Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Ireland has just borrowed almost €20 billion. This budget was a unique opportunity and while it brings badly-needed funding for many areas, which is welcome, it is gutting to see the same old approach being taken. We should learn from past mistakes. We cannot keep investing in private companies; we need to invest in public services and we all know that.

We are already hearing commentary on how the next few budgets will be the difficult ones, with hints of future austerity looming. This was the opportunity to avoid austerity. I heard the Minister for Finance on Stefanie Preissner’s podcast recently referencing a quote attributed to Joe Biden:

Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value.

Token affordable housing does nothing to tackle house prices or rental costs. The housing assistance payment, HAP, and other schemes give money directly to the private sector, when what we need is public housing on public land. This tells us the Government continues to value developers over valuing people having homes.

Another glaring omission in the budget is childcare. No extra funding was given to address chronic underinvestment in this sector, meaning the issues of quality of childcare and low pay in the sector will just continue. It is unbelievable that this budget did not start to address issues in this area, does not properly address housing and does not go far enough for people with disabilities. We all welcome the €100 million increase in funding to assist people with disabilities, including helping with the re-opening of day services and moving people from institutional settings to supported community-based living. This is the direction we need to be moving in but it is the bare minimum. Considerably more needs to be done to achieve commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is not just about sums of money but also about the systems that achieve the intended goals, especially in an area where the people affected are often not heard.

While there has been an increase to a range of social welfare allowances, the core payments have not been raised. There have been calls to increase the pandemic unemployment payment because it is simply insufficient but the disability allowance is only €203 a week. People are often in receipt of this payment for all of their lives and in that context, it is no wonder that Ireland has one of the highest rates of poverty and social exclusion in the EU for people with disabilities. Similarly, there is no change to carer's benefit and carer's allowance, which is unbelievable. The Government pays lip service to people who dedicate all their waking hours to caring for loved ones. When it comes to recognising their work, however, this is another budget that fails them. The increase in the disability budget is welcome but payments should not be viewed as handouts. People with disabilities and their families deserve more and are entitled to more. It is their right and one the Government should fulfil.

I welcome the supports for rural Ireland in the budget. West Cork and other rural areas have been severely impacted by the pandemic. Tourism, hospitality and the arts have been seriously affected, while fishing, farming and small scale food production are all facing incredibly challenging and unpredictable times, particularly with Brexit looming. The reduction in VAT for the hospitality industry, for which I and others have called, is a necessary and welcome boost, as is the tourism business support scheme. However, it is a shame this was brought in at a time when many businesses that could have benefited from it have been obliged to close. More targeted support will be needed because a cut in VAT will not help closed businesses to pay their rates, rent or loan repayments.

While I welcome the extra capital allocation to the national broadband plan, the underlying issues of the overspend and the privatisation of the network remain. I would love to see the Government look at how other jurisdictions have delivered rural broadband through interventions such as grants for communities to get access through local service providers. The development of town and village hubs to enable people to work and study in rural Ireland is an essential investment which I have repeatedly called for and I am delighted to see it feature in the budget. Hubs such as E-Bantry, Mix Coworking in Clonakilty and the Ludgate are examples of how we can adapt to new ways of working and studying in these times.

The extension of schemes like the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, and the sheep welfare scheme will support farmers who depend on them but they and their families should not have had to wait until budget day to find out whether these income sources would continue. While an increase for the organic farming scheme to €16 million is welcome, it is still relatively insignificant compared to funding for other agri-food sectors. Even greyhound racing gets more than that.

Ireland has incredibly low levels of land being farmed without the use of chemicals, with just 2% of land under organic practices compared with an EU average of 8%. For a country with a green brand that we need to live up to, this is nowhere near enough. We need to go much further but at least the scheme will now reopen.

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