Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that Brexit dictated very difficult decisions yesterday. However, Fine Gael's incompetence over the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan made those decisions even more difficult and made the already narrow envelopes even narrower.

Many figures stood out but the €365 million set aside in the event of a no-deal Brexit for social protection, for extra unemployment benefits and extra retraining jumped out at me and show the severe consequences for our country in the event of a no-deal Brexit. When one thinks of how many people that will need to assist, it brings home the very serious position we are in at the moment.

In my portfolio, ní raibh scéim mhaith le haghaidh muintir na Gaeilge agus muintir na Gaeltachta inné. Tá sé soiléir nach bhfuil aon suim ag an Rialtas seo i gcúrsaí Gaeilge nó i muintir na Gaeltachta. Ní raibh ach suim bheag airgid sa bhreis le haghaidh Údarás na Gaeltachta. Ní raibh ach €700,000 le haghaidh an current agus €1 milliún le haghaidh capital expenditure. I will say this in English. Údarás na Gaeltachta has been bitterly treated by the Government. The other job development agencies, such as Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland have got extra money in the context of Brexit. Údarás na Gaeltachta got its first increase in ten years yesterday and it is far short of what is needed.

Chomh maith leis sin, níl aon airgead sa bhreis le haghaidh an straitéis. Níl ann ach suim an-bheag. Léiríonn sé sin go bhfuil an Rialtas ag caint mar gheall ar an nGaeilge agus go bhfuil an Taoiseach ag dul amach agus ag dul timpeall ag caint mar gheall ar an nGaeilge, ach nach bhfuil aon suim aige i dtodhchaí na Gaeilge nó todhchaí pobal na Gaeltachta. The Government is either serious about it or it is not. The title of the Department is the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The Gaeltacht is very much in the third division and does not even have a voice at Cabinet, as is very clear from yesterday's budget.

We need to wait until tomorrow to get the full detail on the Department of Rural and Community Development. It will take the Minister, Deputy Ring, two days to come up with a good story for that budget. I have no doubt he will deliver a good story with lots of fighting and shouting about it but it still will not hide the underspend in the Department. It will not hide the fact that rural areas are facing major challenges of which the Government is ignorant and to which it is incapable of responding. The Government continues to finance schemes that depend on local authorities that do not have the money to co-finance those schemes, because of the cuts in local authority funding. That is why there is underspend. The Minister needs to address that with the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, for the Department of Rural and Community Development to finally get its work done.

On Leaders' Questions today, in respect of community affairs in urban areas, Deputy Micheál Martin raised the RAPID programme and the need for drugs programmes, as the threat of drugs is taking hold of communities the length and breadth of this island. We await tomorrow's version of Harry Potter by the Minister, Deputy Ring; it will be a good one but it will not make any difference to rural communities.

It is good that the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, is here. Speaking of Harry Potter, the health budget is up there with it. I acknowledge one person who has made a significant difference on the health budget and that is John Wall. Issues in the health area have forced individual people to stand up and do heroic things. John Wall is the latest of those with his campaign on resolving the medical card issue for people with terminal cancer conditions. I hope the Minister, Deputy Harris, stands by that commitment and does not do his usual thing of telling us what we want to hear and then running away from it. The Minister owes that to people in John Wall's position. I am pretty sure he will stand up to that commitment.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, took great store by this year's health overspend being one of the smallest ever. That has happened on the back of people waiting for therapists who have not been allowed to take up their jobs. Parents in County Mayo got letters yesterday from early intervention services informing them that the occupational therapist was going on maternity leave. No cover will be provided because the HSE has no money to provide such cover for a full year. That is how the overspend is being managed; it is on the backs of children and their parents. It is nothing to shout about. There is also the sanctioning of posts and then not appointing them. The Government puts its head in the sand claiming there is no moratorium when the dogs in the street know there is.

There is a commitment for only €10 million to staff four new hospices in Mayo, Kildare, Waterford and Wicklow. These hospices have been built completely as a result of local effort. The understanding always was that the Government would provide the full staffing commitment. However, if that amount is divided in four, €2.5 million will not fund Mayo hospice. We need urgent clarity on that matter.

The ring-fencing of the carbon tax is an important development. People will now see where their money is going. I remember previous budgets where 8 cent a litre was added to fuel prices overnight and that money went into the great black hole of Government finances. We need to ramp up the work of the warmer home scheme and ramp up the ability of the SEAI to deliver to communities and homeowners in order that they can see the benefit of that scheme. There needs to be greater flexibility and greater support given to householders who want to make the transition to low-carbon heating systems in their homes. It works. I have seen some of the work the SEAI has done in estates, resulting in considerably lower fuel bills for people on low incomes. It has resulted in considerably lower emissions and much healthier conditions. There are benefits all around. However, it is very expensive. Unless the State puts real money behind it, people will not see the benefit of this ring-fencing. Overall consideration will need to be given to ring-fencing much more than just the money announced yesterday.

This summer was dominated by protests at beef factories. Farmers are frustrated and feel they do not have a future. Older farmers and younger farmers are saying they cannot continue to be slaves to the land. However, yesterday's budget makes no reference to funding. There is extra funding for the flawed beef exceptional aid measure, BEAM, scheme, which has not delivered. The Government has ticked a box thinking that they have gone away and it can move on. It cannot and they have not gone away. The BEAM scheme as it exists is undersubscribed because it is not working and is not relevant. Across a range of measures in agriculture and in rural and community affairs, the Government needs to hear those voices from the protests over the summer. Those are real and are not going away. The Government needs to respond. All the pain of such transition - climate transition and Brexit transition - cannot be put on the shoulders of just one community and the Government had the chance to do that.

A very unusual alliance of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Colleen Rooney must be in the Government's mind this evening. Between Angela Merkel yesterday and Colleen Rooney today, the Government has got away with little coverage of the budget. Somebody should warn Colleen Rooney that the Taoiseach is due to appear in Liverpool tomorrow as I know he has a penchant for photos with celebrities.

The Government has rightly wrapped the budget around Brexit. The threat of Brexit to our State and our island is scary when one reads those figures. However, it cannot give the Government a complete carte blanchefor avoiding its responsibilities under so many other headings. I have only ten minutes and could spend much more going through the many other areas in which the Government is not delivering. Deputy Browne will speak later about the Minister of State, Deputy Daly's, area of mental health. Once again, we have a shimmy over the funding in that area.

We also have a shimmy over the funding for Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, which has been moved under the Arts Council. The Government then claims the Arts Council is getting a bigger budget. That relationship did not work previously and will not work again.

Across subheads in each Department there are shimmies all over the place to hide cuts in funding and hide areas the Government is not servicing. The State needs to stand up and work collectively as we fight the Brexit situation, but a time will come when the Government will be held to account for this shimmy approach to so many areas affecting people's lives.

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