John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure I have such good points to make but I will make them anyway. Budget 2017 was probably the dullest budget in my 15 years as a Member of the Oireachtas, and hallelujah to that. I am the only one in the House at the moment who remembers the era of McCreevy. When he came in on budget day there was always one rabbit, if not half a dozen rabbits, to be pulled out of a hat, though some had very little to do with budgeting and more to do with politics. The future of budget day announcements should be along the lines of this one - no surprises.

Deputy Lahart raised some concerns about the first-time buyer's scheme, concerns which I have and which I am sure others have too. He spoke about how basic economics were not applied but basic economics have not applied to the housing market in Ireland for a long time, if they ever did. We were building over 50,000 units at the height of the boom and yet prices were increasing exponentially every year. We will see whether this succeeds and I hope it does, but it is an attempt to see that people who are starting out and facing increased house prices, as well as the rules of the Central Bank, which need to be applied, have help in getting their foot on the property ladder and I welcome that.

I also welcome the small changes in taxation and the reduction in the universal social charge at the lowest end. I am one of those who believes the universal social charge should be absolutely and completely removed, though it should be partially replaced and the USC itself replaced two levies which brought in most of the money the USC now brings in. In the committee of which I am a member we heard that, proportionately, Ireland is at the lower end in the OECD in terms of the amount we take in PRSI, both from employers and employees, and this is probably where the change will be made in the future. We have more moving parts in our taxation system than most countries and the removal of the universal social charge is something that should be aspired to. The reduction in DIRT tax is small and will take place over four years, at 2% per annum, but it is welcome. I would like to see reductions in capital taxes too, though there was not enough leeway in this budget for that.

Deputy Heydon mentioned earned income tax credit and I welcome that, as I do the social protection measures for self-employed people, limited as they are. The child care provisions are an initial but significant step and this is the first Government that has made a significant effort to deal with the colossal costs that many families have in this regard. With the after-school benefits being means tested this will not affect everybody we would like to help in the first years of operation but it is laying down the ground rules of how the system might operate in the future.

One regret I have is over education spending and I do not want to be political - though I am a politician, I suppose. Media speculation had it that, prior to the budget, Fianna Fáil was placing a lot of emphasis on third level funding but the increase in third level funding, while not as much as was sought, had a knock-on effect on the funding increases available for primary and secondary level. I have a couple of degrees but everybody goes to primary school and secondary school while not everybody goes, or should go or wants to go, to third level and increases in funding for education should start at primary and secondary level. The increases that are included really only keep up with demographic changes in the country and this is a regret I have from budget day.

The Committee on Budgetary Scrutiny which I am privileged to chair is the first of its type in this House. I thank the secretariat, Mr. McEnery and his staff and the members, Deputies Barrett, Brophy, O'Connell, Lisa Chambers, MacSharry, Michael McGrath, Pearse Doherty, Cullinane, Boyd Barrett, Donnelly, Burton, Eamon Ryan and Broughan. We are 15 very voluble Members of this House who endeavoured over the month of September to have some impact on budget 2017. There is an absolute necessity for the establishment of an independent budgetary office in the House by spring next year to support the committee in its work.

One of the things that has always surprised me about budgets is how we can have much discussion, here and outside the Chamber, about the €1.3 billion announcement but little or no discussion of the other €56 billion or €57 billion that is automatically part of the budget. That is a massive area on which the budget scrutiny committee will have to focus its attentions in the future, long after we have all gone. There was one clearly identifiable area in virtually every report produced on the economic crash in Ireland and that was that we did not have enough consideration of budgetary matters prior to the budget day announcement. We were extremely limited in what we could do this year as we only had our first meeting in the last week of July before the Houses rose for the summer. We managed to meet two days a week every week in September, before the Dáil came back, to produce a report.

The members put themselves strongly to the task at hand. Indeed, some of the measures and areas that were highlighted in our report were dealt with in the budget, but it is imperative, if that committee is to function properly and as we all wish it would into the future, that the independent budgetary office and, indeed, a number of other supports, are given to it.

I join the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, in welcoming the provisions included in the budget for those on social protection incomes. One of the biggest criticisms I have of the budget is that it did not do enough. Maybe more money could have been targeted at individual areas but I believe there was a conscious effort by the Government to ensure that everybody got something out of this budget and that it was not just particular groups in society that were picked off. That was correct after seven or eight years of difficult financial times for individuals, families and communities.

Finally, I welcome the provision in the budget for additional funding for the work of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. Previous speakers mentioned the increase in revenue from corporation tax. There is a body of work that has to be done there. Hopefully, we as a committee will be able to take part in that too but the Revenue has an important function in that regard.

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