Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I do not like having to rush a speech which I have prepared. I appreciate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle facilitating me. I also appreciate that other Deputies are not here.

It is fair to say that this stage of the budget debate is a bit like cold turkey a week after Christmas. On the other hand, there are important points to be made. Backbenchers do not get to contribute in the high profile part of the debate but there is no reason to think that what they have to say is any less worthy of concern.

I am very disappointed with this budget. Within the financial constraints the country faces, much more could have been done on a number of issues. Climate change is the flavour of the month. I will comment on the carbon tax later. There are more fundamental challenges facing society on climate change than the carbon tax. In terms of public discourse, particularly in financial and Government circles, everything seems to be predicated on continuous economic growth and output. If every country in the world does this, we will accelerate the day we all run out of resources and lose our ability to create a sustainable society. The basis of modern society is to encourage people to buy more even if they do not need what they are buying. The reality of the consumer society is that it is focused on ever increasing sales and not on people's real needs. At the same time, homelessness and poverty are rife in our society and the gap between the most well-off and the poorest in society, not only in income but in standard of living terms, is widening. The future cannot lie in the continued destruction of our resources and ecology, but in a much better distribution of wealth and ensuring that everybody's basic needs - a home, adequate means, the opportunity of gainful employment for those who are fit to take up employment, suitable welfare for those who are not, heat, food, etc. - are catered for. This Government, while tinkering around the edges, has not engaged in any meaningful vision of the future of Irish society. The same can be said of the European Union, which is fixated on economic growth and is not doing much for the people that I represent.

In my view, the carbon tax is only justifiable if there are suitable mitigating measures for those most affected and alternatives to enable a change of practice. In the case of the carbon tax in this budget, people living in rural Ireland and the less well-off are going to be most affected and the mitigating measures will do little for them.

As the Minister of State knows, in rural Ireland the use of a car for leisure and work is a necessity because there are no public transport solutions provided. This is not because rural areas are naturally more carbon intensive but because of inequities in policy. It is extraordinary to note that the expenditure per head of population on bus services in rural areas is one fifth of that in urban areas. This is a fact that few people recognise and certainly the elites do not want to know about it because it does not suit. It is also a fact that bus fares per kilometre in rural areas are twice those in urban areas. I would have thought that the carbon tax was an ideal opportunity for the Government to address this injustice to rural dwellers and start giving equality of fares and improving the services. In page 20 of the budget, the Minister states there are going to be measures on rural transport. I asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport a parliamentary question this week about what measures we were going to get. All he did was rehash a cold dinner and tell us that he had given more money for the last three years to Rural Link. He referred to some minor changes in bus services, some of which affect my constituency, that are already decided for the last six months and are going to happen. The budget says one thing but cold reality from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport says another because we are beyond Stepaside.

On home heating and the fuel allowance, as many rural dwellers live in stand-alone houses, they have great opportunities with renewable energy, particularly renewable micro-energy such as solar, small windmills and so on. Again the Government has not grasped the nettle. It has not included feed-back tariffs or allowed for payments out of the public service obligation, PSO, to be given for micro-renewable energy. Someone who has a large windmill can get a payment under the PSO but if he is producing renewable energy and feeding back into the grid, which most people cannot do, he does not benefit from this. People do benefit in many other countries. The Government has missed an opportunity to introduce it.

Another problem we all come across is that of people living in older, badly constructed houses in terms of thermal quality. Some of these houses need repairs beyond insulation and the better energy warmer homes scheme and so on. They need more fundamental repairs and improvements to things like doors and windows. Many of the people living in these houses are of low means. Again, we need a scheme dealing with these basic infrastructural deficiencies that would be available on an ongoing basis through the local authorities, like the housing aid for older people scheme. That is quite a good scheme but the amazing thing is that if one is under 66 years of age in Galway - I think it is 60 in some other local authority areas - it does not matter how bad one's house is, there is no help to do it up. There is no point in talking about insulating a house that has draughty doors and single glazed windows. There is no point in increasing the fuel allowance when all the heat is going out the windows in every direction in a way that the existing insulation schemes will not deal with.

I would like to say a word about disability. The lack of provision of adequate funding for disability since 2011 has been scandalous. In examining the expenditure report that forms part of the budget documentation, it transpires that all that is provided for this key sector is €25 million. This has to include all of the standard wage increases that are going to public servants in the roll-back of the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation, FEMPI; the increased number of people with significant disabilities due to population growth and the thankful fact that people with a disability are living longer; and also the massive increase in the standards of care that need to be provided to people. I had a parent on the phone to me recently who has an adult daughter with multiple and very significant disabilities. They told me that the financial envelope they have for 2019-20 to provide services for that adult is exactly the same as it was in 2008. What other service can be provided for the same cost as in 2008? In this case particularly, new HSE regulations mean that it quite rightly takes two people to do what one used to be allowed to in the past. This family is finding it impossible to buy basic services for a highly disabled person. The measure of any government is its commitment to the most deserving and the voiceless in society. By this measure this Government is an abject failure.

Ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá faoin nGaeltacht, faoin nGaeilge agus faoi na hoileáin. Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil iompar an Rialtais i leith na Gaeilge, i leith na Gaeltachta agus i leith na n-oileán náireach. Níl focal ar bith eile faoi ach "náireach". Tá an tAire Stáit ag déanamh a dhícheall go pearsanta, ach is léir nach bhfuil aird ar bith ag an Rialtas, mar Rialtas, air. Nuair a cheadaigh an Rialtas an straitéis 20 bliain don Ghaeilge i mí na Nollag 2010, thug gach páirtí tacaíocht dó. Dúirt siad más rud é go raibh rud ar bith mícheart leis, b'shin nach raibh dóthain airgid ar fáil. In 2010, an bhliain a ceadaíodh an straitéis, bhí €71 milliún ar fáil sna Meastacháin don Ghaeilge, don Ghaeltacht agus do na hoileáin gan Foras na Gaeilge a chur san áireamh. Deich mbliana ina dhiaidh sin, agus lucht an Rialtais ag maíomh go bhfuil an straitéis á chur i bhfeidhm acu, níl ach soláthar de €58 milliún déanta don bhliain seo romhainn. Is léir go bhfuil laghdú de €13 milliún i gceist. Tá titim thubaisteach ó €33 milliún go €15 milliún i gceist ó thaobh caiteachas caipitil de.

Níl anseo ach gearradh siar ar bhunstruchtúr na Gaeltachta agus na n-oileán. Mar shampla, sa deich mbliana idir 2000 agus 2010, caitheadh €100 milliún ar bhunstruchtúr oileánda. Ní dhearnadh aon togra ar luach de níos mó na €1 milliún ar na hoileáin ó shin. Tá sé spéisiúil go raibh €15 milliún ar fáil d'Údarás na Gaeltachta mar airgead caipitil sa bhliain 2010. Úsáideann an t-údarás an maoiniú sin le deontais a thabhairt do tionsclaithe atá ag teacht isteach le fostaíocht a chruthú sa Ghaeltacht agus le foirgnimh a chur ar fáil do na tionscail éagsúla. Ní bheidh i gceist an bhliain seo chugainn ach €9 milliún. San iomlán, ní bheidh i gceist ach €2 milliún breise don Ghaeltacht, don Ghaeilge agus do na hoileáin sa bhliain 2020. Go bunúsach, is léir nach bhfuil spéis ag lucht an Rialtais sa teanga agus nach bhfuil sé i gceist acu an straitéis 20 bliain a chur i bhfeidhm. Tá sé in am acu é sin a admháil. Ba cheart dóibh stop a chur leis an gcur i gcéill agus an fhírinne a insint. Mar a dúirt mé ag an tús, tá díomá an tsaoil orm faoin gcáinfhaisnéis seo. Creidim gur teip ar phobal na hÉireann atá inti.

See this speech in context