Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sa deireadh thiar thall, tá ráiteas eacnamaíoch an tsamhraidh os ár gcomhair. Dá mbeadh sé curtha ar athló níos faide, ní bheadh muid ábalta "an tsamhraidh" a úsáid sa teideal. Tá sé againn, áfach, ar scor ar bith.

After much delay, the latest set-piece in the ongoing Fine Gael plan to tell us how well everything is going and how it is managing the economy in such great ways was revealed yesterday. There is little new information contained in the summer economic statement. Rather, it is mainly a reconfirmation of what was already known. Areas on which Sinn Féin would have liked specific detail, such as the public sector pay agreement and its impact on fiscal space, water charges and other outstanding matters, were not included. We did not need a glossy publication and the Minister appearing on national radio to remind people that the Government missed an opportunity in last year’s budget and that not only did it spend that budget but also committed over half of this year's budget, thus leaving little spending room to address some of the serious deficiencies and pressure points in the economy. While one can discuss figures of €60 billion or €1.2 billion of net fiscal space, the reality is that, depending on the outcome of the ballot by public sector unions, between €300 million and €350 million is available for new spending.

We do not need this debate to recall that in last year's budget the Government prioritised tax cuts, many of which were to the economic benefit of the wealthier in society. It has become clear in recent days that the Government underestimated how much those tax cuts would cost. People do not need reminding that the EU fiscal rules, which were cheerled and championed by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party, have restricted our ability to invest in the economy and left us with the figures contained in the summer economic statement. Those figures indicate that we will only be able to invest between €300 million and €350 million in an economy that has been starved of investment for years and that now, when money and the ability to borrow at low interest rates are available, the rules say that we must wait until certain arbitrary figures are reached.

There has been much recent discussion about capital infrastructure and capital investment. The one common thread between the Fianna Fáil Government, the Fine Gael-Labour Government and the Fine Gael-Independents Government is that each substantially reduced capital spending and there has only recently been an increase in capital spending. That increase is to be welcomed.

Our economy and society face massive challenges from Brexit and US tax plans. The potentially serious impact of the Trump tax plan has not been discussed in the House. It could have a particularly dramatic impact if the border adjustment tax is put in place. It is a matter of concern that several of the largest foreign direct investment, FDI, companies located in Ireland, which pay a substantial portion of the corporation tax income that the State receives, are supporting, arguing and lobbying for the border adjustment tax.

That can only have a negative impact on Ireland in terms of our taxation receipts and employment opportunities. That risk needs to be debated and teased out a little more in the House to deal with how we can mitigate such a position if it were to happen.

I recognise there are positive aspects to the statement. The net debt ratio is falling even outside the distortion of last year's growth in the economy. The economy itself is growing, unemployment is falling and bond yields remain low. We have caught a lucky wind in some regards but those facts are welcome nonetheless. However, the entire story of an economy or a society is not just told through economic statistics. There were 357 people on trollies or crammed into wards earlier this week; 2,777 children were in emergency accommodation in the second quarter; 91,600 households were on local authority waiting lists; and there were 484,346 number of people on hospital lists with more than 51,000 waiting for more than 18 months. In a country our size, those figures are not reflective of a wealthy, prosperous society.

The reasons I outline these figures is that we need, as a House, to address these demands in the upcoming budget, yet the Government is wedded to the idea that we have to use one third of the available fiscal space for tax cuts. I do not know who presents to the Minister's constituency office or, indeed, to Fianna Fáil constituency offices and who dictates this policy in the confidence and supply agreement but nobody is coming to my offices to tell me that they want income tax cuts. My offices are crammed with people telling me that they cannot get a hospital appointment, they are under severe pressure because of mortgage distress, they cannot get social housing, the cost of education is crippling them, particularly as they approach the autumn, or they want to set up businesses in rural Ireland but they cannot because the mobile telephone network is not even up to standard, never mind the fact that there is no broadband. These are the concerns I hear about all the time. Perhaps people are queuing up to tell the Minister that they want a tax cut but that is not reflective of society. I believe there is a decency in the Irish people and they want the State to address the trolley and housing and homelessness crises.

Sinn Féin is clear, therefore, that there is no space whatsoever for net tax cuts in the upcoming budget. We need to examine how we can increase the amount that can be invested in the areas I mentioned, including in our health system and our infrastructure. They are ways that can be done through discretionary measures, which I will outline in our alternative costed budget. I hope all parties will do this. I single out Fianna Fáil in this regard because last year the party did not produce an alternative budget. It is easy for the party to stand in opposition and say it wants investment in this and that and wants the housing and health crises sorted out and so on by tabling Private Members' motions, but it has put its money on paper and say what it would do. Sinn Féin has stood apart from some parties by outlining what we would do in government on paper and I hope other parties will do the same. Betting duty could be increased and the help-to-buy scheme, which has had nothing but a negative consequence for house prices, could be scrapped. That would increase the fiscal space by €40 million. The Minister could introduce a sugar tax. All these measures combined would bring hundreds of million of euro into play, which could be used to invest in society.

Nothing illustrates the way the Government is making up policy on the hoof better than its U-turn on the USC. I welcome the fact that the Government has decided not to abolish the charge. I would like to hear from Fianna Fáil that it will abandon its proposal to abolish 90% of the USC and from the Labour Party, which plans something similar.

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