Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2017 was a series of minor changes to what is a grossly unfair and broken system. There have been some marginal improvements here and there, but mostly what we saw was Fine Gael pandering to its pet audiences in the privileged classes. In the last election Fine Gael's vote shrunk throughout the country, except in one area, south Dublin. It is clear that this demographic is increasingly Fine Gael's focus.

Introducing a €20,000 grant for individuals purchasing a starter home worth €600,000 while 6,000 people languish in emergency accommodation for months on end is brutally inequitable. Giving 2,000 people €20 million as an inheritance tax break while emergency mental health services throughout the country pull shutters down at night time is callously unfair. Before the election, the Labour Party targeted Ashbourne Annie as its fictional voter. It is clear to me that Fine Gael's target fictional voter now is Rathgar's Ross O'Carroll Kelly.

Another point of note from this budget was the ability of Fine Gael Deputies to take to their feet in this Chamber and act like they are just in government. This is the sixth year Fine Gael has been in government. For six years it has presided over worsening health care, housing and education.

It is also clear that Fine Gael's marketing department has not been fired since the "Keep the recovery going" nonsense six months ago. Measures were presented to us in this budget to mitigate Brexit but they were actually, simply, repackaged measures dealing with pre-existing crises among farmers, self-employed persons and the hospitality sector. This budget will not fix the deeply unfair economic system built by Fine Gael.

Those languishing on hospital trolleys and the hundreds of thousands of people waiting on expanding waiting lists will see no respite in the budget. Education spending will be grossly inefficient and insufficient to meet demand. Buying a house, or even trying to afford rent, will be an impossible goal for hundreds of thousands of people in the State.

Sinn Féin seeks to radically change the system. We are looking to change the way things are done. We would invest €1.8 billion in public services. We would inject €462 million in the health services to bring about an additional 500 beds. We would reduce prescription charges and invest in ambulance and mental health care. We would invest €278 million in education, tackling the cost of so-called free education in the State, reducing pupil-teacher ratios and beginning the process of abolishing the punitive third level fees. We would invest significantly in child care, with a €252 million package, including an investment of €111 million to subsidise child care costs for children between the ages of six months and three years. We would scrap the water charges and the household tax to help the squeezed middle.

I heard some Fine Gael Deputies speak about families on €100,000 per year being the squeezed middle.

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