Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I share the concerns of my colleague, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, on Brexit. This was the biggest, glaring omission in yesterday's budget. Yesterday was an opportunity for us to get ahead of Brexit but today we are further behind than ever. What does Brexit mean to people on the ground? One should ask the people who were working in the three mushroom factories that have closed in the past few weeks. One should ask the people in the food industry, where we have already seen that English suppliers have cut their costs by 10%. Indigenous businesses are struggling to keep their space. Where are the substantial measures, the risk-aversion arrangements and the enticements for business in this context? The budget was an opportunity for Ireland to get ahead and get first-mover advantage to receive the banks or financial institutions that are ready to move from London. Many years ago we had a crisis in respect of sterling. The then Government brought in a temporary measure in respect of halving the cost of PRSI for the employers in the affected industry.

We saw no such measures yesterday in the budget, which represents a huge mistake.

Regarding housing, social stability is built on a few basics, none more important than having a roof over one's head. The housing crisis has many victims, including the homeless, those in social housing, those in negative equity and those who cannot get on the property ladder. Home ownership is important for families and communities. Absolutely nothing was done for people in negative equity. What about those who are living in apartments, hoping to start families or perhaps starting families already and looking to buy a house? They are penalised by the budget. The price of houses will go up and they will have absolutely no support. The measures announced around housing should have addressed the punitive development levies and the fact that at present 40% of the price of a house goes straight to the Government. This is what needs to be addressed.

I have spoken many times in this House about the fact that my constituency, Kildare South, has the lowest number of gardaí in the country and not one community garda. I welcome the increase in Garda numbers and sincerely hope my county will do better than it has done in recent years and that our two Garda stations which were closed recently, Ballymore Eustace and Ballitore, will be reopened.

I welcome the Minister for Justice and Equality's funding for victims, particularly victims of domestic and sexual violence, but €500,000 is paltry and I remind her that there is a huge and pressing need for a new family law court in this city.

Wth my colleague, I am happy to see the extra supports in child care, but they need to be implemented without delay and cannot wait until 1 September. The cost of child care for families in County Kildare runs into thousands of euro and is a major strain on working parents. Again, as my colleague has pointed out, middle-income families are finding themselves unfairly penalised. We must support parents who make the choice to stay in their homes and support their children at home. Child care providers play a pivotal role in our society. They are entrusted with the care and education of children and deserve greater recognition and appreciation for the work they do.

Schools are the building blocks of our democracy. If we are to create a better, fairer society, it must happen through schools and if we are to build a better society through schools, it must happen through our teachers, whom we need to support. The budget has done nothing to improve the pupil-teacher ratio or to provide for the restoration of pay following the cuts in teachers' pay and allowances to support a profession in which morale is low and where students are impacted. We must recognise the importance of intervention in children's lives in their early years. My colleague, Deputy Margaret Murphy O'Mahony, has outlined where such intervention is needed. The reality is that much of the extra spending announced in the budget will be swallowed up by the fast-growing school population. The pupil-teacher ratio remains the second highest in the country.

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