David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are under strict orders to take just five minutes. This is the third budget from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael under the so-called confidence and supply agreement. It is the third time we have had endless hours of debate on the budget where Fianna Fáil Deputies rolled in one after the other to tell us what was wrong with the budget and blamed the Government for what was not in it but then with a brass neck tried to claim credit for what they saw as the good parts of it. Deputies from Fianna Fáil talked about the need for investment in roads, broadband, health, housing and medical cards and a long list of demands they made with no sense of irony because they keep the Ministers across the way in their positions and jobs.

Deputy Eugene Murphy spoke about shortcomings in the budget. He singled out housing and said that his party made a major contribution. He is right about that because this was a landlords' bonanza. What this budget delivered was almost €44 million of tax breaks for landlords and hundreds of millions of euro extra for schemes like HAP and RAS that will put more money in the pockets of landlords. There will be €14 million in additional funding for affordable housing for all of the families in the Deputy's constituency and the constituencies of all the Deputies in this House who need affordable housing. The Deputy then said that we do not know when the affordable homes will come on stream. We do not know: that is the reality so the policy is we do not know when and how but we have made some announcement in the budget and trust that the Government will deliver. The Government has not delivered. It has not delivered any social or affordable housing of any substance over the past three years. There was a huge amount of hype over the past number of months that I believe was deeply cynical and unfair on all those people who are victims of the housing crisis - all of those children who are sleeping in emergency accommodation. We heard many of their stories very publicly. It affects all of those families who are in need of social and affordable housing and all those families in this city and across the State who are faced with very high rents. What was the policy solution of this Government? It was "let's throw more money at landlords because they need it." There is not one single measure to reduce rents or deal with the rental crisis in this budget yet the hype leading up to the budget was that this was going to be a housing budget. It is not a housing budget; it is a landlords' budget that has Fianna Fáil's fingerprints all over it.

We then come to health, which is one of the biggest issues facing people in this State. Over 1 million people, one in five people, are waiting to see a hospital consultant yet the Government has still not invested enough money in healthcare. We told the Minister last year that he had not put enough money into the health service even to stand still and that there would be a big black hole at the end of the year. What happened? There was a big black hole of €700 million. Rather than investing in healthcare properly, which is what the Government should have done, and underpinning our healthcare system on solid foundations, the Minister threw the €1 billion that came from extra corporation tax, which is not stable and may not be there year on year, at the health service to try to re-jig the books and caught all of the Opposition off side. That is not the way we invest in healthcare.

Every year, it becomes even more difficult to come into this House and listen to Deputies and Ministers from Fine Gael, who I said last week represent a privileged class and have given up on 50% of the population. They represent the landlords and the wealthy. As a Deputy, I have received three pay increases from this Government and three tax cuts and I do not need them but there are many families who do need support and were not given it by this Government. It represents the top 10% of income earners. It has given up on almost 50% of the population, which needs support. Shame on Fianna Fáil Deputies who speak out of both sides of their mouths. On the one hand, they come with a long list of grievances about all the stuff that is not in the budget and on the other, in the words of Deputy Eugene Murphy, say it is "a major contribution to the health crisis." The Deputy should be ashamed of himself for saying that this budget was a major contribution to addressing the social and affordable housing needs of so many of our citizens because it is not. Once again, the Government has delivered for the people it represents, namely, landlords, speculators and developers.

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