Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Appropriation Bill 2014. Essentially, the purpose of the Bill is to give statutory authority for the amounts voted by the Dáil during the year either by way of the original Estimates or Supplementary Estimates.

The Bill deals with expenditure of €42.657 billion in 2014. This seems like a big figure and in fact it is a big figure. The way this €42 billion was divided across society shows the Government's priorities and choices in 2014. Some of the choices by the Government were cruel, unfair and hit the most vulnerable hardest. Worse, many of these choices were unnecessary; they need not have been taken.

I had hoped the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, would be before the House but perhaps the Minister of State will relay this information to him. The Estimates for 2014 which the Minister announced on 15 October 2013 were flawed. The Minister for Health and the director general of the HSE disowned these Estimates within 24 hours of their being published. They were right and the Minister, Deputy Howlin, was wrong, as evidenced by the need for a Supplementary Estimate of €680 million last week. The Government's projected estimate of expenditure on budget day for 2014 amounted to a general Government deficit of €8.16 billion, or 4.8% of GDP, well within the ceiling of 5.1% of GDP under the excessive deficit procedure. Had the Minister, Deputy Howlin, factored into his budget for 2014 the Supplementary Estimate of €1.2 billion passed in the House last Thursday - it was required to meet known expenditure - the Government would have ended up with a projected deficit of €9.36 billion, corresponding to 5.7% of GDP, well in excess of the 5.1% ceiling permitted. The Minister knew he could not face that prospect in the House in October last year and that is why he cooked the books on budget day last year.

That may be reason enough to vote against the Minister's management of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. However, the main reason we are voting against the Bill is because it reflects the unnecessary, cruel, unfair and divisive choices the Government has made in allocating the €42 billion based on its policy positions in 2014.

In 2014 the Government chose to cut the rent supplement by €29 million and remove it entirely for 8,000 households. This was on top of the cut of €49 million in 2013 when the Government also removed 8,000 households from eligibility for rent supplement. The Government discontinued the mortgage interest supplement to all new applicants in 2014 and removed from eligibility for the scheme 4,000 families who had been in receipt of the payment. This was in addition to the 5,000 families the Government removed from eligibility for the mortgage interest supplement scheme in 2013. The Government cut the mortgage interest supplement payments by 68% in 2014. The Government also cut the jobseeker's allowance to €100 for those aged up to 25 years. These three decisions inevitably lead to an increase in homelessness and the numbers of people sleeping rough on our streets as well as children with nowhere to call home.

The Government's choices helped create that problem but its response was to allocate €440 million in 2014 from the local government fund to Irish Water to install water meters, pay bonuses and consultants. This Government had a choice to spend taxpayers’ money in 2014 on rent supplement and mortgage interest supplement but it chose instead to spend it on installing water meters, paying bonuses and consultants in Irish Water.

This morning when I was on the way in here in the car the first thing I heard on the radio was an advertisement by Christy Moore, the famous singer, appealing for funds for the Simon Community which deals with homelessness. This is a sad but real commentary on the Government’s actions and choices in 2014. It is shocking that help for homelessness has to be funded by voluntary donations. Worse, 30 minutes later, I heard another advertisement by Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy seeking funds for Focus Ireland, which also deals with homelessness. She said it is the worst situation in 30 years. It is no wonder because the Government cut the rent supplement, the mortgage interest supplement and the jobseeker’s allowance for 25 year olds. How could they pay rent on €100 a week when the Government will not give them rent supplement? Does the Minister of State get the connection between Sr. Stanislaus and Christy Moore looking for money for homeless people and the Government’s choices that created homelessness?

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