Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 23 Nov 2023

As Christmas approaches, children right across Ireland will tomorrow night enjoy the excitement and magic of the "Late Late Toy Show" in the comfort of their own homes. This should be the case for every child but it is a sad reality that it is not the case for far too many in today's Ireland. The most recent homeless figures show that nearly 4,000 children live in emergency accommodation. Updated figures are due to be published tomorrow and child homelessness is expected to increase again as we come closer to Christmas. The scourge of homelessness, which has increased by 47% since the Government took office, robs children of their childhood. It is shameful. No child should grow up in this awful situation. The Government needs to act urgently to stem the flow of people into homelessness.

I urge the Tánaiste, as a first step, to reinstate the no-fault eviction ban to ensure that no other child ends up in homelessness accommodation this Christmas. Will he do that as a first step?

We wish Patrick Kielty the very best with his first "Late Late Toy Show". It is a magic moment for many children across the country. I hope that will be the case tomorrow.

The Government is taking a lot of measures in November. Child poverty has come down. There are budget measures, including the doubling of the child benefit payment and a range of payments that will take place in November. We have brought in free primary schoolbooks, for example, which will help parents in terms of affordability. We have done likewise for junior certificate books.

In terms of homelessness, the tenant in situ scheme has been very effective in preventing children and families going into homelessness. There are many factors underpinning homelessness in the country and not all were articulated by the Deputy. The Government is focused on the issue. We are now building at a rate that has not been seen for quite a long time, particularly in respect of the delivery of social housing.

With the updated homeless figures to be released tomorrow, I raise the issue of vacancy. It is a national disgrace that we have such a scourge of vacancy and dereliction across the country when nearly 13,000 people are homeless. I raised the issue with the Taoiseach yesterday. I pointed out the enormous shortfall between the number of properties recorded as vacant in the census and the paltry figure of 3,000 homes that will be subject to the new vacant homes tax. The Taoiseach came back and criticised me, and said that those who mention census figures for vacancy and dereliction were wrong and the figures were not accurate. I raised the disparity simply to illustrate the issue that the Government is not aware of the scale of the problem. We do not know how many properties across the country are vacant or derelict. We know that Revenue says there are 57,000 such properties, according to local property tax figures. We know that nearly 50,000 homes stayed empty between the two previous censuses. We certainly know there are many, many more than 3,000 vacant homes lying idle and which could be used for those who so desperately need homes.

I ask the Government to commit to establishing a national register on vacancy and dereliction to ensure we have some idea of the scale of the issue and then consider how we can address it as a matter of urgency.

The way to deal with issues of vacancy and dereliction is through action. The most effective action has been the grants programme for vacant or derelict houses, which provides grants of €50,000 and €70,000. There is considerable interest in those grants. That, to me, is action and substance in terms of the issue of dereliction. We will work with local authorities to ensure we can improve on the inner city or urban renewal projects to bring more residential accommodation to our towns and cities. That will happen not only through the grant schemes the Minister has announced but also through other measures, working with the Department of Community and Rural Affairs, and the urban development grants announced by the Minister for housing to get real impact on dereliction and vacancy.

Another position previously held by the Government and which it now seems to have stepped away from is state recognition for Palestine. Next Wednesday marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The Tánaiste was asked as early as September when the Government would take the decision to recognise Palestine. He said he would do so but would wait until it would make the biggest impact. I cannot think of a better time to do it and when the impact would be greater than when Palestine is at risk of genocide.

I can, actually. On timing, discussions with other member states are very real. We must do it in a substantial way in the context of a process emerging from this. There is an opportunity. It is not just right now, today or tomorrow, but there is an opportunity to do it with others and as part of a broader roadmap. We need to use it effectively to get a roadmap in place to lead to peace and coexistence. We are not resiling from that at all. That is a part of the programme for Government and the issue is the timing of it and so on. There is an opportunity there in the context of creating a roadmap for peace. I have no doubt those discussions will take place at some stage in the aftermath of what we want, which is that the violence end as quickly as possible, and thereafter to get a roadmap going.

What the Tánaiste has said to Deputy Gannon is contradictory. He did not answer the question.

I will return to the issue of the triple lock. I listened with interest to the debates on Leaders' Questions. Although the Tánaiste says we need to do this in order to stop Russia and others having a veto on Security Council resolutions, he has never mentioned, nor does he seem to have a problem with, the fact that the US has vetoed 34 resolutions against the conduct of Israel in Palestine. As recently as 18 October, the US vetoed a UN resolution in support of a humanitarian pause in Gaza. Will the Tánaiste comment on that? It seems to me that the Government has double standards. The removal of the triple lock is all about removing any obstacle to Ireland becoming much more cosy with the European Union, the US bloc and the geopolitical shapes that are being thrown in the world at the moment.

I will answer your question if you will allow me, through the Chair. I want to make this fundamental point. There is a hell of a difference between the European Union and Russia. The Deputy equated them. In my comments earlier, I mentioned the United States. It is one of the veto powers. I said that in my speech yesterday. I instanced the paralysis-----

I did so in my contribution yesterday. It is one of the reasons for this suggestion and proposal. I will come back to the House with proposed amendments to the legislation that governs the triple lock. It is about bringing back a degree of independence to Irish foreign policy, restoring a degree of sovereignty and decision-making in respect of our troops and not having any of the permanent five members, because of their geopolitical agendas, being-----

I have a follow-up question about the triple lock. The Tánaiste said he would bring amendments before the House. Is there any indication of when we will see those amendments? My second question is intended to be constructive. What would the Tánaiste think about some of his officials briefing Opposition Deputies and spokespersons on defence and foreign affairs? Perhaps that could be arranged in the coming weeks.

The Government claims to be pro-business. It rushed through and guillotined the Finance Bill last night. Many measures, the Government said, are pro-business. I have an ESB bill here from a family business in Tipperary. It is a respected and well-run business, a public house. The bill is for €3,208 for the period from the middle of August to the end of September, when the weather was not too bad or cold. The charges are coming out. The bill includes a new charge of €451 for an I-SEM trading charge. It totals €451. That is almost 17% of the bill. How can businesses sustain this? It was unexpected and no one knows where it came from. Businesses already face the increase in the minimum wage. They have extra holiday pay and insurance costs to cover. There are more bank holiday and sick pay days. Small businesses are taking hit after hit. They cannot sustain this. The charge came totally out of the blue. What is this charge? Who decided on it? How can companies just decide to add this to a bill? There is 17% extra on this man's bill for a period of six weeks.

Due to the presence of defective blocks many homes across Donegal and the country are deemed to be not mortgageable. It is extremely disappointing the Government has not addressed this in the enhanced defective concrete block grant scheme and it has left families with much uncertainty and insecurity. Homes should be regarded as normal for lending purposes once remediation work has been completed. However, when the redress focus group sought clarification on this from the banking sector, it was told the matter is being looked into and no clarification was given. Families in defective-block homes have been forgotten time and again and they continue to be let down by the Government. The Tánaiste has a chance to change this going forward. Will he liaise with the banking sector on whether the various remediation options will restore mortgageable conditions to the homes affected?

Today I propose to defer to another time the Castletown gate access to allow negotiations take place. Instead, I will raise another issue which affects the Defence Forces. Specifically it relates to former members of the Defence Forces who may have incurred injury in the course of their duty and who have retired on pension only to find at a later stage there is a monthly deduction from their pension on foot of the award they may have received on a personal injury basis in the courts. I have raised this with the Tánaiste before. He is familiar with the subject. I ask that the practice be reviewed on the basis that the courts have made their decision. The injury took place and the award was made on that basis. It should not follow that the State seeks the right to recover part of the award from the pension, or all of it, years later.

I am aware of what the Deputy is saying although any case that has come before me, I have looked at on its individual merits and chosen not to reduce any award as the pension is awarded. I have done so on the individual merits of a given case that has come before me. I stand to be corrected, but I do not think a case has come before me yet where I have acceded to the idea of reducing it.

I welcomed recent developments on the retained firefighters. However, I have been contacted by several firefighters who are about to retire. They are calling for a temporary moratorium so long-serving firefighters can stay on past 60 years. Many fit and highly experienced personnel are having to retire as we speak and have to go on the dole when they should be allowed to stay on. When it has been found difficult to recruit new emergency personnel in the numbers needed to provide these important services, it makes sense to make use of the existing human resources we have by extending the retirement age like other local authority staff. There is a built-in safeguard where firefighters must undergo a detailed medical each year from the age of 55 years. If you do not pass this then they have to retire. Common sense is needed here. We need to keep them in place. People are living longer and it is important we look at this.

The Deputy has made a very good point. There is a broader issue where there is an interdepartmental group looking at the whole area of retirement from uniformed public services, whether An Garda Síochána, firefighting or Defence Forces. We have increased retirement age limits on an interim basis in the Defence Forces. We are living longer. Thankfully, Ireland has made dramatic gains in health outcomes and we are living far longer than we did 20 years ago. We are almost topping the European Union table in life span and people who are 60 now are much fitter than a 60-year-old 20 years ago. The point is well made. But there are pension issues and it has implications particularly in relation to the fast-accrual pension situation, hence an interdepartmental group is looking at it. I think the Minister for public expenditure wants to do that very expeditiously because obviously it affects recruitment and retention.

College students face serious challenges due to the housing crisis. Last week, the Irish Council for International Students told us shocking stories about the way international students have been housed. We heard of a three-bed house in which ten students were living. They were told that another person would join them for that person to live in a tent in the back garden. They paid €300 for that privilege. There were 11 people sharing one bathroom. That is the legacy of the Tánaiste’s Government. That is the legacy of his Government for students. How can he stand over this?

No it is not. It is a legacy of the landlord or whoever owns the house. There is individual responsibility on this too. There is also the RTB and there are regulatory authorities. The regulatory authorities should be acting on something like that. There is the local authority, in respect of the residential area involved and there is a whole range of regulatory frameworks that govern that type of behaviour and it should be stamped out. There is no place for that and I do not condone that at all.

The Government is quite rightly encouraging people to use public transport. Some new services, which are welcome, have come on stream, including in my constituency, Cavan-Monaghan. The 109X Cavan-Dublin service operated by Bus Éireann lacks capacity to meet the demand particularly leaving Dublin at peak times from 3 p.m. on in the afternoon. Constantly, commuters bound for County Cavan are left behind at bus stops on the north and west side of Dublin as buses are full in many instances shortly after leaving Busáras. Leaving people standing at bus stops for ages and ages is not acceptable. Typically, I receive complaints, as do Bus Éireann workers at local level, from commuters who have been in Dublin for hospital appointments, for work or students attending DCU or TU Dublin. People who leave their homes in Cavan in the early hours of the morning to travel to Dublin are entitled to have a reasonable expectation that they can get a bus home according to the published bus timetable. In far too many instances this is not happening. I have been highlighting these problems for some time. Additional capacity directly to Cavan is clearly needed at peak times at least. Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority need to put that much-needed additional capacity in place.

I thank the Deputy for his question and his strong advocacy for the Cavan and Monaghan area for quite a long time. I will pursue that issue of additional capacity on the Cavan-Dublin route with the Minister for Transport and particularly guarantees that people will get a return journey, especially if they are attending medical and hospital appointments. I will talk to the Minister about that.

Many houses suffered severe damage as a result of recent flooding. Some people have had to spend over €100,000 in refurbishment and replacing furniture. In order to take remedial action we have been advised it may have to go through the planning process. Can the Department work with local authorities on using section 181 of the Planning Act 2000 in order to expedite flood relief programmes, especially where remedial action can be put in place in order to prevent a reflooding occurring? Someone might spend €100,000 and they worry that in 12 months, there will be a repeat flooding and the money they have spent will go down the shore. I ask that section 181 of the Planning Act be looked at with local authorities to see what can be done to expedite flood relief programmes.

I agree. I think the flood relief schemes are taking too long. There is huge deliberation and public consultation and lots of inputs at different stages yet some end up in the High Court and, in one case in Cork city, in the Supreme Court.

That is excessive and problematic, given the emergency. In some instances, we are talking about very significant funding. I know that in the Midleton area, people will be spending more than €100,000 with no guarantee that something will not happen in the next 12 months that could render that-----

Of the 126 gardaí who came out of Templemore last year, just one came to Cork. That continues a trend that has been going on for some time. Of the 237 new gardaí so far this year, only four are going to Cork. As I said, this is a quite worrying trend of Cork not getting its fair shake. We have approximately 10% of the population but are consistently getting just 1% or 2% of those who come out of Templemore. That is against the background of a very serious shooting last week and a number of other very serious incidents. Surely, the Tánaiste will agree that one garda out of 126 is not anywhere near adequate for Cork. Will he make representations, both in his role as Tánaiste and as a constituency TD, to ensure that Cork gets Garda resources? We have places such as Mahon, which has many fewer gardaí than it did ten years ago, and Carrigaline, where only one squad car might be out at night for a town of 16,000. It is simply not enough.

Covid-19 affected the numbers going through the training college. The numbers in Templemore now continue to increase. Approximately 500 trainees are currently in the system, with one more class due into Templemore on 27 December. Approximately 237 new gardaí have attested so far this year. The new attestation schedule is for 12 January. We are on track to have between 700 or 800 new recruits into the college in 2023. In that context, I will talk to the Minister for Justice and will make representations to the Commissioner in respect of additional gardaí for the Cork area.

When Irish Water was set up, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised the people that our water services would not be privatised. However, this is happening by stealth and some of the results are shocking. For more than a year now, large numbers of households in Cork city have had orange and brown discoloured water flowing from their taps. The discolouration comes from rust and sediment that was stripped from old underground piping when Irish Water and the private operators of the new Lee Road waterworks added a new chemical to the water supply. Public representatives were told that the problem would lessen over time. If anything, it has worsened. Meanwhile, the operation and management of the waterworks, which were due to revert to the local authority this summer, seem to now be operated by another for-profit company. Irish Water seems more interested in contracting out water services to private operators than protecting the best interests of the people. When will these shenanigans be sorted out in Cork? Will the Tánaiste tell us why the Government continues to fail to give a date for a referendum to keep water in public ownership?

Water is in public ownership and will remain in public ownership. There is no intention to privatise water supplies. I do not think the Deputy should try to twist the truth in that respect. I will pursue with Irish Water the specific issue the Deputy raised regarding the discolouring of water and the specific water supply challenges he identified.

I bring to the attention of the Government the serious crisis in child and adolescent mental health services in the Louth-Meath area. There is presently no out-of-hours service liaison for these children and adolescents. There are no plans or resources to develop such a service. There is no approved centre for child and adolescent mental health services either. A farcical situation was brought to my attention yesterday whereby a clinical psychologist, who studied for 11 years and was trained by the HSE at a cost of €140,000, has been told that his primary care psychology services job in County Louth is gone and has been indefinitely postponed. He is now applying for social welfare. The Government must address the issue of CAMHS and exclude psychologists from this blanket ban, which is entirely unacceptable.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I share his concerns regarding child and adolescent mental health services. Two days ago, I met the new national clinical lead for CAMHS and the new national director of the youth mental health office, Mr. Donan Kelly, who took up post on 1 September. I am very hopeful that we will see an improvement in the supports that are being provided to young people. The Deputy spoke about an approved centre. We have four inpatient approved centres in the country, two in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Merlin Park, Galway, which are sufficient to provide those type of supports at present.

On out-of-hours services, in the past two months, I announced five new online hubs to support young people but if the Deputy wants to bring specifics to my attention, I will certainly look at them for him.

The lowering of the nitrates derogation from 250 kg N/ha to 220 kg N/ha will have devastating consequences for clean Irish agriculture. Farmers throughout the country have spent tens of thousands to bring their farms up to environmental standards, with very few of them now falling behind. Despite the huffing and puffing, it looks like the Government has thrown in the towel on fighting to keep the nitrates derogation at 250 kg N/ha, with some political figures accepting that keeping it at 220 kg N/ha is the next challenge. I urge immediate action during today's meeting with the EU environment Commissioner to secure a critical two-year extension of the nitrates derogation. The clock is ticking with more than 2,096 farmers facing the imminent risk of culling cows, including pregnant ones, starting on 1 January, due to the agriculture Minister's failure to secure an extension beyond the current derogation expiration date on 31 December. Farmers now face an agonising choice between downsizing herds or embarking on a costly land acquisition spree to comply with new regulations. Will Ireland succeed in getting a two-year extension for the nitrates derogation at today's critical meeting with the Commissioner?

I am aware of the situation. The Taoiseach and the Minister for agriculture are meeting the environment Commissioner today in respect of the nitrates directive, with a particular focus on the issue of calving heifers in the very near future and the timelines around that. I visited the Timoleague catchment area some weeks ago. I spent a number of hours there with farmers. I can confirm that many farmers have made huge efforts to modernise and improve their situation. There is a need to get it tighter more nationally between those in and out of derogation as regards protection of waterways and so on, but I am very convinced that farmers want to do the right thing. They have been very progressive in their approach and in the adoption of new technologies. Retaining the 220 kg N/ha is a very important challenge. We are now one of the few countries left in Europe that has an exemption. We are very determined to retain it.

I will also bring up the issue of public transport in County Cavan and the 109 bus, as presented by my colleague. It is not just a capacity issue. We have seen situations where buses do not show up at all. I have written to Bus Éireann, which has stated to me it has an increased number of cancellations as a result of having insufficient mechanics available at its Broadstone garage. This is a huge inconvenience to people. The 109 is the one route we have to Dublin. I ask the Tánaiste to do something to try to address that. Along with that, I raised previously the need for a park-and-ride facility at Whitegate that could facilitate more people, as we are trying to push people onto public transport.

I have written to the NTA, which is doing fantastic work on the Local Link service. A new service from Cootehill to Virginia is opening. I asked the NTA to include Killinkere as a stop point for the communities of upper and lower Killinkere. It has said "No" because it will not reroute the bus, but it is possible to put a stop somewhere on the main route that will facilitate people in Killinkere.

I thank the Deputy. I know she raised this matter of capital infrastructure and a park-and-ride facility as a Topical Issue. It is something we have reflected to the NTA. I am happy to engage with the Deputy and Deputy Smith on concerns relating to the ongoing issue of buses not showing up, in addition to driver shortages. There have been particular issues in counties Cavan and Meath related to commuter buses, on which there has been engagement between the Department, the NTA and Bus Éireann. It is something we are actively working on to build better capacity and ensure that people have a much more reliable service. We are happy to meet the Deputy before Christmas to try to make progress on this issue.

I have been contacted by the parents of a 22-year-old girl who has suspected cerebral palsy but she needs the diagnosis confirmed through an MRI scan in order to access supports and services. She was referred last April to Temple Street for an MRI scan and she got an appointment for this coming January. That is a nine to ten-month waiting list. I presume every other child on the list is waiting that length of time as well. What is the issue? Is it that there are insufficient scanners or insufficient radiologists? Is this going to be exacerbated further by the HSE recruitment freeze, which is a result of the underinvestment in health by the Government? Children should not have to wait this long for a scan to access a diagnosis to get services.

As our party's spokesperson on social protection, I am proud of the roll-out of the hot school meals programme and in particular the roll-out to DEIS areas. As the Tánaiste will know, until September, special schools were not included in the hot school meals programme. While expressions of interest were extended in September for 111 special schools, we have yet to see a full roll-out. I ask the Tánaiste to ensure the Minister for Social Protection does everything we can in 2024 to ensure all specials schools have access to the hot school meals programme.

On Deputy Tully's question, I do not have the details of the specific case she has raised. There has been an enormous investment in health, whatever way you look at it, over the last four years, exponentially increasing year on year. There are issues with the recruitment of radiologists more generally. I will try to check out the situation with the Minister for Health in respect of Temple Street and the MRI scans there and what the particular issue is. Sometimes there can be differentiation between emergency needs and elective MRIs. The Minister had given a specific allocation for diagnostics, which resulted in a higher throughput of diagnostics in particular. If the Deputy can give the details to the Minister, we will take it from there.

Deputy McAuliffe made a very good point. Some special schools may have their own arrangements already in respect of food but we will check with the Minister for Social Protection on the roll-out to special schools across the country.