Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition will be ten years in office next year. It needs to be judged not on this pre-election budget but on its record over the past decade. After ten years we have a health system still mired in crisis, housing is unaffordable for many thousands of families and inequality and poverty are still with us despite the Celtic tiger.

For more than a decade, the Government has had massive resources at its disposal to transform our health and education systems, to provide housing at an affordable level and to take senior citizens and those on low incomes out of poverty. In the past five years, it has had Exchequer surpluses of almost €40 billion. In November alone, it took in €1.7 billion more in taxes than was expected.

Despite all of this, the gap between rich and poor has widened. We now have one of the most unequal societies in the developed world, with those reliant on social welfare and the minimum wage hit hardest by rising costs. Many families, even those on two incomes, struggle to get by due to crippling mortgages and increases in the cost of essential items such as electricity, gas and food. All of these have recorded increases far in excess of inflation.

Huge problems exist across our public services, particularly in health care and education provision. A total of 44,000 families are on housing waiting lists. Every day, hundreds are left on trolleys in hospital accident and emergency units. Families are left waiting for years to have their children assessed.

I emphasise it is children who suffer most. Unlike most developed states, we have no system of State-provided pre-schools and no provision in this budget addresses that clear need. In our pre-budget submission, and consistently in all our previous pre-budget submissions over the past nine years, Sinn Féin argued for measures targeted at those who need help the most. We set out clear and detailed strategies for addressing the crisis in the health service, supporting families with children, ensuring all senior citizens have a decent standard of living and ensuring the needs of young families are put ahead of the property speculators who force house prices through the roof and out of reach of ordinary citizens.

Yesterday, I called on the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, to be bold and imaginative and use today's budget to make a real, immediate and significant impact on the lives of those struggling to survive. I welcome the decision of the Minister to direct his attention towards workers on low wages, senior citizens and those who rely on social welfare. The increases he set out are to be commended. However, he could have done much more and he clearly chose not to do so. He made a political and bad choice. He had the opportunity and resources to lift many citizens out of poverty but stopped far short of what was possible and, with respect, what was required.

In my view and in that of many people not only in this House, to appease Fianna Fáil's partner in Government, the Minister took poor decisions which will help those on the higher end of the income scale when those resources could have been used to help those in our society in desperate need. The Government decided to reduce the top rate of tax by 1% at a cost, to cite the Minister's qualified figure, of €186 million. For that same money, the Government could have dramatically improved the welfare of senior citizens by increasing the State pension by €34.80 per week. That is the type of sum necessary to really address the issue instead of the €16 and €18 announced today. The Minister could have addressed the issue of the living alone allowance and doubled it to €15.40 per week. Instead, we find no mention of this allowance in today's budget.

As we proposed on many occasions, he could have examined, and gone a great distance towards, providing a full medical card to every child under the age of 18 years. This measure would transform access to medical care for thousands of families. I know well this measure is not focused on need alone. However, I am also convinced it would certainly work for those who need it most and therefore is a worthwhile measure. It should have and could have been done today. It would have made a real and fundamental difference to many families who struggle to meet the needs of their children, first and foremost their health care needs.

The Government had the resources to do all of this but it did not have the political will. The biggest problem with today's budget is that once again the Government has shown it has absolutely no strategy to address the core needs of ordinary people whether in health, education or housing. The budget has no vision of a different type of society based on equality and ensuring the needs of every person in this island are met. It has no appreciation of the unique opportunities squandered by the Government with monotonous regularity.

Many people who listened today to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, will ask a number of important questions. Will poorer families be substantially better off after today's budget? Will it be easier for someone to access emergency hospital care? Will the families who spoke on "Prime Time Investigates" on Monday still have to wait up to five years for their children to be assessed? Will the people of Monaghan, Nenagh, Ennis, Roscommon or anywhere else be assured of essential hospital services? Will home ownership now be a real option for young couples and will countless others get a house at all? Will it be easier to get to work or will thousands of people continue to commute huge distances every day with gridlock now a reality in all our major towns and cities? I fear the answer to all those questions is a very certain "No".

Today's budget will have little or no impact in any of these core areas of people's lives. In relation to specific measures introduced by the Minister in today's budget, while there has been some advance, the fact is that those who were in poverty this morning will remain in poverty this evening.

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