Paul Murphy challenges government over Dublin teacher exodus

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the growing crisis in education in Dublin where many schools in Dublin are reporting teachers leaving to find positions in other parts of the country as they simply cannot afford the rent or the price of buying homes within Dublin. One Dublin school has reported that six teachers have left that school in order to go outside of Dublin where there isn't such high costs of accommodation. 55% of secondary school principals say that they have unfilled vacancies and incredibly 84% of principals who then advertise for those vacancies say not a single teacher applies for the job. The consequence is that some Dublin schools seem likely to have to cut optional subjects. Una Mullally, in a recent article, pointed out that a teacher starting out in a secondary school in Dublin will be paying two-thirds of their income on very, very modest accommodation. So, Taoiseach, are you going to do anything about this? Will you agree to give teachers at least an inflation-linked pay increase? And if you will not act, as you should, but if you will not take the action required to bring rents down, will you consider the issue of a Dublin premium for teachers working in Dublin? Thank you, Deputy Murphy. Taoiseach? First of all, in terms of housing more generally, I've said consistently it is the most pressing, most significant social issue facing our country. I've said that since I was elected as Taoiseach. That's why we developed a very, very comprehensive plan for housing, which no other party opposite the opposition have really responded to in any detail, beyond soundbites and slogans, and some proposals that would make the situation worse. Your proposals would reduce supply in the market, simple ask, through the Chair. Now, what I would say is this, that the Government, you know, right now, we have the highest level of commencements on record. We have the highest levels of planning commissions in over a decade. We have the highest levels of completions in over a decade. We have established a very high-level housing delivery group. We have been, unfortunately, in the last two years, hit by COVID force with two lockdowns, and then hit now by a war on the Ukraine, which is affecting commodity prices. Prices of steel, timber, has caused inflation. And house construction has gone slightly down, and that may be in the Paribus report, but the predominance decline was actually in other sectors, not in the housing. And we have increased the capacity of the industry in terms of skills and so on, with a 40% increase in the construction apprenticeships. We have expanded Help to Buy scheme. We have set up the new First Home Share Equity scheme. Over 1,000 people have already applied. You guys attack that. Yet the people are voting with their feet in terms of applying to these schemes because they find them useful. We have introduced a new £30,000 for vacant properties. We have introduced a new subsidy to activate apartment building and city centres for owner-occupiers. We have expanded tenant purchase scheme to include pensioners. We are building the first affordable homes in over a generation through the local authorities. We have passed the first-ever Affordable Housing Act. We have revamped the Land Development Agency to focus on affordable homes and put on a statutory basis. We have put in place the first-ever cost rental units in the history of the state. We have banned co-living. We have capped rent increases and strengthened tenants' protections. We have enhanced local authority home loans, reduced interest rates and making it easier for single people to get state-backed mortgages. And we have launched the largest state-led social housing building programme ever. We have slashed red tape with a new single-stage development approval process for a layer of up to £6 million to accelerate social housing delivery. We have expanded repair and release and leased from £40,000 to £60,000 to bring vacant properties into use. We have brought over 6,000 void homes back into use. We have delivered over 700 housing-first tenants. We have launched a new housing strategy for disabled people, 2022-27, provided £81 million in funding for the housing adaptation grants for older people. We have established a national homeless action committee. We have secured a local government rates waiver of over £1 billion to support local businesses and services. We have launched £1.3 billion in urban regeneration funding for towns and city centres, which will help infrastructurally for house construction. A £50 million water investment scheme for rural towns and villages. A £61 million fire services capital programme and so on. So there has been a lot of action and work. Objectively, no matter what your views, you cannot dismiss the level of activity in the last two years. And notwithstanding the COVID situation and the war, we're going to do everything we possibly can. The other point I would make is that in 2021, there was about 20,400 houses built in this country. 12,600 of those were households, bought by households in the private sector. 5,200 were social housing. So between the social houses and households generally, you're looking at about 87%. 2,600 were others. Sometimes when you look at the debate in this house, one would imagine that the 87% was the others, the 2,600. And not the fact that the vast bulk of houses built last year went to private households or to social housing. And there's been a lack of balance in the narrative around housing and in the debate to suggest it's all investment funds and all of that. It's not. It's not at all. And the same as this year. But it suits politically. And it suits the soundbite sort of environment that we live in in contemporary politics to create that narrative and create that story. That housing policy is reduced to looking after vulture funds and so on as Deputy Bybert and Deputy Murphy will hammer every day. Whereas in fact, 87% of all housing completed last year was a combination of private households and social households in the country. It's a fact. And we're looking at a similar situation in 2022. So we do need balance and objectivity in the debate that I don't think we're getting. In respect of the issue in education, there's no doubt rents are too high. We need more and more supply across the board. By the way, the state is now the biggest actor in housing supply. No question about that, Deputy Bybert or Deputy Murphy. The state is the biggest actor. You can not only like social housing, affordable housing to local authorities, cost rentals, involvement in terms of the first home scheme. The state is the biggest actor in housing. Not funds, not anybody else. The government, the state. Right? And then, so therefore in terms of education, in terms of education, it's not just doesn't apply to education. It applies to anybody living and working in Dublin or in the major cities in respect of any profession. So you can't just single out, and there's no doubting that there are challenges, and people will opt for a cheaper situation, a lower rent situation, if they can get it, that would meet their personal requirements. And until we get supply to a really significant level, I think we will continue to be in difficulty here. Now, we will look at other measures to alleviate the pressures that people are under through tax. Pay in the private sector went up 10% over the last two years. Okay? There was a public service pay deal that the Minister for the Public Sector did negotiate last year, building momentum. There was a further negotiation commenced, which adjourned. And it is the government's desire that we would have a pay deal with the public service, but also then in the context of the budget, that we would have proposals around tax, social protection, and also around, that that would be paralleled with a pay agreement. And that overall then we can help to alleviate the pressures on teachers and on people working in the public service and in the private sector also through tax measures. Parallel with that then that we would have a cost of living package and that we would focus on families and children and reduce the burden on children and on families. So what the government envisage is doing now is an overall cost of living package that would be once off, that would be applied in this calendar year, before the end of the year, that people would have funding from that package. And then that there would be the budget measures themselves, which would enable us to come through the winter and put in place more medium-term policies around childcare, spending and education, and in all the various government departments. Thank you very much.