Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with much of the second part of Deputy Penrose's contribution. On the budget, anybody would welcome the extension to the threshold for medical card holders aged over 70 and for children under eight years of age to access a doctor or dental treatment. The worrying part is that we now hear doctors stating that nothing was agreed, so I presume that needs to be resolved.

When we go through the budget, we can see that much of it is unimaginative. I accept, however, that Brexit has been a major factor. To start with the agricultural side, stamp duty is crippling for the small farmer who goes to a bank to put a few pounds together. This year is no different, particularly in light of the fact that 1.5% is being added to it. Why do we not try to change this? The EU is supposed to be based on a foundation of protecting the family farm. Why do we not give an escape route to somebody with under 100 acres and who wants to buy 20 acres more to make their family farm more sustainable instead of crucifying them with another €1,500 or €3,000 on any bit of land they might buy? I have no problem with the conglomerates or the large operators who buy big office blocks having to pay an extra per cent. However, for someone in a rural area who would buy a shop and open a door, for someone who would open a pub - many of which have closed unfortunately - or for someone who might buy a few acres of land to make sure that they stay in an area, why do we not have imaginative thinking to try to help those people to put on a light, open a door and perhaps make a small rural town more vibrant or make a small farming area more viable?

The carbon tax is a real bugbear of mine because it is put on the people of rural Ireland. The position needs to be clarified in light of the different statements coming out in the past three days. Those in the agricultural sector were told on the evening of the budget that carbon tax will not be applied to green diesel. Let us be very clear, because we now have all the information from Revenue, that there has been a carbon tax of €20 per tonne on green diesel up to now and the new carbon tax is going to be added to that. Then, the story came out that contractors and farmers would not be hit with it. The reality is that an agricultural contractor will have to pay the carbon tax in its present form. The Government should look again at this. Let us show a bit of common sense about it. Some 95% of work carried out on farms is done by the agricultural contractors. They are not going to be swallowing this tax because many of them are struggling, and they are going to hand it on. They are going to hand it on to a sector that, as everybody has seen in the past seven or eight weeks, especially in the context of beef and sheep, is struggling. Why we do not have an allowance for that, I cannot understand. I will try to put in an amendment when this goes to committee because we need common sense.

The people in rural parts of Ireland have fewer buses and we know the debacle that has taken place with regard to buses in the last three or four months, with the eligibility criteria and parents having to bring their children to school. In addition, people have to drive 30, 40 and 50 miles to get to work in different parts of the country. No one will be shocked if they live in Roscommon, Galway or the midlands that they could be driving 40 or 50 miles, with some people driving as far as Maynooth every day. It would be great if there was a bus or a train that would shoot them up and shoot them down again when they finish work, but we do not have one on the hour, every hour. It is basically taking the money out of the pockets of these people. These are the people in what I call middle Ireland who, year in, year out, are crucified. They pay their mortgages and put kids through secondary school and college, but they are being fleeced every time. Everyone says we are going to poverty-proof this person, that person and the other person. The reality is they are never poverty-proofed and they are now, in my opinion, the new poor in Ireland. This is a discriminatory tax against people living in rural Ireland, who have no options and no services. If the services are there, a person cannot be cribbing. However, when those services are not there, it is different. People would take a photo of a bus in my area if they saw one - that is the reality.

While €3 million is being provided for rural transport, that is for the whole country. We must put this into perspective. What does it cost to run one bus in Dublin for a year? Dublin needs infrastructure as well. I am the first to say that.

There is uproar about the carbon tax, especially among contractors, because it is hitting farmers, who are in a difficult situation. Unfortunately, farmers are price-takers. Everyone has to eat and all that food is hauled by lorries around the country. The carbon tax will affect that. We do not seem bothered about the big money-spinner. People in rural parts of the country have no choice as to where they work. It is a question of where they can get jobs and sustain a family. They do, however, have a choice as to whether to go to Lanzarote or Kerry. That is the choice they have. The airlines can well afford to take a bit of the hit.

Regarding agriculture, I welcome the €85 million for the beef sector in the budget but, to be honest, if there is a hard Brexit, we will need a lot of €85 million packages or about 100,000 farmers will not survive, unfortunately. We must ensure we tackle that head on. I note that the Minister has said there will be more moneys provided in the case of a hard Brexit. I welcome that but we need to keep the finger on the pulse. The money that was unspent - it is not new money - on the sheep sector needs to be divvied out as well.

Some 14% or 15% of the country is in designated areas. There are 38 different notifiable actions. Farmers are not able to farm their land in the same way as someone up or down the road from them. Negotiations have gone on over the past six or seven months. They needed €10 million but I see that in the budget the figure has gone from €600,000 to €1 million. Let us be honest; that will not resolve this problem. I encourage the Minister to do one thing. I see that €10 million is to be provided for a new dairy calf to beef weighing scheme. Why do we not think outside the box? We will have a major problem next spring when between 1.3 million and 1.5 million calves born in the dairy herd in a matter of two or three months. Why do we not give the €10 million to the people who can export these calves and get as many of them as possible out of the country? This would make the sector sustainable by ensuring the factories are not flooded again. When the factories know there are heaps of cattle, they can give whatever price is taken.

Regarding the €1.2 million to be provided to Bord Bia, it better start showing something for the amount of money it gets. All it could do in recent months was ensure that meat processors got Bord Bia quality assurance in England and the North, places where we could not send cattle beforehand. Ironically enough, I note that two of the main meat processors did not share a stand with Bord Bia at the biggest food fair in the world. It is worrying that they had their own stand.

There is nothing for the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme. Before the crash, when Fianna Fáil was in power, the maximum annual payment was something like €4,000. The maximum payment is still only €3,200 or €3,300 now and it was not increased in the budget. The Minister should forget about weighing calves or sending them from beef to dairy. A certain number of calves will go - nobody is saying they will not - but we should bring in an incentive because people like incentives and exporters love them. We could give farmers a payment of €10 for every calf they get out of the country. This could alleviate a major problem. The problem is not this year but a year or two down the road. We should ensure we meet the highest animal welfare standards when doing this.

There is a lot of talk at present about Bord na Móna and the midlands. There is only one solution. I sat with Bord na Móna a year ago. It put a lovely glossy document in front of me and told me how it would do all these lovely things and how nobody would ever lose a job. A few months later, I heard that Donnelly's coal yard in Galway was closed. What did the lovely glossy magazine I saw propose? Redundancy. Then there was a similar closure in Sligo. What did Bord na Móna propose? Redundancy. Then it wanted 450 more people and there were further redundancies. This was the new way of creating new jobs. We can throw money at whatever we like. People were told nine months ago there would be a just transition in the years from 2018 to 2025 and now they are being told the doors will close next Christmas. That is what is facing some of these people under the current scenario and plan. I am not worried about An Bord Pleanála or the Environmental Protection Agency. I am worried about people's jobs. We are supposed to be legislators. We must do whatever is needed to ensure a just transition for workers in Bord na Móna in the period until 2025, or 2027 as was predicted. All those workers bought into that plan and they cannot be left hung out to dry.

The €20 million for retrofitting is great - no one is saying it is not. I live in Galway, however, and someone else may live in Donegal. I could be a contractor retrofitting houses. If I am the cheapest, I will get the contract. Let us not cod ourselves that a Bord na Móna worker will be guaranteed to get the contract. The same applies to the rewetting of bogs, for which €5 million has been provided. This is a subject I know a good bit about. Rewetting has taken place on some of the designated bogs. If a bog has to be lined, there will be fewer people working on the site. I read today an article in one of the newspapers that 120 people would be involved. As the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will understand better than everyone else, anyone rewetting a bog with peat will need a digger and using a digger means putting in a scraw to block a drain. That €5 million will be spent in 240 days using 17 diggers, and that does not include the cost of materials. There are no ifs or buts about that. By the way, a digger is operated by one person, not three people, and that person pulls the levers. That is how it works. No one is denying that large areas can be covered but that is achievable with 17 people in 17 diggers. Once we subtract those 17 from the 1,600 figure, we will still need to find work for 1,583 people.

I welcome the €6 million for the just transition, but we need to do this on a phased basis. It is like going up a hill bit by bit. Over the seven or eight years, we must ensure that these people know where they are going. The door cannot be closed overnight, as I said earlier. Whatever we need to do, let us get the idea of shutting down the plants at Christmas out of our heads. Let us ensure we are honourable about what we said we would do and give the workers a future until 2027.

I turn to education. Regarding grants for teachers who go to college, while there may be some complications, at least an effort is being made to give the grant back to student teachers. It is sad to see funding for school buildings being cut, but I welcome that there will be a small increase in capitation.

We need to get to grips with one thing here. There are various announcements and budgets throughout the year. Four budgets ago, the then Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, announced that people who had incontinence and who pay by weight for waste disposal would get an allowance of €75. To this day, that payment has not been introduced. When we announce something in a budget we should be honourable enough to ensure it is done.

Councils across the country have their tongues hanging out waiting for the group water framework. It was to come in February or April and there were three people looking at it in May or June. It was then to come in September but it is still not here. Schemes around the country leaking water and the Minster for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has not announced that initiative when he should have.

Maybe we did not have money for pensioners but we should prioritise them, along with children, to ensure the people who worked before us can be looked after. I have sat here listening to the debate on more motions on Wednesday nights than I care to remember since I came here. The only debate I can hear now concerns climate change and it will have the same relevance as every other motion. We have debated motions on rural social scheme workers and the fact that community employment scheme supervisors should be treated correctly when it comes to their pensions and conditions. However, this Government has gone through three budgets now and there is nothing for them. If we are not going to act on the outcome of a motion, we should not debate it to start with. People thought they had won an all-Ireland final that night when the motion passed and everybody was excited but nothing has happened since and those people have not been looked after.

It is a similar position for carers. We have not talked about the fair deal scheme and maybe legislation is required but my understanding is funding is needed. Many questions are being asked of politicians from all sides of the divide about the state of the fair deal scheme. We can introduce all the legislation in the world that we want but if there is no budget to cover it, where do we go? It was promised during the recess that when these Houses returned, the heads of the required Bill would be ready and it would go through the Oireachtas. Everybody anticipated that the new process would start in January 2020. We do not seem to have made any progress in that.

Running a farm or any small business is like running a relay race. The business is handed from to the other and having to pay big nursing home fees is crippling some people. I know there are some Health Service Executive schemes but I know of cases where people had to sell land. The Government should introduce the promised scheme and it should certainly not say it will do it if it does not intend to. This would help the people in trouble who are paying large sums of money. If we do not act, somebody else will have to go on social welfare because he or she will not have a farm on which to survive.

I ask the Government to consider carefully amendments to the stamp duty code for family farms or small businesses. Will the Government consider how the carbon tax increases will affect contractors? Everybody will say I am a contractor, and I am, but I do not make up the world. I am talking about contractors around the country because 95% of work done on farms is done by a contractor. They will pass on these costs. We need to introduce certain measures because if there is a Brexit, there will be a crisis in agriculture. Do we want to finish them off altogether or is there a willingness to try to help farmers? We can do that through amendments.

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