I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 11, inclusive, together.

Ireland's well-being framework is the result of a programme for Government commitment to develop a set of well-being indices to create a well-rounded, holistic view of how Irish society is faring. This will help us to do things differently and place an emphasis on quality of life issues, as we recover from the impacts of the pandemic, and sustainably rebuild and renew our economy and society. The framework aims to provide a joined-up way of considering and understanding life in Ireland by bringing different outcomes together across environmental, societal and economic areas. It will also help us to measure and compare Ireland's progress more holistically as we move forward. This work is being led jointly by the Department of the Taoiseach, along with the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. There has also been close collaboration with the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in developing an interactive dashboard at its well-being information hub.

A first report on the development of the well-being framework for Ireland was published by the Government in July last year and was informed by consultation facilitated by the National Economic and Social Council, NESC. A second phase of consultation and research on the framework, as committed to in the first report, was launched in October last year and included the launch of a Government portal providing accessible information on the initiative. The purpose of the recent public conversation, which concluded in January, was to create awareness, to test the framework and the vision, and to get a further sense of people's priorities. It included a comprehensive communications campaign, an online stakeholder event, an online survey and thematic workshops. Specific research is also being carried out by key Departments and the NESC on sustainability and lessons from other countries that have undertaken similar initiatives. A follow-up report will be submitted to the Government in the coming months informed by this second phase of consultation and research, with the objective of embedding the well-being framework into the policymaking process.

On launching the framework's first report, the Taoiseach emphasised that its approach is fundamentally about making people's lives better by better understanding people's lived experiences. Next week will mark Brain Awareness Week. I want to commend the work of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the Irish Dementia Working Group, whose members are incredible advocates and activists. Covid presented a unique and distressing challenge for people living with dementia and those who care for them. The Government can and must do more in budgets, staffing and capital investment to deliver the support services and the strategy that the working group has so comprehensively set out for decision makers.

The risk of dementia is five times greater for people with an intellectual disability. This heightened risk requires enhanced efforts by policymakers and clinicians to improve awareness of brain health and the importance of early diagnosis. As Professor Mary McCarron has explained in her work, the toxic proteins that cause Alzheimer's build and accumulate for 15 to 25 years before clinical symptoms present, but cognitive reserve, education, exercise, cognitive stimulation and social engagement at any age will help to slow or counteract these changes. In short, Professor McCarron's message is that it is possible to reduce the risk of dementia, and active promotion on brain health is absolutely fundamental to this objective. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has made some progress but she needs significantly more support from her Government partners if she is to develop adequate memory services throughout Ireland. What action will the Taoiseach take to support this work?

The pre-condition for well-being of the people of this country is for them to have a secure, affordable roof over their heads. One of the standing scandals in that regard, besides the abysmal failure of the Government to deliver new public and affordable housing, is the inability to deal with the utter scandal of vacant and derelict properties the length and breadth of the country. They are sitting there torturing people who are actually in need of housing as they lie empty but could be used to house people impacted by the housing crisis. The measures that the Government has taken to deal with this have been self-evidently not working. The answers to a number of parliamentary questions - as the Taoiseach may have seen, they got some coverage in the newspapers in the last day or two - are pretty stark. There is now €14.3 million outstanding in vacant site charges. There is €7.9 million outstanding in derelict site levies. In 2020, €378,000 was collected in derelict site levies out of €5.4 million that was levied. On the vacant site levy, it is even worse, with €21,000 collected out of €11.8 million levied in just one year. Only seven councils sought to bother to impose the vacant site levy, and 14 councils did not bother to impose the derelict site levy at all. My question is very simple. First of all, judging from these figures, how is it that there is no serious intent whatsoever to actually pursue the vacant and derelict site levies? Is it not self-evidently the case that this is not enough? They are not working and we need much more radical measures, such as robust use of compulsory purchase orders, to get hold of vacant and empty buildings to use to address the housing crisis.

I want to raise a shocking example of where the State is completely failing to protect the well-being of people. Those living in the shadow of the Aughinish Alumina plant in County Limerick have suffered massively from the toxic pollution from that plant. People have got sick, animals have died and livelihoods have been wiped out by the pollution. When an investigation was done into the health impacts of the plant in the locality, Aughinish Alumina used the notorious lobbyist, Frank Dunlop, as its fixer. Later, 18 medical samples from resident Pat Geoghegan and his family mysteriously disappeared. When the Taoiseach was the Minister for Health and Children, he was on record as supporting an independent inquiry into the missing samples, yet he ended up doing a U-turn and blocked such an inquiry. To this day, the Taoiseach has not explained that U-turn. Mr. Geoghegan has written to the Taoiseach asking for that inquiry. Will the Taoiseach grant the inquiry? Mr. Geoghegan has also asked for the publication of records of any contact between Mr. Dunlop, the Taoiseach and the Taoiseach's officials at the time about the investigation. Will the Taoiseach publish those records?

The well-being framework is about measuring how Ireland is doing in things that really matter to our society. It measures our well-being, education attainment, community involvement and so much more. It is so different from measuring GNP or GNI* or any other economic indicators. The pandemic really highlighted core needs that many people had not recognised up to then, including connections with people and family, taking part in community events, and so on. It really highlighted pressure in areas such as mental health and well-being, and spiritual well-being as well. Will the framework focus attention on these various needs as it is advancing and being used? It needs to. Late last year, there was a stakeholder event and a further report was due to be published earlier this year. That was to focus on the way it would be embedded into policy formation. Budget 2023 is advancing. Do we have an indication of whether the framework will be available to inform budget 2023?

The excise duty cuts are welcome, but they are a sticking plaster on a wound when we look at the overall cost of living crisis that is now impacting working people and their well-being. The Department of Finance wrote to Deputy Boyd Barrett last week and estimated that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will add 4% to the rate of inflation in this State. That clearly raises the spectre of inflation reaching 10% or more. Does the Taoiseach agree that inflation may now reach 10%?

An inflation rate of 10% indicates to me that the advice of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, to workers to submit pay claims of up to 5.5% is being overtaken by events. I suggest that workers now need to submit wage claims of a minimum of 10% and to start balloting for industrial action to show the Government and employers they are serious about defending living standards. Can the Government stop 10% inflation or do workers have to prepare to combat it in that fashion?

I do not know if the Taoiseach watched the recent "Prime Time" programme on wardships and wards of court. Families have spoken about the shocking manner they have been treated in the wards of court system. Wards of court lose their autonomy and civil rights and the right to make decisions. One of the biggest issues they have experienced in the past 15 years is the collapse in the funds that were given to them so they can survive and provide for themselves. Since as far back as 2001, the Committee of Public Accounts and others have been focusing on the need for oversight of those funds. When the law changed in 2005, it again stated there needed to be oversight. Every annual report from 2005 to 2013 stated there needed to be oversight. For some reason, the objective of oversight was dropped in 2018. The families are left with massive questions in respect of why significant sums of money that were given to wards of court so they could pay for all of their life-changing experiences have disappeared as a result of a collapse in the financial system. They want to know who is responsible, what decisions were made and who will be held to account.

Can we take three minutes from the final batch of questions in order to allow the Taoiseach respond on these matters?

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. The first question related to the setting of policy and budgetary priorities. The well-being framework will ultimately help to inform policy, the budgetary framework and budgetary initiatives. Deputy Mairéad Farrell specifically raised the issue of Brain Awareness Week being next week and the issue of Alzheimer's, dementia and so on. I believe the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has made a significant difference on that issue. She worked hard on it while in opposition and met all the organisations involved. She made rapid progress in a year and a half in respect of responding to dementia and the recommendations of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, and so on, particularly in appointing advisers across the country. That will continue. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will continue to get the full support of the Government in pursuing that issue, to which she has really committed herself. I remember that while in opposition she, along with then Senator Colette Kelleher, initiated a review of this whole area. It has been a yardstick by which she has worked to implement some of the policies.

As Deputy Boyd Barrett knows, the Derelict Sites Act has not worked effectively in this country and there has been a lack of pursuit of levies, and so on. Local authorities will cite various legal difficulties around that. The Government is looking at this afresh in respect of a new vacancy tax and also a use-it-or-lose-it approach to planning permission. The Minister for Finance has done much work on the current local property tax, LPT, review and consideration of research as to what the level of vacancy is and how that can be dealt with. In addition, there is further work being done in respect of getting a contribution as regards the shared value of any uplift in value arising out of planning permissions being granted. Some of that would be used with regard to infrastructural investment. Much work has been done in this space. Compulsory purchase orders are, by definition, lengthy. They take up an inordinate length of time, it seems to me, in the courts. They again have proved problematic.

On the public side, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has worked extremely fast since he came into office to avoid any voids as to public housing to ensure they are used. As regards Croí Cónaithe, he wants to use part of that fund to ensure vacant sites in towns across the country could be refurbished with grant assistance to ensure housing is being provided. That is necessary. On Aughinish Alumina and Pat Geoghegan, I recall meeting him back in the period from 2000 to 2004 when I was Minister for Health and Children. My understanding is the EPA had done a great deal of research at the time on the implications of Aughinish Alumina and the health assessments, and so on, and the impact on health had not been established by statutory authorities. I met Pat Geoghegan at the time in respect of the impact on both animal health and human health. I do not think it is fair to say an inquiry was blocked but, again, I do not have any recollection of meeting any individuals, bar Mr. Geoghegan himself, and talking to officials in the Department about that. It was a matter in respect of which the EPA had been doing a great deal of work on its role and statutory duty to monitor industrial plants and to ensure they meet health and safety requirements and public health requirements. It still remains for baseline public health studies to be done in the context of plants like that. I recall that in other locations baseline health studies have been done. Those have been continued in areas close to industry, monitoring pollution levels in cattle, soil, and so on. My sense was the evidential base was not one that was established around that, notwithstanding the very strong personal testimony of Mr. Geoghegan himself, who has pursued this on a lengthy basis.

Deputy Moynihan made some good points in respect of the well-being framework and whether issues around community spiritual health, and so on, will be considered. They will. Our framework is based on the OECD model but has been moulded to suit the Irish context based on consultations with stakeholders, experts, policymakers and the public. The framework will encompass 11 dimensions: subjective well-being; mental and physical health; knowledge and skills; income and wealth; housing and built area; environment, climate and biodiversity; safety and security; work and job quality; time use; community, social connections and cultural participation, which is the area the Deputy identified; and civic engagement and cultural expression. The initial well-being framework will be refined to reflect recent consultation and further research in the second report, which will be published in the coming months. There are also some indicators now from the dashboard and the CSO, and so on, measuring life and progress in Ireland through a set of about 34 indicators. Again, this relates to our performance relative to the OECD How's Life initiative, which is the basis for our framework. This set of indicators was based on the areas that were highlighted as important for Ireland through the NESC-----

Thank you, Taoiseach. We need to move to the next question.

What about 10% inflation?

Wards of court.

I will come back to the Deputy on wards of court. He raised an issue. I will talk to the Minister for Justice, who has responsibility over that area.

As to the point raised by Deputy Barry, again, on excise duties and the cuts we have made------

Inflation of 10%?

I am not in a position now to say what inflation will rise to. I know there have been various scenarios around that but it is going to rise because of the war, on top of the rate of 5.7% in February.