Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On 26 February this year the people sent an overwhelming message that fairness in public policy and associated and necessary investment in public services was their highest priority. In doing so they turned their backs on the US style of politics of those proposing excessive cuts in the personal tax burden; cuts that would have come at the expense of investment in public services, including health, education and social housing. They turned their backs on policies to minimise State involvement in service provision and allow the so-called free market to dictate the pace. They turned their backs on policies that denied medical cards to those in most need, ignored hospital waiting lists, cut supports for older people and undermined rural and urban community services across the island. Ultimately, they turned their backs on the spin of an economic recovery that many people on many parts of the island were not experiencing.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, spoke about a fundamental shift in the economic environment. There has been an even more fundamental shift, however, in the politics of the country since 26 February. While the message was clear, the mandates given were less so and that has resulted in a period of considerable instability. Parties and Independent Members in the House faced choices during March and April. As Deputy Michael McGrath said, Fianna Fáil sought the support of the House on three occasions to lead a Government that would act on the message sent and begin to reset the course the country was taken on in the past five years. We did not receive that support and the choice then facing us was either to walk away from the responsibility given to us on 26 February which, in turn, would have led to a second general election and possibly a third or to work with the result presented to us on 26 February to facilitate the formation of a Government and shape a fairer journey for Ireland. We took the second option, faced up to the responsibility presented to us by the people and facilitated the formation of the Government. The Minister says people are surprised that it has lasted this long. I look behind him, as he might, and see many of his colleagues who were saying that long before he did.

Is é aidhm an socraithe muiníne agus soláthair ná infheistiú a dhéanamh i seirbhísí breise, cuidiú le pobail agus éifeacht phraiticiúil a thabhairt do na gealltanais a leagadh amach inár bhforógra. Is é an ról atá ag Fianna Fáil sa socrú muiníne agus soláthair ná dul chun cinn chun suntasach a dhéanamh sna bpríomhréimsí seo de bhuiséad 2017. The decision of the electorate and our decision to interpret it in the way we have resulted in stability that became even more crucial when the people of the United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union. Deputy Michael McGrath has dealt in detail with the potential consequences of that decision. The political instability which would have followed a second general election here would have added gravely to the negative consequences of that decision.

In facilitating the formation of the Government Fianna Fáil ensured at a minimum a two-to-one split of the extra money available in the budget for 2017 between investment in public spending and tax reductions. In 2015 the split was 50:50. That means that far more money is available for initiatives in health, education, housing, child care, social protection and capital spending. Achieving that spilt and the associated expenditure is the foundation on which the Dáil can respond to the challenge laid down by the electorate on 26 February. The Government has made the choices on the destination of much of that expenditure. In our confidence and supply agreement we identified a series of policy principles that we wanted to be dealt with during the course of the lifetime of the agreement. The budget shows progress on some of them.

We will use the agreement to seek further progress over the next two budgets.

The notion of a confidence and supply agreement may seem a long way from daily life. It may seem to be one of those articles of spin so often used in the House. However, arising from today's budget, if one is one of the nearly 79,000 people on a surgical waiting list, the priority given by Fianna Fáil to the National Treatment Purchase Fund and home help and home care packages will have a positive impact on that list. For those facing mental health challenges, the priority Fianna Fáil has given to ring-fencing funding for the ongoing implementation of a Vision for Change in 2017, a figure we understand to be €35 million, without the drama that has been associated with previous budget, will assist them.

For those on housing waiting lists, the priority we have given to the proper allocation for building housing and, more importantly, the scrutiny we will give to ensure that they are built will assist them. We prioritised child care in the confidence and supply agreement and, accordingly, we welcome the 35% increase in early years funding which will assist with child care costs.

For children with special and additional needs, we prioritised a range of services. The appointment of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and resource teachers is to be ring-fenced in order to address waiting lists for assessment and subsequent treatments and the delays in school services.

For students in secondary school, we prioritised the reintroduction of ex-quota guidance counselling and a commitment to the full restoration of the service over the next three years. For students in third level education, we prioritised additional investment in third level education to begin to stem the challenges facing our third level sector. For postgraduate students, we prioritised the restoration of postgraduate grants, ensuring that postgraduate education is not the preserve of the wealthy.

We prioritised resources for community initiatives such as CLÁR and RAPID in rural and urban communities around the country to build up community infrastructures. In many other areas, we have prioritised the delivery and development of services. My current party colleagues will focus on these areas during the debate. They include areas that would not have seen any progress without Fianna Fáil insisting on the split in expenditure before facilitating the formation of the Government.

We have not written this budget. There are areas on which we disagree strongly but we have a responsibility to the country to provide political stability at a time of great challenge. We have married that mandate of responsibility with the mandate of fairness given to us last February. While we have made progress to date on the agenda of fairness, there is still a long way to go. Many previous announcements on budget days and other days have made no impact. It is the priority of everybody in the House, led by the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, to ensure that the grand announcements made today and the big money mentioned actually hit the ground.

For instance, in June this year, an extra €500 million was allocated to the Department of Health. We were informed that it would assist in dealing with overcrowding in hospitals and the provision of extra home help hours, among other health priorities. However, across the country today there are no new home help hours available or new home care packages, despite an allocation of an extra €500 million. We were told that this money would solve the problem, yet many people today who are in hospital beds or who have palliative care needs cannot get home help hours and are wondering where the €500 million went.

Hospital waiting lists continue to rise in spite of the €500 million injection. The figures for September show that 78,696 people are in a queue for surgery and nearly 9,000 of those have been waiting for longer than the maximum target of 15 months. Another 430,000 people are on outpatient waiting lists to see specialists, a jump of 3,000 compared to August. A total of 47,000 have waited to see a specialist for more than 15 months.

The failure to make inroads into waiting lists over the summer months, which are usually quieter months when more beds are free, and after a €500 million funding boost is particularly disturbing. There has to be early and measurable action on waiting lists. We believe the National Treatment Purchase Fund, by replicating the successes it had until it was removed from this area in 2011, can begin to do that.

We especially welcome the announcement that those in receipt of domiciliary care allowance will now receive medical cards. As I said, we await detail on the appointment of physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists for children with disabilities and special needs, in particular.

Why is it that services for children with disabilities and additional needs seem to conspire against their families in order to make already very difficult life journeys even more difficult? Why do parents have to fight different departments in order to get essential support? Why is it that the silo way of doing government - I do not mean this in a political sense but rather an operational sense - conspire against families who already have a difficult journey? If this budget and its provision for children is to do anything, it needs to break down the silos and make difficult journeys a little less difficult.

I welcome the 900 extra resource teachers, which need to go into the areas of most need and where the waiting lists are longer. If we cannot get an assessment for a child his or her journey through life will be even more difficult. Surely we can unite collectively to ensure this happens.

The ring-fencing of money for a Vision for Change is welcome. As I said, we believe that figure to be €35 million. What is especially welcome is that the last minute smash-and-grab strategy approach to mental health budgets of previous years has been avoided. Again, we will need to see the impact of this in terms of how this affects those who need the services.

While we welcome the reduction in prescription charges for those aged over 70, there is a case to be made for those who are disabled to get a similar reduction. My final thoughts on health are to remember that in 2017, there can be no Revised Estimate or an extra €500 million found. If the trends of previous years continue in 2017, there is no plan B. I am willing to give the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, a chance but the records of his two immediate predecessors in matching their budget day rhetoric to patient outcomes were appalling.

The split between expenditure and taxation has allowed for a small but expansionary social protection package. My party has been criticised for promoting an increase in the old age pension, in spite of the fact that it is a commitment in the programme for Government and was contained in almost all party manifestoes ahead of the election. The notion, as expressed by a leading broadcaster last Saturday, that pensioners are loaded is absolutely without foundation.

Older people were particularly targeted by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the last Government. There were a raft of sneaky cuts and measures which directly affected the incomes of older people. There were hikes in prescription fees despite a promise to abolish them. Changes to the eligibility criteria for medical cards, the removal of the telephone allowance, a reduction in other household benefits and the abolition of the bereavement grant all combined resulted in an increase in the rate of deprivation, from 9.5% to 14.3%, for those aged 65 and over. We make no apology for trying to reverse this trend.

We were not solely focused on pensioners, despite the narrative narratives of some in the House. The increase in working age payments is welcome, especially as it is the first since 2009. In conjunction with other measures across the budget, it will reduce the burden for many. We expect these increases to begin at the very earliest date of 3 March.

I particularly welcome the increase in the income disregard for lone parents. The €20 increase will go some way towards reversing the changes introduced by the last Government which were misguided and resulted in severe hardship for many lone parent families. As I said, it is only a start.

Child care is one of the cornerstones of the budget. We fully support the increase in funding to support families in meeting their child care costs and to support Tusla in its additional responsibilities. Let us be clear. The package for families will only kick in in September.

I want to highlight some potentially unforeseen problems with the model proposed. We fear that the scheme may be discriminatory in respect of couples who opt for a joint assessment of income. The proposal is that households will be able to automatically determine their eligibility by inputting their PPS numbers online. However, this means that in the case of a couple which has not opted for joint assessment, one partner who earns under €47,000 will be able to claim the subsidy even if his or her partner is also working. By contrast, an individual earning €47,000 who is part of a couple which has opted for a joint assessment of income and whose partner is also earning may not be eligible for the subsidy. A married couple who earns €50,000 may not get the subsidy while a cohabiting couple earning €80,000 will. That is something that needs to be examined.

The scheme seems to allow no choice for flexibility and relies heavily on Tusla registered child care operators. We know that crèches are already struggling to meet demand for places and the scheme could potentially double or triple demand.

While I welcome the commitment to the funding of a sustainability study into the child care sector, it is essential that this information is available as soon as possible to ensure that there is no unmet demand arising from this proposal.

We have achieved a beginning on some of our priorities in education, such as ex-quota guidance counselling and additional funding for third level and postgraduate students. However, overall the education provisions are underwhelming. While progress on reducing the pupil-teacher ratio, PTR, this year was difficult only because of the demographic pressures, we have returned to the stop-start pattern of reductions in the PTR at primary level. We need to get serious about reducing the PTR, particularly for those schools under pressure. It must recommence in next year's budget. The re-introduction of ex-quota guidance counsellors was a key demand of our confidence and supply agreement. Guidance is essential at secondary school level. It is no longer the older career guidance that many of us would have gone through. It is now a much broader service and, effectively used, it can be an effective weapon in tackling many challenges facing our teenagers, particularly in the mental health area.

The announcement of an increased €31 million for third level education was another key input for Fianna Fáil. The Cassells report offers a stark picture of the challenges facing our third level sector. I welcome the fact that the education committee, chaired by my colleague, Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin, is to begin an in-depth analysis of this report. It was essential that this budget sent a signal of intent. It is, however, our view that the national training fund offers further potential for increased funding for our third level sector. Given that it is in surplus and given the seriousness of the challenge facing our third level sector, we will continue to pursue this avenue in the coming weeks. The allocation of money to reintroducing postgraduate grants is a further indication of confidence and supply. Our ability to educate world-beating postgraduates continues to be a major factor in our ability to attract inward investment. However, postgraduate degrees cannot be the preserve of the financially secure.

Capital expenditure has long been the Cinderella of budget day. The additional money announced today above the pre-budget expenditure ceiling is a drop in the ocean compared to what is required to overhaul and future-proof our country's infrastructure. The current capital plan lacks ambition. It was an exercise in electioneering rather than a genuine effort to grasp the nettle of long-term planning. Its extension over six years was essentially used to manipulate the figures to bolster the appearance of significant increased investment. Ireland has only reached 1.8% of GDP on capital expenditure. Much of our capital spend is soaked up by ongoing maintenance costs rather than developing or improving projects. We need to increase capital expenditure to 5% of GDP over the coming years to get to grips with the infrastrucuture challenge we face. When one considers that organisations such as the OECD, Think-tank for Action on Social Change, IBEC, Irish Fiscal Council, ICTU and Social Justice Ireland in a very rare coalition have all called for additional capital expenditure, it shows that this need is well outlined.

The confidence and supply agreement outlines a commitment to a full review of the plan in mid-2017. This was a critical part of the agreement for us. It is vital that this review gives an opportunity to take crucial decisions on pivotal infrastructure projects designed to address areas such as housing, transport, broadband, flooding and the bigger threats emerging from climate change. These areas are vital to our competitiveness and long-term prospects. After years of delay and deprived funding, they can no longer take a back seat. Fianna FáiI has called for the establishment of a national infrastructure commission to take a long-term view on our capital spending over the next century. This commission should be tasked with planning over a 25-year period and moving Ireland towards the target of 5% of GDP investment in capital infrastructure alongside a target of decarbonising. We must reach our targets.

Post-Brexit, it is imperative that the EU moves to increase capital expenditure. EU rules around spending must be revised with a view to enabling member states to target investment in crucial infrastructural projects. This will help ensure that the EU thrives in the aftermath of Brexit. As the country most exposed to Brexit, we surely have a strong case to make. This will require further work with to ensure innovative mechanisms like public-private partnerships remain off balance sheet. We must adhere to the fiscal rules to prevent imprudent fiscal policies engulfing Europe, but they cannot be allowed to strangle long-term investment projects. The Government must take a proactive approach in engaging with our EU colleagues to set this case out clearly and strongly. The post-Brexit gloom that has descended upon Europe cannot be allowed to undermine our capital ambition.

We need to radically re-assess the management of our capital budgets. As a country, we are still poor at delivering large-scale projects on time and on budget. There are so many examples of how poor delivery leads to delayed infrastructure and frustration. One of the most pressing issues is those communities that are facing the threat of flooding once again this winter. The OPW has a poor record of delivery to these communities and whilst the extra allocation to it today is welcome, I remain to be convinced that the OPW has either the capacity or the wish to deliver a proper flood management programme around this country.

Similarly in housing, while there is a big figure announced today, will it make a difference? The litmus test of the Government's housing strategy will be how new bricks and mortar housing units are delivered on the ground. It is fair to say that the central obstacles to new social housing provision under the predecessor's strategy was not the absence of targets or of spin. Rather, there was a failure to address the obstacle to increasing public supply of social housing. Some of these will be addressed with this funding commitment, but many will not. Local authority new builds in 2015 was the lowest output on record, with just 75 homes built nationwide by county councils. Now we expect councils to start building 1,750 a year. We welcome the ambition but we have heard it before. We have not seen a road map to that being achieved. I welcome the announcement of the infrastructure fund, but again it highlights, as do many initiatives, that co-financing is required from local authorities.

While much of the attention within the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is focused on the housing package, I believe it is important in the context of co-financing initiatives throughout the spending document to send a distress signal about the perilous state of local government finances. There has been much focus on the situation at Sligo County Council but let us be in no doubt that for most local authorities, finances are under considerable pressure and accordingly their ability to deliver on the spending programmes outlined in this budget and other basic services is considerably constrained. Many local authorities have no money to do basic repairs for tenants in local authority houses, yet the Government has set them the challenges in this strategy of bringing closed local authority houses back into use. They cannot make emergency repairs to roads when a problem arises and they are not in position to deliver on so many elements of the mandate that they have been given. Rather than putting the funding burden on local authorities through co-financing, it is time we got serious about the role and mission of local government. It is time that we properly defined it to deliver in the twenty-first century as opposed to the nineteenth, for which many of its current structures are designed. We then need to design a financial model that can deliver on that newly defined role and mission rather than constantly adding things on to its role and making its funding model up as we go along.

The capital programme will be the final chance to get real about broadband and mobile telecommunications. The potential of the ongoing revolution in data and telecommunications should no longer be constrained by geography. This capital programme can ensure that.

Communities across this island, both urban and rural, have suffered greatly as a result of the economic downturn but also as a result of a change in living patterns away from towns and cities, be they rurally or urban-based. This leads to a vicious circle in that population decline reduces the prospects of investment in turn leading to empty premises, withdrawal of services and further decline. I welcome the announcement of a new town and village strategy within this budget. Again, it must mean something. It must deliver and give people the opportunity to once again return to live in towns and in the empty spaces over many retail premises. Town centre living used to be a major factor of accomodation in this country. It is no longer for many reasons. A proper strategy would allow that.

The re-introduction of funding for the CLÁR programme is a welcome step but, again, it must be targeted and focused on delivering on essential services such as water schemes and local broadband schemes. The package for regional road projects and local improvement scheme road projects must reflect the lack of investment in this area in recent years. The introduction of funding for RAPID is another acknowledgement of the short-sightedness of Fine Gael and Labour in dismantling many low-cost community initiatives that were taken away when most needed. Urban communities face the same threat as many rural ones but in different ways. The common denominator is the willingness of people to stand up for the future of their neighbourhood.

One of the biggest threats facing our country is the perfect storm being faced by Irish agriculture. Extreme price volatility, ongoing poor weather conditions and the impact of Brexit are all combining to wreak havoc on virtually all sectors of farming. The threat of Brexit to Irish agrifood is stark. IBEC has recently estimated that for every 1% fall in the value of sterling there is a parallel 0.7% drop in Irish agrifood exports. The analysis shows that the euro climbing to 90p translates into a €700 million drop in Irish exports and a potential 7,500 job losses.

I welcome the moves in taxation referred to by Deputy Michael McGrath. We also pushed hard through our confidence and supply agreement to restore cuts made to the farm assist scheme and the rural social scheme and to expand the GLAS scheme. While I welcome the €25 million sheep scheme, the ultimate litmus test of the scheme will be if it enables all types of sheep farmers - hill and lowland - to maximise the payment that they can draw down. The areas of natural constraints scheme is an important mechanism to help maintain the continued use of agricultural lands. While we pushed for restoration of the payments under the scheme, we are very disappointed that there is no movement on restoring them, but we will continue to pursue it.

Brexit represents a serious threat not just to our farming sector but to our SMEs, entrepreneurs and retail community. It also presents opportunities for the island. However, there is only a €3 million allocation given to our enterprise agencies to pursue those opportunities. That will hardly even cover salaries. We need to examine other areas, such as expanding the credit guarantee scheme and supporting Microfinance Ireland, to assist our small companies in dealing with the challenges presented by Brexit.

The delivery of the additional services in this budget will fall to our Civil Service and public service. We have highlighted the need for the path to pay restoration for our civil and public servants. I want to reiterate my party’s support for the Landsdowne Road agreement, which provides for an additional allocation of some €400 million in 2017. Albeit on a small basis, this will continue income restoration across the board. However, the work of the new public service pay commission must commence now and we must set down a path to pay recovery. The difficulties and lack of trust between the public service and Government at the moment have as much to do with non-pay issues as with pay. It is essential that the Government recognises its past mistakes and bad attitude and works to build trust on non-pay issues. The spending split underpinning this budget will allow room to improve services and to increase employment in key areas. We now need the Government to improve on the other issues that are undermining its relationship with those who work so hard for the State.

This year's budgetary process was supposed to very different in the context of our Dáil reform process. The reality is that it was very much the same. The continued last minute - and I mean last minute - nature of it and the changing goal posts do not lend to the credibility of the budget process or to the credibility of this Oireachtas. That said, foundation stones have been laid to change the way we do budgets and we must urgently build on them. The advent of the independent budget oversight office, which should be in place for next year’s budget preparations, has considerable potential in terms of Oireachtas oversight and scrutiny. I am a member of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and, while our discussions were more condensed this year owing to the late establishment of committees, we did get a sense of the potential of the committee to scrutinise positions and proposals. While committee members approached that process from very different political prospectives, the discussions were at all times civil and informing. Arising from my experience of the first phase of the committee's work, I believe it has, if properly resourced, the potential not just in a pre-budget phase but, especially, in a post-budget phase to measure progress in terms of the themes outlined by me today.

It would have been politically easier to run to the hills and the beaches of the Mediterranean last March and April. Today we have not achieved everything we wished to achieve. It is the start of a three-year process. However, our first and major achievement is the spending split that has ensured Fine Gael has suddenly become converted to the values of fairness.

Others will criticise. They will say they would have done things differently. How does €1 billion extra in taxes sound? However, everyone who criticises needs to outline a number of things. Where were they in March, April and May when decisions had to be made about the stability, including political stability, of the country? They should account to every interest group to which they appeal today for their activities during that time and the work they have done to achieve their programme for Government. Fianna Fáil stood up to the challenge. We did not run to the hills. We did not seek the easy way out, and today the fundamental shift the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, referred to earlier has occurred not just in economics and politics but in the fairness of budgets. That fundamental shift is our print on this budget.

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