Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There was a time when we got 20 minutes in a debate on the budget. Now, we are meant to cover all of the Budget Statement in four minutes. I do not know what has gone wrong with this House. I do not know what has gone wrong with democratic accountability. A Deputy beside me has also been here longer than I have, so we must have all the old timers here tonight. The way this is being done now is worse than it was. We talked about reform in 2016, but it is backwards that we are going. We used to get detailed Estimates, not the four-liner efforts we are getting now, and they used to be published two or three weeks before the budget. There was always debate about that, and then we came in on budget day and adjustments were made.

The Revised Estimates for public services were then published, which showed the outturn of the previous year against the projected money for the year, that had even more detail. For the paper we get now, we are actually getting less detail. To top all this off, of course, sometime around June or July, in a normal year, but this year it is in October, we examined the Estimates in the committees. Talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. It is time we got our act together in this House and had proper democratic budgetary accountability. I refer not to some small committee, but for the whole Dáil.

Tacaím leis an méid a dúirt an Teachta maidir le ceantair tuaithe. Tá méid áirithe déanta ach ní leor an méid sin. I have a massive argument with the way we are treating rural areas. Every time we talk about rural policies, we talk about towns and villages, even though 30% of the people in this State actually live in townlands in parishes all over the countryside. There is nothing wrong with that situation. It is time we had this debate. If people believe that it is wrong to live in the countryside, and that the settlement pattern we traditionally had in Ireland is in some way wrong, I challenge them on two points. I ask them to look at the social outcomes between the rural settlements and the most deprived urban communities, and then to tell me which is the better place for a young person to grow up. I refer to this hang-up that there is something inherently wrong with the rural type of settlement pattern, and do not give me the excuse of carbon emissions. We produce much more energy in Connemara than we consume, and renewable energy as well. I do not want, therefore, to be given that argument about carbon emissions. We are more than willing to drive electric cars as well, if we are given the charging points. That is no problem whatsoever.

To conclude, it is great to see money being given to health. I hope, however, that this is not the greatest black hole that I have ever seen. I hope, when we come to the end of next year, it will not then be necessary to have to wait four years for pain therapy and for attendance at pain clinics. It is an utter disgrace at the moment. We talk about suffering, and then we leave people in excruciating pain for up to four years while waiting for basic services. I am not sure that situation will be changed by the end of 2021. I hope, however, that I will be able to stand here next year and say that I was utterly wrong.

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