Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús, déanaim comhghairdeas le mo chomhghleacaí, an tAire, an Teachta Michael McGrath, agus leis an Rialtas as an gcáinaisnéis inné agus as na rudaí a bhí páirteach ann. I welcome much of yesterday's budget and commend my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and his Government colleagues on its introduction. However, I want to begin by making a general point about the entire budgetary process. It is dated, irrelevant to people's daily lives and it is doing us a disservice in this House that one day's business should get all the attention and drama, as in the opening night of a film or theatre production. The follow-on and impact the budget has on people's daily lives is left for non-elected people to manage and proceed, and there is little accountability. That is why we have hundreds of thousands of people on waiting lists, such as the young boy whose situation was discussed on Claire Byrne's radio programme yesterday. It is why we have so many people on housing waiting lists and people who will not see the benefit of the €80 billion-plus spending programme that was announced yesterday.

This is the 15th budget I have addressed as a Member of the House. It has always struck me that the health service plan is a really good example of the lack of accountability in the budgetary process. The plan will dictate and operationalise the expenditure of some €22 billion, yet it will probably be published, going on previous years, in the couple of days before the Christmas recess, when nobody will give it any attention. There will not be 24-7 media coverage of its content, live television interviews with Ministers or discussions for hours on end of what is contained in it. However, that document sets out how the money the House is approving will be spent and the ways in which it will make a difference. When it comes to the health service plan, the oversight is aprèsthe fact. The Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, Deputy Stanley, will get to see it and examine the expenditure arising from it next year, as will the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Even if there are issues with how the money is spent, nobody is ever held to account. In fact, the only people who are held to account are those on waiting lists and those whose life's journey is made much more complicated by a system that does not seem to work for people and have their needs at its heart.

We can do a Punch and Judy act in this Chamber throwing arguments over and back, but the reality is that we have a major problem with our delivery mechanisms in this country. The people who are losing out because of that are the people we serve. Yes, we have an oversight role and we need to be stronger in how we do it, but the more time I spend here, the more I see that we need to reform the budget process entirely. It is unfair on people whose daily incomes depend on State supports and who must wait for this day every year to know what they will have to spend in the coming 12 months. We need to get to multi-annual budgeting for people who depend on social welfare payments. We need multi-annual budgeting in order for Departments to know what they have to spend. This nonsense of having to spend allocated money quickly in the few months before the end of each year, a situation which allows all sorts of issues around accountability to arise, needs to stop. The Committee on Budgetary Oversight, chaired by Deputy Hourigan, does wonderful work but we need to look at the entire budgetary process and ask ourselves whether it is the proper way to do business in the 21st century.

There are a number of key issues arising from yesterday's budget. Many of the benefits it makes provision for are welcome, particularly in a context where they are the first major tax cuts and substantial 12-month and 52-week welfare increases for many years. However, the Government will have to be hyper-vigilant when it comes to inflation and ensuring there is no price gouging going on within an already difficult market across many areas. The costs of fuel, food and inputs for construction, agriculture and many other sectors are already rising faster than people's incomes. We must make sure there is no profiteering. I would like to see extra resources for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to ensure it is visible and active in monitoring prices, particularly in the fuel and food sectors, so that people have an assurance that this issue is being watched and managed.

Cuirim fíorfháilte roimh an airgead breise le haghaidh TG4. Is bliain an-tábhachtach í do TG4, atá 25 bliain ar an bhfód. Tá sé dochreidte go bhfuil 25 bliain imithe. Tá sé an-tábhachtach go bhfuil an t-airgead sin ag dul go dtí TG4. Caithfidh an t-airgead céanna dul chuige gach bliain seachas don bhliain seo amháin. Is drochghaol RTÉ é TG4. It is a poor relation and it spends that money much better than many of its larger competitors. It is money very well spent and we need to see that continue.

I am not normally into Opposition bashing but having listened over the past 24 hours to the different responses from various speakers, I am reminded of a feis years ago where people would come in with a script they would recite each time, but with different intonations depending on what they were taught to emphasise or stress, to try to impress the adjudicator. It seems like many of the scripts that have been delivered in the House were written weeks ago, possibly while Deputies were on their summer holidays, because they do not reflect what is in the budget. Let us have an honest debate about what is in each budget document. Let us get those documents independently costed before the budget is published in order that we can have an honest debate. Let us ensure each budget document is laid out along the same parameters, as opposed to having goalposts that shift more often than Opposition Members' positions, depending on what is being said on Twitter at any given time.

Some speakers are here today criticising the fact that pensioners are only getting an extra fiver, despite the fact that this was the figure indicated in their own party’s policy budget documents. There is much criticism of the fuel allowance provision, even though the increases certain parties proposed are way below what has been guaranteed by the Government. The fuel allowance increases kicked in from yesterday evening and will be back-paid in a few weeks' time. I wish the exemption changes were greater, because the allowance is still not being paid to all the people who need it, but we have made a start. The living alone allowance is very important for people. There is criticism today that the increase is only €3, but that €3 comes on top of an additional €5 last year, which amounts to an increase of €8 in the past 12 months. Every cent of that money will be spent on local services and in local shops. That type of support is really important to people, which is why it is essential that the Government be hyper-vigilant on inflation.

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