situation Deputy Smith described. There could be more to the story than we are being told. It certainly sounds to me, however, like a breach of the law and it is the role of the Garda to enforce the law. It is as simple as that. Again, we had illegal evictions long before there were ever temporary winter eviction bans. Illegal evictions are illegal, and it is the role of the Garda to enforce the law in that regard. I do not know if any new guidelines are being issued but I will make inquiries with the Minister for Justice in this regard.
On the Quinn report, this has been published and the Government has accepted its recommendations. No findings were made against any individual. It is important to say that the secondment did not proceed. This was stopped before it happened, if that makes any sense. It is clear that we need to put in new procedures. When a job is advertised, it is a very simple process. The job is advertised, people apply for it, candidates are short-listed and interviewed and the best person gets the job. Secondments are more complicated and this was to be a secondment. I regret, by the way, that it did not happen. Dr. Holohan would have made an excellent professor in Trinity College Dublin. He would have been an addition to the State by staying in the public service in that way and giving us his advice on public health and leadership. It did not happen, for various reasons that are clear in the report. I regret it did not happen. Nobody comes out of this well. It is important, therefore, that we have proper procedures around secondments in future. They have been done on an ad hoc basis until now and that is not right and not fair on the people involved either. I do not know if the Joint Committee on Health is going to consider this matter. It is up to the committee to choose to do so. I understand the Secretary General of the Department of Health is appearing before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach during the week, but this is obviously a different committee on a different matter.
Turning to the issue concerning libraries, this has not been discussed by the Government, or at least not at Cabinet. I am not aware of any particular issues being brought to our attention in that regard, although I am concerned by what I have heard here in the Chamber. I would despair if we ended up going back to a world where people are told certain books are banned or children are not allowed to see material that is appropriate to their age. I see what is going on in the United States and I hope we are not going to start to see that happen here.
Regarding children in adult mental health beds, my understanding is that the number of children admitted to adult beds has been falling consistently over the past couple of years. It has been trending downwards and we are making progress in this regard. There is a reluctance to legislate against it. It has been explained to me that there are circumstances where having a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old in a single room in an adult ward closer to home is better than having him or her in a paediatric ward 200 miles or 300 miles away from his or her parents and community. There is a reluctance to legislate because legislation is so black and white and cannot take into account individual circumstances where, perhaps, an older teenager, an adolescent, might be better off being nearer his or her parents, family and community than in a paediatric unit 200 miles or 300 miles away.