Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am the Fianna Fáil Party spokesman on agriculture, an industry that this Government has forgotten. It is the driving force of rural Ireland. In this budget there was only token recognition of the crisis in agriculture. A total of €20 million is being provided the suckler cow sector. If the Government thinks that will preserve our beef herd, it is sadly misinformed. We do not know what will be the small print of this allocation or the hoops farmers will have to jump through to qualify for this money. It is a completely inadequate response to trying to preserve the beef herd.

My party and farm organisations have made a case for low-cost loans. Even though what was promised in last year's budget has not been delivered in this sphere, there has been no recognition in budget 2019 of the major cash crisis on Irish farms. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is reneging on his responsibility. There is significant merchant debt after one of the worst winters and one of the worst springs that we have ever experienced, and a summer when farmers incurred substantial costs trying to keep their livestock fed.

The pig sector is under severe strain and badly in need of a cash injection of low cost finance. For a Minister to allow a budget to be published with no move whatever to address this issue is appalling. Farmers waited for this budget hoping that there would be recognition of the crisis they face. Unfortunately, when they read through it they found it inexplicable that there were no low-cost loans made available to them.

There has been great media coverage of an extra €23 million for the areas of natural constraint, ANC. That is welcome and will be a help. It is money that goes directly into farmers' pockets. We should not forget, however, that 25% of the country's farmland is outside ANCs. Those farmers who in many cases are under significant financial pressure are not recognised in this budget.

Another issue on which all of the farming organisations lobbied very heavily was that the Government should do something in the budget to try to address the issue of volatility. In a year when cashflow is non-existent on farms, many farmers are facing a significant tax bill in the next couple of weeks. All of the different farming organisations made proposals on how to deal with this issue in future. An example was how money could be deposited in a good year, with tax at paid at the corporate tax rate, and then retrieved in a year like this, when farmers are under dire pressure for cashflow. This was, again, completely ignored by the Minister and there was no recognition whatsoever of the problems that creates. It is very disappointing and very anti-family farm. It is forcing farmers to go down the company route. I grew up on a family farm and I am proud of the contribution family farms have made to this country. For the Minister to ignore consistently the valid lobbying that was done to try to help farmers and farm families battle against volatility is very hard to explain and understand. It is also very disappointing.

There was €5 million extra for An Bord Bia in the budget. We have to recognise that in the last couple of years, funding for An Bord Bia has increased substantially. The task it faces, however, is changing enormously as well. In the context of Brexit, €5 million is just a drop in the ocean. Half of our beef finds its way to the UK market. The Minister has spoken about alternative markets and live exports. If he thinks that giving €5 million to An Bord Bia is going to achieve that, then he is sadly mistaken. We have few live exports leaving Ireland at the moment. This is at a time when meat factories are exploiting the situation and paying an awful lot less for our beef than what is available in the UK market. The only way to counteract that is with live exports. A properly funded An Bord Bia would, one would hope, be able to establish markets to allow those outlets to progress. With Brexit, the huge storm clouds that are gathering and the great damage that could do to our agrifood industry, €5 million for An Bord Bia is a very poor response.

The greyhound fund and Horse Racing Ireland both received an increase in funding the budget, which is welcome. There was €800,000 for the greyhound fund and €3.2 million for Horse Racing Ireland. I hope both Bord na gCon and Horse Racing Ireland will put that into prize money so that it will find its way back down to the grassroots of the industries. That is welcome funding. There is a proposal in the budget to double betting tax from 1% to 2%. I not against that in general, but unless there is an exemption for on-track bookmakers, we will find that realm of the industry will become extinct. The numbers of on-track bookmakers, in greyhound racing and in horse racing, have dropped greatly in recent years. An increase of 1% in the tax on their turnover will put most of those out of business. On-track bookmakers are a very important part of the fabric of the industry. They bring glamour to it and what they contribute is unique. It would be a sad day if a Government decision forces us into what would be a tote monopoly. I hope the Finance Bill might address this. The loss of revenue for the Government would be small, and that exemption should be made for on-track bookmakers.

I will make some points on education. I was very disappointed with some things not in the budget. On the issues of working principals and administrative days, there was much lobbying done in recent months by working principals to try to get one day per week for administrative duties. I met many principals in recent months. In my own county, a significant number of principals have taken early retirement or resigned from their posts because of the workload they have to carry. A sum of €10 million would have allowed working principals one administrative day per week. They had a proposal where five schools could work a rota and a teacher would be rotated between five schools. To me, that was a common-sense proposal. With autism units being established in many schools, these principals have to deal with an increased workload and more staff.

I will give an example of a principal in a four-teacher school near me. That principal has 22 staff under her authority. She spends every night working until 9, 10 or 11 trying to get the paperwork done and to keep it up to date. This situation is untenable in future. Working principals must have their issues addressed and I was very disappointed that this year's budget did not address them.

There was also no extra funding for DEIS schools in this budget. We have urban schools in my county that failed to get DEIS status last time around. We never got proper answers from the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, as to why they did not qualify. We were hoping there would be extra funding and that we might be able to reapply and get a fairer crack of the whip this time around. That has also been overlooked in budget 2019.

Today in the audiovisual room, I had in a charitable group that represents children suffering from severe autism. Principally, they were parents of children with non-verbal autism. It is a serious indictment of our society that we have no funding in place to train specialist dogs for these children. The evidence shows that dogs trained especially to deal with these children have a hugely beneficial effect on the children. Children with a dog for a companion lead far more vibrant and inclusive lives. We had in three parents who outlined their experience. A sum of €500,000 would train 20 dogs per year for this charitable organisation. It has 200 parents on the waiting list for dogs at the moment but there is no State funding. This is something I hope might be addressed by the Minister with the extra funding in the budget for children with special needs.

Another disappointing issue in the budget was the lack of a reversal of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, cuts for general practitioners, GPs. To keep GPs in rural Ireland is becoming ever more difficult. The reversal of the FEMPI cuts is essential to make it more financially attractive for GPs to take up positions, especially in rural Ireland. This, again, was not addressed in the budget, and I am gravely disappointed that it was not. I know there will be negotiation with the GPs on contracts in the future, but I would have thought that the budget was the place to have this addressed.

The previous speakers have referred to housing and what is being done in housing. Fianna Fáil has put its imprint on this budget as regards housing. Every day, and it is the same for every Deputy, there are large numbers of people coming into our clinics who just cannot get access to affordable or social housing. The proposal put forward by Fianna Fáil on affordable housing in this budget is a most welcome development. Building 6,000 affordable houses for people by 2021 is a start.

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It is only a start. It is the first step on the road to achieving affordable housing in this country. It is essential that people in what can be called "reasonable jobs" are able to get access to affordable housing. This scheme must be expanded and greatly improved on. It is the first step towards that and it is welcome.

The capital budget for social housing has been increased, with an expansion of direct build targets and the Rebuilding Ireland programme. At the insistence of Fianna Fáil the budget has increased from €1.065 billion to €1.25 billion, with some 10,000 units due to be built, acquired or leased next year. This is a start but delivery is the key.

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