Today marked the last Leaders’ Questions before TDs head on their summer break tomorrow.
Things remained fairly mundane today, with little to no heated debates.
Here’s how it went..
Things got intense in the chamber during yesterday’s Leaders’ Questions when Paul Murphy brought up the Jobstown trial.
He criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for comparing the Jobstown protest to ‘a scene from Lord of the Flies’.
Varadkar hit back:
You’re not the victim here.
You were acquitted but that doesn’t mean your behaviour was right.
Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath is up first.
He’s talking about capital investment.
He wants to know if an investment plan will be completed before the next budget.
“The favourable and benign investment environment won’t last,” he tells Táinaiste Frances Fitzgerald.
Will the government prioritise reviewing the strategic investment funds?
There will be a 66% increase by 2021 on capital levels of investments, Fitzgerald claims.
Ireland is in an excellent position in regards to lending, she says.
She tells McGrath that the Strategic Investment Fund is being reviewed.
McGrath says the government needs to think about moving investment away from the rainy day fund.
What is the rainy day fund, you ask?
Eoin Ó Broin is up now.
He’s talking about the housing crisis, specifically – children stuck in emergency accommodation.
“Child homelessness has increased by a shocking 300% in the six years your party has been in government,” he tells Fitzgerald.
He accepts that purpose built family accommodation (family hubs) are better than hotel accommodation, but it cannot be a solution, he says.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) this week called for a change in law to ensure homeless families don’t spend long periods in group home ‘family hubs’.
Family hubs are group homes for homeless families which were first announced by government earlier this year.
He asks if the government will take the recommendations into account.
Fitzgerald says family hubs are a “good first response”.
She claims families living in family hubs will be moved into social housing when it becomes available for them.
In its report earlier this week, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission raised concerns about the hubs and long-term family homelessness, saying more needed to be done to provide proper homes for families. It expressed worry that the hubs could ‘normalise’ family homelessness.
Fitzgerald says the hubs cannot become normalised.
She did not give a direct answer as to what the government plans to do to ensure family hubs will not become a long-term solution.
Brendan Howlin is up now.
He’s talking about the latest OECD review of the Government’s second Public Service Reform Programme.
The chief finding in the report is that outsourcing is not a viable option for delivering public services.
Howlin wants to know what action will be taken by government to address the issues brought up within the report.
Fitzgerald says the charity sector is becoming more aware of the importance around audit reporting.
Switching the topic, she brings up hospital running within the public services.
She says the mix between state and religious ownership of hospitals are being addressed.
Minister for Health to review the ownership of Holles St, according to Fitzgerald.
It looks like things are remaining calm today, following the storm of Leaders’ Questions yesterday.
Fitzgerald says a complete separation of service ownership is extreme.
Tommy Broughan is up now.
He’s talking about Ireland’s national debt.
He says Ireland is one of the most indebted countries in the world.
Fitzgerald asks Broughan to acknowledge the progress Ireland has made in terms of finance.
She says Ireland is now down to 15% unemployment.
The government has to find a middle ground between balancing Ireland’s debt and investing in future projects, such as infrastructure, Fitzgerald said.
Broughan says Fitzgerald hasn’t answered his question.
Most people would support Ireland’s borrowings, says Fitzgerald.
That’s all from Leaders’ Questions today. Thanks for sticking with us throughout the liveblog.
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