Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to comment on the measures announced in the budget which have left many people throughout our country in a far worse financial position. While there was welcome relief for some sectors of our society many other sectors, including the elderly and the young unemployed, will face a very difficult year in 2014.

Some of the measures contained in the Finance Bill have only recently emerged because they were hidden in the fine print. This in itself tells us that the real agenda of this Government has nothing to with public accountability. It does not even have the courage to be upfront with those very people the measures will target. I was almost amused, if it was not so serious, to hear the Minister for Finance say there is room for optimism for the remainder of the year. I wonder what planet Ministers are living on when they can come into this house and utter such patent nonsense given the context of the near total collapse of the health service even as we speak and the plans to proceed with savage and life threatening cuts to the capital budget of the HSE which are being urged on by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

It is equally telling that the Minister told us that the fact of 2014 being the first year in which we will seek to overachieve a general Government deficit of 4.8% of GDP means this will somehow cushion us from any possible external shocks. I wish the Minister was right. This is not just absurd wishful thinking but reminds me of the constantly repeated mantra we heard from those in the Department of Finance before the meltdown that Ireland was sufficiently well capitalised to withstand any crisis that may afflict us. There is certainly a worrying parallel here.

I would like to raise some concerns about the home renovation incentive scheme. I and many others lobbied for it and initially welcomed it but further analysis has shown it is insufficient in that it excludes families or homeowners without taxable incomes. It is a good start and it will be built on but that element is disappointing.

Despite the utterances of the Minister before the budget to the contrary, I welcome the continuation of the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector. That has proven to be a success and it is great that the Minister understands and accepts that. Compliments all round. There is also the question of why it will take two years to recover the complete tax gain in respect of the home renovation incentive scheme.

Like many other Deputies, I have been inundated with e-mails and calls from distressed parents, fathers in the main, who will suffer enormously because of the changes being introduced to the one-parent family tax credit as dealt with in section 7 of the Bill. It has rightly been pointed out that there is no such thing as a one-parent family, only a one-parent household. It is important not to lose sight of the point. The new single parent child carer payment replacing it is deeply punitive and targets separated and divorced fathers in a cruel and mean-spirited way. The Minister's speech this morning suggested he will re-examine this mean-spirited point. While I am glad that an amendment will be introduced on Committee Stage, this does not go far enough. I urgently call on the Minister to abandon this measure altogether because it is cruel and punitive.

Once again, the Minister did not tax wealth. It is incredible that the Labour Party in government instituted a budget that is regressive and hits the poorest the hardest. I understand it from the perspective of the Minister for Finance but not the Labour Party. Small businesses are also facing more pressure as a result of budget 2014. The Government is doubling the employers' liability for staff sick pay from three to six days. This amounts to a €22 million hit for small businesses. I run one of them and I am sure others are discussing the matter with the Minister. Meanwhile, there is only a token mention of the credit crunch affecting small businesses, with no targeted measures that will finally see viable SMEs getting the credit they need to stay in business and create jobs into the future. If all businesses were allowed to create one job, we would halve our unemployment situation. Millions of euro were promised by the banks to Brian Lenihan - God rest him - and the current Minister but the banks are not lending. On top of this, the Minister's well publicised build your business initiative, aimed at promoting initiatives at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, comes on the back of a 19% cut in the Department's promotional budget. There is also a significant reduction in support for the State job agencies. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland took a €15 million cut in the capital budget at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Is this really what we mean we speak of the need for a dedicated focus on job creation? I think not.

The Professional Agricultural Contractors of Ireland lobbied the Minister last year for a rebate on carbon tax but he says he did not know in time. The Minister gave it to the road hauliers and extended it to the bus owners. I am very disappointed he did not examine this section of society, which is vital to agriculture and Food Harvest 2020. I do not know why the Department did not accept the following proposal. I know that the IFA lobbied against it. Every contractor who received a cheque should receive an invoice. It is not rocket science, it is quite simple and I hope the Minister will include it at some stage in the Bill. It is badly needed.

The cuts to farm schemes contained in successive budgets have contributed to a fall and the fodder and consequent financial crisis experienced in 2013 should alert the Minister to the requirement to fund fully the farm schemes on which so many families depend. We should know that as we only came out of the fodder crisis in June. Spending of €1.2 billion has been allocated for 2014, which is substantially down on the figure for last year. I refer to the closure of the REP, early retirement and the suckler cow schemes, although the Minister is doing something - very little - in the case of the latter. The same applies to the disadvantaged area scheme, which is a pity.

The meanest measure of all is to hit the telephone allowance, the pendant alarm and the bereavement grant of €850. Last year the Minister taxed the hearse and I foresaw that he would tax the shroud. This year, the Minister has taxed the corpses. Will they be left overground? It is the meanest measure. The Taoiseach and other Ministers said they do not know how many people have died for whom pensions are still being claimed. That is absurd because the HSE knows who is finished when a death certificate is signed. This is the meanest of all and I am very disappointed.

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