Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Not so long ago, we all fought a general election. It was not defined by the economy, as Deputy Shortall has said. It was defined by the dignified society that people collectively wanted. They wanted to know that the big ticket items would be dealt with. These include health, housing and child care, which issues arose constantly. People were sick of the tinkering around the edges and wanted to see ambition extending beyond that. They did not want responses to strong lobby groups but a response based on a vision. They wanted this budget to be the first that would be quite defining. In ten years' time, will this budget be a turning point that people will look back to saying it was when we started to grow up and when we were mature enough to make decisions about the big ticket items and strategic decisions to deal with many of our shortcomings? People will ask whether the budget took a long-term view. In many respects, it does not.

Today, Fianna Fáil in its response to the budget, which left no question as to whether it stands in opposition or in government, criticised those of us who had not got into bed with Fine Gael. Deputy Michael McGrath preached about taking responsibility but we felt, and still strongly feel, the issue is about compatibility. I was always aware there were cultural differences between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael but it is very clear today that there are zero economic differences between them.

That is why Deputy Michael McGrath was at pains, on "Morning Ireland" and every other media outlet on which I heard him today, to repeat and try to underline the fact that Fianna Fáil is in opposition and not in government, just in case the similarity was causing confusion.

Today we saw the political equivalent of a one-for-everyone-in-the-audience approach, which is at odds with what was said to us during the general election campaign and the mandate we collectively received. Some of the housing measures that have been talked about and were announced today may in fact worsen the problem. The help-to-buy scheme is the first time buyer's grant by another name. Do Deputies remember that? We dispensed with it some years ago because it was deemed to have actually added to the cost of housing. The help-to-buy scheme will split a single market of prospective first-time buyers. It will corral the first-time buyers towards the developer and the new build, but what new builds? Those that will go up by €20,000 tonight. Is it a help-to-buy scheme or a help-to-sell scheme? It is the latter.

It is also very difficult to see how the desire by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government for a social mix and a mix in tenure being delivered with this approach. This initiative is a return to the past in many respects rather than an interventionist approach that is about cutting the cost of delivering supply. We see a liberal market, laissez-faireapproach in this initiative. The entire focus comes from a construction perspective, yet so many families are still in trouble. Consider the number of distressed mortgages purchased by Cerberus earlier this week. We are supposed to be over the problem of distressed mortgages. Consider the number of people living in completely unsuitable accommodation, perhaps bought by single people before they had formed families. I know, for example, a family of three children and two adults living on the third floor of an apartment block, in a two-bedroom apartment. That is unsuitable, and there is no way out of it. These are the kinds of issues that also need to be dealt with. Interestingly, a number of rent certainty issues are due to expire in September. We have heard no mention of these today and we need to hear how they will be dealt with. I am sure the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will deal with this in his response.

We must get to grips in the main with the cost of living, that is, the cost of housing, health care, child care and insurance and the cost of doing business and so many other areas. In the context of Brexit, the cost of living is a key issue, as is the need to invest in measures to identify new markets. For example, 41% of farm produce from Ireland currently goes to the UK. We urgently need to find new markets. We are in a pre-Brexit stage at which there is a real risk regarding the value of sterling against the euro, to which we are particularly exposed. The cost of living and the cost of doing business here are major factors in our competitiveness. We should consider examples that work in other countries and, as usual, the Nordic countries offer prime examples of good practice. Norway's Altan model, of which I am a fan, is an e-Government model that has repaid the money invested in it tenfold since it was introduced in 2003 and continues to deliver. The Altan model reduced red tape and the cost of doing business. It is the kind of strategic measure that is a game changer. It reduces the cost of administration for people, huge numbers of forms that would otherwise be printed are available online and so much is done on that digital platform.

This evening I heard from a home help worker from an inner city community who told me that the cost of a dinner for older people in a sheltered housing facility in which he works has just increased by 50 cent, as has the cost of having a wash done, so there is €1 of the €5 pension increase already gone today. There is a mindset surrounding this that we need to get to grips with. We need to tackle the cost of living issues. Yesterday a pensioner told me that she expected, if there was €5 in the budget, that a good proportion of it would be sucked up by a rent increase. Again, it is back to the cost of living. The prescription charge measures today will not help those living with chronic illness if they are under 70 and, as has already been said, it has become a tax rather than an incentive not to overuse prescription drugs. Therefore, there is still a tax on health. It is not a very smart way to deal with the issue. Addressing the underlying provision of services will inherently reduce the cost of living in such examples. The same is true in every walk of life.

However, while the cost of living continues to rise, wages remain stagnant. Just a 10 cent increase in the minimum wage was announced while the Minister stood in the House today and preached wage restraint. One can imagine somebody getting that 10-cent raise in his or her minimum wage and listening to that. Does the Minister not see the irony of preaching wage restraint in the same week that we learn about the pay restoration to a Deputy of €5,000? If that €5,000 is restored, this House will lose all authority to preach wage restraint. I am all in favour of pay restoration, but it must start from the bottom up, and there are people at the upper end of that who do not need that kind of return. Deputies are a case in point.

The real disappointment of this budget is the lack of ambition. It keeps Fianna Fáil, the Independent Alliance and the rural Independents on board but it lacks the ambition and the strategic approach that was so evidently desired on the doorstep, and the ambition that this budget be a turning point.

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