Politics

Care services for most vulnerable not good enough, says Simon Harris

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ‘on track’ to strike government deal by January 22nd

Simon Harris arriving for a European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, on December 19th, 2024. Photograph: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg
Simon Harris arriving for a European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, on December 19th, 2024. Photograph: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg
Jack Power
Sat Dec 21 2024 - 06:00

How the State currently cares for some of the most vulnerable in society, like at-risk children, people with disabilities and the elderly, is not good enough, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said.

In an interview with The Irish Times, the Fine Gael leader said the next government needed to make significant progress improving care services in the country as he was “not satisfied that we have got it right”. Part of the problem was the amount of bureaucracy and silos in the public service, as well as a lack of funding.

“Whether it is care for an older person, whether it is care for a vulnerable child, or whether it is care for a person with a disability, in terms of disability services our systems are not where they need to be,” he said. “There will be a resourcing and funding issue the next government will have to address, we’re up for that.”

Asylum services should also no longer be split across two different departments in the next government, Mr Harris said.

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At the moment officials in the Department of Justice decide on asylum claims, but the Department of Children and Integration is responsible for sourcing accommodation for asylum seekers. “I think migration policy needs to be reunified within one government department,” Mr Harris said.

It had not been decided yet if that meant the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) would be moved back into the Department of Justice, he said.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were “on track” to agree a new coalition deal to form a government – likely with a group of Independent TDs – by the time the Dáil resumed on January 22nd, Mr Harris said. “It is highly likely there will be a new government formed next month. It is highly likely that government will consist of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, it looks like at this stage with Regional Independents.”

He said that expectation came with a “proviso” that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil internally backed such a deal.

The coalition needed a stable majority to last the full five-year term as voters did not want politicians “knocking on the doors in two years’ time, annoying them with another election”.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, whose Civil War rivalry for decades defined Irish politics, were now comfortable governing together, the Wicklow TD said. “Lots of people I think went out and voted for a continuation of a government of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil working together. I met people who probably for the first time in their life voted Fine Gael and transferred to Fianna Fáil.”

He said Fine Gael has committed to increasing the number of homes built each year to 60,000 by the end of the decade, helped by the Land Development Agency (LDA) kicking into gear. “It took a very long time to get the LDA going, it is now going. We now have a vehicle to partner with local authorities to use public land and really build housing at scale,” he said. Money from the Apple tax windfall would be thrown behind this effort.

He said Ireland should not “walk off the pitch” when the rest of Europe was discussing defence policy just because it is militarily neutral. “You can participate in those conversations as do lots of countries who are neutral.” Forces who wanted to harm the European Union did not view Ireland as separate from other EU states because of its neutrality.

Three weeks on from the general election where Fine Gael finished behind Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, Mr Harris is positive about how his party did. “There were 26 constituencies in Ireland where on polling day there wasn’t an outgoing Fine Gael TD on the ballot. Eighteen Fine Gael TDs had retired for a whole variety of reasons. We go into 2025 in a good place, everybody in the parliamentary party wanting to be there, nobody in the parliamentary party planning their retirement.”

The Fine Gael leader is still kicking himself over how he handled an interaction with a disability worker on the campaign trail in Kanturk, Co Cork, to whom he later apologised. “I’ve always been very careful not to make excuses about this or explain it away, because when you’re wrong you’re wrong, you just own it and apologise and you do better.

“Of course on an issue that I think even my strongest opponents would know is so close to my heart, the whole issue of disability services, my own family experience, to have made such an error on such an issue, as you can imagine I’m extraordinarily annoyed at myself.”

Turning to Sinn Féin, Mr Harris said the party did well during the campaign to recover some of the ground it had lost during a string of controversies beforehand.

However, it would be a “complete spin on steroids” to say Sinn Féin was where it expected to be at the start of the new Dáil term. “This time 12 months ago the expectation was you’d be entering the new year with Mary Lou McDonald as taoiseach of a Sinn Féin-led government.”

Jack Power

Jack Power

Jack Power is acting Europe Correspondent of The Irish Times