Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a reasonable budget which contains many welcome measures. However, as we know, the devil is in the detail. I am sure that as we examine the Estimates in the coming days, we will learn a lot more about the real impact of budget 2017 on citizens. As I said, there are many welcome measures contained in the budget, but I am concerned that the Government has not gone far enough to relieve the pressure placed on citizens in the past eight years.

I thank the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and their officials for their engagement with the Rural Independent Alliance. I also thank the Independent Ministers in the Cabinet, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross; the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Deputy Denis Naughten, and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, for their engagement with us and compliment them, with no disrespect to the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, on taming the beast somewhat and bringing issues on which we fought in the programme for Government into the budgetary process. As we were becoming anxious about delivering on them, it is great to see them being dealt with.

On child care, while the support for low and middle income earners is welcome, the measures will not be introduced until September 2017, which is too lengthy a delay. I also believe the universal child care scheme is too restrictive, both for families in the middle income bracket and those who choose to care for their children in the home. I take issue with the lack of support for families who choose to care for their children in the home or those who are self-employed and working from home who have to care for their children in the home. These parents make the ultimate sacrifice in sacrificing a second income, yet they receive very little support. The increase of €100 in the home carer's tax credit is not enough, particularly given the pressure carers take off services. It is time to take a serious look at how parents who choose to care for their children in the traditional way are being discriminated against. I differ fundamentally from the beliefs of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, on this issue.

I welcome the extension of the start your own business scheme for a further two years and the increases in the earned income tax credit for the self-employed. Retention of the 9% VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality sector was a no-brainer. It had to be retained because it is working and achieving returns. This is a bold initiative, taken following a lot of encouragement. It is welcome that there is no increase in the duty on diesel and petrol. Any increase would have resulted in increased costs in many areas. However, more could have been done in that regard.

I note the increase in funding for the Revenue Commissioners. I sincerely hope that as a result there will be a change of attitude in the Revenue Commissioners and that rather than always taking the big stick to businesses, it will look at how tax changes are affecting them and the self-employed can be encouraged to increase employment.

It is about not being negative.

In the farming and agrifood sectors there are a lot of measures to help small farmers which we fought for in the programme for Government, including the option to step out of income averaging during the difficult years. The IFA and other farming organisations were looking for this. It makes sense. They will pay the same amount of tax. They are not saying they will not pay but rather asking for time to pay. The new low-cost farm loan fund is badly needed to improve cash flow because it is contractors, of whom I am one myself, and businesspeople who are suppliers who are the banks for farmers. Banks are not working in this country full stop. Nothing has been said about banks. They are not functioning and still on their merry way with ACCs and everything else. They want to sell things off to vulture funds and let the public deal with the crisis of court cases and threats.

There is increased funding for GLAS and the introduction of sheep grants which are very necessary. I heard Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan - tá sí imithe anois - talking about animal welfare earlier and noting that sheep were never mistreated. Sheep are often harried by dogs and other animals. They can be mistreated by roving wild dogs. If the Deputy is so interested in the hare, I advise her to learn about the woolen animals also. The little sheep and the innocent lambs were there with baby Jesus when he was born so many centuries ago. We should get our fundamentals right there also. I hope the money will be paid very shortly. The additional 500 rural social scheme participants are most welcome. We need to see them on the ground. We do not need red tape. There is a great deal of work to be done in communities which the people there are willing and able to do. The much needed improvements in farm assist are welcome but I await the detail of what exactly the measures will include. Farmers are dignified people who want to work, but many are just not viable and need supports. There is no detail as to whether we will see a review of the fair deal scheme for farmers. There should have been one. They are totally discriminated against when assessed for the fair deal scheme by having their land regarded as an asset.

I have sought the introduction of a land tax in my submission for large conglomerates which purchase and hold land banks of over 750 acres. Some of them in my area are engaged in our world-renowned equine industry but they must be reined in. They are buying every little hamlet, perch or bit of land that comes up. The Minister, Deputy Siimon Coveney, is looking at me and knows who I am talking about. There are people in the horse industry in other parts of the country who are doing the same thing. We all support the equine industry, which we need, but we cannot have them grabbing land for the purposes of inheritance tax. It is immoral and mad and very damaging to rural Ireland. We will not have a football team, school or anything else if three or four people buy up all our land. We had the Land Commission before and it did a great job. We need something like it back again. Mention was made of Michael Davitt a while ago and I wonder what he would think of this. It is totally wrong and it must be dealt with. It was not dealt with by the last Government or the second-last Government and it is not being dealt with by this one. I am disappointed that there are no measures to look at a wealth tax. I am not always looking for a wealth tax but something is needed to stop overspending and the forcing of others out of farming.

Additional funding is always welcome but the budget did not go far enough to deal with the housing and homeless crisis. It is welcome that the Minister is here. While I welcome efforts to improve the supply of housing for first-time buyers, the ability of young people to purchase their own homes, including in the countryside where I live, is affected by planners who will not allow them to build and planning fees. I hope sincerely that these measures will not simply drive up house prices and drive more people out of the market, although they may well do so. The issue is with supply but we are increasing the demand. We are not dealing with supply. We need to take the cost of building down for builders as well as for those who want to build their own houses. Huge planning fees, development charges and rates are the greatest blocks to building and local authorities are using this money as a cash cow. They need to be taught a lesson. They should do their business properly and not penalise people and cause them to be homeless. It was one thing in the boom time, but it is now time for a review of the exorbitant rates and development fees being charged.

I welcome the increase in the rent-a-room scheme rate to try to relieve the pressures on student accommodation, but the measures do not go far enough. We are doing very little in the budget to support families in mortgage arrears. We are allowing the banks to carry on unabated, terrorising people with their repossession agents. I am tired of talking to the Minister for Justice and Equality about the harassment and terrorising of people who did nothing more than have the noble expectation of housing themselves and their families. Unfortunately, they were caught in negative equity and have been treated shamelessly and mercilessly while we stick here to budget rules implemented by Europe which crucified us in the so-called bailout. I welcome the continuation of the home renovation scheme, which is a good measure.

I welcome the employment of 4,500 additional front-line staff, who are badly needed. The employment of an additional 4,500 gardaí, nurses and teachers is very welcome and I want to see it happen immediately. I wonder how it will work in practice, however, as we cannot even retain those we have already employed. We see nurses leave and the horrible introduction of yellow-pack workers with different rates of pay for nurses, gardaí and others in that area. We must improve the pay and working conditions of our front-line staff, but this budget does little or nothing in that regard. I disagree fundamentally that we here should get an increase of €5,000 under the Lansdowne Road agreement. People can say I am playing to the gallery, but I am not. Whether it is the Lansdowne Road agreement or Croke Park agreement, Deputies should not take this money at a time when we cannot increase pensions until next April or provide for front-line workers. I do not mean to call them yellow-pack workers, but rather mean that this is how they are being classified. It is shameful that the trade unions allowed this to happen by pulling up the ladder on these younger workers, who we want to revive our economy, forcing them to work for lower pay. We have to examine that. We cannot hide behind the Lansdowne Road agreement and our link to principal officers. Principal officers are getting too much also. They are getting plenty but some are not doing their jobs. If they were, we would not have the housing crisis we do.

I look forward to the health Estimates. I am very disappointed that I see nothing for my colleague, Deputy Michael Lowry, and his pipe dream of a patient hotel. He told us it would be in place by now. It is a pipe dream on which others are working very hard, but he decided to run away with it. There is not a word, sign, trace or smell of it. The first planning meetings were held by senior management in the hospital and me very recently. It is not fair to mislead people who are on trolleys every day. It is unacceptable. We need an investment plan and the inclusion of a proper extension for our hospital in the development plan, not a hotel of the type Deputy Michael Lowry said one might see at a race meeting. That is not what we want. We want decent health care, not a silly Mills & Boon fantasy.

There is very little detail as to the prioritisation of mental health services, disability services, the trolley crisis and the crisis in respite care services. There is a lack of home helps and an attack on home help and home care packages. The list goes on. There is some extra money for 950 home care packages, which are badly needed, but we need that to be easily accessible. We need to fix the broken system and cannot continue to throw more and more money at it while getting very little back. That is what is happening in the HSE with the €500 million winter initiative last year and the €490 million now. What are we going to have this time next year? Probably an even worse crisis. Something is wrong and the HSE is not fit for purpose. It has cannibalised itself and must be disbanded. The increased funding for the national treatment purchase fund is definitely necessary. The fund has proved its usefulness before. We need efforts to attack waiting lists because it is not fair, moral or in any way justifiable to have patients waiting on trolleys without blankets, pillows or dignity. We need to make better diagnostic services available. In Clonmel, there is a diagnostic service available in a GP centre, but HSE members will not allow it to be used. It is used in Cork and other areas where there are pilot projects and it would take the pressure off hospital waiting lists. It only makes sense, but because someone might lose his or her job or stripes if we did it, it is not allowed. That is what is wrong. Look at the number of extra managers in the HSE now compared to the number in 2007. It is obscene.

A very welcome commitment was given to the automatic entitlement to a medical card in the context of the domiciliary care allowance. I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the Independents and everyone who campaigned for it. It should never have had to be fought for so hard but it is needed and must be delivered without further ruaille buaille. I have some concern about whether the income thresholds for the medical card will be increased as a result of the €5 increase in social welfare payments. This is what happens. More people play catch-up and are denied medical cards. That is considered a gain, but it is not one for the people who need medical cards. These are restrictive and hurtful measures.

We need front-line speech and language and occupational therapists, as well as psychotherapists and early-intervention teams. Huge measures are needed in these areas. The allocation of 900 extra teachers is welcome, as is the investment in third level education. However, as we saw with the recent SNA appointments, there is an issue with the Garda vetting process, which is a sham. No one in the process knows whom they are vetting. We should go back to the way it was before when local gardaí knew with whom they were dealing and would do it in a week, not three months. People with professional needs are waiting and cannot have vetting undertaken.

I sought increases in the living alone allowance and the restoration of the telephone allowance. The cut to the telephone allowance was lousy. I am very involved with Muintir na Tire and the community alert scheme. People have gotten rid of their community alert phones and panic buttons because they could not afford to pay the bills. I am glad that the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality is in the House because rural crime is a major issue. I welcome the recruitment of more gardaí. They will not graduate from the college in Templemore quickly enough. I would like lay people to do some jobs in the Garda in order to relieve gardaí and allow them to be on the front line. There is no replacement for the garda on the beat.

I refer to the PRSI scheme for the self-employed. There is something in the budget for them, which I welcome. Those who are self-employed and become sick are now entitled to two years' disability payment when injured at work. One could get a kick from a cow, a mad cow or calf, as happened to my colleague. Simple accidents can happen. Those who are self-employed and put themselves on the line to provide jobs for others need to be supported.

I support the increase in tax on cigarettes. I hope it will not drive trade underground and increase illegal smuggling. The funding for roads is meagre and is not enough. I would like to see action on rural roads, otherwise there will be twice as much long-term damage. The Government promised funding for roads. We needed it upfront because roads are deteriorating.

I support a living town initiative and have lobbied for one in my county development plan. We need immediate measures to keep our towns alive and vibrant. They are dying on their feet and we need to encourage planners to wake up and smell the coffee. We need planning to be simplified and encouraged. We have yet to receive any detail on the policy on this, which we need to see. We are doing nothing to support our struggling post offices. They closing before our eyes; they are being obliterated. The Department of Social Protection has told people to deal with the banks.

The squeezed middle faces the toughest challenges. The people concerned are squeezed in every way. They do not receive SUSI grants or other assistance. Why can child benefit not be paid until the age of 22 years? One income families trying to put children to college are caught for everything and get no breaks or encouragement, even though they have paid their taxes. The squeezed middle has not been dealt with and need to be helped. These people are on their knees. Many are in negative equity and need supports. They have lived through the recession and have tried to do the best they can, pay their way and put their children through college with some modicum of dignity. As I said, we have not addressed the vulture funds buying up houses, banks selling loans and people being threatened, bullied and intimidated.

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