Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No, I have seven minutes and the rest will be shared.

The budget is like the curate's egg, it is good in parts. It has many bad parts too.

According to the latest figures, Irish people with mortgages of €300,000 will pay €80,000 more over the course of 30 years than their European counterparts. Why is that? This budget will cripple ordinary people. Na daoine aosta got nothing, not even €5 in their pensions. The ordinary working man agus mná ag obair i gcónaí who, in the words of the Tánaiste, get up go luath ar maidin have been ignored. The carbon tax will penalise all of them, especially those in rural Ireland. They will pay for the so-called just transition and to support Luas, DART and other projects in Dublin as well as a few limited projects throughout the rest of the country.

The N24 project in Tipperary was not mentioned. If there is to be connectivity from Limerick and Clare on the west coast through Tipperary and Waterford and on to Rosslare, that project will be needed, particularly in the context of Brexit. Towns like Tipperary desperately need ring roads and relief roads. Consultants have been appointed to examine the project again. It was designed and approved previously. There were no compulsory purchase orders made, but it went to the notice to treat phase. The routes were selected. Why have consultants been appointed again? There are consultants for everything. If someone wants to sneeze now, he or she has to appoint consultants. Many of the projects announced in the budget will be eaten up by firms, consultants and engagements. There will be no quid pro quoor bucks in the pocket.

I support many of the announcements in respect of arts and other industries. Those moneys are welcome, but will they percolate down to the pockets and homes of the musicians, dancers, other entertainers, light and sound engineers and so on? I have a letter with me from a dance school. Actually, I do not. This letter is from the vice president of the dance schools' association. Why in God's name are dance schools dúnta fós? This is the second time they have closed. Thankfully, we have classes of 30 children back in school. I spoke today to Mr. Kevin Langton, the principal of Comeragh College, which has 500 pupils. He and his board of management are doing an excellent job with those students. There has not been a hint of infection, thanks be to God. This morning, a Department inspector arrived and asked to come in, but the principal will not let anyone in but the pupils. We do not need that type of general inspection currently. We trust the boards of management, principals and teaching staff. The dance schools are closed but they should not be. They are being victimised and blackguarded. In many cases, they have only 12 or 15 students in a much larger setting than a classroom. They use community halls like the one in my own village and many more. There is a great deal of inequity.

I have just come from a meeting of the Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht. The arts sector will get €130 million. That is great. The arts community must be supported, but who will support the person in the van with a one-person cabaret show doing gigs or voluntary shows in nursing homes, day care centres and so on? People like that are a vital part of our economy, just as taxi drivers are.

The over-66s have got nothing, not even €5. They got nothing during the pandemic either because of their pensions. All they wanted was for it to be increased to €350. That €350 PUP rate must be restored for the self-employed people I mentioned – entertainers, van drivers, milk men, ready-mix truck drivers, delivery truck drivers, taxi drivers and hackney drivers. We only have hackney drivers in my area because we do not have taxis. We need to support these people because they are not being supported. They did not even get crumbs from the table. All they wanted from the PUP was to get the balance between their pensions of €200 plus and the €350. The €350 must be given back to them. They have dignity and pride in their work, but they are not allowed to work – the Government pulled the rug from beneath them. The dance schools have been closed down twice. Will someone here or from NPHET explain to me why a dance school cannot operate with the same number of students that are allowed in a small, pokey prefab in a national school? There are many such prefabs, but we should have stopped renting them years ago.

Why will we not approach the European Central Bank, ECB? Over the 30 years of a mortgage, an Irish person will pay €80,000 more than his or her European counterpart. That is blackguarding. We can get money at low interest rates from the ECB. Why do we not borrow?

Why do we not deal with the banks? We have allowed the moratorium to be lifted in respect of banks. Last Saturday, I spoke to family members in my area who had received a letter from the sheriff about the repossession of their home because of a bank. Straight away, 60 or 70 such cases landed in to the south Tipperary District Court. It is merciless, relentless and disgusting. The ECB rate is there for us all. Germany borrowed after the Second World War and is still paying it back. We need long-term loans like that. We need the likes of the late T. K. Whitaker in the Department of Finance. There would be a bit of imagination and experimentation, although not reckless experimentation. It is not all about accountants, minding the housing and minding the money. We must give our people hope, solace and support so that they can return to being self-employed, to their jobs and to their homes to look after their partners and families without being dependent on the State. We need to bide our time and avail of low-cost finance in order to support our communities.

The carbon tax penalises rural people. They are paying for facilities in Dublin under the just transition and to hell with the rest of the country. I am all for a carbon tax, but I disagree with the resolution that was passed last night. We are not able to have a debate on carbon tax – the increase to a rate of €100 per tonne by 2030 is now fixed in. Having a just transition and dealing with it here is fine, but what about the impact on the house wife, the people in cottages, the farmer, the bus driver, the self-employed, the taxi driver, everyone who is going to work and the student who has to travel? There is no public transport. People are being blackguarded. The just transition is not very just for the people who have to pay the piper. We then saw the announcements about more and more public transport being rolled out in the capital city, Baile Átha Cliath.

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