Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

One would think that after 100,000 people took to the streets in what was probably one of the largest demonstrations in the world against austerity, proportionate to the size of this country, the Government would listen. Instead, this budget is a dishonest con trick. After the Government has beggared the nation to pay off the debts of gambling bankers, it has thrown a few crumbs to the people. However, those crumbs will be gobbled up by the monster that is Irish Water and the property taxes.

The combined impact of water charges and the property tax with this budget means the majority of struggling families on low incomes will still be worse off next year than they were this year. The Government has given with one hand but it has taken a hell of a lot more with the other.

It is quite sickening against this background that, in the income tax and USC changes the Government has made, it has yet again given disproportionately to the higher income earners and the better off. They will be able to pay their water charges and their property tax with the tax breaks the Government has given them but struggling low income families, whether working or on social welfare, will have more taken off them in the water tax and property tax than they are being given back. That is quite sickening. For example, a worker earning €25,000 per annum will get back €288 per annum in these income tax changes but will have to pay out at least that much in water charges and then more again in property tax. Someone on the average wage will get back some €500 per year but will also have to pay that much and more in the water charges and in the property tax. In contrast, the Taoiseach, on €200,000 a year, is going to get back an extra €864, so he will be able to cover the cost of the water charges and probably the property tax with what he is given back.

One of the most sickening aspects of the crumbs that are being thrown at people through the so-called Christmas bonus give-back, the little bit on child benefit and the €100 allowance for water is that this money will be further funnelled into the quango that is Irish Water. It is another subsidy for this monster quango which is simply sucking up money. We are paying money to people so they can pay their bills to Irish Water, putting more money into the pockets of its consultants and the super-wealthy contractors who are getting all the contracts off Irish Water, which will continue to hoover up more and more money over the coming years as those water charges increase on the requirement that Irish Water makes full cost recovery on the cost of water services. The give-back is an absolute con because it will not even cover the cost of the water charges.

Similarly, on public services, the big fanfare about housing is an absolute con. Some 2,500 extra council houses next year will not even cover the new applicants who will join the list this year. Some 1,200 people are joining the list in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown alone, which is just one council area, yet the Government is giving just 2,500 new council houses for the whole country, so the housing list will continue to spiral. There was no mention of rent allowance or of serious money being provided to give flexibility to community welfare officers to raise the rent allowance caps to prevent people going into homelessness. The housing and homelessness crisis will continue because this is a pathetic sop to what is an absolutely catastrophic crisis.

Similarly, in the health budget, the Government has actually allocated less money this year than it allocated last year. If anyone checks the Estimates, not the supplementary budget, they will see it is less. In education, the extra teachers will only just about cover the 10,000 new students who are coming in so, in other words, there will be no end to overcrowding in our schools. The budget is a con job.

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