Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
GOOD AFTERNOON.
Leo Varadkar is in Brussels to talk Brexit (and other matters) so Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald was in the chair for today’s Leaders’ Questions.
It was a wide-ranging session – covering everything from cardiac services and fire safety standards to Brexit and the classic rock stylings of The Who (by way of a reference from Mattie McGrath).
Here’s what happened…
Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fáil is up first.
He raises the issue of the death of Thomas Power. The 40-year-old died in an ambulance transfer from Waterford to Cork, after experiencing pains in his chest on Sunday.
His family has said he would still be alive had the cath lab been open at University Hospital Waterford when he sought help.
There has been a long-running campaign for increased cardiac services at the hospital, and for increased hours of operation for the existing lab.
The campaign for a second cath lab at Waterford was the focus of a major political dispute last year. Local TD John Halligan – a junior minister – has long campaigned for increased cardiac services at the hospital, and the Independent Alliance member’s demands put his membership of the government in doubt.
Kelleher calls for a full clinical review of the death of Thomas Power. He calls for increased cardiac services at Waterford.
Frances Fitzgerald begins by expressing her condolences to the family.
She says she has spoken to the Minister for Health. A clinical review will of course take place, she says. Any lessons learned will be taken on board.
The Tánaiste then reiterates the findings of a review of cardiac services at the hospital, commissioned last year.
A consultant cardiologist commissioned to conduct an independent review of cardiac services at UHW found last year that there was no need for a second cath lab. He did, however, recommend investment in the existing cardiac services.
The HSE is now seeking tenders for a mobile cath lab at Waterford. The mobile lab was announced in January.
Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin is on his feet now.
He’s raising Brexit. It’s the one year anniversary of last year’s vote in the UK this week.
He maintains the government is unprepared for Brexit.
Doherty says Leo Varadkar needs to talk tough on the border – accuses the Taoiseach (who is in Brussels today) of being “overawed” by Downing Street, when he visited this week.
The government needs to “get real” on Brexit. Only a fraction of Irish companies has a plan for the transition, says the Sinn Féin Donegal TD.
Doherty has a raft of questions – amongst them, what is the government doing to prepare business for Brexit?
Fitzgerald reckons Doherty is mischaracterising the government’s approach.
We’ve been very proactive, she says.
“We all recognise the seriousness of the challenges ahead.”
Every minister in all our actions this week is absolutely clear about the engagement we have with business, says the Tánaiste.
One year on from the Brexit vote, the Irish issues are very well placed as negotiations start.
Maintaining the terms of the Good Friday Agreement is paramount, she insists.
This report is getting mentioned in the debate…
The first three years of a ‘hard Brexit’ could cost the Irish exchequer up to €500 million, according to new projections by the ESRI released today.
In its latest economic commentary, the Economic and Social Research Institute has said that the government’s fiscal space will be severely dented by Brexit.
Simply put, fiscal space is the amount of money the government can afford to spend over and above what it is already spending on public services.
The ESRI says Ireland’s economic output would be greatly affected by a so-called ‘hard Brexit’ and that it would hit fiscal space by up to €500 million over three years.
The term ‘hard Brexit’ is used as a shorthand for a British exit from the EU that would see it make a clean break from EU institutions like the customs union.
Richard Boyd-Barrett of Solidarity-People Before Profit has the next question.
He says there were warnings from residents that the Grenfell Tower disaster in London was a tragedy waiting to happen.
The question for us is – could Grenfell happen here, says Boyd-Barrett.
We’ve had a raft of warnings from experts that our fire safety standards are not up to scratch, he says.
What is the government going to do about this?
The Minister for Housing has started a review of fire safety at multi-storey social housing, Fitzgerald says.
The Grenfell tragedy has raised awareness of standards in the UK and in other countries, she says.
I have no doubt if there are extra precautions needed, steps will be taken, she says.
Boyd-Barrett says it would be appropriate to hold a minute’s silence in light of the Grenfell tragedy.
He insists not enough is being done about fire safety at our buildings.
Fitzgerald agrees “safety must be our first concern”. She goes on to read out a list of steps being taken by the new housing minister to review standards.
Here’s what Murphy has been doing – from a press release sent by his department last week…
Separately, Minister Murphy has been speaking at an event in Dublin today about the government’s target of getting homeless families out of hotels.
Our reporter Cormac Fitzgerald was there. The story will be published shortly.
Mattie McGrath, the independent from Tipperary, raises the issue of hospital facilities in his constituency.
He’s quoting The Who, as he asks a question to the Tánaiste.
Apparently it’s not the first time he’s mentioned the band this week…
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” is the gist of his message today (we’re not sure what songs he referenced in recent days).
Fitzgerald insists the Minister for Health is responding to the concerns he’s raised.
That was a strange ending to today’s Leaders’ Questions.
We’ll play out with this request for the independent representative from Tipperary…
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The Elite in this country are not going to take their foot off the ordinary persons neck until we get up off our knees
Well said!
We have some way to go before we even get to our knees.
The most likely scenario is stagflation (low growth, high inflation) for the rest of this decade, and even beyond.
That will mean a few bank bail-ins, such as in Cyprus, so be very careful with your savings, if you have any.
Oh, and an austerity budget each year too.
Look out below.
2014? We’re barely surviving in 2013, another year of austerity will totally sink the country!
I really don’t think people realise that austerity is permanent. Even if we reach a stage when we can balance our incomings and outgoings, every spare cent will be used to pay rich people’s gambling debts for generations. There seems to be a fallacy that when the bailout ends our trouble will be over. The day our mighty government legalised wealthy people’s gambling debts ensured permanent austerity for ordinary people.
Lately I’m just feeling compelled to leave this link in places like this:
http://thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.ie/2013/07/the-emperor-has-new-clothes.html
We export or starve, its that simple. Creating parasite jobs such as water meter installers and readers is a cop out way of governing the nation and only business large and small have ever created real jobs so get the obstacles such as petty EUSSR rules out of the way and let them get on with it.
“We export or starve, its that simple.” Nonsense. Ireland produces far more food than it consumes.
George,
The potato famine was a long time ago. We produce an excess of food which we export. In the event of Irish people starving as Morticia seems to think is imminent, that food supply would be retained in the country or the government would quickly find themselves removed from power, probably violently.
Morticia also doesn’t seem to accept the role of government in creating jobs. The private sector will never provide an adequate supply of sustainable jobs for the people. How could they when the objective of private enterprise is to produce as few jobs as possible and pay them as little as possible in order to maximize profit.
The necessity of the state intervening to plug the massive gaps in the free market system and create employment for its people was well understood from the 1930s onwards. Post WW II (near) full employment was the norm in the U.S, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada etc. which rarely had unemployment higher than 2% and where prosperity was far more equally shared. The government employed millions of it’s own citizens in these countries and did so with newly created money from their own central banks where necessary.
Since the 1980s however, self serving neo liberal economics has gained world wide traction which sees an elite get ever richer while they peddle myths to the rest of the population such as “We must balance the books” , “Austerity is the only alternative”, “Banks are the engines of growth”, “ Don’t restrict the markets with regulation”, “ only business large and small have ever created real jobs “ etc etc.
Obviously the use of a ‘figure of speech’ can be confusing for some, but where does all the magic money to fund the generosity of our various govenrments come from ? Do we have a big collection box somewhere for donations or do we sell stuff abroad to bring in the few bob.
Morticia, apologies if I read too much into an off the cuff figure of speech. We can export goods to generate money that is true. Real sovereign countries can also create their own currency to fund a budget deficit if the so wish. The U.S does not need to borrow dollars in the financial markets. It can simply create them by pressing keys on a computer in the Federal reserve. Ireland handed that power over to the ECB when we joined the Euro and are paying massively for that mistake now. The ECB has created over a trillion euros in that’s past few years and distributed it to the European banks at extremely low interest. Ireland has been forced to massively hike our taxes and shred our social systems to get the funding at a much higher which the ECB can create on a whim. This is neo liberal economics in a action.
“neo-liberal economics” what exactly does that mean????
the UK and US employed the theory of “Quantitive Easing”, the US more than the UK, especially considering all their austerity cuts in comparison with the US.
The ECB should do so aswell without the restraints!
Each job is worth 20 k, looking at the jobseekers app ,its hard to see a job paying more than 18k..that includes some trades ie.welding/painters/panelbeaters etc..If the race to the bottom continues the country will never recover.
Too many employers taking advantage..if you cant pay a living wage you shouldnt be in business.
How is someone going to be able to spend on minimun rate..as a poster said on another thread recently there are over two million medical cards in issue..so apart from the approx 350,000 on the register there are over 1,750.000 people who cant afford basic healthcare from their wages/salaries.
If thats not a damning indictment on a country..what is?
The race to the bottom benefits no one.
I hear what you say but I absolutely despise your attitude!
forgive me if I’m wrong but the way I interpreted your last comment was “work pay = x”, “welfare et al = x + 1″, why should I get out of bed?!??
please tell me I’m wrong?!?
wrong end of the stick Pat.Can you explain to me how having almost 2 1/2 million people dependent on welfare to some extent is benefitting the country.Only people the minimun wage benefits is the employer, who is effectively subsidising their wage bill via FIS etc
I know from experience that the working poor who have allmost no spending power after paying the essentials are paying the price.!
If you have no discretionary spending because of low wages/high taxes..(relatively) and stealth taxes..how can you lift the local economy?
Everyone cant earn 50k+but surely a worker is entitled to a living wage in one of the most expensive countries in Europe!
I am sure IBEC will have a counter agreement soon. “Austerity” call it by the correct name a Recessionist policy
“argument” not agreement.
“indirect taxation or other income streams instead” In other words introduce further regressive taxes that screw the workers, poor and unemployed and don’t tax the incomes of the rich!
A suggestion IEA and Noonan make 2013 the last budget of austerity otherwise there will be no Ireland to rescue.
Hopefully someone from the business communirty can answer a question relevant to this item. How much money do we need in circulation to create a job? I was told by a person [expert in such matters] that each £100,000 in circulation supported a real job but that was in c1984, is there a more recent figure? With so many ‘jobs’ piggy-backing on manufacturing it would be nice to figure out where our priorities lie.
have your say