Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and thank Deputy Billy Timmins for sharing time with me. Having listened to all of the pre-budget hype and all of the speeches made yesterday one gets the strong sense of history repeating itself. This budget would do Bertie Ahern proud. It is very much a pre-election budget. It is a budget aimed at spreading the small amount of jam available as thinly as possible in order to buy different cohorts of voters. It shows little foresight in terms of the need to tackle some of the key problems in this country and the need to engage in long-term planning. It is extraordinary that despite all of the awfulness arising out of the recession and all of the talk at the time that these things could never be allowed to happen again we are getting back into the dangerous territory of budgets being used to buy votes, with no consideration of their impact on the country in the long term. Not only is there no appreciation in this budget of the need for long-term planning, it shows no ambition for the country in terms of reform or vision in relation to the type of country we want Ireland to be.

The decision to split the €1.5 billion available on a 50:50 basis between tax cuts and investment in services was a very serious mistake. During the recession the split between cuts in services and increases in tax was 2:1, which was an indication that this Government favoured the slashing of public services. Only one third of the adjustment went towards tax increases. The money available should not be split in that way. Given what happened to services during the recession all the available funding should have been invested in restoring our services to an acceptable level.

The burden of taxation over recent years has been shifted away from the better off to people on low and modest incomes. With the slashing of services came increases in VAT which made the cost of living much more expensive, the imposition of property tax and water charges and, for many older people, the loss of the waiver in respect of waste charges. Many of the additional charges imposed on people remain in place. The Government should have taken this opportunity to re-invest in the types of services that are important to people. In terms of the shortcomings of those services, according to the statistics there are 500,000 people on waiting lists for hospital services; 130,000 people on local authority housing lists and the number of children living in consistent poverty has doubled over the period of the recession. There are also lengthy waiting lists for social workers because of the under-funding of Tusla. There are a vast number of services that need to be reinstated but, unfortunately, the Government has taken a very short term view in that regard. This budget is all about the upcoming general election.

One of the most stark elements of the budget is the fact that despite the huge problems in our health service, the Government is providing only an additional €18 million in that area. That the same level of allocation is made in respect of the commemoration programme for next year as is made in the health area says a lot. Housing is another major area that has been overlooked. The budget makes no provision in regard to rent certainty and does nothing to bring on-stream vacant properties that could be utilised to help tackle the housing problem.

This budget is a missed opportunity. What the Government has done in regard to taxation cuts is regressive. Yet again we have a budget from the Government that will substantially widen the gap between rich and poor.

See this speech in context