GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE, we’re with you as opposition leaders ask the government about homelessness and housing.
Afternoon folks. Paul Hosford here taking you through the punches and counterpunches of Leaders’ Questions.
The day kicks off with a feisty start as Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen accuses the government of trying to “bamboozle” the public with stats on housing. He says that not enough is being done “on the ground”.
Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald takes the question for the government and says that targets in the housing plan are being met and that Dublin’s local authorities will have abolished the use of hotels by mid-2017.
Leo Varadkar is beside Fitzgerald today. Eyeing up his new chair?
Cowen remains unimpressed that “500″ acres is lying idle, but Fitzgerald remains firm in her conviction that the housing plan is working.
Now Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald is on her feet, commenting on the reports that the national children’s hospital will be the most expensive ever built.
She says that the government has spent a fortnight “navel gazing” and discussing new leaders.
“The truth is, Tánaiste, your party is bereft of any leaders.”
Fitzgerald responds that the “decades of debate” about the facility is now being delivered on.
She says that building inflation is three times higher than expected and the facility has a completely new research facility, which has driven costs up.
McDonald wants authorities to be held to account for the spiralling costs of the hospital, but says the government will “sit on its hands and let the Public Accounts Committee” do that job.
Fitzgerald cites Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport as an example of a capital project that over-ran its budget, but says that now that it’s built, people accept it.
McDonald says “those aren’t answers”, which sparks a bit of a row.
On to the AAA-PBP’s Bríd Smith, who says she wants to “turn the heat up” on injustice.
She raises the issue of the gender pay gap, saying it is being driven by the costs of childcare while “profits in the retail and hospitality sectors soar”.
Smith says the pay gap is an issue of inequality.
Fitzgerald says that the two reports cited by Smith do show some areas where Ireland is doing well. She adds that 120,000 children will be availing of a second free preschool year and that income inequality, as a whole, is going down.
Smith says that the report shows Ireland is 24th of 33 OECD countries in terms of gender parity.
She then demands Fitzgerald bring Tesco bosses into the Dáil and “tell them they cannot break contract law”.
Fitzgerald says that Tesco management and unions should get back to the negotiating table, causing Smith to shout “they’re breaking the law”.
Thomas Pringle is now asking a question about diabetes care.
He says the €800 million spent every year on the illness represents an area where savings can be made in the health system.
He tells the story of a Donegal man who had been due to have an insulin pump fitted in Sligo Hospital, but due to a cutting of nurses hours, it has been cancelled. This, Pringle says, cost the man a job in Scotland.
Fitzgerald says that she will ask Health Minister Simon Harris to make contact on the issue and that the HSE is spending more money than ever on health.
Pringle says that this isn’t a recruitment issue – the nurses are there – but their hours have been cut.
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