David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We can work constructively together. We can try to reach consensus where we can. I embrace this. However, I have sat through many committee meetings and discussions with Ministers at which we have proposed very credible, realistic, deliverable alternative fiscal, social and economic policies and they have been knocked back. I do not agree with the policies of the more conservative parties and we will not achieve total agreement on all issues. It will still be the Government which brings forward budgets. If we have more of a role in the process, I agree with and welcome it as a concept.

I support the proposal to establish an independent parliamentary budget office. This is very important. One of the false debates we have had has been about whether the alternative budgets presented by a number of Opposition groupings have been costed. Every year we send our proposals to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform which responds with costings, yet the Government tells us they have not been fully costed. Over and over again we have asked to have our full alternative budgets costed by the costing unit to dispense with the false debate and deal with the substance of the proposals made. This should be extended to the policy documents parties put forward. If they want to have their policy documents costed, this should be embraced and facilitated. We are up for it; we want it and do not want distractions. Unfortunately, distractions have been part and parcel of politics for far too long, with claims that our proposals have not been costed or questions about who costed them. Let us agree on how it is to be done and the shape of it and then ensure it happens.

Not only should we cost proposals, we should examine the impact any budget proposal made by the Government or the Opposition would have on people. We have had report after report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, EUROSTAT, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, think tanks and many other organisations such as the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, and the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, which have shown that income inequality in the State has increased year on year, especially owing to the policies of the previous Government. More people are living in poverty; there is greater income inequality and the gap between rich and poor has increased. This is because of the budget policies that have been put in place. We must not only cost the individual budget proposals made by the Government and the Opposition, but we must also have social and economic impact assessments made and ensure they are poverty and equality-proofed. Far too many proposals and budgets have been passed by the House which put more people into poverty. When the talking was done and the independent analysts made their analysis, we saw that they were unfair, unequal and would drive more people into poverty and create even deeper inequality. Let us use the new dispensation, the budget committee and the independent finance office not just to cost proposals but also to examine their impact on citizens and to equality and poverty-proof them.

In broad terms, I welcome the new initiatives and proposals. We need to give them fair wind. I very much hope it is real and that we will see it all work out in practice the way many people have said it will. My party and I are up for it. It is hoped, however long this Dáil lasts, that we will be able to say we made a difference and changed how we do business in the House for the better of the people outside the Chamber.

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