Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget that was announced here last week. People throughout the country are beginning to ask questions. They fully understand the budget was framed on the basis of a no-deal Brexit and that it was correct to take a prudent line in the event that it might happen. However, in the event that we do have a deal this week, next week or whenever in the immediate future, people are now asking where the €1.2 billion that was being set aside for a no-deal Brexit will be spent if we do not have a no-deal Brexit given that there are many people with needs. I accept that some of the money was to be borrowed. Since the Minister made his speech last week on the basis of all this money being provided in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a homeless person has been murdered on the streets of Cork. It demonstrates the widespread problem in respect of homelessness and lack of facilities. I could continue in that vein. Given that the Government has money available in the event of a no-deal arrangement, if the money is not all required for that purpose I hope this Fine Gael Government will decide to allocate some of the money to deal with urgent issues such as once and for all dealing with the housing issue.

The Government has not addressed housing. The reason it has not is because it is not the Fine Gael way to worry about the people on the housing list. We had the most troubling statement in the Dáil on Leaders' Questions on Tuesday when Deputy Micheál Martin raised the case of the homeless man being murdered in Cork. The Taoiseach blamed the man himself. He said he had been offered an apartment. That means the Taoiseach does not understand the complexities of what is involved with some people who are homeless. He thinks it is a case of throwing someone into an apartment and that is it. I do not speak of the person involved, but it shows the Taoiseach did not understand the issue at all, not to mind having empathy or an interest in solving it. That is the reason we have the problem. In saying the man was offered an apartment, the Taoiseach was essentially blaming the man for being homeless. What the Taoiseach said about homeless people and the attitude he showed in this Chamber was outrageous. If he had any understanding he would know that some people are homeless for reasons of mental health, disability and addiction. It is not just a case of having a square room to put a person into. For the Taoiseach to suggest that the man was offered an apartment, and for some reason he did not take it and it was given to someone else, shows a total lack of understanding and empathy for people who are homeless.

I do not intend any offence personally to the Taoiseach but that is a bit of the Fine Gael DNA. I know Fine Gael people who say if people are homeless or unemployed it is their own fault. They ask why those people do not get up and do it like the rest of us. Life is not as simple as that. It is more complex.

I raise the issue because it happened since the Budget Statement by the Minister for Finance last week and if all the money is not required for a no-deal Brexit we would want to ensure some reallocation of the funding that would be set aside. Not all of the money to deal with Brexit and other such issues was to be borrowed. I highlight the issue because the Minister made a big play of a no-deal Brexit in his speech. If people analyse what the Taoiseach said, they would be deeply upset to think that was his attitude on the floor of the Dáil Chamber to a homeless person who was murdered.

There were a few good items in the budget thanks to Fianna Fáil. We fought long and hard and I am very pleased that we secured 1 million extra home help hours. To underline why that is important I will explain what happened throughout the country this summer. No support was given when the directly-employed HSE home support staff who were providing home help took their two weeks holidays during the summer, which they are entitled to do. They will also take a break at Christmas. Elderly people living alone and families were left to fend for themselves during that period. When the HSE contracts a home-help agency, it is contracted to provide 52 weeks cover, which includes the holiday period. We had a crazy situation whereby the HSE was not replacing its own staff. People who thought they were fortunate having a direct employee of the HSE coming in to provide home help got a sharp shock this summer when they got no cover. They were abandoned and left high and dry for the two weeks. That happened, and I am afraid the HSE will try it again at Christmas and then it will establish a pattern. They will say they got away with it during the summer and they will try it again.

It is the thin end of the wedge. We need more home help hours.

I am also pleased that funding has been provided for 1,000 additional therapists, nurses and healthcare and professional staff and that €2.5 million has been provided for the Fianna Fáil initiative, the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which reduces lengthy waiting times for cataract, hip and a variety of other surgeries. In the last three budgets we had to drag the Government kicking and screaming into providing that extra money. It resisted giving it on several occasions because it does not believe in the initiative, but we do. It is working and reducing some of the waiting lists.

In terms of education, provision is made for 150 new teachers and €1.9 billion for special education, which will allow for 400 additional teaching staff for children with special educational needs and 1,000 additional special needs assistants, SNAs. We are also very pleased with the commitment we have secured for the recruitment of 700 new gardaí.

The main issue in this budget is the carbon tax and there has been much debate on it. For the first time, we are seeing where the increase of €90 million in carbon tax is to be utilised. Last year, €430 million was raised in carbon tax. I would like to know where the more than €500 million raised in carbon tax in the coming year will be spent. There is no transparency across government in regard to how it is spent. The Government raises carbon taxes on diesel, petrol, marked gas oil, natural gas extraction and kerosene, solid fuels, coal and peat, liquid petroleum gas and fuel oil. A breakdown of these categories is set out in the recently published ESRI document. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, produced a report in the summer on fossil fuel and similar subsidies, in which it criticises the use to which some of the carbon tax collected has been put and states that it is detrimental to the environment to compensate people to continue to burn fuels that we should be encouraging people to move away from. In regard to the fuel allowance, the objective of the Government should be the retrofit of houses such that they will need less heat and become more environmentally friendly. This could be done through the installation of solar panels, additional insulation, double or triple glazing and so on. We will be able to reduce the amount of heating required in houses if they are more energy efficient in the first instance. This is the route we should be taking on this issue.

On the carbon tax, I have raised this issue wearing my hat as Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts. The Comptroller and Auditor General report published a couple of weeks ago states that, given the increasing level of related income and expenditure, it would be timely for relevant Departments to consider the potential to provide additional information and disclosures in respect of climate change initiatives in the statutory accounts they produce in respect of carbon tax. The report includes a chart which shows receipts of well over €3 billion in carbon tax since it was introduced in 2010. It now stands at €500 million per annum yet there has been no transparency in regard to where it is spent. I am arranging for scrutiny by the Committee of Public Accounts of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in regard to where taxes raised are spent, which is the core function of the committee. We want to ensure there is public transparency in this regard as otherwise people will see it as a tax and they will not know where it is being spent. We want to know where the €3 billion to €4 billion collected in the last couple of years was spent and transparency year-on-year into the future in regard to future receipts, which the Comptroller and Auditor General has called for in his report. We will also engage with the Departments on what initiatives they have taken in terms of CO2 emissions, utilising the €3 billion to €4 billion already collected and spent and the €500 million or more that will be collected next year.

My final comment relates to public private partnerships under the heading Exchequer-funded financial commitments under public private partnerships and concession projects referenced in the charts contained in the Minister's speech. There are 29 projects, worth €10 billion, being undertaken by public private partnerships, some of which run for 50 years with others running for 25 years. Again, there is a lack of transparency in this area. There is no mechanism for the Oireachtas to get behind those contracts because they are deemed commercially sensitive. This House will have to address that issue.

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