TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY was back in the hotseat today for question time.
The Fine Gael leader is expected to address the issue of his leadership at a party meeting tomorrow night.
Today, though, there were issues like housing and jobs at Bord Na Mona to discuss…
Micheál Martin is up and he wants to talk about Bord Na Mona and it’s announcement to close one of its sites.
He says workers have been treated “shabbily” over the last few weeks and says the State is turning its back on employees. Martin says Alan Kelly made a significant announcement of funding when he was minister that made workers think the factory was safe for at least ten years.
He says the closure of Bord na Mona and the job losses would make anyone cynical towards politicians and the promises they make.
Enda Kenny says it is a commercial enterprise, but says workers should be treated with respect. He says Bord Na Mona are moving away from the supply of peat briquettes.
Martin says commitments were made of a €25 million investment in the plant – and that has not come about.
Kenny says he can’t speak for the announcements made by Kelly when he was in government, saying it was perhaps “over enthusiasm” and obviously is not something that has come true.
“They thought their jobs were secure… Bord Na Mona is a government agency,” Martin points out.
Kenny says that peat briquette sales have fallen and a decision had to be made.
Kenny suggests Alan Kelly’s promise of further Bord na Mona jobs was in “a moment of exuberance”.
He says the company is in talks with the workers. The employees want to see the closure date pushed out, essentially.
Adams is up.
There is a little laughter in the chamber now as Gerry Adams mentions Kenny’s long goodbye. Even Enda sees the funny side of things, pointing to Adams with a smile and wink.
Adams raises the issue of border checks and highlights the Barnier visit last week.
He says no one knows the outcome of the negotiations – but says there needs to be some arrangement even if there is no tariffs.
He says there will not be a return to custom posts “as we knew them” along the border.
Kenny says creative and imaginative solutions are needed.
Adams raises Leo Varadkar’s thoughts on avoiding a trade border with the North and says he supports them, but he wants to know Simon Coveney’s position on it.
Adams is now reading out quotes from Leo Varadkar who says there should be no land border and asks Enda Kenny to say that too.
Even if there were no tariffs you still have two different jurisdictions, explains Kenny.
Adams says there were be deep divisions if the North becomes the border between the EU and the UK.
Joan Collins TD is asking the Taoiseach about housing. She says that despite assurances, Minister Coveney is not going to meet his target of getting families out of hotels and B&Bs.
Perhaps he thought he would be out of the job, she says, pointing to the ongoing leadership contest going on in the background in the Fine Gael party.
She says it is time “to end this madness” and begin construction on social housing.
“You seem to think you can conjure up housing like that,” says the Taoiseach.
Collins tells the Taoiseach not to come at her with the department’s housing figures.
“They are not real,” she says, highlighting the recent controversy over whether the Housing Department’s calculations of new ESB connections is the correct way to count house builds.
He is now reading out a list on housing estates where he says families are living and where construction is taking place.
He asks Collins are these people not real?
Kenny says there will be a “very substantial” drop in families in emergency accommodation by the end of June.
Collins says she is talking about local authority homes and says his figures are not real.
Please come forward with proper proposals to get families out of homelessness.
Kenny says there are over 1,700 hectares with potential to build. He says local authorities are now tasked with get out on with the business.
He said years ago local authorities used to build social housing but they “got out of that business”. The Taoiseach is not listing off what he says are contained in the department’s Rebuilding Ireland housing plan.
Roisin Shortall is now raising garda issues at Templemore and the Sunday Independent’s article about garda phone tapping of an activist working for a politician.
She also raises the tragic case of Dara Quigley.
It is absolutely staggering.
Citing the case of the departure of former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, she says it “looks very much like history is about to repeat itself”.
No one here is looking for a head on a plate for the sake of it.
Enda Kenny says the case of Dara Quigley is being investigated as a matter of urgency.
The Taoiseach says he has read the newspaper reports on garda bugging.
He says he has read the latest report on the State’s compliance on the Act that regulates the surveillance of communications.
Justice Paul McDermott’s report (dated 27 October) says he attended the Justice Department and Garda HQ and said he was satisfied that all documents relating to the governance of the Act were made available and all relevant questions were answered.
He said having seen all those documents, McDermott said he was satisfied that the relevant State authorities are compliant as of the date of the report.
Kenny says these allegations about garda tapping “go back quite a number of years… I don’t have a date”.
He says at that time there were a number of changes of different ministers.
“This is a very serious matter,” he adds, but says the Justice Minister can’t order any surveillance unless it is overseen by High Court judge.
“I would like to know facts,” said Kenny.
But he adds work is being done to overhaul the gardaí.
He says this very morning he approved a long list of people to sit on root and branch review on the gardaí.
Aengus Ó Snodaigh says he wants the Minister for Justice to come before the House to give more detail on the alleged phone bugging that took place on an activist who worked for constituency rival of a politician.
The Ceann Comhairle says he thought that it was being raised during Leaders’s Questions and that would be satisfactory to members.
Solidarity-PBP’s Richard Boyd Barrett highlights that Coveney has said he is looking at setting up an agency to deal with corruption.
Enda Kenny tells Boyd Barrett says it is not correct to suggest that “this carry on is at the current time” pointing out that the bugging allegedly took place in the early 2000s.
Gerry Adams is not speaking about it.
“The Taoiseach knows exactly what happened, so why can’t we be told,” says the Sinn Féin leader.
“I don’t have the details of what happened back then,” says Kenny.
He says he was reading back the latest report.
“I do not have the report from the early 2000s,” he clarifies.
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