David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill and to again offer a critique of the Government's budget, some of the measures included in it, and more importantly for Sinn Féin, some measures that should have been included and were not because the Government made the wrong choices and failed to give workers and families a break that they needed.

I will begin with the increase in carbon tax. In my speech on budget day, I made the point that the tax was unfair and regressive, that it would make many working families poorer and that the analysis before the budget from the Minister's Department, accepted by him, was that carbon tax was regressive and that those on the lowest incomes would have to pick up the tab and pay the price. We have to win people over in order to reduce carbon emissions. We have targets to meet, and the only way we will do so is by ensuring that people change their behaviour and reduce their carbon footprint, but there is also a responsibility for large corporations and polluters. The point that the Minister has missed is that increasing carbon tax will not change people's behaviour. It will make people poorer, and if they do not have alternatives that is all it will do, but it will not make the State any greener or cleaner, which is the fundamental flaw in his argument.

In the Minister's closing remarks on budget day, after which there was not an opportunity for us to respond, he argued that those who opposed carbon tax were against taxes that change people's behaviour, but that is not the case. As he knows, we supported the introduction of sugar tax and the plastic bag levy. We did so because they work and because there is an alternative for people. If one drinks Coke, there is also Coke Zero, or if one drinks Fanta, there is also Fanta Zero. If there is an alternative, people have an opportunity to use it, and the same is true in the case of the plastic bag levy. It is not the case, however, in respect of carbon tax because the vast majority of people, as the Minister will be aware, do not have the means to change from heating their home with oil and gas to doing so with alternatives.

The vast majority of people cannot afford electric cars. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has indicated that the target in the Government's climate action plan of having 1 million electric cars on the road in the next ten years cannot be met. Even if it is possible, people will not be able to afford them unless the price falls dramatically. There are people living in rural Ireland who do not have access to public transport. I live in a rural village through which no bus, of any description, passes. People depend on their cars because they do not have an alternative. If they did, we could consider increasing carbon tax to change their behaviour. The way the Government chose to increase it, however, will do nothing more than increase revenue. The Minister should not tell us the Government will ring-fence the money for proposals that will reduce people's carbon footprint or be good for climate change mitigation. That can be done in any event, through progressive taxation and the other options the Government had, many of which we presented to him.

Teachta Pearse Doherty spoke about the convoluted schemes in place for executives who can avoid paying income tax. Moreover, banks make large sums of money and secure corporation tax exemptions, and the bank levy is not what it should be. That is because Fine Gael represents a cosseted, privileged class. I stated that on budget day and I firmly believe it. If it was interested in the plight of ordinary working people and had even the remotest understanding of what many families throughout the State go through weekly, it would have presented a different budget. The homeless people to whom Teachta Pearse Doherty referred, and the child seen eating food from cardboard, are not the only ones in such circumstances. There are families who no longer rent homes but rooms, and there are landlords who no longer let houses but rooms in houses. Some people, including families, pay €800 or €900 per month to rent a room in the capital city. That is the reality for many families but I do not believe that the Minister grasps that. There was zilch in the budget for them. The Government did nothing for families who need a home.

The health service is an issue that needed significant attention. I have on numerous occasions raised the lack of capacity at University Hospital Waterford. There are pressures at University Hospital Galway, University Hospital Limerick and in acute hospitals throughout the State. Record numbers of people lie on trolleys. It is not that Sinn Féin or anybody else is making up what I have outlined. The Government knows about it and the figures speak for themselves. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, releases the figures monthly and they show record numbers of people lying on hospital trolleys but the budget did little to mitigate that.

It was the same last year. There was another stand-still budget, although it may have been worse, with less money going into the health service in real terms, when increased demand, demographics and so on were taken into account. The same will happen this year. Fianna Fáil Deputies will waltz into the Chamber, and Fine Gael Deputies will probably do likewise, crying crocodile tears about the record numbers of people on hospital trolleys or without a home. The time to deal with such issues is on budget day, when the Minister should put his money where his mouth is, tax those who can afford to pay a bit more, raise the necessary revenue and provide for citizens, but that is not what he did. As the Government always does, it pretended there was no alternative.

We proposed an emergency freeze on rents for three years, and Berlin introduced a five-year freeze yesterday. The Government turned its back on the proposal, however, because it does not believe in helping tenants, although it certainly believes in supporting landlords. We sought a refundable tax credit of one month's rent, with a limit, to help tenants but the Government said "No". We sought a package of measures to reduce the cost of childcare but the Government said "No". We sought the provision of two free GP visits for every citizen in the State, to enable us to get to the point Sláintecare promised, but the Government said "No". It has committed to Sláintecare in theory but in practice and delivery, it is nowhere to be seen. The stand-out unfair announcement in the budget, which the Economic and Social Research Institute called a deeply regressive budget, was the increase in carbon tax. It did not take all the other steps that would have given workers and families a break.

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