Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister well in his new joint custody arrangements involving the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Finance. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform might get the Minister at weekends - I am unsure. I wish the new ministerial team well. I was listening to their remarks and to the speeches. The intent was good but the reality is so lacking. In reality, the connection between the summer economic statement and our grand macro figures is lacking. In Mayo General Hospital, four weeks of elective surgery will be cancelled, including the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August. This is because the hospital does not have enough theatre nurses. It cannot get them. That is the reality in our health service around the system.

It is not necessarily a complete fiscal reality either. The reform programme referenced by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, is going to have to kick in here. Often, it is work practices and patterns that deter people from coming back and taking up opportunities.

I was listening to Deputy Harty earlier. He referred to the person he met who is going back to take up a consultancy post. Well done to her, but many will not do so. This is not because of tax necessarily but because of the working conditions and practices within the HSE. It needs to be tackled. Many Deputies I have been listening to this morning deal with the HSE. Those in the HSE management think they are unanswerable to us as public representatives and to the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.

There is no sense in us making grandiose announcements like summer economic statements, spending and capital reviews or budget day announcements unless there is monitoring of how it is happening. More than 500 children in Mayo are on a waiting list for occupational therapists. When we have waiting lists going out of control in hospitals throughout the country for all elective surgery, the notions of the grand recovery and a republic of opportunity that the Taoiseach speaks about are alien notions. Will we get evidence of it in this year's budget? It is an alien notion for a person waiting more than two years for his child to see an occupational therapist because there are not enough of them in the system. Moreover, the system is so rigid and lacking in imagination and compassion that it will not move occupational therapists to areas where they are needed. There is no republic of opportunity if a person is waiting for a hip operation or on a waiting list to get into the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire.

There is certainly no republic of opportunity for people who cannot access high-speed broadband for their children to do basic education. They cannot work from home. They cannot make the choice to get up early in the morning and work from home. They cannot live in the regions and work for a company based in Dublin because, despite all the money that has been spent, we have been unable to get our heads around how to spend it properly on high-speed broadband.

The Minister is undertaking a spending review at the moment. I am sceptical about it because I am sceptical about the willingness of Departments to say where they are spending it and what they are spending it on. I am even more sceptical about the willingness of the system to measure the impact of that spending.

Earlier, Deputy Mattie McGrath spoke about the level of waste, and he was right. That waste means we are unable to spend it on essential services. It means we cannot make people's lives easier. We cannot use the money we are speaking about here to make an impact on those lives. That waste is tolerated within the system and that will remain the case until we stand up to that waste and stand up to that challenge.

Deputy O'Sullivan has left but she made a point about the independent budget office. I welcome the appointment of Annette Connolly as the head of the independent budget office, as was announced yesterday. I wish her well in her position. However, that office was nobbled from day one. The difficulties, delays and rows over the grade are only a signal of what is to come. The system does not want an independent budget office challenging it. The system does not want an independent budget office equipping Members of this House and the other House with the skills and information we need to challenge where this money is going.

We expect the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform in those roles and as a Member of the House to stand up to the system and ensure Annette Connolly is given the resources and powers necessary for the independent budget office to be truly effective, for it truly to do the job we want it to do, for it to be independent and for it to challenge and to ask the system what it is doing with the money allocated to it.

Earlier, the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, spoke about the big bang budget day announcements. We should not be fooled. The system has not changed that much. It is amazing how €200 million can be found between midnight and 1 a.m. on budget night. The big bang budget announcement is a problem. First, we make the announcements. Then, we all have a four or five-day debate, but then we go away back to our work. What we need to do is monitor where that money is going and where it is having the impact. I hope this is what the independent budget office will be about.

My remarks yesterday on the statement were focused on the area of capital. The Minister will know from parliamentary questions and committee meetings that I do not believe the Government is getting the capital budgeting system right in any way. We have alternatives in terms of funding. The Government did not necessarily need to reduce the rainy day fund. I welcome the Government's new-found commitment to the rainy day fund. The Government could have gone elsewhere, for example, the European Investment Bank. I welcome the plan to review the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. However, there needs to be urgency about that.

Where are we with the credit union offer of putting €1 billion on the table for addressing our social housing problem? That is the greatest challenge facing this Republic. One year on from our centenary year, we cannot put a roof over the heads of the citizens of this Republic. They are sleeping on streets, in hubs and in hotels. People are tracking from one side of the city to the other to get their children to school because we cannot provide houses. No amount of spin, glossy documents or big bang announcements will change that. The Government is running away from funding that is put on the table that is not Exchequer funding. We cannot get an answer to why there is no engagement around that. That is why we cannot take the capital plan seriously. That is why we judge the Government on the practicality of it. We cannot rate the Government ambition for capital plans seriously when it is walking away from sources of funding that might be available to it.

We need to wake up and look at what Brexit is going to do to this country, not only in this House but outside in every element of society. I pay tribute to the former Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, in respect of what he achieved on the Border, but that was achieved on the back of an international agreement that has been in place since 1998 - the Good Friday Agreement. There is still no understanding at EU level of the impact Brexit will have on our economy. Leaving the Border and associated issues aside, I do not hear anything from Brussels to suggest that they understand this is the economy most exposed to the UK leaving. The UK is our biggest trading partner. For the first time since our independence, we are going in a different direction. I do not get a sense that the Government is urgently pursuing or articulating that argument in the corridors in Brussels.

When Mr. Barnier was here some weeks ago, he stood in the Chamber and patted us on the back. He told us we were great boys and girls and that it would be all right on the right, but it will not be all right. People are in business trying to make plans. In two years, we are either going over a cliff or down a very rocky road. One way or the other it is not going to be easy. The same should apply to the country.

To Brexit-proof the country, it means a massive capital investment in the Atlantic corridor, ports such as Rosslare and Dublin, and airports that serve the UK and can be equipped to serve other markets. That is what we need to examine in the capital plan. I acknowledge a review is due imminently but that needs to be a Brexit review, not just an ordinary, tick-the-box capital plan review.

I agree with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, that the national spatial strategy plan review, which is due, needs to be real, honest and done in a way that delivers quality to the regions for once and for all. The review should involve, not ignore, the regions and it should also recognise the challenges that Dublin city faces. The city centre is booming but there are communities within the city that need opportunities, socially and commercially. The Minister's constituency contains examples of communities that have been forgotten for many years, even in the shadow of so-called economic development. That has been replicated across Dublin and all our cities and these communities need to be included in this review and they need to be given a voice in the national planning framework review.

The Taoiseach is fond of phrases and very fond of spin. He said that he wanted to create "a republic of opportunity". Budget day in October will give us an indication of what that means. In the four to five weeks he has been in office, we have not seen much indication of the reality behind it and there is little indication in this statement of where he is going. The Minister has to deliver on the promise of "a republic of opportunity" in both his roles. That means opportunity for every citizen, including those on waiting lists and children with additional needs against whom our country conspires at every turn in our health, education and social care systems to make difficult lives even more difficult. It is not necessarily about money; it is about a change in how we respond. To date, the Taoiseach has been all socks and no substance. The budget process is the chance to show the substance.

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