This woman told me that she is on a couple of new drugs which are used to address long Covid and which cost more than €100 a month. Neither of these drugs is covered by the drug payment scheme. For people who are out of work and cannot afford such drugs, this really is crippling. It can be equally difficult for those in receipt of sick pay who are likely to have other outgoings such as mortgages, rents, etc. I know the Minister is not responsible for health but he is the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform a…

There has been concern, much of which has been reported in the media, in relation to public money that was spent on faulty equipment, for example, PPE, arising clearly from failures in due diligence. The Minister of State has announced the formation of a new interim public procurement reform board. Will he outline the terms of reference of the board, provide a list of its members and the stakeholders that will be consulted and indicate the proposed date for the board to publish its findings?

According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, more than one third of our spend on PPE had to be written off. That spend amounted to over €900 million. Much of that PPE was thrown in the bin. For example, hand sanitisers had to be recalled after millions of euro were spent on them. After spending millions on hand sanitiser, the HSE purchased now infamous ViraPro hand sanitiser in March 2020. It received a shipment in July 2020. A month later, the HSE learned that hand sanitiser had to be registered with the Depa…

I do not believe anyone would argue that we do not need public procurement guidelines. The Minister of State did not really answer my question on whether there were purchases that we are not aware of. He said 80% of the equipment was to standard but that still implies a significant risk. I am aware that we went outside the normal competitive process and used negotiated procedure but there were clearly huge risks and issues over substandard or totally faulty equipment. A recent study by the World Bank ranked countri…

Does the Minister of State know when he will have the report?

Can I just confirm that I can only contribute once because there are a couple of-----

That is great. Thank you. Can the Minister confirm if the €1.1 billion in additional capital outlined in the summer economic statement will be allocated across Departments under the revised NDP? Health and housing are two massive areas in respect of which there are serious infrastructural deficits. I hope that the revised NDP and the upcoming budget will tackle these deficits. Can the Minister confirm the ceilings for housing and health for 2022? Will he indicate how much more capital the Department of Housing, Loc…

That is what I thought. That is why I asked all my supplementary questions.

This was Deputy Cahill's question.

One of the questions in this group is in my name.

I am a bit disappointed that the Minister will not outline the ceilings. He is making my life slightly more difficult. I assume we will have them in good time before the budget is introduced. If the Minister does his change his mind and wishes to give us that additional information, that would be lovely. On the NDP, we have heard many reports of bid rigging and about the costs of projects and so on being inflated. Officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment are on record as stating that this i…

I commend my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, on bringing forward this Bill here. I also acknowledge the Government is not opposing it. We have a very significant affordability issue. This is something we are all aware of and sometimes, you feel as though you are repeating yourself, but things are not changing in this regard. In the past few days, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, published its residential property price index for July 2021. Houses in the west of Ireland have increased by 9.1% year-on-year. Things are …

Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil mé sásta go bhfuil an Bille seo á phlé. Is rud fíorthábhachtach é go bhfuilimid ag plé leis an mBille seo atá ag déileáil le pleanáil amach ón gcósta. Dúradh liom agus chuala mé an Teachta Ó Cuív ag rá, agus b’fhéidir go ndúirt an Leas-Cheann Comhairle é freisin, nach dtuigeann sé cén fáth nach bhfuil Gaeilge ar an Teideal seo agus caithfidh mé a rá nach dtuigim cén fáth go bhfuilimid ag bogadh i dtreo téarmaíochta Bhéarla sa Dáil lá i ndiaidh lae. Agus muid ag déanamh plé ar an mBille s…

Galway city has been plagued by vacant and derelict sites for many years now. I am happy to see the demolition of the Corrib Great Southern Hotel is now finally happening, 15 years after its closure and many years after it was added to the derelict sites register. The reality, however, is that it is a much deeper issue in that we are still being plagued by vacant sites and derelict sites. As has been mentioned today, students are deferring courses in their thousands because they cannot get accommodation and there a…

Tá sé sin ceart go leor, a Cheann Comhairle, agus gabhaim buíochas leis. Since this Government began its life, we have seen the complete erosion of public confidence in political life. It is undeniable at this point that we have a crisis in how this Government does business. Public standards and ethics are on the floor. We previously had a clear attempt to breach the lobbying Act, which tries to close the revolving door between government and vested interests. The events of today have been dictated by Zapponegate, …

I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises the importance of a well-functioning Freedom of Information (FOI) regime in establishing trust and transparency in public life; notes, with concern: — the recent admissions that the Tánaiste and the Minister for Foreign Affairs have both deleted relevant material from their mobile phones; and — that public confidence in political life has been eroded and will continue to be eroded without action; and calls on the Government to: — establish robust procedures in each Department t…

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí a labhair ar an rún seo. We know from the conversations and speeches tonight and from long before this evening that this regime is in crisis. This is not new. Transparency campaigners have been saying this for a long time. All of us here who have tried to get information through the FOI regime will understand the frustration of those transparency advocates who have told us time and again that this is in crisis. We should not be fooled in this regard. It was very clear today and ove…

In public procurement, social clauses are legal obligations which require contractors to create some form of added value as part of the contract. That can come in the form of labour activation, promoting the participation of SMEs, an obligation to provide a living wage and so on. What consideration has the Minister's Department given to the role that social and labour procurement clauses could play in the development of economies in rural Ireland?

I am aware the Minister's Department has done work on social clauses. It is one of only seven Departments to have done so. The Minister has mentioned the involvement of social enterprises in the provision of sensory facilities and equipment in public libraries. I welcome and acknowledge that. I also acknowledge that a public body under the Minister's Department, Pobal, has also done work in this regard. The main problem is that the only reason I know this is because I gathered the data myself. I contacted 18 Depart…

Hopefully, in the post-Covid world, we will try to rebuild the economy on a regionally balanced basis and people who have moved back into rural areas as a result of Covid-19 will contribute to that. Community wealth-building and the inclusion of social clauses would be key to that. It is something I have an interest in and, as the Minister said, if we spend public money, it should have a public benefit and help people in terms of labour activation, training, skills and that kind of thing. That will help on a rural …