Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the overall thrust of budget 2019, which the Government claims is the first balanced budget in ten years. I support this fiscal policy. It is how the spend is distributed that always creates conflicting views in this Chamber.

As Fianna Fáil spokesperson on sport, I welcome the increased allocation for the area of responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin. It is acknowledged that participation in sport and recreational activities can play a vital part in one's well-being. During the summer, the Government launched its National Sports Policy 2018-2027. Given the success of many of our athletes on the world stage in the past number of months - exclusive of what happened last weekend - it is evident this country is able to punch above its weight in competing with some of the best athletes in the world. The success of this sports policy is dependent on funding. According to the press releases of sports national governing bodies, NGBs, including the Olympic Federation of Ireland, the budget 2019 allocation is on the right track. I welcome also that VAT on sports activities is maintained at the current rate.

Moving away from sport, it appears from the Budget Statement that the agriculture sector is no longer a priority area for the Government. Following the election of the previous Government in 2011, agriculture was seen as vital to getting our economy up and running again and, to this end, initiatives such as Food Harvest 2020 were implemented. However, the only reference to the sector in the budget was in the context of climate change and the rural development programmes. Rural development funding was mentioned earlier. I welcome the increased funding for this area. I read an article recently in my local paper which referenced that the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, is to review LEADER spending. The Minister has previously stated that believes too money is being wasted in the administration of delivery of Leader funding. It should not be forgotten that it was a former Fine Gael Minister, Phil Hogan, who destroyed the functional and operational procedures of some of the best LEADER companies.

I know that Mr. Hogan mentioned that there were some places where LEADER funding was not being properly utilised but I assure the Deputies across the way that in previous LEADER programmes any money that was spent down my way was in the Avondhu Blackwater Partnership, east Cork area development, ECAD, in east Cork and Ballyhoura Development CLG. It was well distributed and at the minimum of cost and administration usage. The Government should review that area. I know the Minister, Deputy Ring, has vowed to set his portfolio on this but he has to look at it. Even lately I approached him about how to adjust funding for various projects and the complications and red tape have only gotten worse, not better. We have created an extra tier in distributing the money that the Government provides to these local development companies and that should be reviewed. I am not a fan of these local community development committees, LCDCs, because it is just another tier in the operation of distributing money into rural Ireland.

We mentioned climate change and the Government is being attacked for not doing enough in this budget. It is correct to say that it did not get enough of a mention in the Minister's document and we will be playing a catch up game again with the rest of the European countries and at the same time we would not want to be led by the former President of this country who tells us that we should consider eating less meat. I was a bit taken aback by that. Everybody is entitled to their own eating habits but much scientific research has been done which shows that meat is healthy as opposed to unhealthy in an overall context and being a country that is dependent on agriculture we must drive on that sector of our economy. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced funding for the year but trying to get money out of him is akin to trying to pull one's tooth out with a string. We acknowledge that there are problems that need to addressed and I welcome his start on the beef issue, similar to the suckler premium request. We were looking for €200 a head and all we got was an average of about €40 when it is broken down. By comparison, last year the Minister gave €25 for each ewe. Again, that involves paperwork. Agriculture will always play an important part in the economy in this part of the world and we must not lose sight of that.

I must touch on housing. It was mentioned by a previous speaker, and we take a knocking from various parts of the House over where we stand on it, but Fianna Fáil has always been good to deliver housing, be it private or social. The contributions from our party spokesman, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and Deputies Michael McGrath and Cowen welcomed the increased funding for the affordable housing initiative. I ask that a big push be put into the serviced sites initiative. Provision of serviced sites is a big problem in our towns and villages because they create a problem in terms of people trying to access housing for themselves and we need to roll out that money as quickly as possible. Everybody says that this is all for Dublin but we must not forget that there are housing problems in our towns and villages around the country. I will not try to defend the landlords and I will not talk about the big vulture funds who own massive complexes. However, we must not forget about the individual landlords and the important role that they have played in the last ten years. Many of them have carried a major burden on their shoulders in debt and were charging legal rent. We should keep that in mind when we look at rent caps. If we did not have them we would have a worse housing crisis with more people on the sides of the road. I acknowledge their role, but at the same time we must return local authorities to their old functions of looking after social housing because they were some of the best people to do that. I said to the Minister in the last few days that he needs to get over the red tape and fund the arrangements. I will give an example of the Housing Agency's approach to giving approval for funding. I had a case in Cork where Councillor Alan Coleman, a former colleague of mine in the county council, told me that Clúid Housing had the paperwork all completed for a project but the Housing Agency only meets every so often and it needs at least three weeks notice of intent to draw down money and with that a deadline can be missed and one can end up waiting six or eight weeks before the money can be touched. Every week counts at the moment in trying to get a house built.

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