Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Finance Bill, which gives effect to the changes that have been announced in the budget and implements them in law. Our party has started on negotiations with the Government on housing, health and, indeed, the other major issue facing us which is Brexit and how that will unfold internationally and how it will affect us.

I wish to address a number of issues in the Bill. With regard to housing, many commentators say it is a huge issue for urban areas and the large cities, but the housing crisis affects small rural townlands across the country as much as it affects the large urban centres. We must deal with housing as a whole. There has been massive growth on the east coast and we see the demand for housing and the jobs that are available for young people there, but we must seek to have a rebalanced society and ensure that housing is available in every part of the country. That means all types of housing. My colleague referred to the complication of forms but there has been a huge tightening or complication in enacting housing policy. Every Deputy in the House says he or she wants more housing and more affordable housing that is within reach of ordinary people. If one does the calculations on the salaries that are paid to professionals or young people at any level, be it in the private or public sector, and one looks at the multiples of their salaries and the mortgages stretching over 25 to 30 years, it is tying them as slaves to making sure they have a roof over their head. One hears other commentators talk about the attitude in Ireland to housing and making sure we have a house. However, that is quite right because that basic instinct of Irish people regarding housing has stood the test of time. We must ensure affordable housing is available in all parts of the country.

I made a point yesterday to the Taoiseach and he said on two occasions that he did not understand it. I was talking about the major challenge facing Irish society over the next 20 years. Some 15% to 18% of our society is living in substandard accommodation. The people there have grown up on welfare and very low incomes. They are not engaging in society at any level, from the very young right up through the ages. They are outside of society and do not value the education system that is greatly valued across the country. Our policy must be to try to get more people actively participating in education so they can be educated to become full members of society and to have a better lifestyle and better social integration with everybody. It will cause fewer social problems. Some of the planning that provides for huge numbers of houses but no facilities leads to that. When the inner city was cleaned out back in the 1960s huge housing developments were built west of Dublin but no facilities were provided. Society has paid a price for that in terms of policing and so forth over recent decades. That is coming out of the taxes Deputy Ó Cuív mentioned for the public purse and what the budget sets down with regard to taxes. That tax is going to pay all these sectors. There is a cost to society and not only in terms of the human cost for people who are living in those conditions. These societies are not just in large urban centres but are in every community.

We must acknowledge the massive contribution education has made to society, particularly since free secondary education was introduced 50 years ago, and how it has effected change in almost three generations of people. It has had a hugely positive impact on our society, but we must consider those who are being left behind. There is a massive number of people who can contribute enormously to society. At a small level one can see where one or two families in a community did not finish second level education or consider third level education, yet they went on to become leaders in that community and enhance it. We must acknowledge the massive achievements that have been made but we also must be critical in terms of how we go about integrating people and the resources that are available at primary school and childcare levels. We must ensure that all children, whether they come from affluent parts of the country, rural areas or areas of deprivation, have an opportunity even where there is a challenge for them in moving forward.

I turn to agriculture and the budget. It has been a very challenging year for agriculture owing to a number of issues. There has been major pressure on the suckler cow herd. It is only right for me to declare my interest in this issue because I am a suckler cow farmer. During the marts in late August and early September there was despondency in the beef sector. These are farmers who are only willing to derive an income from sustainable farming enterprises. We have to make sure that when there is a new scheme to help farmers, it does not present further challenges or result in duplication of paperwork to further addle farmers in trying to gain the maximum amount in grants. Every year the Department cross-checks EU payments, the EU auditors look at them and there are many people making sure the money is being spent and channelled in the right way to farmers. Where there are overclaims to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or when issues are declared, the Department will write to the farmer in August or September to state there is a discrepancy in the payments. Let us consider the case of a farmer who wants to challenge this or make sure the Department's claim is or is not correct. In that situation perhaps it might keep to one side part of the payment or the percentage being challenged until the issue is resolved between it and the farmer and not hold up every single payment. Farmers came into this year, in particular, with a cash flow difficulty that has been encountered since this time last year following Storm Ophelia and continued through to this year. The Department should only take account of what is being challenged and pay the rest.

Last year there were low income loans which helped farmers enormously to pay creditors, merchants and so on. There is a need for clarity on that issue. We need to make sure they are put in place in the Finance Bill and delivered very early in 2019. One businessman who has a small business which he has operated for 40 or 50 years told me this week that cash had dried up completely. Disposable income has almost dried up in rural communities since 15 August. Farmers are finding it extremely difficult to obtain funds, receive payments or be paid.

With regard to available income, I raise the issue of the cost of education, third level education in particular. The income limits for third level grants are in the early €40,000's. I have met many parents who have one, two or three children going to college. They may be double income families who, on the face of it, one would say are doing well, but they have to meet the cost of third level education for their children who must travel to the cities to access third level institutes. They have to meet the cost of accommodation which has spiralled out of control. The Minister and every Deputy in the House understand these challenges. These families are looking at a cost of €15,000 or €20,000 per annum for education. This puts third level education out of the reach of a number of people. On Monday I was told that some families would only be able to afford to send only one or two members to third level education. That will balance our books, but it will have a detrimental effect on society as we move forward. The Minister has been on delegations across the globe and one of the great selling points is Ireland's great education system and well educated young people. We must continue to educate them to the highest possible level.

On the effects of increasing social welfare payments and how it comes into play, there are a number of little issues. Any practising politician might come across anomalies in the system. Carer's benefit is paid for two years to people who come out of employment to provide care for a relative who needs it, be it an elderly relative or a sibling or a child. The payment should be looked at seriously to see if it could be extended to cover a period of more than two years. There is room for it. There is no way anybody on the financial side of government can stand over the delays in paying carer's and disability allowances. When a person applies for carer's allowance for the family, he or she has withdrawn from a job to provide care for a loved one. The application process can take 14 weeks to complete. On the face of it, the problem can be easily solved. People who are qualified in processing such applications can clearly see if a person will qualify when the income details, medical reports and so on are produced, yet the process takes 14 weeks. There is then a further delay and sometimes the application can enter into the appeals process. If it is approved, the payment is backdated to the day on which the application was made; therefore, there is no financial gain to the State in holding up payments. The delay has to be looked at. Will the Minister say if there is a shortage of staff within the Department to process applications? We have seen how illness benefit payments were affected recently, with huge delays due to a change of software in the Department.

Fianna Fáil put health at the forefront of it policies for the budget to get a better deal for healthcare services. The extra money promised in 2018 has not delivered the required respite care services people need. People look forward to receiving respite care. Many families have come to us to explain that they have gone to the service provider to look for extra respite care services and that when the business case is made to the HSE - it is an appalling way to phrase what is a care need for an individual - it can take a long time for the application to get through the system. It may then be turned down or the family may only receive assistance on four days in every quarter. In 2017 the issue of respite care was discussed during Topical Issues debates, Leaders' Questions and questions on promised legislation, but it has not led to a satisfactory service. Families have been promised shared care services, that they will receive assistance on two, three or four days per week. These are families whose parents, for example, are advancing in years or who have looked after their loved one for 40 or 50 years. They were listed as a priority, but the shared care service budget is not in place. Yesterday the Taoiseach said more money was being put in through the budget for respite care services. I sincerely hope this funding will go directly to service providers to make sure they will be in a position to deliver respite care services families so badly need.

We have had many discussions on the allocation of home help hours and the work of people who deliver home help services. The home help service is one of the most innovative in the State. It delivers a huge dividend to the State in keeping people in their own home for longer and supporting families who have loved ones who need care. It is a fantastic system. People who applied for a home care package last June or July and were approved by the district nurse and the home care assessors are still waiting. The phrase that is always used by the State is "natural wastage", but the fact is people are always waiting for somebody to die in order that his or her home help hours can be freed for allocation to another person. That, unfortunately, was my experience during the summer.

I now turn to the issue of medical cards. There are people who apply for the over 70s medical card and do not qualify because they are perhaps €600 above the limit. However, they may have huge health issues.

The mechanisms need to ensure that the health of that person or family member who requires help or a medical card is taken into account. There is a mechanism within the medical card scheme for the over 70s that takes the medical condition as well as the financial situation into account. The delays in the approval of the medical card lead to a lot of challenges.

I genuinely believe that when a patient is diagnosed with cancer, he or she should given a medical card for six months automatically. If there is a cancer diagnosis, a medical card should be allowed for the period of treatment. Please God, the patient will go on to recover his or her health, but if there are issues that will be with him or her for a long time, only then should he or she have to go back over the bits and pieces Deputy Ó Cuív just mentioned - the P60s and all the rest of it. Such patients should, however, have an automatic entitlement to the card.

On infrastructure and our roads, there were many thoughts in respect of further funding but in the budget, in the Finance Bill and in our commentary we have to make sure that more money is given to local authorities to improve the local rural roads network. Over recent years a lot of damage has been done to rural roads. We have seen all of the issues. We have seen all of the major infrastructure projects, which are very badly needed. We have been waiting for generations for some of the major infrastructure projects, such as the N20 which goes through part of my constituency, Charleville and so forth. There was a briefing on that project back in January and one man said that it was his sixth time at a briefing in respect of the same road. That road and that network needs to interlink the south, Cork, Limerick and on up the west and open up the area for further development.

Decentralisation has been scoffed at by many people in these Houses but I will say the following about every single Department that has been decentralised. When we, as practising politicians in these Houses, are in contact with these Departments, whether in Letterkenny, Athlone or Portlaoise, and whether it is in respect of agriculture, education or social welfare, we see that they are top of the range. They are superb with regard to how they do their business. It is of enormous benefit to have these Departments in communities. From a wider point of view, it is better that the civil servants see what is happening throughout the country. While it is a small island, we cannot have everything centralised in one place in Dublin. We have to get a broader view of how we go forward.

Broadband has been debated, mentioned and talked about. We have to be serious about it and understand the challenges. I am sure the Government is waking up to the challenges and to the broadband issue. The promises made by Alex White and Pat Rabbitte when they were in the House with me amount to nothing. It is time that we accept that a semi-State body is the only way to make sure that there is broadband in Kiskeam as well as in Dublin or anywhere else. It is vitally important that we empower every single person living in every single part of this country to have the same access to online services as those anywhere else. We can then derive a huge amount of benefit from a regional development point of view.

One company, which has a base in Dublin and another just outside Kanturk in County Cork, is paying €800 per month for its broadband connection in Kanturk and €50 in Dublin. That is a major imbalance. We have to be serious about rural development and regional development. We have fine young people who are willing to live in every part of the country. We have to give them the chance and we have to empower these communities.

I could speak at length. I have got through three of the seven-----

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