Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2018 will reduce poverty and deprivation. The €5 increases on the social protection side and the 3.2% increase in the national minimum wage will help to reduce poverty. The IMF and others note that significant increases in education, child care and health help to reduce inequality. Budget 2018 does this. These are all characteristics of a budget that is progressive. As a campaigner, a supporter of communities and an Independent Minister, it has been a privilege to bring a progressive focus to the overall budget process. There has been much commentary that what has been achieved is small and modest, and I, like many others, would like to have seen more. However, we must be also realistic and look at budget 2018 against the backdrop of available resources. These too are small and modest.

As the only Independent woman sitting at the Cabinet table, I entered the budget process with a realistic approach. In terms of my own area, I went out to secure everything possible for children, young people and families. My Department and I set the bar high and we delivered an extra €73 million, bringing the overall investment in my Department to €1.38 billion. Approximately half of that is targeted for public services to protect our children and to provide for their welfare, and the other significant portion is to build child care in a way that targets those who have least to get the most.

My budget is progressive. Deputies will be aware of much of the detail and I will take this opportunity to put some brief highlights on the record of the House. There is €43 million extra for the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, which will protect and support people who are often dealing with a personal or family crisis. It will also allow mandatory reporting, which, after two decades of debate across five Governments, will become a reality on 11 December. Many Deputies and communities are in direct contact with me about family resource centres and I will be shortly making a significant announcement in that regard. In child care, we are pushing ahead with our radical new approach. More than 20,000 toddlers will benefit as we act to ensure that every three-year old gets a full two years of free preschool. We are raising the average number of free weeks from 61 to 76, which, by any standards, is huge.

Turning to the wider aspects of the budget, my mission is to ensure we continue to invest in public services. The Minister for Finance has listened to my arguments and accepted them, and expenditure and services have been prioritised over tax reductions. Resources are being allocated in a progressive way, favouring those households in the weakest position. The increase in the home carer credit also signals our determination to identify those who need more help and to target resources at them. Public services are more important for lower income households. The increased provisions announced on health and education will deliver real benefits. Capital investment, for example, in transport, helps everyone equally and is a key driver to level the playing field. The 17.4% increase in capital spending and the large projected increases in capital spending out to 2021 are very welcome.

I do not have to tell Deputies that housing is the biggest challenge we face. The hoarding of land, when our neighbours fear losing the roof over their heads, is repulsive and wrong. The introduction of a higher levy on vacant land will help stop the hoarding of idle property, which is literally pricing men, women and children out of their own communities. It cuts the incentive to

leave apartments, houses and plots idle to become derelict and will allow an opportunity for these properties to once again become homes.

Like all in this House, I have seen at first hand the personal devastation caused by the crisis. I have heard the heartbreak, the fear in people's voices and the sheer desperation of so many. More than 10% of Irish households are living with housing insecurity. We must stop this crisis from growing. We must stem the flow of people into homelessness and keep families in their own homes. I have worked closely with the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to ensure preventative measures are included in the Government's housing initiatives. Strengthening the Residential Tenancies Board with regard to regulatory responsibility is such an action. The board will ensure families cannot lose their homes if a landlord decides to make cosmetic changes to a property, and it will define and protect deposits paid on rental properties. I have also highlighted that we need actions to address eviction upon sale of property. This is key and I will continue to work with the Minister, Deputy Murphy, to ensure this happens.

As an Independent progressive, I also want to see more homes built, and budget 2018 does move to further incentivise building. Delivering an additional 3,800 homes next year will help but, with 8,000 people living in emergency accommodation, we need to do more. We need to depend less on the private sector and support more direct building by local authorities and approved housing bodies. By doing this, we would address the affordability of buying and renting.

The goal of balancing the books is not only an admirable one, it is the right one. This is important for two reasons. First, it is a significant achievement, given the challenges of the past decade and huge deficits of recent years. Second, and arguably more importantly, it triggers mechanisms at European level which will give us much greater freedom in future budgets. That freedom means this budget is another step towards the vision I have of social equality for our country.

At the outset I said our measures are modest and small, and they have to be as our resources are modest and small. Would I have liked to do more? Do I want to do more? Could my Department do with more? The answer to all three is, of course, yes. I see what has been achieved over the past two budgets as steps and we are by no means at the end of the journey. One particular area where want to see more is for low paid workers. We have, at 24%, the highest percentage of low paid workers in the EU. There have been small gains for many on low incomes who are not welfare recipients, who earn a little more per hour than the minimum wage and whose income is not enough to experience much of the value of reductions in the USC and income tax. This is an issue - for me, it is a core issue. I want future policy to focus more on ensuring incomes, working conditions and living standards improve for all earners, not just those lucky enough to have full-time, well-paying jobs. As a progressive, I am developing independent policies in this area informed by campaigners, experts and academics. I look forward to publishing them and presenting them to my Cabinet colleagues.

The Budget is to be welcomed for what it is. I support the measures it contains and look forward to using its strong foundations to continue our work towards a republic of equals.

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