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

The people who are sovereign made clear their views on all of the Government's spin and claims of success. They came out to declare that they have had enough and that all of the Government's trickery in terms of the hated regressive water charges and property taxes is meaningless. People want them abolished and to be given real relief. The Government is panic stricken and back peddling at a rapid rate in the face of that rebellion on the streets in regard to water charges. The people will not be fooled by the measures taken by Government in recent days, which were driven by panic and fear. The Government's spin will be further exposed on 1 November by, not 100,000 people on the streets of Dublin, but 100 or more demonstrations of thousands more people from across the country, thus reminding it of its real job, namely, to give genuine relief to the hundreds of thousands of ordinary families who are innocent of any of the crimes that led to the crisis in this country and have been battered for six years by this and the previous Government in terms of their being asked to continually pay the price. That is the important response to this budget.

Water charges and property taxes aside, there is more dishonesty in this budget by way of the claims of an end to austerity. Let us take the health budget. Last year, the health allocation was €12.7 billion. This year the allocation is €13.1 billion despite that there was a €500 million over-run last year. When one adds €12.7 billion and €500 million one gets €13.2 billion. According to the Department of Health, because of demographic pressures of an aging population it requires an additional €200 million this year. In reality there has been a cut in the health allocation for this year in that it will be €300 million short of what is needed to maintain services in the public health service. What is the human cost of this? I will give some examples. April, a young woman, severely disabled, requires 24-7 care. In 2013, her mother had 24, four-day, weekends of respite care. She now gets only 12, 3-day weekends per annum and is at her wits end. Also, her respite care grant has been withdrawn. There is no end to austerity for her. I am also dealing with two cases involving people waiting for hip replacements at Cappagh Hospital who have been told the waiting time for their operation is 16 months. When I contacted the Minister and asked if there was anything he could do I was told there was nothing he can do.

On education, the Department of Education and Skills requested an additional €500 million to deal with upward pressures of 10,000 extra children joining primary education this year. It got only €60 million of that €500 million, which is a de factocut in the resourcing per student in the education system. This is against the background where one in four of our children are in classes of 30 or more. When one considers that a few years ago the stated aim of the then Government was to have a ratio of 1:20 the current situation is a disaster. The cuts in respect of SNAs and so on is leading to much greater disruption, with teachers in half of the schools in this country simply engaged in riot control.

On housing, what is provided for is a joke. It is proposed to build only 2,500 houses next year against the backdrop of 96,000 families on the housing waiting list. In my area alone, 1,200 people a year are joining that list. This means the number of houses to be built next year will not even cover the number of new applicants joining the housing list never mind make a dent on the massive 13 or 14 year housing waiting list. There is no end to austerity. Austerity continues. It is about this time this Government was honest and fair with people. It will get its answer on 1 November.

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