I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together. We are retaining the child poverty and well-being programme office in the Department of the Taoiseach because we know we need to continue to build on the work to break down silos between Departments and drive delivery. We will not be able to make a decisive impact on child poverty without a whole-of-government and whole-of-society response. From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being 2023 to 2025 was published in August 2023 and is the initial programme plan for the child poverty and well-being programme office. The programme builds on six focus areas which have potential to bring about significant change for families and children. These are income assistance and joblessness; early learning and childcare; reducing the cost of education; family homelessness; consolidating and integrating family and parental assistance, health and well-being; and enhancing participation in culture, the arts and support for children and young people affected by poverty. The programme plan is intended to be a living and dynamic document. As we need to, we will revisit our priorities to make sure we are focusing on those things that really make a difference. In 2025 we will start to develop the second programme plan for the office. We will consider carefully what we have learned so far and what remains to be done. The role of the Department of the Taoiseach is to co-ordinate and focus Government action. To help to facilitate this the office has established a cross-government network on child poverty and well-being. The network has met five times to date with the next meeting due to take place soon. On 23 May last year the programme office hosted the inaugural child poverty and well-being summit. This was an important moment to take stock and shape the agenda for future action. I very much look forward to hosting the second summit later in the year. Budget 2025 is the second year of spending plans on child poverty and well-being co-ordinated through the programme office. The second budget report captures a wide range of initiatives in budget 2025 which reflect the cross-government ambition to reduce child poverty. I was delighted recently to publish the programme office's first progress report, Child Poverty and Well-being in Transition: Learning and Adapting to Accelerate Change in Children's Lives. The report presents progress updates for the six focus areas while acknowledging challenges and highlighting emerging lessons and priorities. The impact of the programme office is also outlined. I am encouraged that the report shows the programme office has genuinely strengthened cross-government focus on addressing child poverty. In the years ahead, I expect the programme office to report on even greater progress that would help to transform the lives of children and families.
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There are a number of questions there. Deputy McAuliffe started on the model that has been developed in the north east, and there is something similar in Ballymun. I have asked my officials to look at broadening that model out to certain areas, as we had before. In previous times, under the former Minister, Pat Carey, or Noel Ahern and others, going back to Pat Rabbitte’s time, the drug task forces were established in about 12 areas across the country. I have seen at first hand the impact of the north east inner city initiatives. They have been quite impactful and effective. I would be interested in progressing through the work in the Department of An Taoiseach and the sustainability of those models. They do not yield results immediately. When we establish these models we should be clear they are there for the long haul as a constant intervention. That is very important. Deputy Connolly raised the specifics of family homelessness. Family homelessness is a very significant issue in terms of child poverty. It is something we need to focus on very keenly over the coming months, which we will do. I will look at the Galway situation because those figures are quite high. The objective is to get people out of emergency accommodation as quickly as we can. There were about 8,500 more social houses built last year and, on top of that, a couple of thousand more leased or acquired. We have had a higher number of social housing units coming on stream in the past three to four years than we have had since the 1970s. There is an issue, then, with regard to what is happening. The dynamic is changing. There is a complexity to the composition of homelessness today that was not there five or ten years ago - certainly ten years ago. If you look at the raw data at the moment, it does not say anything. Some 50% of those homeless now are either EU or non-EU citizens. There needs to be a greater analysis of why that is happening. I was talking to homeless organisations during the week. There is a need for greater analysis of the trends that are creating a lot of pressures in the homelessness area. No one should be there for two years. They should be exited much quicker than two years. Deputy Paul Murphy raised an issue which we dealt with during Leaders’ Questions. I believe what happened was fundamentally wrong. I do not believe a public inquiry is the way to do it. I have looked back over the years since 1997. If you look at all the inquiries that have been conducted across the board in different areas, €500 million has been spent on inquiries. The House needs to think about that. People get very annoyed, and rightly so, about individual projects that might cost €1 million of an overrun and they talk about value for money, yet we willingly come in here every week and we say we want an inquiry into different areas. Inevitably, these inquiries last years. They do not give you closure and they do not give victims the closure they want. They cost millions of euro. I do not mean this in any negative way towards the legal profession but there are huge fees involved. We need to ask ourselves honestly the question of whether a public inquiry is now the first course of resort as opposed to being one of last resort. I think HIQA is doing a good job here. Maybe HIQA is the vehicle if there are further issues. We have two other reports to come and we should then look at those three reports in their entirety. We have to look at other mechanisms to get the basic facts surrounding any given situation. It does not necessarily mean a public inquiry that will last years, and, believe me, it will last years. Look at Siteserv. I think Deputy Murphy was in the House at the time. He will recall how there was meant to be ten modules and it took us years to get one. We had Project Eagle. It cost millions. It came out of this House. What did it come up with? It did not see anything untoward at the end after all of that. The institutions that we set up to investigate things must be better and must do their job. Otherwise, what is the point of having GSOC, HIQA, the Health and Safety Authority and various other bodies if we bypass all of them and say we are going for the inquiry or a commission of investigation? At the moment there could be six or seven issues on the agenda in respect of which a Government Minister will be asked to hold an inquiry. I understand where people are coming from – they want answers – but sometimes they are led to believe that the inquiry is the preferred route to an answer. It is not the preferred route, I think, having experienced so many of them leading to such disappointment when they are published and at such enormous cost. There is also an ethical question of whether a lot of those resources should be allocated to the children in need today. Tusla needs more resources. Children with special needs today need resources. Children in poverty need resources. These are fundamental questions that we, as politicians, should take on the responsibility of asking. The funding will not be there for everything. There is prioritisation involved here. There may be an inquiry in 20 years time about the neglect of certain kids under the care of Tusla – I just picked that out; there may not be – or it could be on other matters. These are legitimate. That is all I would say. HIQA, for example, did the report into CervicalCheck, or Dr. Scally did, and did a good job there. It is a good illustration of how there might be other ways of getting to the truth faster and with the victims in mind. On Deputy Gannon’s question, the Minister for Justice has brought that through Cabinet, Valerie’s law. I hope that with the co-operation of the House we can get that progressed as quickly as possible. I cannot give a timeline on that. I join with Deputy Ó Murchú in sending best wishes, as I did earlier, to Deputy Boyd Barrett. This is certainly a platform that he enjoyed utilising quite a lot, effectively and with impact, and we wish him well. Deputy Ó Murchú raised the issue of child poverty, as did others, including Deputy McGreehan. I would hope that the budget becomes the focal point for dealing with child poverty and children with special needs in terms of income-related decisions. That will mean the targeting of funding to those who need it most. The SILC data is not good in that consistent poverty went up from 4% to 8%, although the overall deprivation index came down a small bit. We have to be prepared to target resources through social protection to children in poverty and children with special needs. As Taoiseach, I am responsible for this unit and intend to co-ordinate that with the Departments of Social Protection, Education and Health to make sure we target our resources, so we make a definitive impact on children in poverty and children with special needs. Deputy Lahart's was a very good idea on the well-being side. On DEIS Plus, at the moment there are about 1,200 schools under DEIS, covering about 260,000 students. About €180 million of targeted support is allocated annually to the DEIS programme. There is a need to target that more to DEIS Plus in respect of intergenerational trauma and intergenerational poverty, which was spoken about, and the idea of predictability. In the north-east inner city good work has been done in the early years on multidisciplinary therapy provision, which has helped children enormously in terms of reducing anxiety. As was said, they are then prepared to learn and are in a position to learn once they go into the classroom. That is something we are very keen to do. Deputy Bacik raised the issue of homelessness. I have dealt with that generally.
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There was a need to target that too because it was being used by some local authorities as a catch-all and maybe not targeted at those who were about to become homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.
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It was never meant to be a scheme to just buy second-hand properties. The Minister is engaged in refining and targeting that. I will talk to the Minister in respect of that case. It is not that the person was not two years on HAP but that the house was not in HAP for two years----
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Again, the idea of being in HAP means you are within the social housing provision and the prospects of homelessness are higher there, so the idea is to target the resources there. I will talk to the Minister in respect of that case and come back to the Deputy. In response to Deputy Ó Fearghaíl, in fairness, "a lot done, more to do" is correct. There needs to be more focus on what the Deputy described as dysfunctional families and the multidisciplinary teams I spoke about earlier in the north-east inner city. Those are very effective ways and I would like to see DEIS Plus look at that. We are doing the idea of multidisciplinary teams in special schools. When we roll out DEIS Plus, I would like to see it applied there as well. We would get significant outcomes. In response to Deputy Conway-Walsh, I will talk to the Minister in respect of Mikey Henry. The Deputy spoke to me last week about that case. As I said to her last week, I think a second opinion should be facilitated and if it is necessary to go to the States or elsewhere - I think there was another case-----
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Whatever, we should do so. They regularly do refer people to London.
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In response to Deputy Coppinger, I have dealt with the public inquiry. I have views on that. I think there might be better ways of getting to it. Again, we will assess it fully when we have the other two reports - the one on dysplasia and the Nayagam report, which is the overarching report. When we have both of those with this report, we can progress it. I have answered Deputy Cian O'Callaghan's question.
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 36, inclusive, together. The first meeting of the new Cabinet committee on infrastructure took place on Monday, 24 March, and the next one will take place on Monday, 28 April. Membership of the Cabinet committee consists of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Minister for Finance, Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Note the long titles of all Ministries. With the constitutional prohibition, we are not expecting any more but there is a lot of activity being covered by individual Ministries. That is just on reflection. The committee will oversee programme for Government commitments in relation to infrastructure delivery and reflects the importance this Government is placing on the delivery of infrastructure as the key enabler for regional development, economic development, delivering on our housing commitments, meeting social needs and meeting our climate objectives. A significant measure is the establishment of a dedicated infrastructure division in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. This new division will work with stakeholders on strategic project selection and prioritisation, aligned with national priorities and making maximum use of resources. It will develop a sustainable pipeline of projects to support delivery of the ambition under the national development plan. The new division will provide oversight, co-ordination and expertise across Government to remove barriers, break down silos and ensure infrastructure projects are delivered on time and on budget. One of the first tasks of the Cabinet committee is the oversight of the review process for the national development plan, which is now under way and will be completed by the summer. The review will focus on major projects to meet our overall priorities, namely housing provision, energy, water, transport and health digitalisation, ensuring we are investing in programmes which will truly support economic and social development. The committee will also oversee the progress of large and strategic projects in these priority areas, such as MetroLink and the various road and other active travel projects, many of which are well under way across the country. While large-scale transport infrastructure will be overseen by the infrastructure Cabinet committee, transport issues may also arise in other Cabinet committees, given their relevance to various policy areas, for example, the economy and climate action. Formal decisions in relation to infrastructure issues will, of course, continue to be made at full Government meetings.
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How high?
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Quite a number of issues have been raised. Deputy Ó Murchú started with housing, Uisce Éireann and the medical device sector. In the past week, I have spoken to a number of CEOs in the medical device sector as well as in the pharmaceutical sector about the challenges that are arising. The discussion was more on the medium-term and longer term impacts of the tariffs and other non-tariff initiatives that might yet be taken by the US Administration. One would hope the complexity of the supply chains and their integrated nature may force either a rethink or at least greater reflection in terms of measures that might or might not be announced. Through IDA Ireland we are monitoring and keeping in touch with every company in terms of how things are operationally impacting on them. It is early yet to draw definitive conclusions. The medical device sector is probably in a different situation to the pharmaceutical sector. We are very conscious of this. Ireland represents a large footprint of medical devices in Europe. It is a significant sector in Ireland. In European terms we are the biggest location for medical devices. As I said earlier on Leaders' Questions, anything we do must be done in a financially sustainable way also. We are conscious of the risk to employment. I agree with Deputy Cleere on the need to weigh investment in favour of the south east and Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and Carlow. We will continue to do so. A lot of progress has been made. Kilkenny is a very attractive city. On tourism it has gone ahead of others because of its attractiveness. It will continue to require investment. Deputy Cleere specifically asked that access to Belview Port, east-west connectivity and the N24 be prioritised. I will certainly feed that into the process of the NDP review. Deputy Cathal Crowe has been a constant advocate for Shannon Airport, to his credit. I remember at the time a decision had to be taken to bring Cork and Shannon airports into the regional airports because of Covid. Ordinarily they were never in that group. Now they are in it people are asking that they be kept in it. We will have to weigh that up. Both airports have grown very well in recent years. The problem with the growth of airports generally is that the airlines tend to decide. There is still the preponderance of airlines drawn like magnets into the Dublin area. What the Government is about really is raising all airports. Dublin Airport will be key for the national economy. Cork and Shannon airports will be key for the national economy and for the regions and getting real investment into them. The airport in Knock should never have been built if we were to believe economists, the then Opposition and everybody else. It has more than survived to tell the tale. It has also grown and the Government has been consistently supportive in different ways of Shannon Airport. I will come back to Deputy Crowe and I will speak to the Minister for Transport about his proposal. Deputy Dempsey spoke about the Navan railway line. It is great news that we have got it sanctioned. Now that is old news and the next question is asking to accelerate it and expedite it. There has to be proper design. Again, we will do everything we can. It is a key piece of infrastructure. The whole issue with infrastructure is delivery and speed. People come in and raise this issue, that project or the other project. There are issues with delayed planning and all of that. I have been to Thurles. Thurles needs the bypass. To respond to Deputy O'Meara, we will try to feed that into the NDP. It is being funded at design stage. All of this has to happen. We have to make sure it gets completed. Without it, Thurles will be a bottleneck. A lot of good things have been happening in Thurles in recent years. The education campus has been groundbreaking, I would suggest, in terms of third level students in Thurles. We need a traffic solution there, not least to facilitate Cork on our next visit with all those supporters behind us. The long queues would be a thing of the past if we had a bypass. Deputy O'Connor raised an interesting point. Forfás did a study 15 or 20 years ago on nuclear technology and felt it would be too expensive at the time. There is now mini nuclear reactor technology. I was in Texas prior to going to Washington during St. Patrick's week. What is interesting is that everybody associates Texas with fossil fuels but it also has nuclear, wind, solar and battery storage. It is doing all five to facilitate participation in AI and what it considers to be the revolution in AI and the energy implications of all of that. I would not say "No" to what Deputy O'Connor said but there are significant expenditure considerations and work to be done on it. Solar is growing fast in Ireland. The issue, which Deputy O'Connor has raised with me, is a planning issue. This is something we need to look at collectively. People have a constitutional right to sell their land. On the other hand, it should be a function of planning as to what goes where in terms of various activities, I would have thought. We will continue to engage on this issue in terms of the growing number of farms converting to solar and the long-term implications of this. Solar is an important source and we put our eggs in the renewable basket, particularly offshore wind. We have done very well on onshore wind over the past three decades. Ireland is a leader in Europe on onshore wind. The challenge is to become a leader on offshore wind as well, which I think would change the story significantly. I will come back to the Deputy about how we can best progress an examination, without prejudice, into whether it is a viable option. It is interesting that there was a lot of opposition to nuclear in the past. It turns out it was far cleaner than fossil fuels. There were never big protests about fossil fuels. We just accepted it, and now look-----
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With fossil fuels 20 to 25 years ago, there was no Carnsore Point for fossil fuels.
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That was a different kettle of fish.
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It is an interesting point. It ends up that fossil fuels are one of the reasons we are where we are with climate change. Anyway, that is a philosophical point but that is where we are. Deputy Shay Brennan is revisiting the great work his dad did, and he now wants to bring the metro to Sandyford, with his dad having done the initial work. Fair play. It is at the design stage and there is a lot of work yet to be done on the metro. It will probably take up huge amounts of national development plan funding. I will have to do a deeper examination of that and come back to him on it, but I hear him. Deputy Paul Murphy raised the overflights. I will speak to the Minister for Transport about this latest report of Lufthansa. There is an issue if people are doing it. They should seek permission. They would not have been given permission. They can circumvent Ireland's airspace if they so wish, and they should. They should not be going through Irish airspace if they are carrying munitions. I will talk to the Minister in respect of what we can do. We cannot inspect planes going overhead, but nonetheless that is not a practice we want to see continued. In respect of Deputy Coppinger and having raised it with the US Administration, I think there is a duty on the Department of Foreign Affairs to alert people to the potential challenges they may encounter. It is something we do not agree with and have concerns about, but there has been a general election in the United States. These issues have been debated at length there. So far in Ireland there has been, and correctly so, a tolerant, proper, informed and mature debate. We do not want to enter into the kinds of culture wars that are going on elsewhere. I turn to Deputy Currie. I will follow that up with the NTA, which will be held to account by the committee. I anticipate the NTA will come before the committee at some stage. To Deputy Geoghegan, I will examine that proposal about the connection between Ringsend and Poolbeg.
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That is being worked on. It has not been mothballed or anything like that. It is being progressed and we will come back to him on that. Deputy Seamus McGrath made an excellent point about new active travel facilities. The facilitation of participation by people with disabilities should be built into public infrastructure, full stop. We were both at the opening of the marina promenade in Cork last week. It is an excellent active travel initiative and we saw bicycles for all and people with disabilities in a position to use that from day one. That is the kind of thing we want to see built into all active travel projects in the country. I think that is it. I apologise, Deputy Conway-Walsh raised the western rail corridor. Those issues are coming within the national development plan. In the early years, I think during Covid, some plans were not advanced enough to get to the 5%. With some spending in the first year or two of the last Government, there was an underspend in what was provided for in capital. We now have the opposite. My understanding is that the next NDP will be 5% GNI*.
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