Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If anything underlines the empty rhetoric of new politics, it is this empty Chamber. If anything underlines the emptiness of new politics, it is being given a document today with no time to read it. If anything underlines the emptiness of our ongoing celebration of our independence, it is being told that we can make no input into this document and that it is going to Europe with or without any discussion here. The Minister for Finance has described this document simply as a statistical document. That is utterly contemptuous of the elected Members in this Chamber.

I am going to balance the statistics referred to by the Minister, which we have not had a chance to go into, despite my best efforts, with other statistics. I will begin with mental health. Yesterday, I spent three hours in the Chamber and had with me, but did not get a chance to use it, A Vision for Change. Page 106 of that document refers to the ongoing cost per year of mental health issues as €11 billion. I will repeat that figure because I had grave difficulty with the figure, which is extrapolated from Northern Irish figures. On a pro ratapopulation basis, the document suggests a total annual cost of mental health of €11 billion. That is what it is costing us by not dealing with and funding mental health properly.

Domestic violence is another issue. Two weeks ago or less, a conference on domestic violence suggested the ongoing cost of this to the economy is €2.2 billion per year and yet this is not mentioned today in any statistic here. As mentioned by Fianna Fáil, we have a national emergency in housing, with 120,000 households on a waiting list. Galway city, with which I am familiar, has 15,000 people - 5,000 households - on the housing waiting list, some that are waiting for up to 15 years for a home. We get blinded by figures, so I repeat that figure - 15,000 people. However, there is no mention of that here.

We have almost the lowest rate of investment in infrastructure in Europe but there is no mention of that here. Some 35,000 young people left Ireland last year but there is no mention of that anywhere here. On women and gender, women represent 60% of all low paid workers in Ireland. A half of women workers earn less than €20,000. This is below the medium level but there is no mention of that. Our health system is causing problems. The system itself is unhealthy and is not dealing with people who are sick and yet there is no mention of that here.

I do not subscribe to an economy that looks on all of these issues as inevitable problems. They are not inevitable problems but problems that have been created by this very policy. However, even within this policy, there is scope. As we have been told, there is a fiscal space and yet there has been no passionate outpouring from the Government and new politics that they will use this fiscal space to address the inequality in society. There is mention in this document of risk assessment. There is a huge risk to our economy if we do not deal with mental health and if we do not provide homes quickly. There is an even greater risk in regard to domestic violence because it permeates every generation and every aspect of society. At a conservative estimate, it costs €60,000 to follow up on one victim of domestic violence.

I would at the least have expected some discussion today, having been given time to look at the document, on how we could participate on the basis of "consensus", a wonderful word used by the Green Party. I certainly have a lot to say on behalf of the people who gave me the privilege of being here today. I am not here to be castigated by various people on either side who tell us we have not taken part in government. I have been here every day since I was elected. I have researched, prepared and stood up here but I am talking to an empty Dáil, as are other committed people here. This debate is absolutely empty rhetoric in regard to new politics.

Finally, the fiscal council was mentioned by Deputy Donnelly. It has a very restricted role and remit. At the least, we should be discussing how its remit could be expanded so as to examine the implications of recommendations coming from it in terms of equality and poverty.

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