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

I am pleased to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Appropriation Bill 2015. As the Minister said the purpose of this Bill is to give legal sanction to all expenditure by Departments as approved under the Estimates and Supplementary Estimates processes, the latter of which we discussed recently.

The Estimates are based on the choices made by Government in terms of its priorities for 2015. As spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, I do not accept many of the choices made by the Government in 2015. The budget allocations for 2015 were set out in the Budget Statement in October 2014, which included the Estimates figure for 2015. What we are being asked to approved today is how the Government spent that budget. I said in my contribution to the debate on that budget, and have continually said in the months since, that that budget could be categorised as tax cuts for the wealthy. Last year's budget provided for a reduction in the top rate of tax for those earning over €70,000 while those earning below €70,000, when account is taken of the water tax, were worse off as a result of it. That is only one of the choices made by this Government. While some of the choices made by this Government were reasonable, others were unfair and showed a callous attitude by this Government towards Irish citizens and how removed from reality it is in terms of the position of people on the ground.

During the last couple of months we witnessed a bonanza increase in corporation taxes from foreign direct investments in Ireland. While these are matters outside the control of anybody in Ireland, including the Government, these are welcome funds. I would like to see that continue. It is because of these additional taxes that our finances are strong. In light of this, there was no reason for Government to make many of the particular choices it made during the course of this year in terms of not providing proper public services. In regard to the homelessness issue, there was much comment during the debate on last year's budget about people, including families, sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin, which the Government promised to do much about. The legacy of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, who is a member of the Labour Party, in that regard is one of having increased the rate of homelessness and the number of people on housing waiting lists for social housing. His legacy is one of abject failure when it comes to homelessness and housing. While the Government has talked the talked and said that it has a plan in place in this regard, one day it is a plan of €3.6 billion for the next six years and the following day it is a plan of €4.2 billion for the next eight years. I am not sure how much money it proposes to spend in this area during the next decade but I do know it is not doing the job this year. The Government thinks that saying it has a plan in place for five, six or seven years time to deal with these issues is acceptable but it is not. Its plan will not be achieved in the lifetime of this Government or the next yet it is planning expenditure beyond the latter, which is too far away to take seriously.

In terms of health services, the crisis in our accident and emergency departments continues and nurses are now proposing to strike next week in the interests of patient safety in the context of the unsafe environments in which nurses are operating and patients are being cared for. There are currently 400,000 people on hospital waiting lists, which is embarrassing. A couple of years ago people were being seen within a reasonable timescale. Now people are waiting up to 15 months for a consultant appointment, following which, if they require a scan, they then have to wait a further lengthy period for it. Many of the patients who are having to wait 15 months for a consultant appointment are elderly people who are crippled in pain, for which they are on pain-killers, and need operations. I recently received responses to representations on behalf of several patients about the waiting times for particular appointments, which I am ashamed to forward on to those people because I know the distress receipt of them will cause. Opposition Deputies should not have to cover for Government in relation to how bad a service is being delivered through the Department of Health.

In terms of crime, the number of burglaries in rural and urban areas continues to increase. This issue is not being adequately addressed. Another topical issue is the flooding experienced last week and the previous week and that is expected to occur this weekend. The OPW is not properly addressing this issue. The Minister said on radio this morning that the OPW plans in this regard are available on its website. Plans on a website are of no assistance to people whose houses were flooded last week. It is hoped not too many houses will be similarly flooded this weekend. As I said, plans on a website will not address this problem.

In regard to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the choice of Tusla last year to cut grants to voluntary organisations was a bad one. All-in-all this Government made a number of bad choices this year. I accept that a lot of the money spent was properly spent on good services but the Government's choices in terms of the allocation of resources available to it this year were poor. As I said earlier, most of the additional revenue available to it went to high earners by way of a reduction last year in the top income tax rate for those earning over €70,000. They were the principal beneficiaries in 2015. 2016 is another year. In terms of 2015, those whose income was over €70,000 were better off and those whose income was below that amount were worse off.

We see that on the streets with the record number of new cars and the new posh restaurants that are full again on Friday and Saturday nights but ordinary people are sitting at home watching television because they do not have the money to go out. A further indictment of the Government is that even with tight resources and the need for money for critical services, there is a high deferred surrender of €112 million in respect of capital supply services to be carried forward into next year. I agree with the principle of carrying funds forward for capital purposes but the House, through the Estimates process, voted for work to be done in this calendar year. However, the Government parties have turned around at the end of the year to say they are sorry they were not able to do that and that they will try to do it next year and carry the funds forward.

The Government should be ashamed of the largest carryover, which is €41 million on the part of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The Department is responsible for homelessness and housing. How can it have €41 million unspent this year with people sleeping on the streets? My colleague, Deputy Cowen, highlighted this issue and asked how much would be unspent and carried over during the Estimates debate. He was given vague answers but we have the real answer today for the first time. This amount is unspent by the Minister with responsibility for housing and homelessness. People will be homeless over Christmas and others will not have proper social housing. Despite all his talk, the Minister is not even utilising the funds he was given by the House properly. Shame on him for having such a large unspent allocation. If he did less talking and more work, action would have been taken on these issues.

I also have concerns about other unspent allocations. The Government should have had its house in order and ensured that projects were undertaken. A sum of €6.5 million remains unspent by the Garda for various projects that are needed. The money should have been utilised this year. For example, closed circuit television cameras could have been erected at junctions on all the main motorways out of Dublin. The Irish Independentpublished maps showing where burglaries are happening along the M7, M8, M9 and M11 and that issue could easily have been tackled during the year. I was contacted by various organisations the funding of which was cut by Tusla this year. I obtained a detailed list from the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Organisations that received funding of €41 million in 2014 had their funding cut by €3 million this year, yet €3.5 million remains unspent in the Department. There were cuts right, left and centre for organisations dealing with children in abusive scenarios. The Minister had money sitting in a bank account and he chose not to utilise it properly.

This is unsatisfactory. Bad choices are the Government's legacy for 2015. Those on an income in excess of €70,000 are better off while those on less than €70,000 are worse off. The Government made bad choices for those dependent on public services. One will remain homeless if one is in that position today. I will vote against the Bill.

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