Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is lovely to see people coming in to the Visitors Gallery to watch us perform here. Sometimes we are great, sometimes not so good. I see that Deputy Durkan has invited some people in, as have some other Deputies. Céad míle fáilte. I love to see people coming in and watching the proceedings because that is what democracy is about. Schools also come in to visit the Gallery, today and every day, to watch us perform here.

With regard to the budget it is fair to say that Fianna Fáil had a serious input into it. Deputy Cassells has spoken about the investment in services and tax reduction. I will explain why we did that. It is because our constituents were saying, to me and other TDs, that budgets are not all about cutting taxes. We need better services and we all know the difficulties in the health service. We know we need better services in education. We need to improve our services and that is quite evident in this budget. We gave the €5 increase to pensioners, as agreed by Fine Gael. That is important because pensioners have lost a lot in recent years. They have lost a lot of their benefits and a lot of money. There are many, many pensioners who come to me and to other TDs, who are in quite serious financial situations. It is not easy to survive on €200 plus per week. If any little financial crisis occurs with those people at all, they find themselves in trouble.

The national treatment purchase fund, NTPF, will not eliminate waiting lists but it was a Fianna Fáil scheme initially when it was brought in. It was removed but now it is back with €50 million. Of course it is not going to solve our problems but it certainly will reduce the waiting lists. It is good to see the CLÁR programme back for rural Ireland which was another scheme brought in by Fianna Fáil when in government. It had been abandoned completely. Programmes such as CLÁR and RAPID are very important for local employment and local initiatives. I acknowledge that there are quite a number of positive initiatives in the budget for rural Ireland. That is important because for years rural Ireland was forgotten about. It desperately needs help.

I welcome the investment in child care and we need to provide that child care for people. However, I have had representations on this issue today that there are people who feel left out of the loop. Parents of children who are not in full-time care whose children might be looked after by grandparents are now excluded from the new child care plan as unveiled in the budget. They will not be able to avail of any child care subsidy and I believe that is wrong. It needs to be rectified and the Government needs to look at the matter. Overall, the package was needed and I look forward to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, giving us more clarification when she comes in to the House.

One of the biggest disappointments for me, as Fianna Fáil's junior spokesperson on flood relief, is to see the lack of emphasis on the flooding crisis that is hitting many parts of rural Ireland. For an island nation we have failed miserably to deal with this matter. Now, with climate change etc., this is becoming critical. Consider counties such as Roscommon. I find it difficult to explain to people in the House that as I speak, in parts of Roscommon, parts of east Galway and parts of south Galway, the water has only receded to the back walls of people's gardens. That is how close the water is. Businesses have been ruined, farms have been ruined and houses have been ruined. This is a massive crisis and the flooding issue has not been given any mention, especially with regard to my part of the country. The Budget 2017 Expenditure Report says that "Existing infrastructural and service priorities include the commencement of flood relief schemes in Athlone, Blackpool, Lower Lee (Cork City), Clonakilty, Glashaboy and Templemore." Those places are being looked after but there is no mention of where the real crisis is with flooding. The Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, will understand exactly because she is a rural TD from Offaly and she has had to deal with this, as do TDs from Westmeath, Roscommon, Longford and Galway. We have to tackle this problem. There is no emphasis in tackling it in this budget. I hope that when the Minister comes to the House he will explain exactly what he has laid out, what he is going to do for people who have lost property, parts of their homes and their businesses. They need to be assisted and helped. We need to get real about the issue of climate change and the flooding it is causing. Politicians need to take back control of the River Shannon from agencies.

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