Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I regret there is so little time to deal with the issue. Anybody looking on would say that given the amount of time slotted for this, as compared that given to the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill, important as it is, we have skewed priorities in how time is ordered.

I refer in particular to Vote 25, how we spend our money and value for money. There are 100,000 individuals or families on housing waiting lists, for example. These lists will grow if we see repossessions this year arising from other legislation. The amount of money in that fund will reduce by €65 million this year yet we are leasing houses and paying money to private landlords. Some of this is reasonably good value but some needs questioning.

In the country 43% of those on waiting lists are in certain counties - Dublin city and county, Cork city and county and Kildare. The counties with the shortest waiting lists tend to be Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo etc. There does not seem to be a targeted approach. The top six counties are those where rents are highest. There must be a more nuanced approach. A person told me his apartment is being rented on an RAS scheme for €150,000 over 15 years after which it will be handed back to him. One would not buy the place for that but that is what it is worth today. This needs to be examined because it does not make sense.

There is a cut of €35 million in grants for home adaptation. This is a bad move because it impacts on employment on the very level we need it. There is a reduction of €500,000 for homeless people who have nowhere to sleep, wash, cook or feel safe, who have no address when they are looking for a job. That is wrong.

In respect of the local government fund, the general purpose grant of €640 million is being increased by €3 million. That does not stack up when the Minister talks about the motor tax fund that is supposed to be ring-fenced for that purpose. There is supposed to be an increase of €70 million this year from the increases people are paying, yet €150 million is being taken from that fund to pay the national debt. At the same time the Government is asking people to pay property tax, from which they do not see an obvious return. We are told that the income of €136 million from the household charge was "a valuable pathfinder" to local property tax. I love the language used.

I repeat what Deputy Mary Lou MacDonald said about the cumulative effect of many of these items on households and the absence of an equality budget and consideration of how much disposable income people will have. There will be water charges and the introduction of a sustainable funding model to support much needed investment. I know the investment is needed and that there needs to be sustainable funding, but people also have to have a sustainable sum of disposable income on which to live.

There is one small item which is a bugbear of mine and I will take the opportunity to raise it. There is income to be gained from the civil registration records. I have said this at the Select sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform. We have not published them in digital format and I am not saying they should be free. We already pay for them and should invite others to pay for them, too. When the 1911 census returns were made available online, there were 4.5 million hits in the first 48 hours. If one goes to the records office today to see a record, one will pay €4. There is a lot of money to be gained from the small initiative of digitising the records, inviting people to download and pay for them with hard cash. I do not understand why that kind of measure is not a feature when we are considering cut-backs all the time and can identify items that could actually make money and perhaps bring people to the country, too.

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