I thank the Deputy. We have made a lot of progress on school transport in recent years. We reduced the cost considerably for parents, which has been very welcome, particularly in rural areas, and increasing numbers of children now qualify for school transport. I did not realise the deadline was Friday. It is that time of year again already. I imagine many constituency offices will be very busy. What I will do with the Deputy's suggestion is make sure the Minister, Deputy Foley, is aware of it and perhaps have her c…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 12, inclusive, together. Our vision is to make Ireland the best country in Europe in which to be a child. The role of the Department of the Taoiseach will be to co-ordinate and focus Government action on this objective. Poverty restricts a child's opportunity. I recently informed Cabinet colleagues that the new child poverty and well-being programme office has been established. The areas it will focus on are as follows: income supports and joblessness; early learning and childc…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. We have seen a huge increase in the budget for mental health services for children and young people and an increase in staff. There is of course also an increase in demand. We have challenges getting staff and some deficiencies in the system regarding how the services are deployed and best used. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and Minister, Deputy Donnelly, will want to talk about this more on another occasion. Deputy McAuliffe asked about the north-east inner …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 14 together. The National Economic and Social Council advises me on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. NESC is currently working in six main areas. The council published a report on the Irish economy in April, Understanding the Irish Economy in a Time of Turbulence. It outlines the main forces causing turbulence for Ireland’s economy, notes the main features of our economic performance and highlights the …

I will take those questions in reverse. I am not familiar with that dispute and it would not be appropriate for me to join or not join any call without knowing all the facts. There are procedures to deal with industrial relations disputes of that nature. I agree we need to continue to review the income thresholds for both social housing and cost rental. We have already increased them for social housing and may increase them further. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is also considering doing that with cost rental. I ta…

The Mulvey report, Dublin North East Inner City: Creating a Brighter Future, which was published in February 2017, contains recommendations for the social and economic regeneration of Dublin's north-east inner city. The report has been further supplemented by the north-east inner city strategic plan for the period 2020 to 2022. Implementation of the Mulvey report and the strategic plan is being overseen and progressed by the programme implementation board. The board meets on a monthly basis and its members include …

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. The Deputies opposite make a valid point as regards the need to review what has been done to date. It is important that we measure progress. It is not always straightforward to measure progress in such areas, but it is important that we try to do so because what we do not measure we cannot really improve. By doing so, we can try to figure out what works and what does not. To be honest, more resources and staff and greater Government intervention do not always work. When…

The Government has been working to implement commitments in the programme for Government. These are advanced through the co-ordinating mechanism of the Cabinet committee structure. The ten Cabinet committees established by Government reflect the core policy areas set out in the programme for Government. Cabinet committees meet regularly to accomplish their work. Strategy statements currently being prepared by all Government Departments will reflect national priorities outlined in the programme for Government. The D…

Deputy Moynihan's colleague, Deputy Creed, has raised this issue of a Garda station in Macroom with me many times. We are working on the issue. I met the Minister for Justice, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the Office of Public Works recently about it. A new station is needed in Macroom quite urgently, as well as one in Clonmel. The Deputy is correct to say the difficulty is that it has been rolled into a wider public private partnership, PPP, project involvin…

This month marks 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement was concluded. Life on this island has been transformed over the past 25 years as a result of the agreement and the leadership, vision and capacity for compromise shown by those who made it possible at the time. On this anniversary, we recognise how far we have come in the quarter of a century since 10 April 1998, followed by the historic referendum afterwards, North and South. For my part, I am of the view that the three principal achievements of the agreem…

Housing for All, which is the Government's housing plan, has had a really good start. At the moment, 300 to 400 people are buying their first homes every week. That is the highest number since the Celtic tiger period. It gives me a lot of hope and confidence that we are going to be able to turn the tide on home ownership into the future. Some 30,000 new homes were built last year, and we expect a similar number to be built this year. That is more than have been built in over a decade. We are building public housing…

Because only a few weeks ago we provided funding to local authorities to purchase 1,500 homes where landlords are selling up. That money has not yet all been drawn down. If they draw it down, there will be more. Only a few weeks ago, we announced an increase in the amount of social homes we will provide this year through long-term leasing. The announcement today is not the totality of what we are doing on housing. Only a few weeks ago, we announced that additional money for local authorities. What we announced toda…

Sinn Féin is not doing that, however. It does not have a housing plan. Its only housing plan is a change of Government and that is totally vacuous and empty.

I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy on this. We have a very deep housing crisis that is affecting individuals and families in so many different ways. It is not about public versus private or people who want to buy their home against people who are in social housing.

If we are going to solve the housing crisis, we need to maximise the amount of public housing we build and we also need to maximise the amount of private housing we build. It is not an either-or situation. Only in the past few weeks, we announced increased investment for local authorities to provide more social housing and to purchase houses off landlords who are selling up, therefore making it social housing. We only announced that a few weeks ago. What we have announced today is increased grants for people who br…

-----and pitting people who want to buy their home against people on the housing list. We need to help everyone. The plan is Housing for All; it is public and private and involves us doing as much as we can possibly do on both tracks. I disagree with the Deputy's analysis. Housing for All has had a very good start. More social housing was built last year than in any year since the 1970s. Surely that is significant. We need to do better again this year. The thing that encourages me most is that about 400 people are …

There was no political pressure applied. I am happy to confirm that once again. The Labour Party has six or seven Deputies. She may not know this yet, but I imagine she will find that two of those will not be contesting the next election. That is roughly a third, which is quite a lot. People move on and retire, and they have the right to do so. Tá an plean Tithíocht do Chách ag obair. Tá os cionn 400 daoine ag ceannach a gcéad teach gach seachtain, an líon is airde ó thréimhse an tíogair Cheiltigh. Tá an uimhir tit…

Under the current Government, and indeed the previous one I led, living standards rose and poverty rates went down. This is a simple fact that the Deputy can check if he chooses to do so. In most years since 2014, we have seen incomes or wages rising faster than inflation, or faster than increases in the cost of living, and as a result we have seen incomes and living standards rise and poverty rates fall. This may not be the case every single year for every single data point, but the general trend since 2014 has se…

The Bill will be published and enacted before the summer recess, with the co-operation of the House, and will raise money we can use to help families with the high cost of living. I expect to see energy prices fall. We are already seeing petrol and diesel prices fall and I expect to see electricity and gas prices fall throughout the course of the year.

I am not arguing with the OECD. The OECD report says that incomes rose last year but the cost of living rose faster. However, that was the first year where that was true since the crash about ten or 15 years ago. Under this Government and the previous one, almost every year, incomes have been rising faster than the cost of living and poverty rates have been falling. There was a significant setback last year because of international factors well beyond our control. We will be back on track this year. I expect that, …