Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for outlining the investment made by the Government in some of the youngest in society. Yesterday, Fianna Fáil proposed a budget to this House for the first time in ten years. In so doing, it converted the support and votes we received in February into actions and supports for the people of Ireland. We worked with Fine Gael and the Green Party on a shared document. We made changes to how government policy has operated. We supported lives and livelihoods and all those in the grip of Covid, Brexit and climate change. We prioritised public spending over tax cuts, embedded spending in public services that will last for years and invested in the people of this country.

On the Covid pandemic, Fianna Fáil is protecting workers and their jobs through the Covid restrictions support scheme which pays up to €5,000 per week to businesses impacted by closures. The wage subsidy scheme protects workers' earnings. The 9% VAT rate for hotels, hairdressers, pubs and restaurants will protect those businesses in the months to come when they have an opportunity to recover. In the budget, Fianna Fáil has supported workers and jobs.

Many other sectors have also been supported. It might sound like Monopoly money when it is mentioned in the media, but the allocation of €4 billion means more full-time staff to reduce CAMHS waiting lists, €100 million for people with disabilities, €38 million for mental health services, 10,000 real social homes to be built in the State within the next year and 900 special needs assistants.

On climate, the budget and the climate action Bill are climate brave but the Opposition is climate weak. Some members of the Opposition may not state that they are denying climate change, but they do everything they can to undermine the actions this Government and responsible politicians across the world need to take to reduce carbon use.

There are those who wish for and talk about a united Ireland, but the shared island fund actually puts real money behind what a shared island and a united Ireland might look like. I welcome that initiative.

No budget can solve all our problems, let alone when the country is battling a pandemic. However, the values that brought me into politics and which I share with others in Fianna Fáil are the values I see in this budget, which will be the first of five budgets under this Government.

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