Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely understand and appreciate, as all of us do, that this budget comes at a time of crisis in the country. It comes at a time when governments, not just in Ireland but in most countries in Europe and around the world, must become an income provider of last resort. That is absolutely appropriate and it needs to happen. The European Central Bank is providing the funds for this to happen at a negative interest rate. In that context, everything done with the budget is to sustain our community and the economy in order to get over the crisis.

It strikes me that we are absolutely all in it together, and not just because of this crisis and pandemic but in every other context as well. The pandemic will be over some day but if only we could continue to have a sense of all being in this together, working to create a better society for everybody. It would be a good lesson to learn from the crisis.

One of the key matters for small businesses and people who are struggling to survive is that the Government is providing emergency funds to pay wages and keep people in employment so they can continue to survive. We also have the pandemic unemployment payment which, unfortunately, was reduced in a retrograde step. It should have been maintained at €350. I know the people who receive that money will spend in their local communities both while there is a pandemic and after the pandemic. It will not disappear into a black hole and the money must be put back in communities the length and breadth of the country. We have a market economy in this country, like most of the world, and in such economies, the money funnels from the top. Every effort must be made to put in the money at the bottom.

The budget has done some good but it could have done much more because the money was available from the European Central Bank at such low interest rates. Deputy Ó Laoghaire has spoken about the education sector. I live in a rural community and in those communities around the country with small schools, we are losing teachers and the pupil-teacher ratio is a major concern. Reducing it by only one point is ridiculous in the context of our current position. We should have reduced it by at least two and possibly three points to make a difference, particularly with the pandemic going on around us. The school bus service is an ongoing problem in rural Ireland and it has had a major impact.

There are other matters, such as housing and funding for local authorities.

Local authorities throughout the country will not raise any funding from rates this year or probably for most of next year. They will not be able to provide the vital services they usually do. We all know that when any crisis hits any community, the first thing people do is call the council to come and sort it out. That applies to incidents from a tree blocking a road to an accident requiring an ambulance or the fire brigade. All of those services will be stripped of cash. They will need more money and I do not see that money in this budget.

Turning to the justice portfolio, I would like to commend An Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service which have done a tremendous job of keeping the virus out of prisons. We understand that the Garda Training College at Templemore had to be closed down, so it has not been possible to deploy more gardaí. However, 600 additional gardaí is not enough. That number needs to be maximised if we are to approach the force numbers we need.

The Minister mentioned access to justice in her speech, but the civil legal aid scheme is not being funded. Someone told me today that there is a 38-week waiting list for free legal aid in Dublin. Somebody who does not have the money cannot go to court. That must be addressed as a matter of absolute urgency. I spoke to representatives of the community law and mediation service in Coolock about many of these issues. That service really needed to see something in this budget. Since the pandemic it has been inundated with people who have huge problems and do not have the resources to take the necessary legal route and assert their rights as citizens of the State. That problem needed to be dealt with before the pandemic, but it is particularly urgent now. The Minister mentioned issues concerning domestic and sexual violence. There must be a huge emphasis on addressing that issue. When Covid-19 came along, people were cocooned into their homes and pressures were created. Difficulties that already existed in some households were exacerbated to the detriment of many people.

This budget has done some good things, but it could have done much more. It represents a wasted opportunity. So much more needed to be done and could have been done. That is something that this Government will regret.

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