Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Every morning when I wake up in south Kildare, I think about the people whom I am proud to represent and about the decisions we make in this House that impact them and the quality of their lives. Ultimately, that is what our job is all about, and it is the same on budget day. On budget day and in the days since, I have been thinking about the children in overcrowded classrooms in Kildare. I welcome the commitment to lower the pupil-teacher ratio, which was a key issue for Fianna Fáil in negotiating our confidence and supply agreement, but it is too late for some schools. I wish to highlight Ballyshannon national school as an example. It is a four-teacher school, has 37 children in junior infants and is having a constant issue with the Minister for Education and Skills. I hope this will be taken on board. I think of the children with special needs. Again, I welcome the fact that we will have more special needs assistants but I highlight, for example, that there are eight children with special needs in one unit in Scoil na Naomh Uilig in Newbridge who have no secondary classroom to go to in June. This budget does not help or support these children. I think of the 400 children and their parents in south Kildare who in two years' time will have no secondary school place to go to. I do not see anything in the budget that addresses these needs. I think of Anne and women like her in my constituency who, because they worked many years ago, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, are deprived of their appropriate pension because of legislation brought in in 2012. I do not see anything in the budget to allay their fears and concerns. I think of all of the people in business. I met with 80 women in business this morning in Kildare through the local enterprise office. I think of all that could have been done to support the small and medium-sized enterprises and other enterprises. We absolutely need to give business that extra shot in the arm. I think of the hundreds of people who lined the streets in Newbridge on Tuesday night, which was budget night but also World Mental Health Day. Those people came out in a communal expression of grief in the wake of the five people who took their lives within five days in my community over the past week. I do not see anything in the budget that will help or support them.

A commitment was given that significant funding would be given to mental health but we now realise that only €15 million has actually been allocated. Prior to the budget I spoke on this issue, stating that funding allocated in this budget would reflect the priority Fine Gael places on mental health care for 2018, but that has proven to be significantly lower than expected. I am Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills, which published a report on positive mental health in education, and I would certainly hope the Minister for Education and Skills and the Taoiseach would take on board its 20 recommendations. It is so important, in all of the work we do, that we do everything we can to promote positive mental health and support those who are in crisis.

I think of those who are in crisis in regard to housing, in particular the 8,000 people on the housing list in Kildare. While some measures were introduced in regard to supporting local authority housing, it was not enough. There was not one mention of affordable housing in the budget. I think of all of the younger and older people who are hoping to make their lives in my county and in our country, and trying to get jobs while not having a place to live, those who are paying huge rents and those on the social housing scheme through HAP. I think of gardaí and, while it is welcome that we will have a greater number of gardaí, we have to note that morale is low. In the last seven weeks five gardaí have taken their own lives, and I believe that it is nine since January. We all need to do what we can to help and support gardaí and first responders in such cases.

There is no doubt that the influence of Fianna Fáil has made this budget a fairer one than it would have been initially. Beyond that, the budget has not shown any imagination or innovation in terms of where it needed to go. We need fewer leaks, fewer reports and more action.

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