Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is an awful legacy to leave them. This is spinelessness. Irish households create astonishing amounts of carbon emissions. They are way higher than in most other European households. Why? It is because older houses are badly insulated and because owing to insufficient public transport we all probably over-use our cars. The mechanism of the budget provides an opportunity to nudge people in the right direction so that we all benefit from changes we need to make to lifestyles. Carbon taxes are a form of nudge incentive and a well established means of coaxing a change in behaviour and attitudes. We are all familiar with and proud of the plastic bag levy. It worked and it was widely imitated. We should know which Minister kiboshed the well flagged idea that carbon taxes would be a key ingredient in the campaign to reduce domestic emissions. This Minister should be named and shamed because any procrastination will cost this State a pretty penny in years to come. I hope it was for the Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, that the young people of Ireland have had their future seriously damaged in terms of the failure to address the carbon issue.

June 2018 was the driest month in the Phoenix Park for well over 100 years. We have just experienced a remarkable and memorable summer, following an eventful winter of storms and snow. Long established weather records have been broken in a short timeframe and, inevitably, this gives rise to difficult questions about our level of preparedness for the kind of tumultuous climate change that has been predicted by scientists for many years. The plain truth is that Ireland has been way behind the curve in recognising weather and climate challenges. The Taoiseach has candidly admitted that our country is, by international standards, a laggard when it comes to meeting agreed targets to reduce the kind of emissions that contribute to extreme weather events. Future budgets will have to set aside many hundreds of millions of euro to pay inevitable fines for non-compliance.

It is true that the national plan commits substantial resources to dealing with this matter in future years but I remain sceptical that there exists any genuine sense of urgency to drive the necessary changes in all kinds of areas from farming practices to transport.

For example, we urgently need to fast-track the upgrade of water infrastructure to guarantee supply and to eliminate the shameful contamination of our beaches and rivers. Have the dramatic weather events of which we are all aware influenced the investment decisions in today’s budget? I was glad that the Nobel Committee decided yesterday to recognise the groundbreaking work of two economists who have analysed the impact of climate matters on the world economy. By coincidence, the prizes were awarded on the same day as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered its starkest forecast to date. With brutal clarity it pinpoints the areas where remedial action can be taken by Governments acting both collectively and separately. Unfortunately, the gap between the work of scientists and economists on the one hand and politics and policy making on the other has widened rather than narrowed. The latest forecasts will fall on deaf ears in the current White House but that should not hinder other countries, and the EU in particular, pursuing policies on energy, food production and weather protection measures that recognise the importance of policy changes in this area. If anyone has doubts about the long-term impact of dramatic weather events they need only visit any coastal county in Ireland to see first-hand what could be in store for this and future generations. My own constituency is not coastal but it is part of Fingal county which is most definitely coastal. Development plans for these districts must recognise how events like Storm Ophelia can produce a lasting impact on the local environment. There are beaches in north county Dublin, such as Portrane and Rush, and other beaches north of Balbriggan, which I hope to visit this weekend with some people to see what has had happened to the coast, where the coastlines have receded by as much as 15 m because of Storm Ophelia. The national plan contains many flowery paragraphs about this challenge and umpteen billions of euro are allegedly earmarked to deal with it some time between now and 2040, which is about seven general elections away. It should be remembered that fine words butter no parsnips. If there were to be a Nobel Prize for climate procrastination, President Donald Trump would win but this particular Government might give him a run for his money.

In yet another budget child benefit has been ignored. I find this incomprehensible. For most families in Ireland child benefit has long been a valued addition to the family budget, helping to pay for food, clothes, shoes and all the costs that come with babies and teenagers. Child benefit is currently paid at a rate of €140 per month per child. It is paid in respect of nearly 1.2 million children to over 620,000 families. It is paid regardless of whether parents are in or out of work, whether a couple is parenting together or one parent is looking after the children on his or her own. I do not know if Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael are aware of it but in Ireland, rather unusually, the cost of rearing children is not recognised in the tax code. An individual or a couple has tax allowances and tax credits, but not children.

As a consequence, child benefit is the State's unique way of recognising some of the cost of rearing children. I hope the Government has not set its mind on a policy of eroding the value of this benefit. There are many working parents of modest incomes who greatly value its role in managing a family budget. Understandably, much of the focus is on childcare costs being so high but mothers and fathers looking after teenagers have to spend a lot of money on new shoes every couple of months and so on.

In addition, the Government has again ignored the domiciliary care allowance, which I find to be simply mean. This is paid to families who qualify and are paid a monthly stipend in respect of a child who has an intellectual, physical or behavioural disability. This payment is special to the parents who work so hard to look after their special children. As far as I can see, that monthly payment has been left untouched again by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the budget. In the past year, there have been many problems in changes with school transport, including for children with special needs. More importantly, we have many children on the autism spectrum for instance, who are making long journeys on buses for a couple of hours a day at times in Dublin, going from Blanchardstown to Artane and back again, for example, and what is difficult to understand is why this particular budget is not looking to invest in capital infrastructure in a serious way. We have many autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units that have been developed but they are not suitable for every child who has these issues. For instance, in my constituency - and that of the Taoiseach - there is no ASD special school. This is an area of education provision that has sadly been forgotten in this budget, but then, education has not featured hugely in this budget. The Minister of State might even agree that the amount that has gone into increased capitation will barely take the pressure off some of the schools.

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