Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have an opportunity to make some general points on the finances in the budget. This is the Second Stage debate on the Finance Bill and we will get into more detail later. I am well aware of our responsibilities and commitments in the confidence and supply deal, as intolerable as it is at times for the House to put up with it. However, such was the arithmetic and it was the responsible thing to do.

Notwithstanding that, I appeal to the Minister to consider the need to address the pensions issue between now and Committee Stage - I realise a social welfare Bill is due to be introduced as well - and the anomaly that has been highlighted by many people for some time. It has led to a discriminatory situation for women and some men who had a break in work. There is also the issue of stamp duty on farm transactions. There is an exemption for transactions within families and within certain age groups, but most of the transactions will take place outside that age group and outside a family. In effect, we are applying a penalty to people who are trying to consolidate farms and build their output. It is something we should examine.

With regard to housing, last night Members took a fourth opportunity in almost as many weeks to use Private Members' time to highlight the emergency that exists. All we have done in here is engage in window dressing, with talk of PPP schemes and much fluffy language without tangible action. The Finance Bill has failed to be radical and to take account of the emergency. I accept that we hate to think of incentivising building or builders given how out of control things became in the past, but we must be realistic. A third to half of the cost of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Dublin comprises VAT, levies and other forms of taxation. We might have to be radical and push that VAT rate and the levies down to try to get guys building again. It is not to make all of them multimillionaires and, indeed, it is something we can revisit once things are up and running and building is taking place in the places it is required around the country.

At present, we are busy fools, talking about the need for solutions and things that might or could work. The reality is that nothing will happen unless the State engages in a wholesale building programme as big as the one carried out in the 1950s. We must incentivise builders to start building what we need and that may require taxation measures, much as it pains me to say it given our past. In addition, we must provide finance to small builders such as the person who built two houses in Collooney, ten in Burtonport, five in Dungloe or 20 in Sligo town. Without those guys using their expertise to do that we will not solve our problem.

I also spoke in last night's debate about the process. If the Minister decided tomorrow to build 1,000 houses in Dublin, provided the money and told a builder to build them it would be between three and six years before a key would be turned, such is the so-called streamlined process within the Department for doing these things. There is much duplication between local authorities in terms of planners, engineers, architects and so forth. It is the same in the Department in Dublin and down to the building unit in Ballina. We are not being clever in how we are doing our business in that regard.

I have digressed a little from finance. One item in the budget that galled me, and it has to have galled the Minister of State too as I know him a long time, is the €5 million for the spin unit. What is that for? There are press officers in every Department who are competent, qualified people. There are press directors in parties and we have the Government Information Service. Now this €5 million is being provided. I mean no disrespect to John Concannon, a personal friend from Sligo and probably one of the country's best marketers. He will be delighted to have €5 million but what will he do with it? My colleague, Deputy Thomas Byrne, tabled a parliamentary question recently in which he asked who was paying for the boosts to Facebook videos coming from Merrion Street. Suddenly, they stopped. Is that what the €5 million is being used for? Is it to boost the image? John Concannon is a brilliant man. What will he be doing with this money on behalf of the Government? He was responsible for the great initiative whereby all the great buildings of the world are lit up in green on St. Patrick's Day. Is it now the case that we can look forward to all the buildings in Ireland being lit up in blue in honour of Varadkar the vain? The House should have a breakdown of where the €5 million is being spent. Did my colleague, Deputy Thomas Byrne, touch a nerve when he asked who was boosting the Merrion Street Facebook, who was paying for it and whether that is where the money is being spent? I have a problem with that if it is.

The €5 million was not used to provide additional home help hours throughout the country.

To use a local example of Sligo University Hospital, last week I was given figures that show the outpatient waiting list there has gone up eightfold in six months. What could €5 million have done to achieve a reduction in that list? The child and adult mental health services in the north west have a shortage of child psychologists and some 400 children are critically ill regarding their mental health and need to be seen. Would that €5 million not have helped those children greatly? I am sure Deputies could give equally good examples of how this money could have been better spent in their constituencies. Many of us in the House have, for example, mentioned the Translarna drug. It is a very expensive drug and only two children in Ireland require treatment with it. It is around €250,000 per year, or whatever it is, but when one considers the costs to the health service in caring for these children as their conditions worsen without the benefit of the drug, it will cost the State more. Again, would that €5 million not have been better spent?

The Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and the Government hardly need more spinners. All parties have press officers. It is the nature of the beast and we all put out press releases. We are all on Twitter and Facebook and we all put videos up online and so on. What is the €5 million for? I know the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, will not say it here in the House because he has to wear the team jersey and he will defend the Government to the hilt - that is the nature of the game - but perhaps he could ask at his parliamentary party meeting if we could have a break down? Will he then come to the House and say, "The €5 million for the strategic Varadkar the Vain promotion fund is going to be spent as follows"? It is not for lighting up buildings in green, as we had for St. Patrick's Day for Ireland following the genius of John Concannon when he was with Fáilte Ireland. Can the Minister of State tell us that the money is for such tangible things? It is Mugabesque - the kind of thing that Robert Mugabe would have done over the years in his country - and it is unbecoming for a democratic State such as ours. It is probably the most disturbing aspect of the budget that has come before the House. I will keep at this until we get a break down of where that money is going. I look forward to this time next year when the Department of Finance appears before the Committee of Public Accounts to account for where this money was spent but this far in advance, I urge the Minister of State to put on the record what the money will be used for so we can measure it from a public accounts perspective when the time comes.

The budget has given a small amount to certain people but, sadly, like so many budgets, it has failed on the big picture issues. We also have this disgraceful own goal of €5 million. I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's comments.

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