John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputy Lahart. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the 2020 budget. It is an unusual budget because it is framed very much in the context of the possibility of a hard Brexit, particularly as there is only a week to go to the European Council meeting. It is fair to say that if we do not get a deal soon, getting that deal at all becomes less likely. It is a serious position. Ireland needs stability at this crucial time and my party has offered the Government that stability for the past number of years. This House is united in our approach to Brexit, which is important. It is in this context that we are facilitating the Government and allowing this budget to pass. The Brexit issue supersedes any other matter at this point by far.

We have heard others making very significant contributions to the debate on what a no-deal Brexit would mean to the Irish economy. It would mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and a very significant drop, amounting to a couple of billion euro, in the Irish economy. As I have said, it is in that context that we will continue to facilitate this budget. It is not just about money with Brexit and it also concerns the peace process and the Border. We are facilitating this budget but there are very significant elements with which we are not happy and where we have concerns, particularly in the area of health and housing, which have been problematic for a number of years. I will refer to the problem of drugs and the increase in drug problems at present but these were not referred to at all in the budget speech.

In his comments, the Minister indicated that if the economic impact of a no-deal Brexit is more severe than forecast, he is prepared to use resources that would otherwise have been dedicated to the rainy day fund. He stated that the rationale for the rainy day fund is to accumulate funding that can be deployed in the event of an adverse shock to the economy, and given the small size and openness of the Irish economy, the use of this type of funding is an important way of protecting the economy in more challenging times. He also said that his original intention had been to transfer €500 million to the rainy day fund from the Exchequer this year, with an additional €1.5 billion transferred from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. The Minister will transfer €1.5 billion from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund but the €500 million from the Exchequer is not being transferred. That is absolutely pathetic.

My party has advocated a rainy day fund for some considerable time. It is worth noting that every year since 2012, Fine Gael has needed large Supplementary Estimates, amounting to over €6 billion, to pay for budget overspends. Last year there was almost €650 million for the overspend in the Department of Health alone, not including the increased costs relating to the children's hospital. There will be an overspend of more than €300 million in the health area this year. These overspends have been funded significantly by the increase in growth in corporation tax receipts. Everybody recognises that these, while welcome, are not a reliable source of long-term income. During the period in question, money should have been ring-fenced for an unforeseen event like a no-deal Brexit. It is a sad day when so few funds have been provided to the rainy day fund.

A number of increases to social welfare are to be welcomed, although they are small or modest. The living alone allowance is to be increased and the payment for dependant children will rise by €2 for those under 12 and €3 for those who are over 12. The income disregard for payments for working lone parents will also increase by €15. Income thresholds for the working family payment will rise by €10 and the amount of time those in receipt of carer's benefit can work or study will increase from 15 hours to 18.5 hours per week. Although these are welcome, this budget for the vast majority of people dependent on social welfare has been a non-event. They are bitterly disappointed by it. The Minister made a play in specifically saying the Christmas bonus would be paid in full this year but it is not something with which to play politics. It should be built into the base as an annual core cost rather than a supplementary cost at the end of a year. The Christmas bonus for vulnerable people is a necessary payment to ensure they can survive the Christmas period without going into debt or accessing moneylenders, etc.

I mentioned areas with which we were disappointed. In his 30-odd pages of budget speech, not once did the Minister allude to concerns relating to drug problems in Ireland. Global production of illicit drugs is booming and there have been record figures for the production of opium and cocaine. Total global opium production jumped 65% in one year from 2016 to 2017 and cocaine in a three-year period rose by over 50% between 2013 and 2016. At the same time as traditional illicit drugs are booming, non-medical use of opiate prescription drugs is becoming a major threat.

Cannabis remains the world's most commonly used drug. The potency of cannabis resin has risen from a decade ago. The active constituent concentration was 8% and is now more than 17%. We have a major problem with illicit drugs in this country. There is a great deal of research on this. I have no wish to get too tied down by it, but it is interesting to note the increase in seizures that An Garda Síochána is making. This clearly indicates the amount of drugs in circulation. This increased use of illicit drugs is not harmless but we are ignoring it. It is something we should pay specific attention to because the figures indicate that 730 people each year die a drug-related death. Two people a day, every day, die a drug-related death. Yet, this particular budget makes no reference to the national drugs strategy or the task forces. Task forces are facing significant challenges, including local and regional drugs task forces. Since the task forces were established 22 years ago, when they were specifically targeted, the problem has become national. Yet, core funding was cut during the recession. For the past six years, core funding to our drug and alcohol task forces has not been increased. That is a disgrace. The parent organisations, the Department of Health and the HSE, have seen significant increases in funding during that period. Yet the drug and alcohol task forces have not. The challenges and the work they are expected to do are increasing and it is a shame on the Government that it has allowed such a situation to develop over several years.

Deputy Penrose was speaking some minutes ago on the area of transport. I wish to comment on that as well. The Minister indicated that an allocation of €2.7 billion was being made to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which is a substantial increase of €384 million. The problem is that we are not seeing that on the ground. A couple of additional buses were allocated to my area. Yet, on routes from Lucan to the city centre, there is no alternative mode of transport. There is no Dart or Luas at the moment and whether there ever will be is another question. People are not able to get on the bus in the morning. Buses are going past the bus stops full. We can talk about big figures but if we are not delivering effective solutions for people who are affected, then the budget day announcements do not add up to much.

The Minister said he was allocating €1.1 billion for social housing to deliver 11,000 new social homes. The problem is that they are not being built. They are being acquired through other mechanisms. Local government must have a far more meaningful role in the direct provision of social housing. Last year, local authorities only built 2,000 local authority houses. That figure needs to grow rapidly. The Government and local authorities are buying from an already small market and thus squeezing out many first-time buyers. First-time buyers were ignored in this budget in terms of affordability. We need real and meaningful schemes that do not exist. Moreover, no reference was made to them. Reference was made to an additional €80 million for the housing assistance payment support. It was interesting because the additional €80 million being made available would provide funding to support 15,750 new people. We are really driving a significant portion of people into HAP. They are the very people who are ending up homeless. More and more people are becoming homeless although we already have 53,000 people in HAP accommodation. If we add a further 15,000 then we are exacerbating the problem. Our focus must be on the provision of local authority housing.

I wish to refer briefly to health. There was an indication that 1 million additional home care hours would be provided in 2020. This is an issue we all have had to face over recent years. We all have had experiences of constituents who have been patients in hospital and who wanted to get out and come home but for whom there was no access to such care. At present, a total of 7,000 people are waiting for home support. They are on home care of various types. It is questionable whether the 1 million hours will be as significant as suggested. On 17 September this year, there were 745 people in hospital who were ready to be discharged and 140 or 150 of them had been waiting for one week or less. Moreover, 600 had been waiting for more than one week, 363 had been waiting for more than one month while 79 had been waiting for more than six months to be discharged. We cannot have our acute hospitals tied up like that. Home care, home supports and step-down facilities must be provided to allow these people to exit hospital, where they should not be and do not want to be.

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