Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Long before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we lived the reality of the impact of budgetary choices made by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael year after year. We had record rents, record levels of homelessness, record numbers on hospital trolleys and record numbers waiting for medical treatment. Too many people were forced to live their lives on the financial edge. Workers and families were barely getting by and were just about paying their bills or mortgages. A generation - and counting - has been locked out of home ownership. These shameful blights on our society did not come about by accident. They happened because every year a Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil Minister has stood up here on budget day and made announcements that define the lives of millions. Unfortunately, they have made those decisions based on the premise that our society should serve our economy and not the other way around. The pandemic has shone a light on the ugly reality of a skewed system in which the needs of banks, mortgage lenders, landlords and vested interests have been prioritised over the needs of workers, families and communities.

While no one could have predicted the pandemic, our public services are ill-equipped and under-resourced after decades of neglect. The pandemic has shown us that houses need to be homes, where people can build lives and have a sense of security. Out-of-touch Governments have stood idly by for years. Under their watch, the housing crisis has spiralled out of control and ordinary people have been left to pay the price. This time around, we were told it would be different. "We are all in this together" was the mantra, but those days are already a pipe dream. This Government has chosen to slash people’s incomes through cuts to the PUP. Mortgage breaks for hard-pressed workers and families have been scrapped and protections for renters are out the window. We are no longer all in this together, and that is a choice this Government made. Instead of harnessing the strength of unprecedented social solidarity, community and cohesion, it has chosen to take a different road. It has chosen to return to old habits and the economics and politics of division. That is not what our country needs. We need a vision to rebuild, stronger, fairer and better.

In am na héiginnteachta seo, tá ualach oibre fíorthábhachtach faoinár gcúram mar ionadaithe poiblí breith a thabhairt maidir le cén chaoi is fearr airgead poiblí a chaitheamh. Agus muid ag tabhairt faoin obair seo, níor mhór dúinn cuimhneamh gur ar mhaithe le formhór an phobail ba cheart na cinntí seo a dhéanamh. Caithfimid seasmhacht a chinntiú don phobal agus athshlánú eacnamaíoch a chinntiú atá bunaithe ar chothromaíocht agus comhionannas. Caithfimid seasmhacht agus dóchas a chruthú. Ní raibh an oiread tábhacht ag baint le buiséad d'oibrithe agus do theaghlaigh le fada an lá. Níl aon amhras ach go bhfuil comhthéacs na pandéime lárnach do leagan amach an bhuiséid seo.

This pandemic has shown that one's home really is one's sanctuary. For too long, a place to call home has been beyond the reach of many. The hard-working couple whose wages just about cover their rent have no chance of saving for a deposit. It is beyond the reach of adults in their late 20s and 30s who are still living with their parents and people living in damp, substandard accommodation who have been on the social housing waiting list for well over ten years with absolutely no end in sight, and a family with young children who are facing another Christmas in a hotel room. Since March, we have all spent more time at home. For some, it has become a new home office and for others, it has been a place to cocoon, but the damning reality is that for many, their home is their greatest cause of concern. There is fear of not being able to meet mortgage repayments since the Government refused to ensure an extension of the mortgage break. There is a worry that a landlord will issue a person with a notice to quit or that the damp and mould really are affecting one's child's health.

In this time of great instability, we have never needed the security and stability of a home more. However, once again the Government has failed to grasp the magnitude of this crisis. Is it indifference, ignorance, incompetence or all three? As this is a decade long crisis, it is clear to me that there is no understanding, empathy or political will to provide affordable, decent homes. Fine Gael has presided over the largest increase in homelessness in the history of the State with almost 9,000 people homeless. This should send shockwaves through the Cabinet but it clearly does not as target after target is not met. Last year, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, stressed that the Government has executive authority, controls the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, is responsible for addressing the housing crisis and must accept that its performance on housing has not been good enough, and I wholeheartedly agree. Now the Minister's party is in government and for most people, it is a case of business as usual. He is not going to tackle the problem of affordability. He has allocated just €110 million for affordable homes. He is not going to tackle the lack of public housing including affordable rental. There is almost nothing here for renters. He is going to ensure that the current housing regime which suits landlords, bankers, developers and vulture funds endures.

Fianna Fáil once again sees itself on the side of developers, extending the help-to-buy scheme which has further increased the cost of a home. In July, only weeks into the term of this new Government, it could not help itself. In the July stimulus package, the Government increased the tax rebate, which saw house prices soar overnight, not helping the first-time buyer but once again helping the developer. Is it a case of back to the future? Not really. It is just business as usual. Fianna Fáil never broke from the developer model of housing. Some things simply never change. We know what needs to be done and we in Sinn Féin are prepared to do it. As my colleague, Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, said, we need a Government that makes fewer gaffes and builds more gaffs. We have been saying this for a decade. It begs the question of why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cannot follow through on this. The answer is that they are stuck with the same special interests that want to the keep the current regime in place. Those vested interests are the bankers and the developers. We need homes and we need them now.

A Sinn Féin Government would deliver the largest public housing programme in the history of the State. In 2021 we would deliver 20,000 social and affordable homes. That is what is needed. We would deliver 4,000 affordable purchase homes which would be sold for €230,000 or less, finally giving young families a chance to grow their family in their own home. We would bring in 4,000 affordable cost rentals which is absolutely necessary, meaning that those whose incomes just about pay their rent finally have some disposable income to enjoy life again and put some vital funds back into local businesses and the local economy. The Government has failed to meet its targets. We have not seen a single affordable unit to rent or buy delivered via any central government scheme this year, despite 6,000 being promised. The Minister has failed to even deliver his promised plan on affordable housing.

Affordable units are being promised here in 2021, but it simply does not cut it. This represents 6,000 less homes in 2021 than what we provided in our submission. We would deliver 12,000 social homes. The scandal of housing waiting lists needs to be tackled urgently for those who have been waiting too long for a place to call home. Some 9,500 social homes are promised here today, yet the Government failed to deliver on 91% of this year's targets. This announcement of 9,500 represents a pitiful 593 extra real social homes above the existing commitments for 2021. This is a kick in the teeth to the tens of thousands of people languishing on social housing lists.

There is no additional serviced sites funding for councils to deliver homes on public land. It falls short of what is needed and once again shows how out of touch this Government is. This budget does very little for renters. Rents are rising yet again. We would introduce a refundable tax credit, putting one month's rent back into renters' pockets, up to a sum of €1,500. We would re-introduce the Covid-19 emergency ban on evictions, notices to quit and rent increases. It is shocking but not surprising that the first act of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage as Minister was to strip renters of these vital protections introduced during the onset of the pandemic.

Historically, Ireland suffered greatly from the problem of absentee landlords. Today we see that same problem manifest itself. These absentee landlords are non-resident investment funds or vulture funds as they are widely known. We will introduce a 3% stamp duty surcharge on these vulture funds. We will no longer be the state of the céad míle fáilte for vulture funds while driving tenants out of their homes with sky-high rents. It is unacceptable that these vulture funds are among the biggest landlords in this State and it is an outrage that it has gone so far that the UN has had to step in and condemn Government practices and attitudes to vulture funds.

Unfortunately for many, their home really is not their sanctuary. This pandemic has brought with it many concerns for us as a community. The stay at home measures brought a very frightening reality for those living with their abuser, a feeling of no escape. If that is you and if you are in that situation please know that there are supports out there, people who will listen, people who believe you. We believe you. We need to ensure adequate supports for domestic abuse services. We would provide additional funding of €4.5 million for such emergency and step-down accommodation and supports.

There is much talk about health. This pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the cracks in our health system. It has exposed the decades long failure to invest adequately in and fund our health service and the failure to ensure there are enough doctors, nurses and beds. There has been chronic underfunding in the building of capacity where it is needed. We need to spend the money where it is needed and we need to spend it on hiring front-line workers, on hospital beds and we also absolutely need to spend it on ICU beds. The Cabinet has four people who have served as Minister for Health, including the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. With that wealth of experience, it is surprising that our health system is still in the sorry state that it is, despite per capitaspending being among the highest in the developed world. If there was any desire to fix the two-tier system, it would have been done by the various Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments years ago. They had serious opportunities over the last five years to deliver it and missed them all.

This budget is nothing more than a repackaging of the winter plan. It does not go beyond or above it. It is a missed opportunity and, to say the least, very underwhelming. It will not do enough to deal with the major long-term capacity problems, nor will it move us from a system based on means to one centred on needs. What we needed to hear today was a plan to deliver more beds, not an excuse. There was a failure in the last years to increase permanent capacity in the health service. Beds were only ever temporarily funded. It is welcome to hear that they will become a baseline, but during these times, it is not good enough. That was last year's promise. We need a fresh start in health, which means a new vision to deliver additional beds and additional ICU beds to expand capacity in the health system. This budget is a short-term solution to keep matters steady, not to deliver more. Sinn Féin’s alternative budget would have delivered 100 ICU beds, 60 more than the Government, and begun capital works on 600 more new acute beds next year than the Government.

Fine Gael led us into this pandemic with a health system bursting at its seams, with nurses regularly struggling for better conditions whilst working in highly strained, overcrowded hospitals. In my local hospital, Galway University Hospital, emergency full capacity protocol was invoked 135 times in the first five months of last year.

A safe hospital runs at 85% capacity but every winter, acute hospitals operate at and over 100% capacity. None of this should be news to the Government.

Over the past two decades there have been three bed capacity reviews, as well as multiple reports on critical and other care. The common conclusion of these various reports was that our system was badly lacking in acute and critical beds. What is frightening is that if we compare our system to the EU average, we are only at 50% of the number of intensive care unit, ICU, beds per capitaand we have a much lower capacity. We also lack the extensive and holistic primary care systems that similar EU states have, and this increases the strain on our acute hospitals.

This was the dangerous reality of healthcare under Fine Gael and it left us on the back foot when this pandemic knocked on our door. Now our health service is under pressure on several fronts. The healthcare system we deserve, a version of which is enjoyed across Europe, gives workers better terms and patients better treatment while delivering hospitals that are fit for purpose. We must be ambitious and make improvements every year to deliver so we can put people's health first. We need Sinn Féin's vision for healthcare. We want to deliver 100 additional ICU beds next year and 50 for each of the next four years. That is what is needed and what we propose.

In 2009, the Towards Excellence in Critical Care report identified the need for 580 ICU beds this year. In 2009, we had 289 ICU beds but in 2020, far from 580, we have 280. That is on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They are promising us that we will have 321 ICU beds by the end of 2021 but this is not enough and the promise is not even likely to be fulfilled. We needed 580 ICU beds by the end of this year and 321 of those beds simply does not cut it. We need more acute beds next year to protect surge capacity and remove reliance on trolleys.

We would hire 2,500 additional staff to fill vacancies, relieve the burden on existing staff and achieve safe staffing levels of nurses, consultants and other doctors. We would resolve the issue of pay inequality, which continues to hamper recruitment of specialists.

We would fully fund the national cancer strategy and the national cancer control programme and have €10 million in additional funding for the catch-up of delayed screening and diagnosis. We would also provide an additional €12 million to deliver on the national cervical screening laboratory.

Our vision for universal healthcare is in line with other European states. It sees healthcare as a human right and not a privilege. It is something to be delivered on the basis on needs rather than means.

My colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, mentioned people with disability and their carers and how they suffered disproportionately this year. They feel like they have been absolutely forgotten in this crisis. They have stood outside this building, telling their very personal stories of the impact this pandemic has had on their daily lives. We have heard of how their lives have been turned upside down, how the fantastic developments they have achieved thanks to their hard work in day services have regressed over the course of this year. Heartbroken families have been telling of the distress their loved ones faced at not being able to go into their beloved day services. These are not just services for these families but these are their lifelines.

We have listened to their hardships but listening is not enough and action is needed. The Government’s plans of €100 million for this sector, while welcome as a step in the right direction, still falls short of what is needed. Citizens with a disability should never again feel they have been forgotten by anybody and they especially should never feel they have been forgotten by a Government.

I have not heard much talk about the childcare sector. I am astounded by this but it is no wonder, I suppose, as it seems like nothing has been done. We know childcare costs are like a second mortgage, regularly meaning that parents must make a decision about can go to work. More often than not, this affects women disproportionately.

A new model for childcare is needed. Childcare providers struggle to keep their doors open and there are approximately 4,500 of these providers in this State. For many, their business has become unsustainable, and without any real support from the Government, these small and medium enterprises, which not only provide childcare in remote and rural areas but also provide jobs in places where there is little alternative employment, cannot keep their doors open.

All 27,000 childcare workers are some of the most highly skilled and qualified professionals but they are paid a pittance. It is clear that the current model of childcare provision in this State is failing everybody. The measures outlined in this budget have failed them yet again and it will do nothing to turn this matter around. There are no measures for fee reduction, no fund to help providers keep their doors open and no recognition for workers in the form of increases for them.

Sinn Féin, unlike this Government and those preceding it, has a plan for the childcare sector that delivers for parents and workers. Over the course of two budgets, we would cut the costs for parents by two thirds. We would do this by having the State take on the wages of the sector and implementing and ensuring sustainability. We would immediately increase the pay of childcare workers to the living wage of €12.30 per hour. We would introduce a sustainability fund of €124 million for childcare providers to ensure the sector remains viable into the future.

For those who say that this is not possible, we cannot afford it and it is all just wishful thinking, we should remember that when Ireland first planned to launch free secondary school education in the 1960s, we heard these exact same arguments. I imagine I would find it hard to get anyone in this Chamber who would now argue to abolish that. The reality is that the naysayers lost out and the State and our people have been all the better for it.

Early childhood education plays a crucial part in children's development. This plan and vision for the sector is needed for the parents struggling to pay the childcare fees, the providers trying to keep the doors open, the underpaid workers and, most important, the children.

We have heard about the VAT reduction for the tourism and hospitality sector from 13.5% to 9%, which I absolutely welcome because it is needed. However, 9% of nothing is still nothing. What the sector needs is cash being spent in the businesses now. We would introduce a tourism and hospitality voucher to every adult and child worth €200 and €100, respectively, and this would inject much-needed cash into the sector. It is said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; this Government has tried to imitate this scheme but somehow made it more regressive. I note it has not been mentioned today.

Many young people working in this sector have been hit really hard and youth unemployment stands at 37.8% when we include those on the pandemic unemployment payment. We must not force another generation of young people to emigrate in search of job opportunities. It is up to the Ministers to create the stimulus needed on a regionally balanced basis to allow our young people to stay at home. I did my leaving certificate in 2008 as one global crisis was unfolding and here we are in 2020 and leaving certificate students are again facing a crisis not of their making but one from which they will suffer the consequences. Many of my friends who emigrated during the last crisis still have not come home and I dearly hope that the same fate does not await the class of 2020. I can tell Members the untold devastation visited on parents and grandparents when they do not have their children visiting because they have been forced to emigrate.

We have heard great things about our front-line workers and they deserve more than claps and platitudes. The Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 is due to run out at the end of this year and claps do not put bread on the table or keep a roof over one's head. This Government has regularly said we are indebted to our public sector workers but it is time to put its money where its mouth is and reach a fair deal that not only recognises the pain public servants have suffered since 2008 but the heroics they have performed since the onset of Covid-19.

We need a new collective pay agreement that brings about real pay equality in our public services, including pay parity for all section 39 workers and not just those who fell under the terms of the Workplace Relations Commission recommendation. This budget has done nothing on any of these fronts. We would bring about the immediate equalisation of pay grades for post-2011 public sector workers with their pre-2011 colleagues. We would bring about pay parity for section 39 workers, who are all too often forgotten by the Government. They are not forgotten by those people who rely on their services or the people with disabilities who they bring joy to on a daily basis and who need the routine of the same person helping them every day.

There is the question of politicians' pay and the spirit that we are indeed "all in it together". We would reduce the salaries of Deputies and Senators, and as my colleague, Deputy Mark Ward, recently pointed out, it is mad that he, just a year into his job, has been offered three pay rises while most people's incomes have fallen off a cliff.

This is why we need to reverse the cuts to the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment and introduce a wage support scheme that is fit for purpose and targeted and supports all workers.

I was very interested to hear what was said about capital investment. We are in a crisis now and we need to act proportionately. There is nothing fiscally prudent about doing too little too late. Countercyclical spending is the means of getting out of this crisis. This budget should not be about keeping the economy at a standstill and keeping the lights on. It is essential that this budget stimulates the economy by pumping money back into businesses and people's pockets. The risk here is that we do too little rather than too much. This budget does not cut it in terms of capital expenditure. The capital expenditure the Minister outlined amounts to €10.1 billion. I have heard it stated that this is an addition of €1.6 billion. I do not know what school of mathematical thought that is. Where I went to school, €9.1 billion minus €10.1 billion equals €1 billion. This will not provide enough firepower to counteract the downturn. I stressed this to the Minister time and again. It has fallen far short of not only what we have called for but it has fallen far short of what the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IBEC and Fianna Fáil and the Green Party's old pals in the International Monetary Fund, IMF, called for.

A Sinn Féin Government would roll out a €2.5 billion enhanced capital investment programme across a range of areas, including housing, hospitals and schools. This would create more than 26,500 jobs while meeting the needs for affordable accommodation and healthcare services. This is the kind of stimulus that we need. At least 150,000 jobs have been lost during the course of this pandemic, so the question is not merely how we maintain existing employment through the various business and income supports. It is how we begin to replace and expand employment that has already been lost through large-scale capital investment in shovel-ready projects.

I am deeply concerned that the recovery fund appears to be a "maybe fund". I am stunned that the Government feels that the economic crisis is not bad enough for it to allocate this fund immediately. What is it waiting for? Jobs are being lost, businesses are being closed and people are in significant rent and mortgage arrears. Now is simply not the time to wait and see.

Another issue of concern is that the budget the Minister has laid before this House is not only anti-rural Ireland but by increasing the cost of operating a car for the average person while cancelling bus routes, it represents an attack on rural Ireland. These policies are neither green nor rural. This Government seems committed to casting rural Ireland adrift. It had the opportunity to rebalance the scales from the beef barons to the ordinary farmers. This is what was committed to in the programme for Government. This Government committed to "[p]rotect and enhance the incomes and livelihoods of family farms". It was meant to be a "key objective" of this Government. The suckler farmer was left behind in the July stimulus and this budget represents nothing other than outright abandonment.

In our budget proposal Sinn Féin committed to protecting the Irish family farm as a way of life. We proposed a new suckler scheme that would front-load payments at €300 per cow with lower payments after the first 15, committed funds to the national reserve fund to help give young farmers a start and committed to areas of natural constraint to support the less intensive farming this Government claims to support. These policies represent a bold vision that would have provided rural Ireland with a bulwark with which to face the uncertainty of Brexit and the ongoing Covid-19 situation. The people of rural Ireland will not be served by this budget.

Not only are we facing the crisis of Covid-19, we are facing the crisis of a no-deal Brexit. There is no Brexit which could be good for Ireland. With its highly provocative United Kingdom Internal Market Bill 2019-21, the British Government has already threatened to tear up an international agreement and commitment that it entered into. Britain's lax attitude to international law should be of no surprise to us here in Ireland. Its actions threaten the livelihoods of those in Border communities and the agricultural sector, which will have knock-on effects for the wider community. We believe that should Britain exit the EU without a deal, at least €1 billion will be needed in order to support the sectors and regions most directly impacted. We need clarity from the Minister on how much of the recovery fund will be allocated to the Brexit contingency fund.

It has been said that one should never let a good crisis go to waste. Let us not miss this opportunity to reimagine what this country could be and the role of the State in remaking it. Should the role of the State be relegated to merely correcting market failures, as those of the cosy neoliberal consensus think, or should it have grander ambitions? Should it seek to harness the power and resources at its disposal to tackle the burning issues of our day? Should the State take a more active role in addressing income and wealth inequality? Should it take a more active role in providing access to housing and healthcare, basing its actions on need rather than means? Should it seek to create, shape and drive markets rather than just fixing them? To all of those questions, we answer "Yes".

To those who might have looked on as the Government announced its budgetary measures and wondered how will any of this help them, I sympathise. This budget is bereft of ideas, bereft of ambition and, more than that, bereft of an overarching vision. It is characteristic of a Government that has been beset by chaos and whose main priority is damage limitation.

The parties of the Civil War, which have taken turns governing this State for so long, now find themselves in a position where they must enter into a coalition. Even working in tandem, these two old beasts of Irish politics have shown they do not have the vision, the ambition or the drive to rebuild the new Ireland we so badly need. Today, almost a century since this island was partitioned and the Free State was born, a new chapter in Irish political history is ready to be written. The bad news is that today's budget does nothing for ordinary workers and families, but the good news is that people should not lose hope. We in Sinn Féin have the policies, the politics and the people to rebuild Ireland, united, fairer and better.

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