Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2015 may be characterised as a continuation of policies which have seen the Government operating like Robin Hood in reverse. The Minister continues to rob from the poor and from ordinary people to further enrich those at the top of Irish society. What could have been an opportunity to level the playing field and begin to eat into some of the rising inequality we have seen in recent years - an inequality that accelerated during this Government's term of office - was wasted. Instead the decision was taken to enrich those at the top to the detriment of everybody else. Not only is this bad for citizens on social welfare and the growing group made up of the working poor, it is also criminally irresponsible in terms of the cost to our society into the future.

I agree with the analysis of the budget put forward by John Douglas of Mandate. It is, he said, a highly regressive budget which redistributes wealth from the lowest-paid to the highest-paid earners. An employee earning €70,000 will be better off, thanks to this Government, to the tune of €750 per year. A low-paid worker on €15,000, meanwhile, has been compensated by only €105. It should be noted that these figures do not take account of the introduction of water charges. Social Justice Ireland has pointed out that this is the fourth regressive budget in a row and one which further widens the gap between rich and poor by some €500 per year. Between 2008 and 2015, SJI observes, budget changes in tax and social welfare have impacted mostly on two groups. These are welfare dependent households, which have lost more than 12% of their income, and, second, the working poor, who have lost 13% of their income. This budget failed to prioritise those groups and will instead worsen their situation.

Correspondence I received from two constituents is reflective of what people in these circumstances are experiencing. One of these constituents is a woman, aged 47 and with two children, who spends more than 50% of her income on rent. She wrote:

I have been working full time in Ireland since entering the country. I feel like I am walking against walls. After paying rent, electric and the bus to work, I have €500 for three people. I cannot get rent supplement because I work 40 hours. I cannot get one-parent supplement because I earn too much, even though it is only €450 per week. We were not able to heat our house for the last three years and I will not be heating it this year. I have to pay everything when it comes to school.

Next year this person will have to pay water charges on top of everything else, all out of a monthly net income of €500 between three people. She goes on to say:

Now I have to sub-rent two rooms in order to have the money for... simple things like school or shoes for my children. I do not want to do this. I would like my family home to be my family home.

Another woman wrote:

I cannot afford to give any more. I cannot afford to be scared any more. I would really love the Government to come and live off our earnings. We have no loans but we just cannot manage ... I am fed up with managing. Both of us go out to work. We should be able to see something good from our wages.

The reality is that people are not. They are getting up earlier, working longer for less than they did years ago while the cost of living is rising. It is an absolute disgrace the Government missed an opportunity to target those families.

Water charges have to be brought into this context. Even the few crumbs the Government threw at people will be massively wiped out by water charges. Nobody is taken in by this idea that the Government will cobble together some magic solution in the next two weeks which will keep water bills low, allowing it to limp on to the next general election, after which they will skyrocket. The Taoiseach has consistently said he needs money to invest in Irish Water's infrastructure and that is why the charges are in place. He speaks about taking a couple of hundred million euro - with the budget concessions it might be down to €300 million - out of the pockets of householders to do that. He is masking the fact that in this budget alone €400 million was given back to the high earners in our society through tax concessions and paybacks. Instead of further enriching the rich, the Government could have nullified the whole basis for the water charges to begin with. Deputy Mick Wallace referred to research from Michael Taft from UNITE which showed the top 17% of earners got tax cuts to the tune of approximately €400 million courtesy of the Government. What other conclusion can one draw but that it will be hard-pressed home owners who will pay for water charges who will also pay for these tax concessions?

We already pay for our water. The people already pay €1.2 billion, largely sweated off the backs of taxpayers, to our water infrastructure. The setting up of Irish Water cost €640 million. That is money paid twice by taxpayers through property tax and the use of their pension funds. Now, the Government wants us to pay water charges again - paying for it a third time. The big carrot for this is that this money will be used so that Irish Water can borrow money so we can pay that back again, essentially paying for it four times. It is absolute and utter lunacy.

Could we get the money elsewhere? One only has to look at the headlines in today’s newspapers about the activities of the multinational sector and corporations to know we could. Not only did the Government give back €95 million to corporations in the recent budget, we have one of the lowest corporation tax rates in Europe which is not even implemented. We see supposedly gilt-edged reputable companies consciously organising their tax affairs so they can avoid paying tax in this country. There is a direct link between an erosion of our public services and the Government’s decision to make ordinary householders meet that deficit. If these corporations even paid the effective rate of corporation tax - remember it is the lowest in Europe - this State would have €2.5 billion extra to play around with every year. That is more than enough to invest in a proper water infrastructure system, to improve all benefits and deal with those on the bottom.

The Government, however, chose not to do that. Instead of protecting citizens, it has consciously used this budget to protect those at the top. It is incredibly unfortunate that the Government has not taken positive initiatives to encourage investment. I agree with the points made by Deputy Mick Wallace on that score.

It is a crime that billions of euro of citizens’ money in pension funds is invested abroad. While I accept these are private pension funds and the Government cannot control private money or direct them what to do, it can encourage them as to what to do. We have a tax system which benefits high earners in tax breaks for pensions. Manipulating the pension tax benefit system to link the benefits at home in Ireland would encourage those pension funds to invest in Ireland. It is only by putting people to work on some of the programmes to deal with massive infrastructural deficits that we will transform the economy. It will get more people back to work in a serious way, not zero-hour contracts or part-time rubbish jobs or JobBridge internships over which the Government stands.

It is a little bit rich to listen to lectures about how we need to conserve water when for the past four years the Government has been in power it has not put a single water butt on to a Government building, not to mind investing in a proper system of rainwater harvesting in State buildings or a programme of grants to allow people to remediate their houses to cut down on water consumption. These are also activities that could get people back to work and improve the buoyancy of our economy. Some of the pension funds I referred to earlier could be encouraged to invest at home through these initiatives. Again, however, it is another wasted opportunity.

The facts speak for themselves. The rich have been made richer at the expense of ordinary citizens. Thankfully, the people have seen through that. They are up off their knees and will not be taking it anymore.

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