Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 Jun 2024

The shock of receiving a cancer diagnosis is devastating news for patients and their families. It is a time of deep worry and stress. The last thing that patients should have to worry about on top of this is struggling to afford the cost of attending their treatment. In its pre-budget submission, the Irish Cancer Society revealed yesterday that patients are still forced to fork out huge sums in hospital car parking fees. Many are being hit with charges of €3.20 an hour or more.

One patient shared her story in the media yesterday of having to travel from Laois to Cork for treatment for lung cancer. This can cost her up to €150 a month in car parking charges, on top of the cost of making the long journey. This hidden cost is very wrong. It is hitting the pockets of patients already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis at a time in their lives when they are likely to be on reduced hours in work and, therefore, on reduced pay. Does the Tánaiste agree that this situation is totally unfair? Will the Government act to ensure that cancer patients are protected from these costs?

A diagnosis of cancer is a very difficult one for a person and for that person's family to receive. Every effort should be made to make the journey of care as stress-free as possible. The Government has significantly reduced healthcare costs in terms of hospital inpatient charges, extending GP card coverage and things like that. In terms of car parking charges, that is something we will engage with the HSE on. We have, though, progressively reduced medical costs, including the DPS and so on, significantly over the last two to three years in terms of the cost-of-living supports we have provided. We are also endeavouring to reduce the costs of public services. I will follow up with the HSE on this matter.

I acknowledge that today is United Nations World Refugee Day when we stand in solidarity with those fleeing war and persecution. It is all the more timely, then, to raise today the ongoing failure by the Government to provide accommodation for those who have come here seeking refuge. In recent weeks, I have repeatedly raised the plight of those international protection applicants left with no choice but to sleep in tents along the canal or in public parks and streets. These people have been left with no option but to do so, yet they are now being threatened with prosecution when they do sleep in tents along the canals. We are seeing the Government erect miles of security fencing and the closing off of public spaces in the absence, it seems, of any coherent plan to provide accommodation. When are we going to see accommodation being provided for those left without it and the removal of the security barriers and their replacement with a coherent plan to provide accommodation?

Well over 1,000 people seeking asylum have been accommodated since the Government's strategy was announced and published some weeks ago. The Deputy must also acknowledge the unprecedented increase in the number of people seeking asylum in this country in the last three to four years. We have moved from having about 3,500 people per annum seeking asylum in 2019 to a situation this year where there could be anything between 20,000 and 25,000 people who will come into the country seeking asylum. This is separate altogether from the thousands of Ukrainians who have fled war as a result of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.

I wish to ask the Tánaiste about yesterday's CSO report showing house prices are continuing to rise. The cost of buying a home is now 10% higher than at the peak during the Celtic tiger years. In Dublin now, first-time buyers face median prices of nearly €450,000. Is it any wonder home ownership rates are at their lowest level in more than 50 years? People on average incomes cannot afford to buy and are being forced into years of precarious renting. When the Social Democrats propose solutions like affordable housing zoning, the Tánaiste's Government votes these down. Is it the position of this Government to have house prices increase indefinitely?

Absolutely not. The price of houses is a problem for those seeking to buy or rent houses at affordable prices. There is an issue, and we want prices to come down and to moderate. It is all about supply, though, and I respectfully suggest that the proposals put forward by the Deputy's party would dampen it. We need more supply. This Government has already, in the context of its policies, enabled 110,000 new homes to be completed since Covid-19. The commencements story this year is quite dramatic. More than 32,000 units have commenced construction in the first five months of 2024. This is up a massive 147% from the 12,987 in the same period in 2023. Supply is the answer, therefore, and the commencement figures are very high this year because of the Government's policies and changes we made in terms of the development levies and so forth. The number of first-time buyers is also up. In the year to the end of April, about 17,466 first-time buyers bought houses in the market.

On behalf of Sophie Cole, I ask the Tánaiste to have the assault leave scheme amended urgently. I do not know if the Tánaiste knows Sophie. She is a former SNA who was assaulted and injured in the course of her work in November 2022. She has been left with lifelong injuries and in excruciating pain. The financial implications of this situation have seen Sophie and her husband having to take out loans to be able to pay their mortgage. They are in an absolutely dire state. Sophie was injured in the course of her work as an SNA, but after three months, assault leave ended and she was moved onto a State payment of €220. She is asking that this amendment be made not just on her own behalf but on behalf of all SNAs because these types of injuries happen all the time.

I am not familiar with the background to the case and so forth but I will certainly talk to the Minister for Education in relation to the issue the Deputy has raised. There are established industrial relations and conciliation frameworks to try to resolve these issues or progress various schemes. I will, however, certainly discuss this issue with the Minister for Education.

Last year, a pilot programme was undertaken to study extending the free travel pass scheme to those holders who use the Ballyhack-Passage East car ferry. The pilot study was undertaken over four weeks of the year. Someone from the Department of Social Welfare was there to conduct the study and it was felt it was very worthwhile. Mostly elderly people are using this rural passage of 10 km. It reduces the distance to be travelled by road to University Hospital Waterford by 80 km from the Wexford side. Unfortunately, when this pilot programme was undertaken, it was only applicable to foot passengers. The cost to foot passengers is €2 return, while the cost for cars is €14 return. This is not feasible. I ask the Tánaiste to pass on to the Minister that we might review this scheme and extend it. It takes vulnerable people off our roads and, from a sustainability perspective, the service reduces car journeys by 80 km on a round trip from the same start point.

To paraphrase the famed song for Kilcash, cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan uisce? Water, and the work of Irish Water, is an appalling problem in Clonmel, south Tipperary and all over the country. I welcome to the Gallery Geraldine and Paddy, one of my office staff, who is on to Irish Water continuously. All our staff are on to Irish Water, but it is like writing to the North Pole. The company is totally ineffective and disrespectful. I do not blame the staff in there but the organisation does not have a clue what is going on. We have water outages in Clonmel weekly if not daily. There is also the issue with combined drains the company did not take over and which were not transposed. This situation will have to be changed. I am dealing with houses now where sewage is flowing around them. Irish Water will not touch this issue and neither will the county council, which built these houses to begin with. This is unfair.

The whole entity of Irish Water-Uisce Éireann is an abject failure and will have to be tackled sooner rather than later because it is impossible for people and public representatives to engage with the company. It is frustrating for everyone. It is not good enough. A Third World country would have better water services than we do in Clonmel.

I will talk to the Minister in respect of the situation in Clonmel.

More generally, there has been a consistent increase in investment in water infrastructure and wastewater treatment across the country. That investment has been effective in many areas. There is a significant programme ahead that will demand considerable capital investment for years to come-----

I will take this opportunity to congratulate Jack Chambers on his appointment as deputy leader of Fianna Fáil.

I wish to ask about the N25 scheme in my constituency. The Tánaiste will know that it is important to my home town of Youghal, given the local need to have a bypass built for Castlemartyr and Killeagh. We have had three years of paperwork being passed around and reports being done. People are anxious to see diggers on site and a design consultant appointed. Will the Government update the House on the work it is doing to make this project happen?

I thank the Deputy for his kind words.

This is an important project in the national development plan and I have met the Deputy and many other colleagues about advancing it. It is being funded this year with Cork County Council. I will provide the Deputy a detailed update from Transport Infrastructure Ireland on the project’s progress. It is central to the national development plan and we want to ensure it progresses.

I also congratulate Deputy Chambers on his appointment as deputy leader of the Fianna Fáil Party. He has many links in Dublin, but also in the west, and I wish him well.

There is a backlog in the devolved section of the Department of Education as regards modular units for many schools around the country. One school that I am interested in is my local school of Scoil Ursula, Strandhill Road, Sligo, where my daughter attends. The school has been waiting more than a year for a prefab. The current accommodation is untenable. I have spoken to the Minister for Education. We want the Department’s devolved section to contact the school as quickly as possible.

The basic income for artists was introduced in 2022. It was designed as a pilot scheme for a period of three years. Since its inception, it has added greatly to the culture of the State and has financially sustained many talented artists, whom we are lucky to have, from musicians to poets and writers, to name but a few. This scheme has given many of our citizens the ability to pursue their artistic potential and creativity, including many artists in my constituency of County Wexford. I ask that the Government avoid a cliff-edge scenario for many of the artists currently availing of the scheme. Will the Government put the basic income scheme on a permanent footing or are there plans to continue this successful scheme beyond next year’s deadline?

The Minister for arts and tourism, Deputy Catherine Martin, has reported to the Government on a healthy evaluation of the basic income for artists scheme. It was an initiative that the Minister took and the Government supported and it has had a beneficial impact. It has been evaluated and I have no doubt but that the matter will be progressed further. The Minister will revert on it.

Educational outcomes at third level and beyond are often determined in primary education. As has been mentioned, schools are facing a cost crisis due to inflation, insurance costs, etc., but the capitation grant of €200 is basically at the same level it was 13 years ago. I am not looking for a firm commitment today, but will the Tánaiste confirm whether an increase in the capitation grant, minor works grant and ancillary grant will be a priority in the consideration of the forthcoming budget in the autumn?

I believe that capitation was restored to pre-2011 levels for the first time in this year's budget. At approximately €81 million, it is not at the same level. I addressed this matter earlier, so it is fresh in my mind. We will consider capitation in the context of the forthcoming Estimates and budget because it has to be acknowledged that there has been a cost-of-living increase. Across the country and society, we took a range of cost-of-living measures. Schools were part of those interventions by the Government to try to alleviate the undoubted increase in costs generally for schools, including fuel costs.

I raise the question of antisocial behaviour, which is increasing to an alarming extent, with all-female and lone-occupant households being particular victims. This type of bullying takes various forms, for instance, playing loud music long into the night when people who have been at work during the day expect to be able to relax and get a night’s sleep. I ask that local authorities be contacted with a view to ensuring that people with a history of antisocial behaviour are warned when they have the luck of being awarded houses.

Everything that is wrong with long-term nursing care in the State was brought home to me recently when a man from Kerry with complex needs who required a nursing home was refused acceptance by every private nursing home in the county. His son, who visited him for the 100 days he was in hospital, now has to drive one hour and 40 minutes if he wants to visit him at a nursing home in Cork. Seven or eight years ago, the discharge nurse at University Hospital Kerry told me that 70 extra beds in the county would solve the problem. Since then, however, the number of public beds has decreased and the number of private beds, which are owned by approximately 15 companies, has increased. Is the Government going to take steps to increase the percentage of public beds so that situations like the one in question do not arise in future?

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. Following a HIQA report some years ago, the Government has invested significantly in the district hospital network across the country with a view to consolidating them and ensuring they are brought up to standard. This was done because of the issue the Deputy raised. One often hears the private nursing home sector complaining about the additional rates, so to speak, or supports given to public hospitals, but that is because public hospitals deal with more acute and complex cases. This gets disputed, but that is the strong view of the HSE in respect of the publicly owned care facilities.

I do not have to hand the background of the situation the Deputy raised, but I presume that a nursing home in Cork took the person because there was not one available in Kerry. I accept that this is not satisfactory or optimal for the family. The Minister is working with and will engage with the private nursing home sector to see what can be done to broaden availability.

As the Tánaiste can tell, a number of us attended yesterday’s briefing by primary school principals. It was one of the most intense briefings I have attended since my election. Principals are at breaking point. They relayed a number of issues to us, but I will focus on SET allocations. The principals pointed to the fact that these allocations were based on historical data – standardised tests conducted in second, fourth and six class – and not on need. This must be addressed. Inclusion requires support and we know that early intervention is key. The principals said that they had the accurate data and the solution. They want the Department to engage with and consult them. That would be important, since they have much to say. They also pointed to an easy solution through the POD system. I would appreciate it if this matter could be explored by the Minister.

When one meets school principals, some have different views about the allocation models for special education in particular. There is ongoing engagement between the Department, the NCSE, schools and school principals. I will raise these issues with the Minister. She is in touch with the primary school sector and all stakeholders as regards how schools are resourced and various allocation models are determined.

Special education has expanded enormously. Compared to where it was 25 years ago, it is beyond recognition. Then we need models. If we have 21,000 more SNAs, that needs systems of administration and allocation. That can create problems and I do take the point on factoring in the needs of children in certain cases.

Figures released to me show there are fewer asylum applicants and Ukrainians in State-funded accommodation today than a year ago. Almost 10,000 fewer people are being housed by the State than there were at the start of the year, with 85,215 in January and 76,087 now. This is a positive development but I was taken aback when I saw these figures and I think most people would be. The chaos splashed across the media presents a very different story. The Government's handling of this issue creates an impression of a system overwhelmed, a narrative the Government is happy to go along with. We have seen more and more hotel beds taken out of the system and tent encampments springing up across Dublin city as people are left to sleep on the streets. The Government owes the public and the House an explanation as to why, if fewer people are in State-funded accommodation today than a year ago, have we seen nothing but chaos.

We have never given that impression but Sinn Féin has. Many Deputies opposite want to convey that impression. The fact of the matter, as I said earlier in reply to Deputy Bacik, is there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of asylum seekers coming to the country. On the Ukrainian side, approximately 106,000 came in and this has reduced over time. I think it is down to 83,000. There has been a continued increase in the number of those seeking asylum in the country and there has been a decrease in number of Ukrainians still in our country and still in the system but it is still at very high levels.

We can all agree that migration works best where integration happens in communities. I acknowledge there is a difficulty with the lack of spaces for people seeking international protection but IPAS seems to be moving people around like pieces on a chess board. I am dealing with an elderly lady with severe medical complications has been living in a centre for two years. She has got involved in the community and made contacts with GPs and consultants. With three days' notice, she is being moved from one centre to another. It does not create additional space; it simply forces somebody who has established roots in a particular community after living there for two years to move from County Westmeath to County Monaghan. It is inhumane. She has supports in Westmeath. People should be facilitated. Obviously she cannot stay indefinitely in a centre and she will need to move out. She has permission to remain. She needs to be supported to stay in Westmeath and not moved to Monaghan. There is no net gain and she should be supported to stay there.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. To be fair to the Minister and the Department of children and integration, they are endeavouring to create a sustainable system. Thousands of people have permission to reside in the State. I share the Deputy's concerns about someone being moved from Westmeath to Monaghan if that person has established roots in the community where she currently lives. On a human level of course I understand fully the point the Deputy is making. We do need to reflect on this. I do not know whether he can give me the details of the case to illustrate the challenges and impact that these changes can have on people and on families.

I welcome parents of autistic children in the Gallery this afternoon who are angry and frustrated because with less than a week to go to the end of the school year, their children have no school place. It is important to remember these are not just school roll numbers; they are children with rights. There is Rían, Ellis, Noel, Noah Hariri, Noah Lenord, Samuel, Macie, Eamon, TJ, Kapish, Ahmed, Zara Rose, Dara, Alexander, Korbyn, Bradley, Rubin and Ollie. There are other children whose names I do not have who also do not have a place in a school in September. Will the Tánaiste give an assurance these children will have a school place in September and that another set of parents will not be standing outside the Dáil having to protest next year for September 2025 and that they will have school places? This is a serious crisis that happens year after year. It should not be a surprise.

No child should be left without school place next September. It is a fundamental right of every child to have access to primary school education, in particular, and secondary education. The Department of Education is working proactively with the National Council for Special Education on the adequacy of school places and having a sufficiency of school places. We were assured of this as recently as Tuesday at Cabinet. I do not have the specific details of the children referenced by the Deputy. Over the past three years since I was Taoiseach I have given this my personal attention. We have increased the number of special classes and the number of special schools and places. I ask the Deputy to send the details to us and to the Department of Education and we will follow them up proactively. The National Council for Special Education is working on given areas with the SENOs to make sure there is a sufficiency of school places and to provide additional places where children need them.

Yesterday many of us went over to Buswell's Hotel where the Irish Cancer Society held an event to speak about its pre-budget submission on the many issues for cancer patients throughout the country. One of the issues I was struck by was raised by two radiation therapists I met there, one from Dublin and one from Galway. They spoke about the large shortfall in radiation therapists throughout the country. There is a 30% shortfall. This is leading to six radiation machines in our hospitals lying idle all the time. The outcome of this is that two in five cancer patients do not begin their radiation therapy in the recommended timeframe. This is a serious crisis for many people throughout the country. All of us know people who unfortunately get a cancer diagnosis, and timely intervention is vital.

The Minister has often spoken about additional services and additional machines being put in place but staffing is the problem. I understand that when he was Minister for Health, the Taoiseach announced there would be additional funding and spaces to educate additional radiation therapists. That never happened. That never got past the announcement. We need to see additional staff hired, from abroad if necessary, and in the meantime we need to train more people in this country to carry out this vital service.

There has always been a significant challenge with regard to the recruitment of specialists in radiation and radiation therapists and this is a factor. There has been investment in recruiting people but very often there can be a shortage of specific disciplines. Negotiations are under way involving the Higher Education Authority and the universities with a view to increasing the number of those in training from 30 to 50. This is, hopefully, nearing completion.

As the Tánaiste knows, the escalation of decarbonisation brought forward the closure of the Lough Ree power plant in Lanesborough, County Longford to 2020, resulting in a five-year loss of rates in the region of €1.2 million per annum to Longford County Council. Thankfully, in each of the four budgets since, central government stepped into the breach and provided €1.2 million each year to the council. Will the Tánaiste give an assurance that budget 2025 will ensure a similar commitment to the council to allow it to plan for the coming financial year?

The Deputy has raised a very important issue and we will be very positive in this respect. I do not like pre-empting the Ministers for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and Finance but just transition is very important for the midlands and Longford County Council and others.

Deputy Flaherty has taken a huge interest in this and I would like to think we will be in a position to meet that commitment next year.

A few weeks ago the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and her Department announced €164 million in rural regeneration and development fund funding. Meath County Council submitted three projects for funding. A total of 19 counties received funding. The three projects in Meath were in Athboy, Oldcastle and Dunshaughlin and not one of them was funded. The three projects combined would cost €10 million. The Minister's constituency with a population of 147,000 got €32 million. Meath has a population of 222,000 and did not get a penny. What were the reasons that Meath was overlooked once again in this round of funding? Was this raised with the Tánaiste by Deputy English? Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil giving crumbs to the people in Meath is not good enough and this is not the first time. It has been going on for years whether it is funding for gardaí, the state of the roads or any other kind of funding. Meath is always at the bottom of the pile and that needs to change.

No, I will raise the fact that the Deputy raised it today and I am sure the Minister will respond. I will also speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, who is proactively engaging with many sporting clubs in Meath, along with Senator Cassells and others. Traditionally, they have been very energetic on behalf of Meath-----