Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak not just on the Finance Bill but on the budget itself. I was reminded, listening to Deputy Fleming, that this is the third budget in the current confidence and supply arrangement. It is the budget that the so-called experts who hang around the House said we would never get to. In fact, most of them thought we would not get through the first one, never mind the second or third one. It was delivered professionally and in a good spirit. There were disagreements along the way. As somebody who negotiated two of the budgets, I pay tribute to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, for his professionalism and courtesy in the process. There were disagreements but they were handled professionally and in a courteous manner.

The three budgets combined have achieved progress. They might not have done so as quickly as we might like. Changes and substance were achieved, however, as a result of the confidence and supply agreement. Those who stood back from it like to kick it. I heard an Independent Deputy today speaking of 70 days of talks for the original confidence agreement and issues that were raised at it. He then chose to run away from those talks and not participate to deal with those issues. He feels free to highlight those issues from the corner to my left every day. It is important to reflect that, at a time when new politics is much criticised, achievements and differences were made. This budget and Finance Bill debate mark a chance to reflect on that.

People look at the big budget announcements every year and tot up how it will affect them, but the changes are minimal. One of the main planks of confidence and supply was to bring investment to services on the 2:1 ratio. That ratio has expanded over the years. One of the frustrations, however, is that while this investment is going in, the services are not necessarily improving. We have to be honest about this. One only has to look at the increasing hospital waiting lists. There are difficulties in filling the vacancies to address those waiting lists, with difficulties in attracting people to come back to work as consultants or GPs. We need an honest discussion as to where the budget day announcement goes. It always intrigues me that budget day gets this massive coverage and attention.

The Minister cannot poke his nose outside his door without a camera looking at him. He will then make an announcement of €15 billion or €16 billion for the health service. Last year the health service plan came out on the Wednesday before Christmas when everybody was not really looking at it, but it was even more important than the budget day speech because it contained the detail of where the money would be spent. Let us be fair - the chances of scrutinising a document published two days before Christmas are minimal.

The budgetary process in the past three years has intrigued me in terms of how we can improve and make it better and provide information for people. A lot of big money has been put into housing in recent years, but it is not delivering. We are not getting the new supply that we need. There seems to be a blockage in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and a difficulty lies in its relationship with local authorities. The emergency accommodation list increased again today. I have never seen the situation in my office as severe as it is. There is no private rental accommodation and no social houses available. The staff in Mayo County Council are trying their level best in very difficult circumstances, but that is repeated all over the country. We are told that there is record investment; therefore, somewhere along the way that investment is being lost because it is not delivering on the ground.

I look at our difficulties in filling health service vacancies and the type of money the HSE is spending in providing agency staff relief at all levels, particularly in nursing, and recruiting nurses from abroad. Surely the intelligent way to spend the money is to put it into a proper comprehensive package to address the concerns of nurses. It would not require massive extra expenditure but a refocusing of expenditure.

Similarly, as we look at the difficulties in the health sector and how we encourage people to enter it, in some instances, it is not a pay issue but an issue with HR practice that belongs in a different era. There is now a different way of working; people like to take career and travel breaks. As I look at it, it seems that the system has not actually caught up with this demand and the need to be flexible for people who train in Ireland and in whose education we invest considerable amounts of taxpayers' resources. We expect them to come back to work in our system, but they are choosing not to do so in record numbers. Then we are left with vacancies which lead to hugely distressing situations for families in gaining access to services.

In the context of reform of the budgetary process, we must join the dots. After looking at the three most recent budgets in more depth than I ever looked at previous budgets, it is still a conundrum, on which we need to reflect and focus. The health service plan is an example. I could look at the housing plan, but the detail of the money invested in the health service plan announced by the Minister on budget day slips into the ether. If I were to take a bet on when this year's health service plan will come, I would guess it will be on the Thursday before Christmas. That is the plan that is implemented on the ground throughout the country; that is what needs our time; that is of what the Oireachtas needs to take ownership and it is the plan on which we need to challenge management as to why it is not delivering. We should not allow it to go without scrutiny.

This process has been sandwiched because on the day before the budget we received the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and today we had the announcement by Bord na Móna that it was completely changing its raison d'être, resulting in huge social and economic change for the communities affected. I must disagree with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. Generally we get on well, but he is wrong on this issue. We are not exempt from climate change and cannot walk away from our responsibilities because this is a small country. We have a duty to lead. We have a capacity as a small country to lead on many international issues and have done so on peacekeeping, foreign aid and various issues and are respected for doing so. Similarly, we have a responsibility to lead on climate change, regardless of the size of the country. We have more of a responsibility to ourselves to lead on it as an island nation. If we need evidence, we have the weather patterns of the past 12 months since the Minister's second budget. We have been hit by three or four named storms; we had an extraordinarily dry summer, which has had a massive impact on the agricultural community, while storms have caused massive damage, demanding a huge response from local and national authorities and massive financial investment. This is not happening randomly; it is happening because it is part of a pattern of change in weather conditions.

What we need is a Government with the courage of former Deputy Mary Harney in the manner she took on the coal industry in 1991 and changed the atmosphere in this city in one process. I am afraid that the budget just did not reflect the challenge we face. As an Oireachtas - I include myself in this - we are sailing along hoping it will go away, but it will not. We have a duty to those who will come after us to take measures now that will allow Ireland to stand up as a small country and be an international beacon. We need incentives for people to change their behaviour. In his first two budgets the Minister introduced incentives for electric cars, but the infrastructure needed to support them is not in place. The Minister's colleague, Senator Lombard, conducted an interesting exercise over the summer. He drove from Cork to Dublin in an electric car to show the challenges in doing so in terms of the availability of infrastructure. For those of us who depend on our car not as a luxury but as a necessity and have long commutes, if we are to consider changing, the infrastructure must be put in place and the incentives must be improved or promoted better to show us that making the change is practical, as well as beneficial.

Similarly, we need to look at public procurement. Is it climate change proofed? We are having a discussion on building standards. All new State buildings need the highest levels of insulation. No longer should new public buildings be powered by oil. Let us take the lead and power them properly with renewables. I have been involved with the SEAI in refitting some social housing projects in the past year. We have refitted them and moved away from oil fired central heating and open fire heating systems to the new combined heat and power, CHP, system. The difference it has made in the houses is phenomenal, while the difference it has made in running costs is extraordinary, particularly in low income households. An extraordinary difference that I would never have imagined is in people's mental health when they have permanent heat that is not dependent on the vagaries of having a solid fuel supply. I have seen the difference one small example can make in so many ways. Every budget from here on will have to be climate change proofed. We will have to have the ambition, through the budget, be it through incentives or penalties because there will have to be a time when we will have to look at them, that we can be a beacon, regardless of the size of the country. We can lead by action on climate change and stand up for the country and our position.

The discussion on VAT rates is the most high profile in the context of the budget. The change from 9% to 13% will have an impact. It shows that we need to have a discussion on it. We need to understand how areas are chosen for inclusion in particular VAT bands.

There needs to be more transparency in that regard. The VAT system is in need of review. It is a hugely important tax and source of revenue but the common country-wide policy may no longer be as efficient or manageable as it once was. Dublin hotels and restaurants are booming but those in certain other areas of the country are not as healthy and may be more exposed to the United Kingdom market in terms of tourism or various working trends. Businesses in such areas are taking the same hit as those in markets that are healthy and strong and profitable.

I do not know why certain businesses are lumped together in terms of VAT rates. For example, why were hairdressing and hotel rooms put under the same band some decades ago? Dairy products are in a different band to other foodstuffs. It is time for an analysis of which items are under which band.

It is time to consider a proper financial model for local government which would give local authorities the option of levying city or local taxes which would allow them to fund not their day-to-day expenses but, rather, investment in tourism facilities or visitor attractions. That would allow them to ring fence a fund that would give them the capacity to become enablers of tourism and the service economy. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, was involved in the Wild Atlantic Way. It showed that projects involving minimal investment but a lot of imagination and serious buy-in along the way can work. If local authorities had the capacity to invest properly in their communities, it would benefit tourism and enhance the effects of such successful projects.

On health, we must consider the area of GPs and consultants. We are facing a crisis in GP services. Rural communities are struggling to fill GP vacancies while patients in cities must wait five or six days to get an initial appointment.

Much of this comes back to the issue of services in communities, including rural communities. The discussion regarding post offices is ongoing. However, these issues do not just affect rural areas. How much space over retail units in Dublin is empty? How many lights are off in communities across the city which were heavily populated until 15 or 20 years ago? Previous Finance Acts brought in incentives to turn such empty spaces into liveable accommodation but those schemes did not take off. Many people, particularly older people, would take the option to live in a town and use the services available there. That would put life back into communities not just in towns in rural areas but also in cities. It would also provide part of the solution to the homelessness problem. We must match the existing initiatives with the areas where there is demand for accommodation and encourage people to avail of those initiatives and make that accommodation liveable. One such initiative was known as the living over the shop scheme. It is extraordinary that it has not taken off. I lay the responsibility for that at the door of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The incentives and schemes are there and the Department needs to promote them more and encourage people to avail of them. That would deliver people back into communities. The necessary services would follow into those communities.

Budget day involves 15 press conferences and hours of speeches. However, we must consider what people take from it once they have calculated how they will be personally affected. Much information and scrutiny is lost in the ether. The interest and drama revolves around one day and people forget about this Bill, the Social Welfare Bill and the various service plans that flow from the budget. Budget day has been changed to earlier in the year but the process has not been changed. We must ask ourselves whether the scrutiny of the process is fit for purpose in the 21st century. I could not currently answer that question in the affirmative, as indicated by some of the examples I have given.

I do not know if there will be a fourth or fifth budget under the confidence and supply agreement. Fianna Fáil has worked hard and constructively to get to the third budget and has achieved a significant amount. We will enter into the review of those three budgets in the same spirit of constructive participation and achievement and adopt the same responsible and businesslike attitude to the process.

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