Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----but Wexford Creamery milk is €1.32. That is roughly the equivalent of the difference of this budget to a household on the minimum wage. It is hard, seeing that reality, to agree with the Tánaiste that this budget is making work worthwhile. What is maddening about this is that it would not have cost much to make it different. A simple change to the terms of reference of the Low Pay Commission would have mandated it to work towards delivering a living wage for all, as the Labour Party demanded. It would have led to a larger increase in the minimum wage and a small amount of funding to increase family income supplement could have raised the income thresholds accordingly. That is not a choice that the myriad on the committee, from Fine Gael to Fianna Fáil to the Independents, thought to make yesterday.

This Government has shown scant regard for the low paid. What of other vulnerable groups? Notwithstanding the Taoiseach's words, children are arguably the group most poorly served by yesterday's budget.

I referred to the Labour Party's broad support for the work being done by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, while noting some of our concerns about the weakness of what was announced yesterday, particularly the sum of money attached to that announcement. To propose essentially that child care is the only investment worth making for children is bizarre. Where in the budget was the action promised in a commitment in the programme for Government to reduce class sizes in primary schools? Education is the true mechanism for achieving equality. We know smaller class sizes matter, particularly to young children, children with special needs and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Last year, we emerged from the worst of times and made a start on class sizes. I expected class sizes to continue to fall in a structured manner year after year. Where was the action in the budget to increase funding to schools and reduce reliance on voluntary parental contributions? The word "voluntary" in this context should be placed in parentheses.

Where in the budget was action taken to tackle the appalling waiting lists for access to early intervention teams for children with disabilities? I note the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Finian McGrath, is present. While the extension of medical cards to children who qualify for the domiciliary care allowance is welcome, children with disabilities need more than access to a doctor. They need, at an early age, access to occupational therapy, physiotherapy or speech and language therapy. They need to be supported to reach their potential and the intervention required must be provided at an early age. From examining these issues every year, I know this does not come cheap. For example, to fully staff all early intervention teams would cost €270 million. The Labour Party's alternative budget suggested this should be done over five years, with an additional 780 staff coming on stream each year. While recruiting these staff would be a challenge because we are not training sufficient numbers of the relevant professional groups, we should at least set this as a target. Yesterday's budget, in contrast, appears to have done nothing to begin to address this appalling backlog, which will copperfasten disadvantage in another generation.

Child benefit is a universal payment that helps parents meet the day-to-day expenses of raising a child. Since my election to the Dáil, it has been viewed as a payment to be provided to all families to help them with the important task of rearing children. For some reason, however, the Government decided that child benefit would be the only social welfare payment not to be increased in 2017. In area after area, it is clear that apart from the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, not one Minister has chosen to prioritise investment in children in his or her Department. The Government could have made the choice to do so. After a year of reflecting on our past, we could have stepped into the next century with a determination to make Ireland the best country in the world in which to raise children. That, however, was not the choice the Government made yesterday.

Despite what some commentators may suggest, Irish people value much more than a few bob in their pockets. We have a rich culture that is a deep source of national pride, as was evident in much of the celebration manifested in the commemorations of the 1916 Rising. We punch above our weight in sporting arenas all across the globe. We are a generous people who recognise that, as a country, we owe it to others to show solidarity. While we, as a people, recognise the importance of these critical issues, the Government failed yesterday to attach a similar level of importance to them in the budget.

The easiest thing in the world for the Government to do would have been to deliver a real increase in funding for the arts and culture, the reason being that the increase was already in the base. Last year, funding was increased in the Estimates to ensure the arts and cultural sectors fully participated in the 1916 centenary commemorations. All the Government had to do to make an extraordinary difference to communities in the area of the arts was leave this ring-fenced money in the base. However, it refused to take the easy option of bequeathing a legacy to future generations by permanently bedding this additional provision into funding for the arts.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, may develop a complex because I am the third speaker to mention him.

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