Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With the impending general election the long suffering people finally got some respite yesterday from the implacable austerity forced on them since late 2008. In my own submission a few weeks to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, I called again for many of the positive social expenditure measures that have been included in the Government's final budget in office. Among these, which it would be churlish not to acknowledge, are the extension of the early childhood care and education scheme from three years and two months to primary school entry, the restoration of the respite care grant to €1,700, the increase in the fuel allowance to €22.50, the partial restoration of child benefit by €5 and the investment in education to slightly reduce the pupil-teacher-ratio from 27:1 for primary schools and 18.7:1 for second level students.

Senior constituents, some of whom I, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, met in Dublin Bay North this morning, were not greatly enthused by the €3 per week increase in pensions, even if it is the first rise since 2009. This partial restoration of levels of benefit and income for the most vulnerable after seven years of brutal austerity cannot undo the damage already done to households and individuals.

The biggest disappointment of budget 2016 is, as my colleague Deputy Róisín Shortall said, the Government's failure, particularly the Labour Party, to declare a housing emergency. The plan for NAMA to deliver 20,000 housing units by the end of 2020, with 90% to be delivered in Dublin, is simply a re-run of the old failed developer-led system. Ministers plan to give responsibility for the urgent construction of tens of thousands of homes to developers who built so many substandard fire-traps up to 2009 and have sat on their land banks while they emerged from bankruptcy, supported by us, the taxpayers and NAMA covering up for their reckless failures. The paltry increase of €20 million to ensure 3,000 social housing units are delivered in 2016 will assist only 3% or less of the citizens and households on housing waiting lists. The increase of €69 million for social housing is also paltry when the actual housing budget of €414 million remains less than one quarter or one fifth of what is actually needed. There was nothing announced yesterday in regard to rent certainty, except for the Tánaiste's statement that it has all been decided. Why was this most critical issue not included in the budget?

One of the most ludicrous announcements yesterday from the Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, was that the overall budget for health has been restored to pre-crash levels of over €13 billion. However, he was contradicted by the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, who rightly said that the health budget is at least €1 billion off its pre-crash peak in nominal terms. The Department of Health budget was decimated during the austerity years and while the spend is €13.2 billion, how much has been lost cumulatively since 2008? How does one quantify the suffering of patients on waiting lists, in chaotic accident and emergency departments and the desperately hard-pressed staff trying to care for them? There was no mention in the current or capital budgets about the urgently needed new accident and emergency department for Beaumont Hospital.

As stated by Deputy Billy Timmins, there is nothing in this budget about the elephant in the room, namely, Irish Water. Citizens want to know how much more of taxpayers' money will be pumped into this direly malfunctioning utility. The ferocious vice-grip of the EU expenditure rules was again evident in the 2016 budget for the Department of Social Protection in terms of the retention of the cap on social protection spending at under €19 billion. Increases for this year are based on increases in the Social Insurance Fund.

I put forward options in my own budget submission to gain significant yields for the Exchequer from fair additional taxation, which I am sure, along with other proposals from this side of the House, ended up in the bottom draw of the Minister for Finance. Among my suggestions was the introduction of a 48% rate of tax on incomes over €100,000; a financial transaction tax , FTT, starting with an increase in stamp duty on shares; a solidarity and reparations tax on financial institutions; and a fully effective 12.5% corporation tax. A few weeks ago, Deputy Róisín Shortall highlighted during parliamentary questions the additional revenue that an effective rate of corporation tax would provide.

In his closing remarks yesterday, the Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, asked, "Who speaks of Syriza now?" This incredible hubris was apparently prompted by the crushing euro restructuring settlement imposed on Alex Tsipras and his Government by Chancellor Merkel and company, but there is a huge difference between Alex Tsipras's Government and the Government of the Taoiseach which the Greek people recently recognised in their recent re-election of Syriza. Syriza at least tried to renegotiate with the Eurogroup. This outgoing Government never even tried and its failure to even try will result in a huge loss of seats next spring.

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