Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to share time with Deputy Sean Sherlock.

There was a lot of fanfare claiming that this was going to be a housing budget but it was not. It is a deep disappointment given that description. The additional funding announced for housing is minuscule, especially in the context of what is needed to address our housing crisis. We need significant money for housing and we got a tiny announcement of additional funding, which is largely directed towards developers and landlords. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, is as conscious as I am that this is not what is required to address the housing crisis. It falls very short of what is required to address the crisis of homelessness and the acute shortage of social and affordable housing. The only conclusion I can come to is that the Fine Gael-Independent Alliance Government and their supporters in Fianna Fáil either do not care or do not understand.

There are tax breaks for landlords, serviced and publicly owned land for developers and no protection for renters whatsoever, or for those who are at risk of homelessness, many of whom are renting in the private sector. There is nothing for them. I thought there would at least be a focus on homelessness, particularly as the Government lost the vote on a motion in this House last week calling for protection for renters, significant expenditure on social and affordable housing and a number of other measures. It is deeply disappointing.

There is a much-heralded affordable housing plan, an idea that came from Fianna Fáil, which is meant to deliver significant numbers of affordable housing units. It proposes to deliver 6,000 homes over three years. That is 2,000 homes a year, which is abysmal when one considers the number of people squeezed out of the market, unable to afford a deposit or a mortgage and paying high rents from which they are not protected. My own city of Limerick is not in a RPZ. I could pick out 2,000 families in my own constituency who would fit into the category that is supposed to qualify for these affordable homes, that is, with an income threshold of up to €50,000 for a single-income qualifier and up to €75,000 for a dual-applicant household. Will there be a lottery for who will get these homes? Only 400 additional social homes have been announced.

We need something much more radical and fundamentally different. We published proposals to build 80,000 social and affordable homes over five years with a State-led approach, using State land. There is a significant policy and ideological difference in this regard. I hope the present Minister of State would prefer to be on the same side as us. We costed this at €16 billion. We would use what is available in the ISIF, of which €5 billion is not accounted for, as well as the €500 million per year to be set aside for the rainy day fund. Deputy O'Brien talked about the fund and what it can be used for. It is basically there to stash away money so that the banks can squander it again. It cannot be used for other measures we might want to use it for. It is raining now for nearly 10,000 people who are homeless, including about 3,700 children, and for the thousands more who cannot secure a home for the future. As well as the money I have just referred to, we suggest raising loans from the EIB. The credit unions are dying to invest money in housing. There are several ways we could get the money. There has been no understanding of the need for significant funding in housing.

I want to touch on an area which pertains to housing and to the other area I am spokesperson on, which is business, enterprise and innovation. I am sorry that the Minister of State at that Department, Deputy Pat Breen, has left the Chamber. Deputy Moynihan referred to the villages, towns and city centres that are not thriving. In the area of housing, the living over the shop scheme and various others are meant to revitalise our cities, town centres and village centres, but they are not working. There is the potential to address the housing and homelessness issue by making those places into viable homes. This would also help to create living town centres, cities and villages. I am one of the members of the Oireachtas cross-party group on retail. That group has proposed reviewing and revising those schemes so that they are viable. Some 282,000 people are working in retail, in every town and city in the country. That is a significant number of people. Strong submissions have been made, including a suggestion of viable programmes whereby people with retail premises can use the space for housing. The group has also argued for a strategic retail fund to help retailers to stave off the worst excesses of Brexit. I raise those issues because the retail sector is often forgotten. It plays a huge part in all of the places in which we live.

I have mentioned banks. Another area was addressed by that cross-party group. Apparently, instead of giving businesses an overdraft when they have cash flow issues, for example in the lead-up to Christmas, banks are pushing them into taking out loans. The banks are going back to serving their own interests rather than the needs of our society and economy. It is about time that they were prevented from putting their own interests first. That is something of which I as not aware and that the Government needs to know about.

I refer to equality budgeting and gender budgeting. There is a nice aspirational section in this document on the expenditure report that we received with the budget. It refers to equality budgeting. Last year, a pilot equality budgeting policy was announced. It was supported by the women's caucus in this House and by the National Women's Council of Ireland. We all expected that to move forward this year and expected progress on equality budgeting, including poverty proofing, disability proofing and action. All that seems to be in this section of the document on page 24 is preparation. Various policies and papers are drawn up. We need movement so that we can equality-proof and poverty-proof budgets. I am disappointed that there has not been progress on this.

The other area in which there was meant to be progress is green budgeting. One of the biggest disappointments, which my colleague will address, is the aspirational content of this document. It is about what the Government is going to do. As I said yesterday, "Oh God, make me good, but not yet", seems to be the Government's policy on climate change, a major challenge on which we need to take steps.

The Government has been completely cowardly on this. While there is mention in the introductory section of the budget document of green budgeting, we have had no serious attempt either to equality proof or green proof the budget and this is particularly disappointing. I wanted to make this point as well as the general points I have made.

I welcome the support for the film industry in my constituency. Troy Studios has done wonderful work and a great job of fitting out what was a disused industrial space. It is a real opportunity for job creation for many craft people, including those who make costumes and all of the other things that go with the film industry. There is a small reference to the M20, which is of interest to my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, but there is no money beside it. Disappointingly, there is no reference to the 60 bed modular unit that we understand the Minister has said he will fund, which is needed for the most overcrowded accident and emergency department in the country. It has the highest trolley figures in the country. I would like to see a very clear statement from the Government on this.

See this speech in context