Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With their acute awareness of the crisis in housing, health, public transport and water services, the voters in the recent general election elected us not to limit the debate on how we could reduce taxes but to change the debate and, among other matters, to look at what level of tax was required for the country to provide the essential services, which are a prerequisite for a cohesive and civilised society, one that allows all of us to participate with a measure of dignity. Notwithstanding that very clear message from the electorate, the Government and its Fianna Fáil colleagues have failed once again to hear the message and for months has centred the debate on how much of the available €1.2 billion fiscal space should be spent on reducing taxation and how much on services. One side or other of the argument is congratulating itself on winning as the resulting budget tinkers with various reductions and increases and misses the fundamental point that every budget, including this one, must not be seen as an end in itself but as an essential ingredient of an overall plan and vision - one based on the value of human dignity, equality, human rights, solidarity, sustainability and the pursuit of the common good. These words are not mine but come straight from the policy document of Social Justice Ireland, not a radical left group. It is a vision with which no democrat in this House could have a problem, yet this budget again fails to hear that message and to recognise the interdependence of a vibrant economy, social cohesion good governance and sustainability, which characterises any society if it is to thrive in the long term.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, said the economy was in good shape, but he was talking about giving free rein to the market. Both Ministers talked about learning from mistakes, but neither has learned. The Minister also saw fit to set a new domestic target of debt-GDP at 45%, a figure pulled out of the sky with no justification or no explanation as to why this would be necessary. He also talked about a rainy day fund but with no explanation as to why that might be necessary or any consideration of the alternative that the best rainy day fund is an educated population, with people working to their maximum ability, regardless of whether they have a disability.

The Government has learned absolutely nothing if it has not learned that the market will not provide. It has not provided and it will not provide. We have a most serious housing crisis. We know the national figures, but I will give the local ones. There are approximately 15,000 on the waiting list in Galway city and they have been on the list since 2002. We are in the process of building 14 houses this year, notwithstanding the show taken around the country by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, on rebuilding Ireland, and will be lucky if the total of 69 projected for this year will start before the end of the year. This budget gives free rein to the landlord class and if Davitt is listening, he will be turning in his grave at the amount of money being given over to the landlord class in this country to provide homes for people with absolutely no security of tenure.

I will come back to some of the positive things for the health service, but there were 44 patients on trolleys in a centre of excellence yesterday. We hear story after story on this subject every day. Cancer clinics are being cancelled and there are waiting lists of two to three years. People are staying in bed and breakfast accommodation and there are delayed discharges and admissions. When one asks why that is the case, the Minister says a little more money will sort it out, but no money will sort this out. There have been years of deliberate depletion while public money went into the private sector. There has been a refusal to employ nurses or doctors in the numbers required. There has been a total failure to have any vision or plan to enable us to have a public health service which is available for everybody.

Almost every Deputy has spoken about his or her experience of mental health, families he or she knows who have been affected by this and the rate of suicide, but the budget mentions nothing about an implementation monitoring body for A Vision for Change which was in place previously for periods of three years because the Government at the time had the vision to see we needed it to ensure documents did not pile up on desks.

There is no reference in the budget to an implementation body.

On climate change, the most serious issue facing us, while I welcome the €50 million allocation, it will go nowhere near meeting our targets. Members of the Government's Climate Change Advisory Council have highlighted the fact that if Ireland fails to meet its EU targets in 2020 and 2030, it will face huge fines. There is no mention of this in the Budget Statement.

On education, I welcome the increases, including the proposed increase in teacher numbers, but, again, as mentioned by my colleagues, there is no mention of a reduction in class sizes, capitation grants and, most importantly for me, literacy. One in six people is at basic literacy level. This means that over 500,000 Irish adults find reading and understanding everyday text difficult. The position on mathematics is worse, with one in four, or 754,000 people, having difficulty in reading basic word mathematics. There is no mention in the Budget Statement of any of these facts.

There is no mention of domestic violence in the Budget Statement, other than a bland statement to the effect that it is planned to roll-out or enhance services. As the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, has just come into the Chamber, I would like to dwell a little on the issue of domestic violence. The cost to the economy of our failure to deal with it is €2.2 billion. Over 12,500 people, or 9,448 women with 3,068 children, received accommodation support from a domestic violence service last year. There were almost 50,000 helpline support and information calls and so on. One in three Irish women reported some psychological violence by a partner and so on. As I am running out of time, I do not propose to go into the statistics in detail. The point I am making is that our failure to deal with domestic violence and roll-out A Vision for Change costs the economy more. I despair that the Government understands this and will begin to deal with it.

I welcome the €5 increase in the State pension and social welfare payments, although it is not applicable for those under 26 years. I welcome the proposals on child care. It is not welcome that it is being done like a jigsaw, with no overall picture or vision, such that we will move from this budget to the next without a vision, plan or timeframe for the provision of houses for all of the people in order that nobody will be on a social housing waiting list for longer than one year and that each and every one of us, regardless of salary, will have access to public health service and doing our bit to tackle climate change. The only mention of public transport in the Budget Statement is in connection with the system in Dublin. From the Government's point of view, the remainder of the country, in terms of the provision of public transport services, does not exist. I live in a city where, notwithstanding our commitment to deal with climate change, it is proposed to build a 16.5 kilometre road at a cost of €500 million or €30 million per kilometre, with the cost expected to rise. On a daily basis, at peak hours, there are 96,000 vehicles in Galway city. There is no vision in any of the documents before me or the speeches made to address that problem in a sustainable manner, given our commitment to tackle climate change.

I have mentioned the housing crisis. We are going backwards in not only relying on the market but also in providing huge subsidies and tax breaks for landlords. I welcome, however, the commitment to deal with section 110 and vulture funds. I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, at a meeting of which I read with dismay about the sale by NAMA of property to vulture funds which make huge profits and pay little or no tax.

All of the change has been forced not by the Government or Fianna Fáil but by the people who voted to have a Dáil of a different type and forced us to speak out and hold the Government to account.

Chun críochnú, cuireann sé díomá orm go bhfuil laghdú suntasach ar an mbuiséad don Ghaeltacht agus don Ghaeilge. B'fhéidir go bhfuil mí-thuiscint ann áit éigin, ach tá laghdú de 9% do-chreidte, agus níl míniú ar bith ar fáil. Bhí éileamh bunúsach ag Conradh na Gaeilge maidir le €18 milliún. Sin an méid a lorgaíodh. Bhí sé ar intinn ag an gconradh, leis an méid airgid sin, 1,000 post breise a chur ar fáil sa Ghaeltacht, ach níl pingin breise anseo. Ba chóir go mbeadh náire ar an Rialtas.

See this speech in context