Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My initial disappointment in budget 2021 has not lifted. Instead, it has deepened as I have reviewed the relevant documentation and commentaries about the Groundhog Day feel to some of the Government's announcements. It is disingenuous for Ministers to stand up in front of us, the media and the public and make statements about investment, improvements and measures that have been previously announced. It is disingenuous to deliver the news in such a way as to make it seem like there will be significant additional numbers of social housing units, for example, or extra investment in transport. The most laughable aspect of this Government, so far, has been the consistent undermining of messaging from the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, who might be more accurately called the Taoiseach-in-waiting. Yesterday, he released a press statement before the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, had finished his budget speech. Of course, it is not really a laughing matter. While some in Fine Gael play politics by seeking to damage Fianna Fáil at every opportunity, the people are looking to the Government and policymakers to navigate our way through these unprecedented times.

The general consensus among civil society and those on the left echoes my own view that this budget is yet another missed opportunity. Last night, Rory Hearne and Tony Groves of Tortoise Shack hosted a live post-budget Reboot Republic podcast with excellent contributors from across various Opposition parties, organisations and sectors. Louise Bayliss from Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids, SPARK, was on the panel, as were Anthony Flynn from Inner City Helping Homeless, Michael Taft of SIPTU, Dr. Tom McDonnell from the Nevin Economic Research Institute, NERI, Fiona Coyle of Mental Health Reform and Lorna Fitzpatrick from the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, alongside several Opposition Deputies and Senators. Ms Bayliss made the excellent point that budget 2021 is designed to make sure more people do not fall into poverty but it does absolutely nothing for the 700,000 people and children already in poverty. These are the voices to which the Government should be listening. It would do Ministers good to become patrons of Tortoise Shack and hear the diverse voices that exist outside of their privileged worlds.

Mental Health Reform has cautiously welcomed the €50 million increase in funding for mental health, which is broken down into €12 million for maintaining existing services, even though the organisation had asked for €30 million, €15 million for Covid-related measures, and €23 million for the new strategy, Sharing the Vision. However, organisations like Mental Health Reform know that the Government will often deliver on paper but not in reality. This increase does not go anywhere near the Sláintecare-recommended investment of 10% of the health budget in mental health provision. In fact, it is closer to 4%.

The Parliamentary Budget Office, PBO, has outlined some concerns about the delivery of budget 2021, particularly regarding the unallocated recovery fund of €3.4 billion. In its excellent preliminary budget review, the PBO states:

It is unclear how the process to use the unallocated funds will work; whether they will be capital or current spending; and how the Oireachtas will provide oversight. The PBO suggests that when the Government announces initiatives in 2021 which will be financed by these funds, it should set out clearly which expenditure line is getting additional funds and how much of the overall unallocated amount remains.

The changes in allocations between 2020 and 2021 are not easily identifiable as they are complicated by Estimates yet to come before the Dáil, funding not yet allocated between Departments and COVID-19 / Brexit-specific spending.

The Government's inability to see the larger picture and join the dots is astounding, although it should not be because it certainly is not new. Our access to housing, healthcare, childcare, employment, training, safety, connectivity and all other basic services impacts our mental health. The largest revenue generator of this budget is the carbon tax, which will undoubtedly have the worst impact on the poorest in society. A measly 10 cent increase in the minimum wage, taking it to €10.20 per hour from 1 Jan 2021, still leaves it far below a living wage, which would be €12.30 per hour. An opportunity has again been lost to introduce a wealth tax. According to Dr. McDonnell of NERI, such a tax would have no impact on 98% of households. We need a wealth tax and for that we need a progressive, left-led Government that cares about the majority of people. Dr. McDonnell has said that such a tax could bring in approximately €500 million. While it would not solve all of our problems, it certainly could be used to address funding and resourcing for childcare, for instance, which, bizarrely, seems to have been completely neglected in this budget.

I have been always a proponent of addressing tax avoidance and have long supported Social Justice Ireland's call for a minimum effective rate of corporation tax of 6%, which is half our headline rate. This would yield approximately €1 billion. Even by taxing corporations at just half the rate we could collect an extra €1 billion.

Due to the lack of transparency in how the budget is delivered, I have received many queries from groups and organisations. The national community action on alcohol project, for example, has said “with alcohol consumption increasing since the imposition of social restrictions in March, it's crucially important that communities are supported to reduce and prevent alcohol harm as Ireland recovers." They have asked when the available funding will be provided to enable delivery of community action on alcohol, and if it is separate to the additional funding announced last year.

Goal 4 of the 2017 national drug and alcohol strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery, is to support participation of individuals, families and communities. Action 1.1.1 of this goal explicitly commits to promoting the use of evidence-based approaches to mobilising community action on alcohol. It all sounds very good. The €250,000 multiannual funding, which was announced in early 2019 by the then Minister of State, Catherine Byrne, was never released for this work. Actions speak louder than words and the Minister's word means nothing to many at this stage.

One impact of Covid that could potentially be seen as positive, and which could also address the climate emergency, is that people have begun to see the value of smaller communities, towns and villages. People have begun to move out of the cities, often to the homes they were forced to leave for education or employment purposes. In dealing with Covid we are being asked to limit our movements and to stay local. Covid is going to be with us for a long time and supporting the development of infrastructure and resources in our towns and villages is the obvious way of achieving this.

There is an opportunity now to support the development of rural communities and to build infrastructure for people to work locally even if their employer is in Dublin. This includes the provision of communications infrastructure such as broadband for those who work from home. It also requires local community office hubs where people can work in proper offices rather than in cramped housing or at a kitchen table. Proper working conditions must be provided and maintained for those working remotely and must not be undermined. People being facilitated to work locally would see the reopening of services such as post offices, doctors' surgeries, shops, cafés and schools. It would also mean a reduction in travel and present opportunities for small-scale, energy efficient office spaces. This Government does not have the vision for that and has lost any connection with, or commitment to, the development of rural Ireland.

Youth unemployment has been hugely impacted by the Covid pandemic. Ireland was already above the EU average in this area, but numbers have again skyrocketed with young people, and in particular young women, being most impacted by job losses and closures due to Covid. Youth unemployment currently stands at around 38%. Given that remote learning is taking place for many courses and colleges there are opportunities for young people to stay in their home towns for longer rather than have everything Dublin-centric or focused on urban centres.

The Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, announced in his speech yesterday that there would be a €5 million investment in facilities for digital hubs and broadband connection points across rural Ireland under the town and village renewal scheme. I welcome this announcement. Has the Government given thought to linking in with closed pubs or businesses to reimagine themselves as community work-share hubs? At a constituency meeting last week, I was informed about initiatives in Seville in Spain, where people can book slots at local pubs, restaurants or cafés for remote working. These premises would usually have a significant number of power points and faster Internet speeds than rural homes. In fact, they might have actual Internet available. In this example it can cost €15 to book a table for three hours, with tea or coffee and a light lunch provided. This could be an innovative and efficient way to support closed businesses to reopen safely, support remote working and support our communities.

The increase in the carbon tax is not a just transition. People in my constituency do not have the public transport that is available in Dublin or access to piped gas. They are largely dependent on oil to fuel their cars and to heat their homes. Donegal is one of the most impoverished and disadvantaged counties in the country. To them this is an unjust tax because they cannot afford to buy an electric car or to match retrofitting funding. I am not against carbon tax but it cannot be targeted at those who can least afford to pay it. This is not climate justice or a just transition. Carbon taxes should target corporations and big businesses that can well afford to pay them.

We cannot mention climate change without talking about farming in Ireland. The point was made at Monday's briefing that we seem to be looking only at Ireland's impact, without acknowledging the environmental cost of importing beef from Brazil, for example. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue to work with big agriculture, the agrifood industry and major farm organisations that support the industrial model of food production to the detriment of smaller, more sustainable farmers. During this pandemic we have asked people to support local and shop local. This is equally true of food produce. People generally want healthy and nutritious food. Ireland signed up to the sustainable development goals and declared a climate and biodiversity emergency, but we are not regenerating our ecosystems to produce healthy food with less polluting impacts.

In Brussels, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil MEPs are busy delivering for the industrial food lobby and for Ireland’s privileged farmer class. CAP money, the aim of which is to deliver affordable, healthy food to Irish and EU citizens and a basic standard of living to EU farmers, is divided in Ireland on the 80:20 principle. Since 2004, some 80% of CAP money has gone to a select class of 20% of farmers, while the other 20% of funding has gone to 80% of farmers, the bulk of whom are up and down the north-western seaboard. These farmers, who are predominantly extensive beef suckler farmers, receive low farm payments and consistently need top-ups for their cattle rearing to break even or turn a profit. There is €102 million extra for livestock farming in the budget, €85 million of which is for sustainable beef farming, which includes €5 million for new calf-weighing measures for beef farmers raising dairy calves. Where are the supports to farmers growing local, organic fresh fruit and vegetables and other sustainable crops? As Ireland is a net contributor to CAP, our citizens pay for food to be produced by Irish farmers for Irish and EU citizens. Simply put, the Irish citizen is paying to give the beef and dairy industry a cheap supply of beef and milk for them to process, export and pocket the profit while at the same time eating food that comes from everywhere except Ireland. Food sovereignty is essential for food security to be met in a manner that respects decent work and human beings and has environmentally conscious production. It matters how food, fibre and fuel is made, and by whom.

I will not spend too much time discussing the farcical so-called "largest ever budget on housing" when in reality budget 2021 contained an increase of just 593 new social housing homes to be built, over the previous Rebuilding Ireland targets. It is still following the developer-led, market-driven strategy of lining the pockets of landlords and developers, which led to this crisis in the first place. The private market cannot produce the 35,000 homes we need every year anyway, so the Government needs to ensure local authorities meet their targets and provide the resources for them to do so. This budget has absolutely nothing for renters. I know that hidden homelessness is one of the factors affecting this sector in my constituency of Donegal. Even though it is illegal for landlords to refuse to accept HAP, it remains an issue in Donegal, with the onus on renters to complain and to sort out that problem.

The funding crisis for local authorities has not received much attention. In Monday'sThe Irish Times, Marie O'Halloran reported that city and county councils have estimated that an additional €300 million is needed in 2021 and a further €190 million will be needed in 2022. Local authorities expect losses of around €367 million this year due to the collapse in revenue because of Covid. There has also been unexpected expenditure of around €90 million on Covid-19 measures. While it is welcome that the Government announced measures to waive commercial rates for affected business, this must be refunded to local authorities. With businesses and shops closed for a period of time there was also a drop in parking income. Other income streams from local authorities have decreased, including in the areas of litter fines, planning fees and other services with expected losses of around €78 million.

Another worrying fact is that this Government's ineptitude has led to an increase in far-right activity in our communities and online. Ordinary people are angry that it is one rule for the Government and another for the rest of us. For example, junior ministers are getting pay rises while people are unable to afford food. Despite the lull in Covid numbers over the summer very little seems to have been done to increase the capacity of our health service. The far right has been watching the anti-Government sentiment grow and is having conversations online and in communities. It will continue to prey on those who feel left behind by the Government and this budget will further alienate disillusioned voters.

Of course, there are many disillusioned by this Government who will not be sucked in by their racism, conspiracy theories, anti-mask rhetoric, homophobia and misogyny, but it is important for us to be aware of their presence in communities and online and to work together to ensure that they do not get a greater foothold in our diverse and modern society.

This budget and the way in which measures have been announced is actually quite shameful. It creates uncertainty for civil society groups, organisations and people who know that the devil is in the detail and that there are often empty promises from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. It is a wasted opportunity to put society and people at the heart of policymaking. It will make absolutely no difference to the people in the forgotten county of Donegal and will exacerbate the isolation and loneliness that many already feel. We have been talking about the new normal for the past number of months, community spirit and about us all being in this together, but that has certainly not been demonstrated by those in power. From golf dinners to ministerial pay rises, advisers and cars, there has been let down after let down while our country is heartsore for all the lives lost to this pandemic. I hope the electorate does not forget this year when election time comes around again.

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