As Deputy Bacik is here, we will begin with her.
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
School Facilities
I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and thank the Minister for taking this issue. I have raised the condition of facilities and infrastructure at the Enable Ireland Sandymount School. I put on record that while I welcome the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, I am disappointed the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte is not here to take this issue and I know that was a matter of the Ceann Comhairle’s making. I have engaged with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on this and she has a very particular interest in the conditions here and is concerned about gaps in the provision of disability services and therapies in the Sandymount school, as am I.
I commend the amazing work that has been done at the Enable Ireland Sandymount School, especially the work of the principal, Jennifer Doyle, and her staff. This school is located on Sandymount Avenue in the heart of my constituency of Dublin Bay South. All those who live in the locale will be very well aware of it, as will many others who live further away, because it does a huge amount of work in providing education but also therapeutic support, treatments and interventions for children, many of whom have significant challenges and special needs and who require significant supports.
I had the pleasure of visiting the school most recently for its Christmas fair on 8 December, at the invitation of the principal, so I could see the facilities for myself and meet many of the pupils, parents and of course the staff who provide the supports. I wanted to hear from them directly about the work they are doing and the sort of issues they face. As I have said, many of the children require significant supports and have very particular needs. There is also an especially poignant issue in that some of the children have life-shortening conditions and there have been some very sad losses. I express my sincere condolences and sympathies to the families and the communities of those children who have so sadly died so young, in some cases, and who were pupils of the school.
On a happier note, in December I had the pleasure of viewing for myself the new playground facility that has been constructed at the school and of which the school and indeed the pupils are extremely appreciative. We viewed the playground and saw the hugely transformative impact it is having for children attending the school and for whom it provides a really important way of having play amenities available to them. However, while the playground is new and very impressive, the condition of the building is unfortunately far from impressive. The building is in an appalling condition. There are holes in the ceilings and walls. There are leaking ceilings and I saw the buckets the school staff are placing because rain is coming through. Conditions are deteriorating at a very rapid pace. I also saw how some of the most critical and normally most heavily used rooms, such as soft play areas for example, are simply out of use. The children have no access to these rooms and that is really impacting upon the quality of not just their education, but their treatment and any therapeutic intervention the school is offering to them. We cannot stand over this in Ireland in 2024. I am asking that the Government intervene to provide improvements in the conditions so the school has the necessary supports to fix the leaks and the buildings and ensure the children can have fit-for-purpose conditions in their school.
I thank the Deputy. Before the Minister of State responds, it was Deputy Andrews as well as Deputy Bacik who presented this matter. The time is up, though it would have been shared normally.
I am sorry.
No, it was also my mistake. With the agreement of the House, I will give Deputy Andrews two minutes. I thank Members.
I am going to need a defibrillator first.
Take a breath, Deputy, and a drink of water.
I am sorry about that. I understood it was later on.
I think we all did.
We were a bit quicker than that.
We are too efficient.
Too efficient. I appreciate that. I did not hear my colleague's contribution, but the Enable Ireland Sandymount School has 40 students. Each one is medically dependent. There is a lovely, warm, caring atmosphere in the school. The staff go above and beyond for the current students. For five of the children, their class is closed because there are serious leaks in one of the rooms in the middle of the hall. This means the school has had to move the class to the library. This is of course far from ideal. The five students are all in wheelchairs and the classroom they normally use is a soft play room, which allows the children to get out of their wheelchairs, stretch and reset themselves. The students need the breaks from the wheelchairs as they are really important for them and, as I said, the students are very vulnerable. The breaks out of the wheelchairs cannot take place in the library. This also means the library itself has been decommissioned and is not accessible to the rest of the school, which is again far from ideal. The school hall is also closed due to leaks, which have been getting increasingly bad over the last six months. The Department is aware of the conditions and the conditions are dire for the students and school staff. The principal and staff go above and beyond day in and day out.
There was an issue with school transport at the start of the year which caused huge distress for everyone. Now we have these particular issues and they need to be resolved as a matter of urgency.
Just to clarify, the Minister of State has four minutes to respond and then Deputies will have a minute each.
I thank the Deputies for raising the important issue of Enable Ireland Sandymount School. I am responding here on behalf of the Minister for Education.
Enable Ireland Sandymount School is a co-educational, special school providing a primary and second-level education to students aged from four to 18 with physical and other complex needs. The school property is not in the ownership of the Minister for Education. I can confirm to the Deputies that the Department of Education is not in receipt of a current application from the school for the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme. The purpose of the Department’s ASA scheme is to ensure essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation. At primary level, this situation generally arises to cater for a school’s accommodation requirements where an additional teaching post has been sanctioned by the teacher allocation section or the requirement for a new class for pupils with special education needs has been identified by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes.
Provision for children with special educational needs is a priority for the Department of Education and in that context it works very closely with the NCSE on forward planning for increased special education provision in the form of additional special classes and special school places. The main focus of resources over the past decade and for the coming period is on the provision of additional capacity to cater for increasing demographics. As a result, the current priority under the ASA scheme is the provision of essential classroom accommodation to meet demographic demand or where an additional post is being appointed.
Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested in the region of €3.5 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of more than 840 school building projects, with construction under way at approximately 300 other projects. School building projects at construction involve an overall State investment of more than €1.2 billion. We also have in excess of 210 modular accommodation projects that are very well advanced for delivery or at construction stage. This is a record level of investment in our schools and highlights the Government’s very strong track record of delivery in providing additional capacity and modern facilities for our school communities.
Enable Ireland Sandymount School applied to the emergency works scheme for funding under category 2 for roof works on 22 December 2023. Defects in the roof membrane and the degradation of silicone sealants has led to rainwater ingress which caused deterioration to the building fabric and finishes. This roof membrane was initially put in place in 1998. In addition to this, the roof lights are degrading and brittle and will require replacement. These issues have led to the school closing four areas of the building, namely, the PE hall, one classroom, a soft play room and toilets. These rooms have been out of use since September 2023. The school noticed the initial water ingress in the winter of 2022 and since that time has carried out remedial works to the problem areas. However, additional remedial works are now required.
Once the Department received the application it was reviewed by the emergency works scheme's technical team who found the area of roof covered by the application to be larger than required to address the immediate issues. Under circular 0068/2020, the emergency works scheme cannot provide funding for full roof works. The circular provides for an urgent remedy to prevent the immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment and to prevent the school, or part thereof, from closure. In this regard, the Department has advised the school to carry out a dry test which will indicate any damaged areas of the roof that are in need of repair. Remedial works may then be carried out on these specific areas as an interim measure. A longer term solution such as a roof replacement, where appropriate, may be facilitated under the summer works scheme. At this time the Department is awaiting the results of the dry test.
I thank the Minister of State for the update but it is simply unacceptable that four areas of the building are out of use and have been thus since September. For some administrative reason, the emergency works scheme cannot provide funding for full roof works so this is now being put off, potentially until the summer, meaning that the children will not have access for the full school year to four rooms. This is not a large building so the children are being deprived of a very significant part of the their facilities. I appeal to the Minister of State to raise with the Departments of education and equality the need to carry out the remedial works urgently and not to wait until the summer works scheme comes into play. It is so important that children have access to the full facilities that should be available to them in the school. Currently, they are being deprived of those facilities.
I appreciate the response but this must be resolved as a matter of urgency. Children have been displaced into other rooms and the library has been closed off completely. This is a huge hindrance to the entire school and all of the students. It affects everybody in the school. The Minister of State said the Department has advised the school to carry out a dry test but nobody going into that school needs to carry out a dry test. There are serious leaks in the building, the rooms are clearly leaking and it is obvious where the leaks are coming from. It is clear what is causing the problem and it needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency. The students in this school are particularly vulnerable and they need this space, including the soft play areas. It is unacceptable that the children in Enable Ireland Sandymount School have been left high and dry. It is clear what the issues are and the Department needs to just get on and do it.
Again, I thank both Deputies for giving me the opportunity to outline the Department of Education's position. The Department has been engaging with the school, as is evident from my response, regarding the level of detailed knowledge around the challenges that exist in the emergency works scheme application received. The Department will continue to keep the school informed throughout that process.
The point about the dry test is that the emergency works scheme is not for large-scale roof replacement, if that is what is required. It is for short-term, interim measures that schools can take to remain open and operational. I fully accept what the Deputies are saying about the extent of the impact on the students, staff, parents and everyone involved here but, ultimately, the vehicle for that full scale, bigger job is the summer works programme. The school will already be aware of how to apply for that scheme.
In terms of the emergency works scheme, if there are certain parts of the roof where small measures or interventions can be done now and which would get some of those areas open again, the Department is open to that. The results of the dry test will feed into that consideration, but the broader job, as I understand it, is more likely to fit in with the summer works scheme.
For the record, we are now going back to the first Topical Issue on the list in the name of Deputy Steven Matthews.
Schools Building Projects
This is also related to education and schools and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, for dealing with it. I was informed that the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, would not be available today. I accept that and trust that the Minister of State will relay my comments and requests back to her.
Since I was elected I have been engaging with parents in north Wicklow, especially in Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole and Newtownmountkennedy. These are areas that have undergone quite a large population increase. A lot of the new housing we are seeing is being built in the north Wicklow area and it is good to see housing being built. Every time I go there canvassing there are new houses and new people moving in. That is good and I welcome that. However, my concern is we are not keeping pace with the provision of the services that go with housing. We often focus on making sure there is water, power and roads but we sometimes forget about those other services that make a house a home, one of which is school places.
We have a number of schools in Greystones. I have been meeting with parents, parent groups, principals and students over the past three to four years. One of those schools is Temple Carrig, which is a beautiful school. My nephews went to school there. It has a capacity of about 750 but at the moment it is operating at in or around 900, so it is well over capacity. The school is somewhere through the process of getting the nod from the Department to apply for planning permission for an extension.
I will relay to the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Foley, the urgency attached to that.
For the past three to four years, we have gone through the process of being short of school places. It has been a real pressure on parents and children who hope to go to those schools, in addition to siblings, teachers and everybody involved. We have this scramble every year. Greystones Community College is another school in Greystones. There is planning permission for a 1,000-unit school, which is fantastic, but I suspect that is delayed somewhat and that we will experience a shortage of school places again. I know we will experience it this year, but we will have it next year and the year after. I think that school is supposed to be delivered in quarter 2 of 2025. We are now in quarter 1 of 2024. With the best will in the world, and all the shovels in the world, that school will not be up and running by quarter 2 of 2025. I suspect we are looking at later so we will have this school pressure again.
There are a number of other schools. St. David's is a beautiful school that has undergone a full refurbishment. I was there last week. It has an absolutely beautiful finish and is a credit to the Department, and the staff and community there, but it is already at capacity. This affects the whole hinterland of Greystones town and the areas that make up the Greystones municipal district. A little further down the road, Coláiste Chraobh Abhann in Kilcoole has also got a planning permission somewhere in the process but we do not know when that will go out to tender. The problem is each school is putting pressure on the others because in areas such as Newtownmountkennedy and Roundwood, which is even further out in County Wicklow, pressure is being put on Kilcoole and Kilcoole puts pressure on the three schools in Greystones. Temple Carrig needs its planning permission and Greystones Community College needs that permanent new-build 1,000 pupil school.
I request the Minister of State to relay this to the Minister. I have done so myself but I want to put on the record that we need to prioritise the assessment of the Greystones Community College tender, and get that contract awarded and that school built as quickly as possible. The Department needs to respond to Temple Carrig, which is leading on this project, to give it the go-ahead to apply for planning permission for that badly needed extension.
I thank the Deputy for raising a very important issue. I empathise with him and his constituents. As a Kildare South TD, I know all too well the pressures his constituents in County Wicklow face around school provision and demographic growth. We suffer the same in the adjoining county of Kildare as people in Wicklow do. The Deputy has articulated those challenges in respect of Temple Carrig School and the Greystones area very well.
I issue this response on behalf of the Minister who is unfortunately not able to make it. However, it gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to demand for post-primary spaces in Temple Carrig School and the wider Greystones area for September 2024 and onwards.
I assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post-primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs, is an absolute priority for the Department of Education. Since 2018, and up to the end of October 2023, a total of €145 million has been invested in school infrastructure in County Wicklow. This significant capital investment includes a recently delivered major building project to expand St. David’s secondary school in Greystones. State-of-the-art, modern school accommodation for 750 pupils was provided at this school.
The Department of Education is currently progressing a major building project for Temple Carrig School in Greystones under the national development plan. Temple Carrig School in Greystones is also a co-educational school established in 2014, as the Deputy will be aware. A project is under way to provide accommodation at this school for 1,000 pupils, which is currently at stage 1, preliminary design stage. A project for four modular mainstream classrooms has also been approved. These classrooms are now on-site and the project is completed.
In line with the Department's demographic projections of post-primary school place requirements, there has been a continued growth in enrolments throughout many school planning areas in County Wicklow. In response, the Department is providing further significant additional post-primary capacity, including a new 1,000-pupil school for Greystones Community College. Greystones Community College was established in 2020 as a regional solution for the Kilcoole and Greystones area. The project to deliver this new school building is at stage 3, tender stage. The permanent building project will deliver a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school with accommodation, including four classrooms, for children with special educational needs. The project is being delivered under the Department’s design and build programme and is currently at tender stage. The invitation to tender issued in April 2023 as part of a bundle of projects issued to the Department's framework of design and build contracts. The tender process currently takes approximately eight to 12 months. Tender returns have been received and are currently being evaluated. Once a contractor has been appointed, it is anticipated that construction will commence shortly thereafter.
In addition to the above projects, there is also the existing school in the adjacent Kilcoole school planning area, Coláiste Chraobh Abhann, for which a major project has been approved to expand the school to 1,000 pupils. This project is currently at stage 2b and is being delivered by the National Development Finance Agency. The annual enrolment process for new junior infants at primary and new first years at post-primary is a very large-scale operation that is transacted at close to 4,000 schools throughout the country, involving some 140,000 pupils.
In the context of post-primary enrolment pressures at Greystones, the Department is aware of pressures for school places for the 2024-25 school year. A critical next step for the Department of Education is to establish the actual number of additional first-year places required for 2024 in order for an appropriate solution to be put in place. In that context, schools in a number of areas of enrolment pressure, including Greystones, have been requested to share data on applications for admissions. This data has been received by Department officials and is currently being analysed with a view to establishing the actual requirement for places. Preliminary assessments indicate that duplication of applications and applications from outside the local area are very much contributing to enrolment pressures in the town.
I have further details in the response that I will come back to in the supplementary answer.
I thank the Minister of State for that response. It is good to get it down on paper, especially since I had not realised that €145 million had been invested in infrastructure in County Wicklow schools. When I go around the county and see those new schools being built, such as St. Coen's in Rathnew, or St. David's, as the Minister of State referenced, I realise the advancements that have been made in school provision. The quality of those builds when they are done is incredible, as is the space that is in them. When I think back to my own school experience, these schools are incomparable.
The Minister of State mentioned the tendering process takes between eight and 12 months. Is there a way we can speed up public procurement on our projects? A school in Cork, Wicklow, Limerick or wherever will be a school with a 1,000-pupil capacity. It will be in or around that. Except for different sites with different topographical issues affecting construction, we should be getting to a standard design and speeding up the process. My concern is the length of time it will take the Department to award the contracts. Building takes time, as the Minister of State knows. I presume it takes 24 months to build a school. It is in or around 18 to 24 months. We will be in the same position. We are still seeing houses being built in Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole and Newtownmountkennedy, which is good and what I want to see, but I am concerned that we will not provide those school places quickly enough. I urge the Minister of State to take back those concerns.
In fairness to the Department, it met with the five County Wicklow TDs. We went through this with the officials. They have engaged with us and it is good but I urge the Minister of State to bring it back to the Minister and ask that the go-ahead be given to Temple Carrig to apply for that planning permission. That is urgent. It is not a high cost to go for planning permission and have the process move along. I also ask that the awarding of the contract for Greystones Community College be speeded up. Those are my two asks.
I will bring back the request the Deputy made to the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. who has special responsibility for special school places, which is obviously a key part of the Deputy's ask as well.
To reassure parents in the area who are following this debate, I will highlight that the collaboration and engagement that are now taking place are very important. I commend the schools and their patrons on sharing the data. As I know from my area, when there is a shortage of places, parents will rightly consider hedging their bets and applying to a number of different schools. That one boy or girl will only take one place next September but will appear four or five times on different waiting lists. That inflates the problem and makes it feel even bigger than it is. It is very important that we share the data at this time of the year, cut through it, and if there is a shortfall see exactly what that shortfall is.
I am very much reassured by the Department and the Minister's response that regular ongoing engagement - I am delighted to hear there has been engagement with local representatives as well - between the Department and school management boards is continuing. First, it is about assessing whether there is a shortfall and exactly where it is, and then making sure it is addressed.
There is a strong pipeline of projects being delivered across school areas in the area. That €145 million investment in Wicklow really shows that the proof of the pudding is the investment by the State in education facilities across the county in recent years. We will not be found wanting in looking to meet the really significant demand that is there.
The Department has been in contact with schools and patrons and is aware of the evolving situation with respect to the first year places in Greystones for September 2024. Applications for admission and engaging with schools and patrons is an ongoing process in that respect. Officials from the Department will continue to liaise with each of the patrons and the schools to find a workable solution to ensure that no student is without a place in September 2024. I expect there will be further clarity provided for the families and the school communities in a couple of weeks.
Small and Medium Enterprises
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for accepting this issue for debate and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond, for coming to the House.
We are all very aware of high-profile closures in the past number of weeks. I will focus on one in my constituency and a communication I received from another business in my constituency. The Corner House Bistro was a hugely popular restaurant in Athlone. The owners, Linda and Joe Connolly, decided to close it doors a couple of weeks ago with the loss of jobs for 20 staff. The owner of the Wholesome Kitchen in Mullingar, a restaurant in my constituency, wrote to me earlier in the week stating:
I'm writing to you in relation to the new measures that have been and are being introduced which massively increase operating costs for small businesses … I'm incredibly worried that a lot of businesses will not be able to sustain such high costs, with too much introduced all at once … We employ a total of 40 people locally, we're very lucky that WK is a successful and profitable business, however it cannot absorb these costs.
The writer goes on to outline what these additional costs will be: a VAT rate increase will contribute a cost of €82,500 per annum; payroll due to minimum wage increase and work permit increases will be €47,300 per annum; sick pay benefits €11,400 per annum; auto-enrolment pension payments are €12,800 per annum; and extra public holiday pay will be €3,200 per annum. Food and packaging costs continue to increase and energy costs are still massively inflated. That is the situation for the Wholesome Kitchen, and I have the owner's permission to raise it on the floor of the Dáil this evening.
I have spoken with industry representatives. They say that only downward communication comes from the Department and that the Department only seems to be engaged when it reaches crisis point. We have been promised a report by the Minister of State's Department on the cumulative impact of labour costs but it is yet to be published. Is there a recognition that changes in Government policy to sick pay, minimum wage, and pension auto-enrolment are contributing to the increases? All of these are important and need to be done but do they need to be done all at once?
The energy grant has been discontinued, despite the fact that energy costs are still much higher now than a number of years ago. There is also the VAT increase. I could understand this in regard to accommodation but not so much in regard to food. Businesses are facing a huge issue on 1 May when they must restructure or signify how they will pay their debt warehousing. I welcome the commitment by the Minister for Finance, Deputy McGrath, earlier this week that there will be flexibility in this regard and changes. I ask that this flexibility and the proposed changes are published without delay because these business need certainty. They are making decisions on what they are going to do and how they are to survive over the next number of months. The Minister of State has met the Restaurants Association of Ireland, RAI, which I welcome. It has published a five-point plan. To its credit, the Government announced a business support scheme in the budget in October but that was October and we are now halfway through January and still waiting full details of that. Businesses are still waiting to receive that grant.
I hope that in his reply the Minister of State will outline how the Government will publish those grants and when businesses can receive them. Will he consider a VAT reduction, particularly for the food side of the hospitality sector?
I thank the Deputy.
Will the Minister of State ensure a communications-----
The Deputy can come back in.
-----campaign is undertaken to make people aware of the small company administrative rescue process, SCARP, that is available for sustainable businesses to restructure?
I am very grateful to the Deputy for raising what is an extremely topical issue. It gives me an opportunity to provide an update and some clarity on what has been done and is being done, and, more importantly, what will be done. Fundamentally, we recognise that small businesses are facing a number of acute challenges, particularly those businesses in the hospitality sector and others to some extent in the retail sector, largely due to rising energy costs, inflation and the fact that we have a very tight labour market.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the very many policy and legislative changes that have come from this House and from this Government, with the full backing of industry representatives, workers groups and all political parties. Indeed, most political parties say that we are not going far enough in the increase of the minimum wage, the increase in paid sick leave, and everything else that goes with that. We are, however, not blind to those costs. We are not just saying that these costs simply have to be borne by businesses.
On the point or the charge from industry that communication is top down, I quite frankly reject that. As the Deputy mentioned, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and my own team met the RAI yesterday. That meeting did not come out of the blue. We get contact from them on a weekly basis and we have meetings with them every month where we all sit around the table. Between the retail forum and the enterprise and entrepreneurship forum, we speak to business representative groups on a monthly basis. We have all been well flagged on the changes we are moving towards when it comes to a living wage and sick leave. Again, this does not mean we blind to the impact. The Deputy referred to a cost exercise carried out by the Government, which was completed just before Christmas, on quantifying the cumulative costs to businesses by the measures taken through legislation. Of course, that exercise did not happen in isolation. It brought all stakeholders around the table to feed into it. I believe the work has been substantially carried out but I have not yet seen the final report. I do not believe it has reached the Minister yet. All of these things have to be independently verified from an economics point of view. The minute we receive it we will act on its basis. I know the top-line figures, or the explanatory memorandum - even though I would not use that term - is that the measures brought in can be absorbed by the vast majority of businesses. There are, however, particularly acute pressures on the high-labour, low-margin sectors, with particular reference to the hospitality area and certain parts of the retail sector.
I now turn to the increased cost of business scheme that was announced in budget 2024. The scheme is worth €257 million and will benefit businesses that paid up to €30,000 in commercial rates last year. It will give them a cash injection of up to €5,000. While this is not designed to ease all burdens on small business, it is an easy and accessible cash injection that will be very welcome to businesses. It will be paid out during the first quarter this year through the local authorities. We are using the local authorities because it is the easiest way to make a direct payment and it is the easiest way to quantify it directly into an account based on commercial rates paid last year. It is not a commercial rates rebate or anything like that. It is merely using that as a calculating method and a direct payment method into accounts. This will help up to 90% of predominantly small and medium businesses across the country.
The Deputy also raised the issue of tax warehousing. It is a major issue for business at the moment. The Revenue deadline of 1 May is fast approaching like the sword of Damocles dangling over far too many businesses. I assure the Deputy that the Minister for Finance is actively engaging with Revenue on the scheme to see what can be done to help businesses in this regard. A proposal is currently being developed and will be finalised in the next two weeks in respect of flexibility. While we recognise the debts must be paid, we do not want to see businesses come through the pandemic only just to close. A couple of other issues were raised and I will deal with them in my further response.
I welcome the Minister of State's reply. I do not for one minute question his commitment in his role, which I acknowledge. I am only relaying the frustration that is felt out there by the industry. I welcome the Minister of State engaging with them. It is important that we retain this ongoing engagement with industry. Will he convey to the Minister the need for certainty around the flexibility of the debt warehousing date in order that businesses can plan for the future?
The report on the cumulative increase in business costs is imminent. If the report shows that the cumulative costs are prohibitive, can we have a commitment that the Government will look at how it can stage these introductions to enable businesses to meet these costs in a sustainable manner? We need to see the increased cost of business grant rolled out as soon as possible. As the Minister of State acknowledged, it is not the panacea but it will help.
Energy costs need to be looked at again. They have not fallen at the same rate as they rose. Many businesses that are highly dependent on energy need additional supports for another period of time. I have given an example of a very successful business which is telling me it is worried about how these increased costs are coming down the track. It is a good business because it provides a quality service with quality staff. We need to listen to it.
The VAT reduction on the food element of the hospitality sector should be looked at to protect restaurants and cafés that are open. When I was fortunate enough to serve in the Department I introduced the small company administrative rescue process. It was an administrative restructuring facility for small viable businesses. I do not think many businesses are aware that the facility exists. I encourage the Minister of State and departmental officials to carry out a communication campaign so that sustainable businesses which are burdened with high costs can carry out a restructure and make sure they protect themselves and their jobs.
A number of weeks ago I was very lucky to meet the proprietors of Wholesome Kitchen in Mullingar when I visited the local enterprise office. Deputy Troy was on paternity leave at that time so we were not able to meet together. I know it is a wonderful business providing good employment. I can tell the Deputy it is good food as well because I was in a position to sample a bit. This is why I want to use it as an example of looking at the various options open to us.
With regard to debt warehousing, I very much hope that, as Deputy Troy has asked, we will get clarity on this in the next fortnight. That is a fair ask. With regard to the increased cost of business scheme, it will be completely paid out by the end of the first quarter of this year. It includes every local authority in the State.
With regard to energy, one of the big issues with TBESS was, as Deputy Troy knows, that unfortunately far too many people did not access it. They did not apply for it because it was deemed too burdensome. This is why we are using a different methodology to get grants through the increased cost of business scheme without the need for filling in too much frameworking.
Industry engagement will be maintained. I fully agree with Deputy Troy that the VAT rate for food-based businesses should be looked at. It was considered when the temporary measure was relieved. It was seen in the overall package that took in the entire hospitality sector, and the cost cumulatively for the economy was approximately €450 million. Sadly, too many businesses were simply doing too well and others were not in a position to be represented. I take Deputy Troy's point on board. It is something we discussed yesterday with the Restaurants Association of Ireland. If I have missed anything, I will come back to the Deputy.
With regard to the staged introduction of measures, to be frank, I am very reluctant to go down that path. The indicative response from the report we commissioned showed the vast majority of businesses can take these changes. It is very important that we increase the minimum wage this year and that we move towards the living wage, which is something we all committed to in the programme for Government, and that, equally, we increase sick pay again next year. In sectors where there is an adverse effect, there are other measures we can look at. We acknowledge that the Government is putting a burden on businesses to make very much needed societal changes. For this reason, the Government needs to step up to the plate, be it through taxation or other measures.
Defective Building Materials
As the Minister of State is aware, County Sligo is one of the few counties in the western seaboard that has been left out of the defective concrete blocks grant scheme. Counties Mayo, Donegal and Clare are in the scheme. Over the decades, many people in west County Sligo bought their aggregate and concrete blocks from County Mayo. We know there was a particular quarry in County Mayo that had this difficulty and pyrite has been found in many of these houses.
The Sligo Pyrite Action Group has been campaigning for three years to try to get this sorted out but is making very little progress, to be honest. Its members feel very frustrated and annoyed about it. They attended a meeting of Sligo County Council in early December when they put their case very strongly that the county council needs to get this resolved. It held a small protest outside. They feel very let down that other counties have been taken into the scheme while they have been left behind.
We estimate that more than 200 private houses in County Sligo have this difficulty. There may be even more than this number of local authority houses. Over the past decade, a number of local authority houses in County Sligo have had to be demolished and rebuilt because they had pyrite. This was done quietly behind the scenes and nothing was said about it. There are possibly many hundreds more local authority houses in the same position.
We know the concrete block scheme in place at present is not perfect and there are issues with it. There are difficulties that many of the campaigners have with how the scheme has been set out. At the same time, people in County Sligo whose houses are affected in this way need to get into the scheme and get started. One of the first things they will have to do before they can get any work done is to have the concrete blocks in the houses tested. This can take some time. Most of these people live in west Sligo and they look across the border to County Mayo. They go down to Ballina and see houses being demolished and rebuilt but nothing has been done with their houses.
In the past 12 months, an engineer, John Garrett, was appointed by Sligo County Council. He did a sample test on five houses. The normal symptom is small hairline cracks on the wall which are examined. All five houses he tested proved positive for pyrite. There are hundreds more houses in a similar situation. The only way we can get this resolved is to move forward with it. Unfortunately, to date the Government, the Department and the Housing Agency have said we have to wait until it is checked and that there is no evidence of it. I understand these checks have been done. I corresponded with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, at the end of November. I received a letter from him on 2 December in which he told me the Housing Agency had appointed a chartered engineer that had met Sligo County Council in September and its investigations and calculations were complete. At that stage, it had the report in draft and it was expected to be completed by January 2024. It is now January 2024. We need to see this move forward at pace. We know there are serious difficulties for many people who are very worried and concerned about this.
I spoke to Councillor Thomas Healy, a colleague of mine on Sligo County Council, who chairs one of these groups. He told me there are two houses where people have been told by the engineers that they need to move out. One of these is a woman, who is now renting a house down the road from her own house, on which she is still paying a mortgage. She drives past it every day. She cannot get into the scheme. Clearly there is a problem that needs to be resolved at pace.
I ask the Minister of State come back with a solution and let me know very quickly that the houses in County Sligo will be part of the scheme and they can get the concrete blocks tested and move forward with this as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there may be many more affected houses out there. There are also a number of apartments that are not part of the scheme either which will be affected by this. There are many other areas, such as commercial premises, that are in a similar situation and people are very worried and concerned. The first part of this is to get private residences into the scheme as quickly as possible.
I thank Deputy Kenny for raising this very important matter and for the opportunity to provide an update on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, commenced the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 on 22 June 2023, which provides for an enhanced grant scheme, and adopted the related regulations on 29 June 2023. The Act includes significant improvements to the previous scheme and allows for the extension of the scheme to other counties, as required.
Section 5 of the Act contains details on the process for the inclusion of additional local authority areas into the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme. This statutory designation process can commence upon a request by a local authority or the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, whereby the Housing Agency thereafter carries out technical testing of dwellings in a given local authority administrative area.
Following consultation with officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Sligo County Council submitted its request for inclusion in the enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme in May 2023. An official from the Department wrote to the Housing Agency in July 2023 requesting, on behalf of the Minister for housing, that the Housing Agency carry out an assessment per section 5(7) of the Act. Section 5(9) of the Act then requires the Housing Agency to produce a report on the results of the assessment, with a recommendation that an order should or should not be made designating the local authority of Sligo for the whole of, or part of, its administrative area.
I understand that the Housing Agency and its appointed chartered engineer met with Sligo County Council on 26 September 2023 to commence its investigations and consultations, as required.
The Housing Agency has confirmed to the Department that its investigations and consultations have completed and its report, including a recommendation to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, is currently in draft form. It is envisaged the report will be completed in the coming weeks. Once received, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will ensure this report receives attention without delay, and at that point he will be in a position to exercise his powers under the Act and, if appropriate, to seek Government approval to include the whole, or part, of Sligo County Council's administrative area in the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme.
I thank the Minister of State. First, we have learned nothing new. We are aware that this has happened and that on 26 September, Sligo County Council engaged with the Housing Agency and commenced its investigations. According to the last letter I got in early December, the report was in draft form. We now need to see the report being brought forward. I am concerned about the use of the words "if appropriate". It is clear to everyone it is appropriate, because if the aggregate came from the same quarry in Mayo as the houses that are now being demolished and having to be rebuilt, clearly it is appropriate that the people who, unfortunately, bought their materials from that quarry will be in the same situation and will need to be part of a scheme.
I am also concerned about the reference in the reply to include "the whole, or part," of the county council area, which suggests that somehow or other there will be a further subdivision of a county, in addition to the areas where it is already in place. It is a reality that in a catchment area, people buy their building materials wherever they can get them, usually wherever they get them at a good price and get them delivered. They do not look to the county that they buy them in as they do not see a problem down the road. Putting a hurdle up in front of them is simply wrong and should not happen.
I am also conscious that when this does happen, which I hope is very soon, the local authority will have to play a role in it and it will need to have staff in place to apply the scheme. At the moment it does not have anyone in place to work in this particular area. That is another aspect of this issue that needs to be examined.
I am also aware of the need for enhanced scrutiny of building materials throughout the country. I know we have various agencies that are supposed to be doing that work but difficulties have arisen and some people point out that difficulties still arise and problems might emerge in the future. The Government must get a grip on the regulation of materials that go into people's homes, which are a very long-term investment. It must ensure a system is put in place to hold to account those who abuse the system. That has happened and this is clear evidence of it. I want an absolute assurance from the Minister of State that all of County Sligo will be included in this scheme immediately.
Fair play to the Deputy for trying to get me on the hook for that one. Obviously there is a process, which I outlined very clearly in my opening response. The process is at a very advanced stage and once the draft report is submitted to the Department, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, guarantees that it will be looked at it without delay and a decision made theron.
The purpose of the DCB Act is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the DCB scheme as agreed by the Government on 30 November 2021. This includes 100% grants subject to an overall maximum grant of €420,000 per dwelling. The Housing Agency plays a key role in acting under the enhanced scheme by taking on the financial cost of testing and assessing homes and determining on behalf of the local authorities the appropriate remediation option and grant amount for each dwelling. Upon commencement of the Act, the Housing Agency was required to process a large volume of transitional applications referred by the local authorities from the previous scheme in addition to new applications referred. In addition to this large body of work, the Housing Agency is currently assessing applications to entry onto the enhanced scheme from four new local authorities, including Sligo County Council, and is in contact with a number of other local authorities. The work of the Housing Agency is integral to the success of the scheme and the Department approves an annual budget for the Housing Agency in respect of its role in the enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme. This funding is to cover the operational costs of a regional office, payments due to framework consultants and professional support and costs.
Ultimately, there are two sides to the issue. Given how hard people work to get a mortgage and buy a house and raise a family or whatever their circumstances may be, I cannot imagine anything worse than something happening to it such as being afflicted with defective blocks. It must be an horrendous situation to have one's home under threat. The State is stepping forward to support such people in many parts of this country. Equally, this is an awful lot of taxpayers' money and we must have robust mechanisms in place to make sure the money is targeted and goes to those who need it. That is what this process ensures will happen. If it is appropriate, the people of Sligo will benefit from it as well.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar athló ar 5.45 p.m. go dtí 2 p.m., Dé Máirt, an 23 Eanáir 2024.
The Dáil adjourned at 5.45 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 23 January 2024.