Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the budget, delivered by Fine Gael and supported by its colleagues in Fianna Fáil, which has failed again to ease the burden on working families. It is a takeaway budget rather than a giveaway.

The budget could have been so much better for the people of rural Ireland and across this State by putting money back in people's pockets but it has failed to deliver. It has failed to improve public services. The Government failed to tackle the rip-off practices in childcare and car insurance, and it is still like the wild west in the rental sector. Families in rural Ireland will face increased charges as a result. The Government has decided to go against the poorest workers in the State by not providing even one cent of an increase in the national minimum wage. Everyone expected something to be done for those on the minimum wage but that has not happened and action is being deferred until after Brexit. I wonder who requested that? There was no deferral of corporation tax or multimillionaires' income tax breaks until after Brexit. Why are the Government and Fianna Fáil only choosing to punish the lowest paid workers in our society?

Some have called this a nothing budget but is more cruel than that. Perhaps the meanest and most harmful decision made by the Government was the increase in the carbon tax. That decision will hurt the poorest and most rural constituents. It is not just Sinn Féin saying it, as many organisations that have analysed the budget have come to that conclusion. That will push more people over the poverty line having to put up with the cold this winter. The Government has said in its defence that the increase in carbon tax is on the grounds of climate action. That does not hold up when we crunch the numbers as we have had a carbon tax for the past nine years and it has not had an impact on climate action. Despite the fact that the Government has taken the decision to increase the carbon tax by an additional €6 to a total of €26 per tonne, only a fraction of this will be reinvested in climate action.

The carbon tax is expected to bring in approximately €540 million to €550 million next year, based on budget figures, and yet only €6 million has been allocated for a Bord na Móna transition plan. If we ever needed proof of Fine Gael greenwashing, that is it. What the Government intends to deliver to the people of the midlands in particular falls well short of anything substantial. It is meagre and there is no vision. I have not seen anything about creating a biomass supply chain industry required to supply the three midlands power stations or anything relating to biogas or microgeneration. A miserly €6 million has been allocated for bog rehabilitation while the greyhound industry got €16 million. Rural bogs have the potential to serve as carbon sinks, as well as educational and tourism resources, but that has been overlooked. The current afforestation grant scheme is a joke and unfit for purpose. It is also underfunded.

There is nothing in the budget for rural transport. How can one expect people to use less fuel if we do not provide alternatives? Are the people in counties Laois and Offaly meant to buy electric cars and install their own charging points? Sinn Féin argued for almost a doubling of the rural transport budget. We are trying to provide solutions but the reality is that this was not a giveaway budget but a takeaway budget. Ordinary people, particularly those in rural Ireland, will be worse off after this budget. We advocated measures to tackle rip-off insurance costs, increasing the minimum wage and €10 million for the retraining of Bord na Móna workers, with funding to support the agriculture sector, especially in the face of Brexit. As I mentioned, we would almost double the funding for local bus services but we would not have increased the carbon tax. Ultimately, this budget will not work for working families or rural Ireland. It will increase pressure on low-income families and people living in rural Ireland. It is a missed opportunity by the Government.

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