Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak on budget 2017. Even though we had to wait until this late in the day - one week since the budget was introduced - it is still very important that we get to discuss all the measures because there was so much detail to take in on Tuesday, 11 October, and many different measures that affect different Departments.

I will touch on a number of the measures to which I refer but I will begin by referring to child care. This is an issue that had the Fine Gael imprint all over it, dating back to our manifestos from before the general election in which we set out our desire to expand the child care system to support those who go out to work every day to make a living but who are faced with very significant costs in that regard. Budget 2017 makes a significant investment in child care in order to make it more affordable for those hard-pressed families. A two-pronged approach was taken to this. First, there is the universal element whereby children aged six months to three years are covered in terms of full-time formal child care and will receive support to the value of €960 a year, which is a significant saving for those families. Second, the more targeted approach sees a subsidy scheme for low to middle income earners with children from the age of six to 15 years. That builds on the work Fine Gael would have done in its previous term in office when we introduced the second preschool year for the early childhood care and education scheme, the introduction of the two weeks paternity leave, and free GP care for children under the age of six. In the new child care structure under the Minister, Deputy Zappone, we have a system in which even more investment can be made as we continue to grow the economy, get more people back to work and have more money to play with, so to speak. However, the structure is as important as the significant 15% increase in investment for that sector.

In the social welfare element, there is a €5 increase for those on the old age pension, carers, those with a disabilities, widows, blind persons, lone parents, jobseekers, those in receipt of on maternity and paternity benefit and people on community employment schemes. The increase covers 1.49 million people. For many, this is the first increase they have been given since rates were slashed by €16 by the then Government in 2009. The 85% Christmas bonus for 1.2 million will be an important benefit, not just for those people and their families but also for the businesses that benefit from more cash going into the local economy.

I was on a local radio programme last week with a Sinn Féin Deputy. We debated the issue of young jobseekers benefit and I was criticised for the fact that we had not increased it by the €5, but there was a very good reason for that. It is a pro rataincrease and I do not believe we should be incentivising young people of 18, 19 or 20 years of age who are living at home with their parents and who are not employed or in full-time education to remain on that benefit. That is not what our system should do. I pointed out to the Sinn Féin Deputy that while he was calling for us to give €140 a week instead of €100, it is ironic that these young people's counterparts in Northern Ireland get €64 a week. Leaving that aside, it is important to put on the record that jobseekers under the age of 26 who go back to education get the full adult rate of €193, which was €160 previously. We reward for upskilling, encouraging them to take up training. Joskeekers under the age of 26 have their rent supplement contribution reduced as well, which is another benefit. That comes down to Fine Gael's core value of enterprise, reward and making work pay. That approach is working. There were 90,000 young people on the live register in 2010. That figure is down to 34,000 now and we want it to drop further.

Fairness is a key component of this budget and while cuts in the three lower rates of the USC by 0.5% are not massive, it is another step in the right direction in terms of what we want to do to ease the burden on those working families. Medical cards for the 11,000 children in receipt of domiciliary care is another very important measure.

The retention of the 9% VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality industry, particularly in light of Brexit, is a crucial measure. However, hotels here in Dublin are making the case difficult in terms of tourist facilities the length and breadth of this country including restaurants in our regional towns and villages, which benefit from this VAT rate. We need to examine that into the future.

The DIRT rate will be reduced by 2% this year and there is a commitment of a further 2% in each of the next three years. This will result in a reduction from the very high penal rate of 41%. That is very important.

The Lansdowne Road mechanism is examining teachers' pay and pay restoration across the board. However, we must also continue to invest in our State Departments. The 2,400 new teaching posts, including 900 resource teachers and 115 special needs assistants, are crucial, as are the 800 new gardaí and the 500 civilians that will be employed to free up another 500 gardaí to serve on the front line.

I very much welcome the sports capital programme for 2017. The sports capital programme introduced by the previous Government had a strong impact on local communities the length and breadth of the country. It is money that is injected right into the heart of communities, with local contractors getting to do some of the works. A number of clubs in my area are benefiting from that. I refer to the investment the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran-Kennedy, who is sitting beside me, has obtained for the Healthy Ireland initiative. Sports capital grant funding is inextricably linked to that. It is about targeting, for example, GAA clubs that take a cross-community approach in terms of male and female participation and so on. I presume the points system for sports capital funding will be the same as it was previously, which is very much weighted towards those clubs that have diversity and mixed use, and where we get the maximum use out of facilities. We should not invest in AstroTurf and floodlit fields for a specific club that has a narrow outlook. We should reward those clubs that open up their gates for multi-use purposes. That is important.

The budget for health is €14.6 billion budget, which means that 25% of the overall national spend is in this area. The provision of 1,000 new nurses is a key component of that. We need those extra nurses in Naas General Hospital in Kildare, but we also have the challenge whereby nursing positions are available but we are having difficulty filling them. The difficulties in the recruitment of nurses is an area that must be tackled.

The €20 million for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, to tackle waiting lists and reduce prescription charges for over 70s is a key element. However, supports for school leavers with disabilities, the €5 million for the Healthy Ireland fund, the €30 million for supports for older people, home care packages, transitional and acute beds are also crucial.

Housing has been a key issue. When we talk about a doubling the investment in housing of €1.2 billion, it shows the commitment of this Government to the action plan for housing that aims to deliver 47,000 more social houses by 2021 and phase out the use of hotel rooms by 2017, which is vital for those families that are in short-term homelessness. The latter is a dreadful imposition on them.

We have the help-to-buy scheme and there is a change in interest rates for landlords. Some of the changes were headline-grabbers and got a lot of focus in the media but, although they are important in their own right, they are part of a much larger action plan for housing, which mirrors our action plan for jobs. There are a number of key, targeted measures across a range of sectors that will get to the heart of where our problems are. The problems with homelessness are multifaceted and, in that regard, the extra €105 million for HAP and the extension of the rent-a-room limit to €14,000 are really important measures.

I welcome the measures for the self-employed, of whom we have 380,000 the length and breadth of this country. We talk a lot about our corporate tax rate and the foreign multinationals which employ a lot of people, notably in Kildare, but they are not so important as the self-employed person who takes on the risk of employing staff. The earned income tax credit of €400, on top of the €550 from last year, is another step in pay equalisation for the self-employed and a recognition of the very important contribution they make to our economy and society.

There are increases in long-term illness and treatment benefits without a change in PRSI, and these are really important. One should not be at a disadvantage if one takes the risk of starting a business. We need to encourage entrepreneurial spirit so the reduction in relief from 20% to 10% is important. We need the €1 million band to be lifted to get ourselves more in line with the UK. I welcome the Minister's comments to the effect that he will keep this under review for other budgets. There is also an extension of the start your own business scheme.

Self-employed dental, optical and hearing benefits are back for employees and self-employed equally, and over 50,000 children will benefit from free school meals, over and beyond the DEIS schools. I think the DEIS school system is good but DEIS schools have everything while the non-DEIS schools miss out so this targeted measure of free school meals is very important.

I would like to touch on many other areas, such as the €107 million for the rural development programme and increased funding for the horse racing sector which recognises the real and important contribution that industry plays, with the 16,000 jobs for which it is responsible the length and breadth of the country, as well as the additional €16 million for the Department of Defence. However, my colleague, Deputy John Paul Phelan, has a lot of good points to make so I will wrap up. This was a very prudent budget which uses the benefits of our improved economy to support those workers who get up in the morning, go out and make good lives for themselves and their communities. It is also a budget that looks to support the vulnerable and those who need our support the most. In the measures to deal with Brexit, it also keeps us well placed to deal with any future shocks. I commend it to the House.

See this speech in context