Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The budget has been neutral and has not wasted a good crisis. What was supposedly a surplus budget has turned into a deficit budget for the majority of people. It has used the spectre of Brexit to fig-leaf a lack of real gains for working class people. This budget of political choices has favoured raising carbon taxes rather than taxing the real polluters in society.

Carbon tax was introduced ten years ago. Since then, the number of cars on the road has doubled. The idea, therefore, that carbon tax changes behaviour is rubbish. It is a stealth tax , which does not change behaviour whatsoever. There are alternatives to carbon tax, a good example of which is a tax on commercial air fuels in Europe. I believe that most people do not know about the concept. If a tax was applied to air fuels in Europe, it would reduce emissions without having much effect on jobs at the companies in question. If it was levied on Irish airspace, it would generate €900 million per year, which would be underpinned by legal action to prevent companies from passing on the increase to their customers. Such a measure is possible but there is no political will to take it.

The Government has deferred the 30% increase in the hourly minimum wage for workers. Some 137,000 workers earn the minimum wage, many of whom are women, migrant workers or lone parents. Another example of political will is that there is no prudence in respect of extending and maintaining tax breaks for senior executives of multinationals. Some 1,000 executives have a special tax arrangement called the special assignee relief programme, SARP. Eight of them earn salaries of between €3 million and €10 million, which is obscene. This tax break costs the Exchequer €28 million per year. I could comment further on loopholes in the budget and the tax avoidance that such individuals and companies practise. It amounts to a great deal of money, which could offset carbon tax or address the housing crisis, for example.

On housing, I find it hard to believe that the State will invest a further €80 million in private landlords. Next year, €1 billion will be given to private landlords. You could not make this stuff up. Landlords currently chase rents to inflationary levels, meaning that they do not even seek HAP anymore but rather homeless HAP. This amounts to more than €2,500 per month, which the State pays while lining the pockets of private landlords. It is incredible that it is going on but it is the policy and ideology of the Government. The Government is not for turning but what I have just outlined needs to be changed quickly.

The country is very wealthy but the budget compounds the wealth inequality and the ongoing related crisis that is experienced daily. It is a budget of the extreme centre. The Taoiseach commented on the hard left but I find that somewhat offensive. I am a socialist, not of the hard left. We do not appreciate being called derogatory names by the Taoiseach.

This will be the final Fine Gael budget of this Dáil. I hope workers will remember that Fine Gael is no friend of theirs.

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