Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We want to deliver a fair recovery, one that invests in Ireland’s future for the long term and for the benefit of all rather than the few. We want to deliver a recovery that ensures that children experience equality of opportunity, be it in their education, their access to supports and services or their career choices as they pass into adulthood. We want to grow an economy that is rooted in fair play, where workers earn a decent wage and small businesses can flourish and expand. However, this cannot happen by chance and without a stable and fair tax base, we cannot provide the necessary investments in education, child care, health and infrastructure to secure stability and sustainable growth.

The Government has told us and will tell the public, the media and everybody else who will listen to it that it can take €882 million out of the tax base and at the same time tackle hospital waiting lists and the prohibitive cost of child care, deal with the housing crisis and deal with the fact we have a crisis in mental health services. That is all rubbish and the Government knows it. It is the politics of old and it is as dishonest as it is wrong.

Sinn Féin’s budget 2016 document sets out an ambitious alternative for what we can achieve in government. Unlike the parties which have held the reins of power in these institutions, equality is the cornerstone of Sinn Féin’s political and policy choices. Societies that are more equal do better. Their public services are delivered more efficiently. Education is better, people are healthier, income differentials are lower, social cohesion is stronger, taxation is fairer and enterprise is more innovative. The list goes on and on.

We want to stem the tide of mass emigration of our young people. A reduction in the USC rate will not in itself bring our young men and women back to these shores. It is the lack of decent jobs, secure career paths, access to affordable housing and accommodation and the costs associated with health and child care that continue to act as a barrier to their return. Who could blame them? Sinn Féin wants to face this challenge head on. We have shown how we could invest €1.7 billion in public services next year. It is only by tackling the underinvestment in health, by tackling child care costs and by delivering affordable housing that we can entice our emigrants back.

We welcome the Government’s decision to provide funding to deliver access to the free preschool year for children with a disability and the additional preschool year. The free preschool year is universal in name only, as children with special needs are prevented from attending because the necessary supports are not provided. That is the reason Sinn Féin has called again and again in its budget proposals for 1,000 SNAs for the free preschool year. We will see whether the allocation provided in this area will suffice to meet that challenge. Some 11% of early years services were forced to refuse a child with additional needs last year.

Our budget proposals also provided for an additional six weeks maternity benefit that can be taken by either parent, as well as two weeks paternity leave and an increase in child benefit. I welcome the fact the Government has followed our lead in these measures.

We must put investment in education centre stage. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform had the nerve to come in here today and trump up new teaching posts. The reality is he has allocated just €24 million in new spending measures in education. Everything else is on pay or demographics. Some €167 million for education sounds good, does it not? However, when we read the small print, we find out that €103 million is because of demographics, more children going to school, so that means no enhanced service, and €43 million is for pay restoration for teachers across the sector. That leaves only €24 million.

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