Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2020 has come at a time when change is happening all around us. The withdrawal of Britain from the European Union presents many challenges for Ireland, social, political and economic. Budget 2020 also comes at a time when workers and families are looking for a break: a break from wages that do not go far enough, a break from high bills and a break from rip-off costs. People are looking for solutions. They are looking for something new from the Government. Of course, stability is important but the Government must also show the vision and the endeavour to move forward; to redefine what the Government delivers for people and to remould how it delivers. Change is difficult. Change that is outside of our control, initiated by the decisions and actions of others, is even more daunting still. But change can also be a canvas on which to create something new. We know that where there are threats, there is also opportunity. I accept this is a time for caution. We must take Brexit seriously. Sinn Féin proposed a Brexit stabilisation fund of €2 billion to meet the challenge. That is the level of funding needed to properly respond to the Brexit crisis. The figures announced yesterday simply will not cut it as they fall far short of meeting the scale of the challenge.

Caution and fear are two very different things. This is not a time for fear, this is a time for innovation, for fresh thinking and for big ideas. It is a time for solutions. Government priorities must be set to match the hopes and aspirations of the Irish people, not by the smallness of those who seek to damage our island for narrow political gain. Sadly, the Government has missed the moment. It has failed to see the opportunity. It has also failed to seize upon the canvas that change presents. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, has instead used Brexit to dig in. He has used Brexit as an excuse to deliver more of the same. The Minister says it is a budget for stability as Brexit looms, but the truth is that this is a budget that protects banks, insurance companies and landlords. It is a budget that is built on policies that back vulture funds over households. It is also a budget that puts workers and families on the front line to take the heavy blows should a crash Brexit transpire. There is a lack of vision, a lack of ambition and a lack of belief. That is what guides this Minister's preparations for Brexit and that is what guided the formulation of this budget.

Instead of writing modern music for modern times, what we get is Fine Gael singing the same old and played-out song. Yet again, Fianna Fáil stands ready as the backing vocalists. In the first verse they tell workers and families they must take the hits. In the second verse, they tell the powerful and the rich they are on their side. Where have we heard that before? It is not so long ago that the same song was played for the enjoyment of bankers and bondholders. That is Fine Gael for you. Right on cue. How utterly predictable. How utterly uninspired. This budget comes at a time when recent reports have shown that this State has the fifth largest number of ultra-wealthy individuals per capitain the world. This is also a place where 137,000 workers live on the minimum wage and one where average incomes simply do not keep up with the cost of living.

The Government approaches the budget as a blunt accounting exercise, in the same way as a corporation might present its books. That is flawed thinking. Government budgets must go far beyond that rigid perspective. Budgets are about choices and priorities. Budgets are about the lives of workers and families. Budgets are about people and communities. It is the responsibility of the Government, of the Minister for Finance, to look beyond the blunt figures to the human beings on the other side. The failure of the budget to prioritise the well-being of the people is a big mistake. The Taoiseach can be absolutely certain that it is the well-being of workers and families that will prove the strongest bulwark against the impact of Brexit. Unfortunately, the Government does not understand that. It has again resorted to measures which first defend the interests of those at the top.

The mistakes and missteps made by the Government in this budget mirror the bad policy decisions taken by Fine Gael since coming to power in 2011. How do we know they were bad decisions? Because they are not working. The Government's policies and budgets simply have not worked. The Government is not delivering solutions. One only has to look at the facts. Last week, in University Hospital Limerick, we saw the highest number of people on trolleys on record in one day for any Irish hospital. The Government has not fixed the chronic overcrowding in hospitals; it has made it worse. In our alternative budget, Sinn Féin offered a suite of solutions as the first steps to a single-tier universal public health service over ten years. The Government's budget ignored it. Family homelessness on the watch of Fine Gael has increased dramatically. When the Government came to power in 2011, eight families were becoming homeless every month.

Today, after almost nine years of Fine Gael in government, 90 families become homeless every month. The Government has not solved the housing and homelessness crisis; it has made the misery worse.

In our alternative budget, we proposed solutions to bring down extortionate housing costs and launch a major programme of public housing construction to meet affordable and social housing needs. These measures would have done something real for those trying to get on the property ladder such as young couples looking to realise the dream of their own home. We also proposed an immediate rent freeze, a much better measure than this Government's failed rent pressure zones, RPZs. The Government ignored these solutions as well, however. It is an indictment of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that the majority of people have far less money in their pockets now than they did when those parties came to power together more than three years ago. They have not improved the affordability of life for workers and families. Together, they have made it worse. In our alternative budget, Sinn Féin proposed the introduction of a living wage of €12.30 an hour. This, again, was ignored by the Government. Worse still, the 137,000 minimum wage workers were thrown under the bus. There was not one red cent for them.

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