David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputy Louise O'Reilly. Sometimes Teachta Kelleher can almost achieve the impossible. He almost got me to feel sorry for the Minister of State who had to listen to his contribution because the Minister of State will agree that if Fianna Fáil Members were sitting in his seat and if Teachta Kelleher was a Minister, there would have been nothing different in this budget. The Deputy made many comments about the failures in housing and health but Fianna Fáil had an opportunity to put forward an alternative budget and it failed to do so. It was the first year that the party did not produce a costed alternative. Instead, it criticised my party for putting forward an alternative that delivered on the big issues facing families. One of the few remarks the Deputy made that I agree with is there were no surprises in the budget. We got the same as we always have from Fine Gael-led Governments, which is an unfair budget that did not grapple with the big problems facing most families. We got the usual confusion and spin with no detail about any of the proposals that were announced. There was no vision and no plan for most sectors.

I will take up some of the issues raised by the Fianna Fáil spokespersons to which they did not provide solutions. There was a great deal of debate in the House about housing prior to the budget. An Oireachtas committee was set up to examine how we can meet the challenge of the housing crisis. It is accepted universally outside the Chamber that the best way to do this is for the State to start building homes again and for the State to purchase homes. Capital funding was needed to enable local authorities to buy houses and build homes to increase capacity in the system.

That would have the added advantage of driving down rents in Cork, Dublin, Waterford and other major cities, as well as in rural areas. We proposed an additional 7,000 units through acquisitions and new builds as part of our capital plan, yet I was told by Fianna Fáil that this was too ambitious and could not be achieved. It would be a drop in the ocean in terms of what will actually be necessary in the next few years, but it was a start and a move in the right direction. What we got from the Government, however, on this issue had been taken straight from the Fianna Fáil playbook when it was unable to solve any of the big problems, namely, the introducing of tax breaks. We had the so-called first-time buyer's scheme which was half-baked, with no real detail and which had not been properly teased out. Within a couple of days the cracks appeared, there were U-turns and the proposal is now left standing without any real merit. What budget day and the Finance Bill are about is celebrating that we are taking big decisions to deal with the problems facing families. We know that housing is the big issue, with people unnecessarily being in emergency accommodation, sleeping in their parents' and friends' front rooms and without a roof over their heads. This is the time to deal with these issues and put our money where our mouths are. Fianna Fáil had the chance to do so, but, of course, it did nothing, as usual. The Government of Fine Gael and the Independents had its chance, but it did nothing either. Here we go again with no real solution to the housing crisis.

Before the budget we were led to believe through a big announcement that there would be a significant child care package for working families and the so-called "squeezed middle". By the way, the squeezed middle includes those on an income of €30,000 to €40,000 a year, not those on an income of €70,000 or €80,000 a year, as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael seem to think. The majority of workers in the State earn less than €45,000 a year. They are the ones who need support the most. When it came to child care, the Government announced a package which, again, had not been thought out or would not benefit the majority of working parents. It announced a package it would not even be able to deliver because there is not the capacity in the case of most child care providers to enable people to take the advantage of it in the first place. It was another of the big issues on which there was no vision, detail or plan. It is made up as the Government goes along in the hope everything will work out, but it does not.

Health, an issue close to Deputy Billy Kelleher's heart, is another case where things are being kept as they are. There is no plan to deal with the two-tier health service, to move to a universal health care system or to deal with the record numbers on waiting lists. There are record numbers of patients in public hospitals who are being outsourced to private hospitals. In Waterford the figure doubled from 3,000 patients in 2013 to over 6,000 in 2015. It is welcome that at least patients are being treated. Again, however, it is a sticking plaster solution - outsourcing to private hospitals, putting more public money into private hospitals and not providing capacity in public hospitals. There has been a doubling of agency staff costs because we are not employing the number of health staff we should. This is an additional cost because it does not save the State any money. Every week, when the figures come out, with record numbers of patients lying on hospital trolleys, the Minister trots out the tea and sympathy and there will be a discussion about what we need to do about the problem, but when the time comes to do something about it - budget day - nothing is done. Why are the resources not put into the health service? It is because the Government is not committed to Sinn Féin's vision for a universal health care system and increasing capacity in public services to deliver for patients.

There was the Cassells report on education. If we, in Sinn Féin, did not provide for the increased capacity as outlined in the Cassells report in our alternative budget, we would have been rightly castigated. We included an additional €130 million, in current and capital expendidture, in our alternative budget, €100 million of which was based on the Cassells report, but what did the Government provide? It only provided a fraction of that figure. We are nowhere near what we need to provide the capacity needed at third and fourth level, in the universities and institutes of technology, as well as at primary and second level.

All of the problems about which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will cry crocodile tears such as schools without resources, there not being enough special needs assistants, high pupil-teacher ratios, with the numbers on hospital trolleys and the homelessness crisis will be part of every Member's narrative for several months. However, when the Government had the opportunity do something about it, it did nothing. It gave us a bland budget, as Deputy Billy Kelleher admitted, but it was something of which he was part. He supported it and is allowing it to happen. I do not see any vision.

We need more money for mental health services. We rightly had emotional debates in the House on these issues because they affect many people. We were then told the money was not available to fund the services we needed. However, adjustments to a figure of €25 million were made to the capital acquisitions tax regime, which will have an impact on a tiny number of citizens. It is unconscionable that we will give a tiny number that €25 million because we want to change the inheritance tax rules to make a small number of people wealthier when we could have used the money to fund mental health services. These are the choices we have to make as politicians. It makes me laugh when I hear Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael accuse Sinn Féin of being populist as they were the parties which gave in to the vocal lobbies in this respect. They also wanted to phase out the universal social charge, a move which officials in the Department of Finance described as base eroding. They said it would not have an impact on many working families and would be regressive. I am a member of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. We had any number of individuals and groups before us to discuss this issue, including the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the ESRI and IBEC, and every single one of them stated it would be a mistake to phase out the universal social charge. They all said we needed to increase capacity in the capital spend to build schools, hospitals, improve roads and provide for flood relief measures. I am sure we will hear Deputies Billy Kelleher and Frank O'Rourke talk again about flooding. Where is the money for flood relief measures? Less than €50 million was provided. When we had the opportunity to increase capital funding, we did not take it.

We hear much from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael about the fiscal rules. Brian Hayes, MEP, spoke recently about the need for flexibility in that regard. Some of the Fianna Fáil members of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and the finance committee also spoke about the need for more movement on the fiscal rules and we had an opportunity to spread the cost of capital investment over four years. This would have allowed us to front-load capital investment this year, but what did the Government provide? The additional capital spend was only €400 million. It blew the chance to take advantage of one of the few opportunities to avail of flexibility. Sinn Féin did take advantage, which is why it proposed a capital spend of €1.2 billion, which would have used up €400 million of the fiscal space available. That would have allowed money to be allocated for flood relief measures, road projects, hospitals, schools and the supply of housing. Instead, the Government delivered a bland budget. I would actually hazard the guess that when the ESRI makes the final analysis, this will not be considered to be a progressive budget. For all of the credit Fianna Fáil was trying to take for a so-called progressive budget, let us see what happens with the final analysis is made in the next few weeks.

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