Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important matter. The report on infrastructural and capital investment is a wasted opportunity to invest in the green economy, jobs and sustainability. Next year's capital budget has been cut by €755 million to €3.9 billion. This report locks the State into economic stagnation and increased unemployment, and it will result in the loss of 7,500 jobs, which is significant.

The Government, like its predecessor, is choosing to ignore the role capital spending plays in the economic recovery process. There can be no recovery without job creation; suggestions to the contrary are fantasy. Sinn Féin has a different vision and the party's pre-budget submission, entitled Route to Recovery, outlines a comprehensive investment package for the next three years that maintains current capital commitments funded by the Exchequer and additional investment streams. This investment package includes the development of the green economy and, in particular, alternative energy.

One of the biggest omissions in the Government's report is the lack of commitment to alternative energy. Ireland has one of the highest rates of oil consumption in the world. Investment in wave and wind power and other alternative sources of energy must be a priority. The planned removal of the energy efficiency grants is lazy and ill thought out. At a time when 1.4 million homes are in need of retrofitting the Government should redouble its efforts to encourage insulation and upgrading. In removing these grants the Government has not dealt with the disadvantages of expecting utility companies to loan the money to householders. There are currently 200,000 homes in negative equity and, therefore, they may be considered a credit risk.

Sustainable Energy Ireland reported that every euro spent on the better energy homes scheme delivers a net benefit of €5 to society, through savings on energy, CO2 and other pollutants. The Sustainable Energy Ireland analysis shows that investment in home energy upgrades will be fully repaid through energy savings within eight years. Yet the Government is committed to phasing out those important grants that have been useful.

From the point of view of health service users - I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, picks up on the point - the capital programme is undermined by the savage cuts to current spending that continue to be imposed. For example, the HSE appears to be retreating from care of the elderly, as shown by the closure of nursing homes in my constituency such as Shane in Portlaoise, in Abbeyleix and also in Dublin and Athlone. The health capital spend for the next four years amounts to more than €1 billion less than the annual cost to the State of the Anglo Irish Bank debt. We had a fruitful meeting yesterday with the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, on Abbeyleix. I appeal to him to actively examine the provision of the €1.2 billion investment that is required in Abbeyleix. I also appeal to him to partially lift the moratorium on the recruitment of nursing staff. We have provided for that in our budget proposals. One cannot make such calls unless one says how a plan is to be funded. We recognise that there is a shortage of money but we have set out in our budget proposals how to introduce a limited lifting of the moratorium on the recruitment of front line staff in limited cases.

The Government is committed to introducing water charges, yet the State's water distribution network is antiquated. Decades of under-investment means that in some local authority areas more than half the water is leaking away. Capital investment in water is being cut from approximately €435 million in 2011 to €331 million in 2012. That is a cut of €100 million or more than 25%. It is a cut of nearly €200 million on the 2010 allocation, with more cuts planned until the budget is just €266 million. Unfortunately for the public, there is a commitment to water rates. Today's plan commits the Government to "deliver high quality competitively priced water services to customers." It is not the householder, but the water distribution network, that is the biggest culprit when it comes to leaks. We all know the system is leaking in towns and cities but the Government is announcing a series of cuts which mean that the network will not be updated.

Sinn Féin firmly believes that housing is a right. The "Prime Time" television programme earlier this week highlighted that the number of homeless people is on the increase. Sleeping bags are being handed out to the homeless because the hostels cannot cope. People cannot get a bed or find a hostel for a night. Those who languish on local authority housing lists will get little comfort from the report given the proposed cut to the housing programme of €150 million. That will only increase expenditure by the HSE on rent allowance but also the spend by local authorities on social leasing and the rental assistance scheme where we continue to subsidise tens of thousands of private landlords, many renting homes that are not up to standard and that are not registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. Once again, this is a missed opportunity to provide a long-term solution to the State's housing crisis. The plan gives a vague commitment to prioritising the regeneration of Limerick but offers no details and mentions no other regeneration project. This is particularly frustrating for families in Dublin in areas where they have been waiting years for regeneration projects to commence.

The slash and burn politics of the Government is highlighted in the massive cut in spending to the environmental infrastructure. This is a time when the Government should invest in our green industry to boost the economy and provide jobs. The capital budget to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has been cut by €287 million. That includes cuts in investment for water services by €65 million and in the rural water programme by €10 million. There is no commitment to investing in water harvesting which aims to re-use rain water and little commitment to fixing existing leaks in the system. This investment would not only create badly needed jobs but would reduce water consumption by a third.

The massive cuts to capital and infrastructural spending clearly shows the Government has no interest in growth, sustainability or developing a green economy.

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