Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The budget is a missed opportunity in the main. While there are some nice bits and pieces to keep certain sectors happy for the moment, it is a missed opportunity in this time of severe crisis due to the pandemic to deal with wastage and how money announced for various sectors does not percolate down to the ordinary person on the street.

The announcement of the new Covid restrictions support scheme of up to €5,000 per week for businesses impacted by level 3 or higher Covid-19 restrictions is welcome. It is certainly needed by the industry. Budget 2021 also provides a support scheme of €55 million for the tourism sector, but that industry has been decimated and this support is coming late. The €55 million will do little or nothing for the tourism industry, which is very important for all of our counties, including Dublin. Dublin is ina stad. It is at a standstill.

The decision on the commercial rates waiver is welcome. It will be extended to the end of the year and beyond and is badly needed. Measures like it are lifelines. The decision is also welcomed by struggling businesses, which have a dreadful fear that such supports may have to be extended even further. They may need to be. Living from month to month or three months to three months is not good enough.

It has been decided to allow those in receipt of the PUP to earn up to €480 per month or €120 per week for casual work, but it is not "casual" work. A self-employed person, such as a plumber or electrician, who is doing vital work for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle or me needs to be able to look after us in these times while also receiving the PUP. Otherwise, that person might lose us as customers. People have to keep their businesses viable. As such, it is vital that they be allowed to earn money. That said, €480 is restrictive in light of plumbers' call-out fees. I say "plumbers", but it could be road builders, electricians or anyone else. It is important that we keep such people active and ready to go for when they are wanted.

The VAT cut is too little and too late. Dropping from 13.5% to 9% is a wasted exercise. Those businesses are closed in the current lockdown, and there will be more lockdowns if the powers that be in NPHET get their way. According to a paper by Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization, lockdowns around the world have not worked and they are not the way to go. I put that to Dr. Holohan, the Taoiseach and others yesterday. We have conflicting messages. The problem is that while I respect the qualifications of these scientists and doctors, business representatives are not involved in NPHET and neither is the Garda Síochána, which has to try to handle the situations that arise. A representative of self-employed people is not involved.

We need input from a wide variety of people. There are 40 members of NPHET and there is plenty of room there to have a good mixture. Above all, the team needs to be reshuffled. That is not to demonise any of the current members, but we need to understand the full impact of the lockdowns.

I welcome the money provided for disability services but my concern is whether that money will percolate down to where it is needed - the centres that have been closed and the people who are usually brought on the bus to school or to the services they need. Some of them have been locked away for almost nine months, they have regressed enormously and their families are suffering. The money being given is welcome but it is too little and too late.

An extra €38 million is being given to mental health services but anybody with a modicum of reason who has assessed this area knows that an investment of up to €100 million is needed. In my own county of Tipperary, we do not have a single long-stay mental health bed, even though we have been fighting for better provision since the introduction of A Vision for Change. It turned out to be a vision for disaster because the long-stay beds in St. Michael's mental health unit in Clonmel were closed. Now we are told that €2.1 million will be allocated under Covid measures but we still will not have a single mental health long-stay or short-stay bed. We are waiting for the past year for a new crisis house project to go to tender. People have suffered enormously during the pandemic and now that we are going into the winter, with its short days and long nights, there will be a greater need for mental health services. The situation is awful and I will continue to push for extra funding. I will keep raising the issue in the House until we get some modicum of decent service for the people suffering with mental health and psychological issues. Many people are suffering with a bit of depression in the current situation because of the lack of work, stimulation, money and everything else.

I welcome the provision for the arts but again I wonder whether that money will percolate down to where it is needed. The Arts Council will get a big chunk of it, as it always does, but will any of it go to the scoileanna rince, for example, whose activities have been totally stopped, or to the musicians and other people who entertain us in bars and keep us all going? This is the problem with bodies that are set up, some of which are quangos. The Arts Council does a lot of good work but the money must go to where it is needed, which is into the pockets of the people we need to revitalise our economy and pass on their talents, abilities and education to the daltaí in the dancing schools and so on. Some of the boys and girls in those schools end up in the world championships or performing in Riverdance. They need to be supported and the funding provided must reach them.

A recent report by Grant Thornton found that an investment of €80 million is needed for the An Post network. The former Minister, Deputy Naughten, knows the issues facing the company. We need to support our post office network. It is vital, now more than ever, that small rural post offices are able to survive, as well as urban services. Post office staff know the local people and offer an important connectivity in communities. If somebody is missing - it could be a person who is feeling a bit down and does not turn up to access a payment - the staff in the post office are the first to press the panic button. Funding must be provided for the post office network, but the money appropriated today will not be enough at all.

I welcome the 600 extra recruits to An Garda Síochána. That was a measure many of us sought because there was no recruiting for a long time. We need the new recruits and the extra cars in the Garda fleet. I want to make a special appeal in this regard. We have seen in Tipperary during the pandemic that community division has been reincarnated and reinvigorated. I spoke earlier today to Superintendent Denis Whelan in Cahir Garda station, who told me that he does not have the numbers and that, day in and day out, his community gardaí are being pulled out to do other duties. The same is happening in the community policing units in Clonmel, Cashel, Tipperary town and lots of other places in County Tipperary. We need more community gardaí and we need to ensure they are properly supported. There is excellent work being done in this respect under Sergeant Ray Moloney in Cahir.

Agriculture is our primary industry but it is not being stimulated and there is not enough funding going into it. I do not think we have the right people in charge. I am not saying anything against the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath, but we do not have the right people in the Department. We need the types of people, like TK Whitaker, who were there during a previous crisis.

I believe it was Churchill who said that one should never let a crisis hold one back. We should be borrowing when ECB rates are at 0.5%. We have not touched the banks. Fianna Fáil railed against the banks when it was in opposition and spoke about what it would do. Now that it is in government, it has not touched the banks even though they are fleecing their customers. They are taking people to receivers and through the courts. The county registrar in Tipperary has had 60 or 70 repossession orders land in on top of him in the past few days. We can borrow money at 0.5% and we should avail of it. Other countries are doing so and using the money productively to stimulate their economies. Regulations should be introduced to extend the moratoriums on certain payments but, more important, we must avail of the money that is being offered by the ECB at such low rates. Some countries are still paying back the money they borrowed after the Second World War. That is the way it should be and that is the type of solidarity we need from Europe.

People need to live and the economy needs to get moving. Mechanisms of stimulation are available and they should be availed of for the benefit of the self-employed and of ordinary working men and women. A Deputy mentioned the plumbers going to work every morning. Those people need to be able to work if our economy is to recover, but that will not happen if there is no money in the system. The money must be printed and released and, in time, it must be paid back. I am in business all my life and I know that everything must be paid back, but the rates of interest currently available offer amazing opportunities. There was a missed opportunity today for the two Ministers to deal with the banks. They should ensure they are lending or else they should get rid of them. We bailed out AIB to the tune of 90% State ownership but all we are hearing from bank managers is that they must get value for money. We are not getting value for money because the banks are not supporting our economy but instead are actually terrorising people. I could not believe that the Government parties and some Independents voted some weeks ago to end the moratorium. We need money to flow in the economy if we are to be able to look after people with disabilities and the elderly. Pensioners are only getting an extra €5 per week and those who are working, whether driving taxis or lorries or whatever, are not getting a penny under the PUP. Older people have been neglected once again by being given only a miserable fiver.

I conclude with a warning that the carbon tax is going to have a draconian effect on rural Ireland. Every man who buys a tank of diesel, every agricultural contractor and every lorry driver will feel the effect of it. A green energy policy is lovely on paper but, in reality, it will punish ordinary people, including those who need to fill their tanks with home heating oil.

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