I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together. Proposals are currently being developed regarding the establishment of a task force for Cork city centre. Once they are finalised, the proposals will be submitted to the Government for its consideration. In essence, the role of the task force will be to examine and develop a strategy for the renewal and refurbishment of the city centre of Cork and issues related to the city centre. We hope to come back to Deputies in respect of that. With regard to the Dublin city centre task force, the goal is to make Dublin city centre a more thriving, attractive and safe cityscape, as well as a desirable location to live, work, do business and visit. To deliver on these missions, the task force identified ten big moves it recommends should be addressed. As agreed by the Government, the Department of An Taoiseach convened an interdepartmental group to examine the task force recommendations. The interdepartmental group is currently preparing a report for consideration by the Government in the coming weeks. Following this, we will come back to the House with those specifics.
Sentiment score: 0.19
I wish to be associated with the comments of Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan in respect of the late Dan Wallace. He was a good friend of mine, a Member of this House for over 25 years and a Minister of State. He was a very decent man and a fierce advocate for the people of the north side of Cork. In some respects, I learned the nuts and bolts of electoral politics as a student with Dan Wallace on the north side of Cork, when we canvassed in Gurranabraher, Blackpool and Farranree. He personified the indomitable spirit that characterises the people of the north side of Cork. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. I hope we will have an opportunity at a later date to pay sincere tribute to him. Deputies O'Sullivan and Séamus McGrath raised the Cork task force. I acknowledge the list of issues that Deputy O'Sullivan raised, including the health facilities and the northern ring road. There is also the issue of the elective hospital, which the Deputy did not raise but has campaigned strongly for. I hope we can get that activated. Deputy McGrath was correct in saying there is underutilisation of buildings in Cork city. In the transportation area, light rail is coming to the city centre. The transformation of Kent Station is a great platform, excuse the pun, to energise the city centre. It will lead, we hope, to a new active travel bridge across the river, which would link to the light rail system. There are great opportunities there. I met representatives of Iarnród Éireann recently in respect of that. We will also be meeting representatives of the NTA. Safety in the cities of Cork and Dublin, as Deputy Geoghegan said, is, in some respects, the context for much of the work of the task force. We need to reimagine our cities. They are going to be different spaces in the future. I am not sure we will have the big anchor tenants of yesteryear in our cities. Our city centres will become more residential, sharing space with retail, hospitality and other forms of activity. There is a bit of work to be done yet in terms of planning and the contexts that govern developments within our city centres. The safety issue is core. Architecturally, how we design cities and streets has an impact on human behaviour and can also have an impact on safety issues. Very often, stronger residential content or density brings the prospect of self-policing, if you like, or community-based deterrents and so on. We need to examine and explore that issue more deeply than we have done to date. Garda resources will increase. The Covid-19 pandemic, and the closure of the Garda College in Templemore, stopped a lot of recruitment. It has now been reactivated. Measures have been taken, including an increase in the training allowance and an increase to the age for retirement. We hope we will have better retention. We have more work to do on that front. The events centre in Cork is going out to tender. It will take time for that to come back in, given the level of investment that is proposed. No one is more exasperated than me about Moore Street. We had previous agreements that Deputies backed away from. Oireachtas committees met on the issue and thought they had agreement with all parties but that did not turn out to be the case. The GPO is a good example of what can happen in a positive way. I visited the outpatients department of the Coombe hospital, which opened recently and is a good example of how we can bring life back into the city centre. It provides an excellent service for women and there is a good footfall of workers on the street who are availing of the service. It is a top-class facility. We must look for more services of that kind that we can reintroduce to the city centre. We are expanding public service transport. We are increasing the numbers recruited to Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann. They have had difficulty recruiting. We had to cancel services in Cork city because of the inability to recruit bus drivers as a result of the growth and expansion of our full economy. Let us be clear that the Government has presided over an expansion of public transport services, both rail and bus, with additionality in terms of the numbers of passengers and so on. We will continue to do that. We would be open to examining the London experience, which was raised by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. Deputy Ó Murchú raised the issues of estate management and mental health. His was valid commentary. We must be careful how we say this, but sometimes many issues have underlying causes that do not amount to criminality when we consider the person's mindset or state of health. There are issues there to which we need to attend. Gardaí can be the people who engage in the first instance. It can sometimes be difficult to analyse issues around crime because of the shocking nature of it and the immediacy of the commentary. I know of cases where there was no violence, attempted violence or an engagement where we would find there was a background issue. We must work on mental health, addiction, alcohol use and drug use, which is growing exponentially, in our society. All of that is having a negative impact on behaviour and is leading to violence, particularly late at night and early in the morning. There is no point in saying otherwise. Any parent of young people knows the fear when they go out. There is always concern and worry. We must work hard. On the children's hospital, the developer, BAM in this case, has submitted claims. There is a process for dealing with those claims. They are robustly contested by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, and will continue to be. Our objective is to complete the process with proper procedures and systems applying before we get a first-class hospital for the children of the nation.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 19, inclusive, together. I most recently met with Prime Minister Starmer on 3 February in Brussels in the margins of a dinner with European Union leaders that we both attended. We discussed our shared ambition to strengthen our bilateral relationship and looked forward to seeing each other at the first in a series of annual Ireland-United Kingdom summits that will take place in the United Kingdom next month. We also discussed Northern Ireland, noting that that day marked the first anniversary of the restoration of the power-sharing institutions, as well as European Union-United Kingdom relations, including in the areas of security and defence. I also spoke with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer by phone on 27 January when he called to congratulate me on my appointment as Taoiseach. We discussed bilateral relations, Northern Ireland and our shared commitment as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, and international issues, in particular Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East. We also discussed Storm Éowyn and ongoing recovery efforts. I welcomed and thanked the Prime Minister for the assistance to ESB Networks provided by UK and other international crews as part of a mutual association agreement among electricity companies. I spoke to the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney on 4 February and discussed the significant effects of Storm Éowyn and the challenges of addressing climate resilience in both countries. On 6 December, I attended the 42nd British-Irish Council Summit, hosted by the Scottish Government in Edinburgh. In the margins of the summit, I had bilateral meetings with the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, the Northern Ireland First Minister, Michelle O’Neill and the Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, the First Minister of Scotland John Swinney and the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan. The overall theme of the summit was financing a just transition. The then Taoiseach Simon Harris attended the plenary session and set out Ireland’s commitment to climate action and the work we are doing to ensure that the transition to a low-carbon economy is done in a just and fair manner. I look forward to attending the next British-Irish Council Summit to be hosted by the Northern Ireland Executive in June.
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I have one minute now, is it?
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I just want to get a bit of discipline here now. There are 45 minutes for Questions to the Taoiseach. It is not an hour. We need to make up our minds.
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We can.
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I do not mind. I am open to that, if it is means ten minutes or whatever. Deputy Brendan Smith and a number of other Deputies raised the issue of the legacy legislation. I remind Deputies that I took the decision as then Minister for Foreign Affairs to refer that legislation to the European Court of Human Rights. To be fair to the new Government in the United Kingdom, it has moved to remove core aspects of the legacy legislation, particularly in respect of immunity. I have discussed this at length with Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Tánaiste, Simon Harris, is now engaging. The core issue relates to the commission having a separate strand in terms of information and investigation. There are other issues as well. Those discussions are ongoing between officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and officials in the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland's office in respect of whether ICRIR can be reformed in a manner that would win back the confidence of victims' groups. Our officials have engaged with all of the victims' groups. I have met them personally in respect of the issues that have arisen. There has been progress, however - we need to put that on the record - compared with what was in the original Bill tabled by the then Conservative Government. Also, the inquests are restored, and the civil cases in particular. That is progress, but it is not enough. We have to continue to work on it. More generally on the legacy issue, I watched "Say Nothing" on the Disney Channel. There are a whole lot of issues of bombings, murder and the kidnapping of Jean McConville where there has been no real attempt at closure, no real attempt at reconciliation and no attempt to say what happened was wrong. It was wrong. If you look at the episode on the bombing of the Old Bailey, with 200 innocent British people injured and maimed, what was all that about? We need to deal with legacy in a most comprehensive way. It is striking we have not had a debate on Kenova in this House. There is a comprehensive report. It deals with collusion between the British state and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of innocent people and, indeed, of others. It also deals with the campaign of the Provisional IRA against its own people, as Kenova describes it, but this House has not even had a debate on that. That is something we should consider in terms of the comprehensive aspect of dealing with legacy because it does matter for future generations that these issues are properly teased out in terms of the use of violence for political ends. On the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, I am clear that any material we have should be given to any inquiry-----
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Hear me out, please.
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It happened already where the bespoke legislation was passed in respect of Kingsmills, for example, with a judge there paying tribute to the Irish Government. I am clear - I have been saying it to the Minister for Justice and his predecessor - that in respect of the Omagh bombing, there is an inquiry up and running and information should be provided by the Government, and the Department of Justice in particular.
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On the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, I make the point that it was previous Fianna Fáil Governments that led the way in respect of inquiries into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
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We know the outcome of the various reports in terms of access to the British files. I do not have time to respond to all the other Deputies. Deputy Daly raised the energy market and the energy question. The meeting was a preparatory meeting for the summit, which will happen in March and will be comprehensive. It will cover a wide range of issues which will involve a number of Ministers. Obviously, the security situation in Europe was discussed, as well as Northern Ireland and legacy. Deputy Bacik raised a very important point regarding fear in Ukraine and fear in Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland about Russian aggression. We do not appreciate enough in this country or in this House the absolute fear that what has happened in the past will happen again. They feel in real danger. That is changing the nature of debate in Europe on security and defence. The Members should be under no illusions about it. We have to be clear about that and be supportive of Ukraine. We will be providing non-lethal aid to Ukraine. I make no apologies for that because they need it.
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 23, inclusive, together. Our new programme for Government, Securing Ireland's Future, commits to delivering for all people and all regions across our shared island over the next five years. The Government is committed to the unity of the Irish people and believes this can only be achieved through a sustained focus on and investment in reconciliation, developing the three sets of relationships recognised in the Good Friday Agreement to unlock the full potential of our island. We have set out in the programme for Government significant new commitments and an ambitious agenda for building our shared island, which will be delivered on a whole-of-Government basis. This is backed by the Government's commitment to increasing the shared island fund by a further €1 billion up to 2035. Over €500 million has been allocated by the Government from the shared island fund to date, in addition to Government funding from other sources. With sustained political commitment and a partnership approach there has been a clear step up in what all-island co-operation delivers, with major cross-border infrastructure projects like the Narrow Water Bridge and Ulster Canal now moving forward, ambitious new education, enterprise, tourism and environmental programmes commenced with the Executive, and, crucially, new funding and ways for people across all communities on the island to connect and work together more. The Government will push forward with the historic task of building a lasting reconciliation, implementing the largest ever programme of North-South research and investment, opening critical links and building further engagement and understanding. My Department’s shared island unit will be strengthened over the coming months to co-ordinate the actions covered by the initiative across every Government Department. We are introducing targets for each Department to develop new shared island projects. The Government will deepen our partnership with the Northern Ireland Executive, with the British and Irish Governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, and work every day to harness the full potential of the agreement to build reconciliation between the different traditions of this island.
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Tax relief? You are all against tax relief.
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I thought you guys were all against tax relief.
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I have no problem with it. You guys have attacked me.
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You guys have attacked us about tax relief. "You should not go near it", you said. Talk to your leader.
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I take on board the points made by Deputy Brendan Smith. He has been a really consistent voice on behalf of cross-Border co-operation and has a great understanding of the issues in that area. I take on board what he said about the less-developed areas of Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone. We are willing to work with county councils on this and we developed a pipeline initiative some time back. Approximately 25 councils engaged, so there is a good pipeline of projects coming through at local authority level, through shared island funding. There is also funding of approximately €2.5 million to €3 million through the Department of Foreign Affairs, which we have allocated in the shared island unit, for civic groups. This funding is for civic initiatives on a smaller scale than some of the big projects. Deputy McGreehan raised the issue of the Narrow Water Bridge.
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We look forward to its completion. The Deputy will be looking out every day at its progress. She can keep an eye on it and make sure it is completed on budget and within time.
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It is a very good example of an area that I think will be transformed. Deputy McGreehan's point about schools was well made. There is already a very interesting shared island project we have agreed with the Northern Ireland Executive on school completion. That is an innovative programme and there is good co-operation on all sides. On the points raised by Deputy Ó Murchú, what we are for is a shared island. There is real substance in this initiative on the dialogue, research and investment fronts, which will bring people together. It is about reconciliation and we have to prioritise reconciliation. There are issues around the taxation of workers that we have been trying to resolve for some time between the two departments of finance. Some of the cross-Border bodies, in particular, have had real difficulty with their employees in that regard. Deputy Conway-Walsh referred to geopolitical turbulence. We are making a lot of progress here and we have to continue to build on the progress we have made. We have done it in a non-political way, to be frank. We have not used the shared island unit as a Trojan horse for anything. That has been important in terms of gaining widespread societal acceptance in Northern Ireland. It has gained widespread acceptance from all communities and I want to retain that ingredient when moving this forward. On the all-island strategic rail review Deputy Bacik raised, we will examine that to see what we can do from the shared island fund to develop some of the easier projects. Well, they may not be easier, as they will require a lot of time and investment. The Dublin-Belfast line, for example, could potentially be a game-changer for connectivity. We are also looking at areas in both aviation and rail. The north west is not connected enough-----
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-----in any shape or form. The A5 has been bedevilled with planning issues and so on. There is no connectivity via rail, road or air and we have to address that.
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