Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand I am sharing my time with Deputy Cathal Crowe. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on economic activity, in Ireland and globally, has been truly unprecedented. It has had a significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of all our citizens. Against an extraordinary and difficult backdrop, budget 2021 is framed to tackle the twin challenges of Covid-19 and a no-deal Brexit. It also addresses broader issues facing our economy and society, and which underpin the programme for Government, by providing for more homes, better healthcare and a stronger response to address climate change in our society.

The total budgetary package amounts to €17.34 billion. The package includes €8.5 billion for public services to address the challenges of Covid-19. Capital expenditure will increase to €10.1 billion, which is the largest amount that has ever been allocated to invest in schools, homes and public transport. Alongside these measures, a recovery fund of €3.4 billion is being established to focus on infrastructural development, reskilling and retraining and supporting investment and jobs. The fund will be flexible in its design to allow the Government to respond quickly.

I will highlight some specific points regarding budget day announcements, and there were many. Regarding income tax, the earned income tax credit to support small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of our economy and sustain thousands of jobs, is a very important measure. The earned income credit has been increased by €150, from €1,500 to €1,650, and will apply from the current tax year. The divergence between people on PAYE and people who are self-employed has been a major issue for many years. This increase in the earned income credit will give a boost to business owners and is expected to benefit 230,000 self-employed people who make up a substantial and important part of our economy. This will include farmers, shop and garage owners, people running small businesses, sole traders and the woman and the man with the van.

I turn now to the tax warehousing situation. In order to provide additional support for businesses and employers, budget 2021 provides for an extension of the tax debt warehousing scheme to include repayments of the TWSS funds owed by employers and preliminary tax obligations for adversely affected self-employed people. The Government is aware that not all self-employed taxpayers can benefit from the losses provision in the July stimulus. Budget 2021, therefore, provides for a debt warehousing provision to be extended to include the 2019 balance and the 2020 preliminary tax and to allow such taxpayers to defer payment for a period of one year, with no interest applying.

The new Covid-19 restrictions support scheme will also provide targeted and timely support for businesses directly impacted by Covid-19. The scheme is designed to generally apply when level 3, or higher, restrictions are in place. Under the scheme, qualifying businesses can apply to the Revenue Commissioners for a cash payment based on their 2019 turnover, subject to a maximum weekly payment of €5,000. The scheme will be effective from yesterday until the end of March 2021. This is a real cash boost to small businesses, via the Revenue Commissioners.

The help-to-buy scheme for housing is a key priority for the Government. To support the delivery of new homes and help hard-pressed first-time buyers, the additional supports available under the help-to-buy scheme, which were provided in the July stimulus, are being extended for a further year to the end of 2021. This increases the level of support available for first-time buyers to the lesser of €30,000 or 10% of the purchase price of the new home or the self-build property, and this is an increase from the previously applying €20,000 and 5% limits.

Most Irish people dream of owning their own home. The help-to-buy scheme has the same objective of assisting people to fulfil their dream of owning their own home as the mortgage interest tax relief that applied for many decades, and which helped hundreds of thousands of families to buy their own homes in the past. It has always been traditional for the State to help people, in some measure, with their mortgages and to acquire their own homes. It has been part of the Irish DNA for decades now. Many people in the Opposition, however, are objecting to the principle of the scheme because they are saying that it may provide employment to the builders who construct the houses. That is essentially what is being said.

Irish Water faces several issues, such as not being able to keep up with the demand to connect new houses being built in new estates. Irish Water, therefore, is being given an extra €108 million to bring its total up to €1.3 billion next year. I hope that will help Irish Water to connect new houses, which people need badly, while also allowing it to deal with maintenance and leakage issues.

The schools building programme is very important, and the €740 million allocated this year will allow a great deal of building, refurbishment and enhancement of schools. Funding provided in the budget will also allow for the recruitment of an extra 990 special needs assistants and more than 400 special education teachers across mainstream schools, special classes and special schools. This is a massive increase and, all in all, we are reducing the primary-level staffing schedule by one point to 25:1. This will involve the employment of 1,065 new teachers across the sector, including the special needs sector.

State income support schemes currently assist 750,000 people on the PUP, on the EWSS and on the live register. There have been many calls to increase the PUP, but the people who have been shouting loudest and strongest on that aspect have not fought the case for the people on the basic jobseeker's allowance of €203 per week. I conclude now and I will hand over to Deputy Eoghan Murphy. I got the name wrong earlier.

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