Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the spring economic statement. To be honest, I was not sure what the spring statement was all about yesterday but I see now that it is allowing us to have a general conversation about the upcoming budget which is still many months away. The spring statement is only as effective as what happens in the next few months, that is, if there is genuine negotiation with backbenchers and Opposition Deputies as to what the next budget should look like. It is no harm to set out the economic parameters within which we must operate. As a newly elected Deputy who has only been in the House for four years, it is quite a different experience for me to be looking forward, for the first time, to a budget in which we will have something to give back. I used to dread October because it meant cuts pretty much all of the time. Now we have a situation which is causing a different set of problems all together. After seven years of recession and austerity, there is now pent up frustration, with people wanting to get back as much as possible of what they lost. It is certainly very hard to argue with people who took massive pay cuts, saw hikes in their taxes and faced new charges every year. They have certainly found that their standard of living was badly affected in that period and we still have a major issue with mortgage arrears.

While Opposition Deputies might decry the fact that there was not much detail in yesterday's statement, they must acknowledge that it has allowed us to set out where we are going from here. We all have a role to play in this regard. If the spring statement process is to be effective and if we are going to start talking about the budget now, everyone must be given an opportunity to feed into that. I also think that if we are going to have a spring statement setting out the economic parameters it is not good to tell people now what is going to happen in October. While I welcome the proposed reductions in the universal social charge and income tax, what is the point in having a conversation for the next six months if we have already decided what the budget is going to contain?

Many Deputies, including Deputy McHugh before me, have spoken about building a fairer society and about the fact that Ireland is more than an economy. That said, we must have a strong economy with people back at work and tax revenues increasing in order to pay for services and so forth. To take the example of disability services, during the recession this was one of the first areas to be hit. Now that the economy is starting to pick up, it may be one of the last areas to achieve any of its goals. We are talking about relatively small numbers but we have all met, in our constituency clinics, parents of children who need occupational therapy, speech and language therapy or physiotherapy and who have received letters telling them they are on a very long waiting list for such services. I would be of the belief that if we have extra money available to spend on health or education, these are the areas we should be targeting now. Let us be honest, these are not generally families who spend hours protesting outside the Dáil. They rarely organise big protest meetings and we really have no idea of what is going on behind closed doors for some of these parents. They are relatively small in number which is possibly why they are not targeted in terms of funding. If we reduce the universal social charge or income tax, we will catch a greater number of people in middle Ireland who are under pressure and I have no doubt that they are under pressure and need help and support.

We cannot make a spring statement which tells people what is coming in the budget because that means that the extra leeway we said we had is suddenly gone. It is very important that we use the next six months to clearly set out our aims and objectives in various areas. Let us be honest, we do not have a massive pot of money and due to the new fiscal rules, we will never again have a big pot to spend. It is important now to look at specific areas where we can make a real difference to peoples' lives and disability service provision is certainly one such area. We often have debates in this House about autism and the level of services available. Now we have a really good opportunity after seven years to explain to people that we can help them a little more. In that context, I would point out to the Ministers in the relevant Departments that if this spring statement is to do what it says on the tin, they must listen to all interest groups and plan a fairer and more decent society in the run up to the next election. All I have heard so far is a plan from 2015 to 2020 on the taxation, income and pay increase side of things, which is fair enough, but there are lots of marginal groups who need our support and they also deserve a five-year plan. I welcome the spring statement process as a new departure but it will only work if there is genuine negotiation and listening to others, including Opposition Deputies and other groups. That is the only way we will make next October's budget successful.

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