Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

BusConnects is not even in planning; it is in consultation. Believe me, I have been to 15 or 20 consultation meetings. Those involved are the first to admit it is not even near going to planning. Where is the Navan rail corridor? It is gone. Where is the metro? It is not in planning. Perhaps in a few years' time we might think about starting to build something. As I have said, on the other hand 51 national motorways and roads are being built. At the very back of the budget document, there is a useful piece of analysis showing the projects we have committed to in public private partnerships. In transport, it is all roads. We have committed forward €3 billion to the private sector on roads. They are incredibly expensive with really high interest rates. It is really bad value for money. We received that analysis in the Committee on Budgetary Oversight.

Thinking that allocating €9 million for cycling infrastructure is our transport answer to climate change is far from the scale of what we need to change and misses the opportunity to make this a better country for the people. All of the cars on the roads mean gridlock and it will not work. People want to get back into urban planning that allows them to be close to where they work, to walk and cycle safely and to have proper public transport. There is a line in the budget about rural public transport. What is the scheme? What is the plan? I would give it first priority because of the climate challenge we face and the gap in rural public transport, but there is no detail. There is no real commitment other than a line stating the Government wants to do something in that area.

I welcome the allocation of €5 million for re-wetting certain bogs, but if we are taking climate change seriously, it will need to be increased by €100 million, not just €10 million, because we need to change the entire forestry and farming systems in order that we can store carbon, protect biodiversity, get a better price for truly Origin Green food. There is none of it in the budget. There is no system change, just tinkering at the edges. When we look at each of the areas, what comes across is what everyone is saying quietly in the corridors and elsewhere, that this is a government that is tired. After eight or nine years of having Fine Gael in power, it is natural enough that the Government is tiring, but we really get a sense of it now.

In the area of health there is no sense that Sláintecare is being deliverd, as has been said. There is no sense that we are looking at how we are doing, rather than throwing an additional €400 million, €500 million or €600 million every year into a system that clearly is not functioning. There is no real sense of change and that nurses are being given greater responsibilities in order that they can peform procedures doctors would not have to do and that GPs are being given greater responsibilities in order that they can perform procedures that would not need to be carried out in crowded emergency departments. Doctors in hospitals could be given a little more protection from medical negligence claims in order that they would not have to test for every single thing. They should just use their judgment in a slightly more skilful way in order that we would use fewer resources and have better health outcomes. I have no sense that there is that thinking in the Government.

It is the same in the case of housing; there is nothing new. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is saying his way is the right way, but it is not working. The Government has lost the public, which is why Fine Gael is going down in the polls. One would think that would change, but we have another €80 million for housing assistance payments, which is just subsidising private landlords and doing nothing to bring down rents or address the problem. These are the sectors where allocations have increased.

Education is one of the sectors that has not been mentioned and that has really missed out. Where is the funding for the third level education sector which is in crisis? The headline figure is a 1% increase, which will not work at a time when our universities are falling down the league tables. While I welcome the use of research and development in some of the universities, it is not on the scale required and not changing the third level education system which is in the deepest crisis.

Similarly, there is a line about a 1% increase in the culture budget. I do not believe there is any increase in the allocation for broadcasting which is connected to culture. The media are in crisis. RTÉ is broke and selling the paintings, but the Government does not seem to be concerned about this. Public service broadcasting is part of the democratic institutions of the State. I do not want us to go down the road of paying subscriptions for everything in an online Internet world. I want public service broadcasting in order that people access free, fair and accurate journalism. The Government does not seem to care that all of our media are in dire straits, including the public service broadcaster.

Last but not least is the biggest question. There is nothing about the new economy. There is nothing about how we might use technology to our benefit, rather than being just a slave to it. There is nothing about how we position ourselves as one of the leading technology countries in the world, which is what this is. There is no sense of direction. What are our ethics? What are our values? What is our position on the key issues such as the development of artificial intelligence, the use of digital data, privacy and so on. If we were really thinking forward for the long term and had a Government that was really sassy and on the ball, we would be all over it and positioning ourselves as the tech centre of the world and a trusted place, but there is none of that. It is the status quo. It is a tired Government.

The Minister concluded his Budget Statement by saying: "We have shown that the centre of Irish politics can not only hold but can adapt and change." I wish that were true. We have held, but we are not changing. That is not good enough.

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