Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Summer economic statement. Here we are again, as Deputy Mattie McGrath said. I am looking at the Minister's statement which refers to jobs and the low unemployment rate but behind the spin, the reality is that people are being forced to work for low wages. More are forced out to Turas Nua to doctor the figures. A recent report indicated that 60,000 people were engaged with Turas Nua over the last 12 months but 40,000 of them will be back on welfare again. All we are doing here is doctoring figures and rolling out loads of spin.

We need to consider those couples who have been forced out to work for low wages. This is where we should be focusing our budgets going forward. These couples do not have enough income to get bank loans but are earning too much to get council loans. We kept calling for a solution to this and eventually we got it in the form of a mighty announcement about a new loan scheme for those who are caught in these traps, the Rebuilding Ireland home loan. However, we have found out that most of those whom we advised to apply were codded by this Government. Over 50% of applicants have been mysteriously refused, leaving more and more to seek social housing. So many young couples are caught in a vicious trap and this Government has failed to get them out of it. The same Government dishes out spin on a daily basis about how well it is doing by the young couples of Ireland. I urge the Minister for Finance to come to my constituency clinics at weekends to see reality on the ground in west Cork.

The Minister said that he plans to run a very small deficit next year because of the political choices the Government has made in Project Ireland 2040 and the National Development Plan. The people of west Cork went through that plan with a fine tooth comb and found not one idea about west Cork therein. It looks like the people of west Cork will have to put the country first and once again west Cork will be coming in second place. The Minister said that there will be a steady and sustainable improvement in living standards but this is complete nonsense. Families are struggling and when they have paid all of their weekly bills, they have nothing left. They have no rainy day funds nor do they have a caring Government that understands the difficulties they experience.

What about the way the State has treated women? It has refused to give those women who stayed at home to rear their families and run their homes a proper pension. Where is care for women, as this State turns its back on these hard working women, budget after budget? How can the Government claim that things are going well in the country when it has failed to provide pay equalisation for new entrant teachers and health workers, leading many of them to leave our country in search of the respect they deserve? Extra funding for education needs further scrutiny because there has been no improvement in the capitation grant for years. How can this Government tell us that our economy is improving when we had farmers on their knees earlier this year because of a major fodder crisis and nothing was done for weeks, despite the outcry from Deputies across this House, until it was too late for many? The Government is telling us now that it will make sure that these farmers, as well as fishermen, will have access to low-interest loans. However, applicants for such loans cannot have any borrowings. Any productive farmer or fisherman will have borrowings already and therefore will not qualify for these new loans. They are being codded with yet more super announcements leading to nothing.

This Government needs to invest properly in health. It needs to open 24 hour accident and emergency units in Bantry and Mallow to alleviate the pressure on Cork University Hospital. There are over 700,000 on waiting lists which is an astonishing figure but this Government has done little to change that. The lack of spending on home help services has left so many elderly people with little or no home based support. What does the Government intend to do about this? It intends to publish a report, which has yet to happen. The same is true of the so-called fair deal scheme. That scheme is the most unfair deal ever and has robbed elderly hardworking men and women of their savings. Shame on any Government that would do that to the people who built this country.

The Government must reduce the excise duty on fuel and give some money back to the people. We are being robbed daily at the pump with the excise duty that the Government has added onto the price of fuel.

We spoke to IT students earlier today who need access to proper accommodation but nothing is being done for them.

If we have money to spend, which we have been led to believe is the case, then we must start spending it on the people who deserve it. I urge the Minister to speak to his fellow Ministers and make sure that happens for the people.

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