Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This budget was delivered yesterday in the context of two of the greatest challenges our economy ever faced, that is, a hard-deal Brexit and a Covid pandemic. The Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Donohoe, have managed to come up with a seriously progressive budget. This budget will save lives and save livelihoods and, most important of all, will give our people confidence to face the future.

This budget invests in every Department - health, housing, education, justice, mental health, jobs, businesses, students, workers, and farmers. Many of their issues have been addressed in this budget. Never before have we seen any Government invest in our people to this magnitude.

There is an unprecedented increase in the budget for health of €4 billion. It includes extra acute beds, extra intensive care unit, ICU, beds and extra respite care, and also an extra €5 million of home help hours.

In housing, there is the most ambitious programme ever embarked upon. Prior to the election, Fianna Fáil committed to building houses. This budget is the first serious building block in ensuring that is delivered on. There is a €5.2 billion investment in the Department which will deliver on much of what we set out prior to the last election.

With education under a Fianna Fáil Minister, this Government is reducing class sizes, hiring new teachers, more SNAs, more special needs teachers, and investing in our country's future.

In my own constituency of Tipperary, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in the Department of Health for working so closely with me. We will now have funding for the crisis centre in Clonmel which has been sought for a number of years and which is part of building mental health services up again in my county. There is €50 million for mental health in this budget. It, too, is most welcome.

I heard a number of Opposition Deputies today criticising the carbon tax, stating that it is an attack on rural areas. I am a Deputy representing a rural constituency and I strongly dispute that. The money that is collected from this carbon tax will be redistributed in our economy. It will protect the most vulnerable in our economy. It will be spent on retrofitting homes. It will fund a rural environmental protection scheme, REPS-type scheme for farmers that they have been sought for many years. Even with the crisis we face with Covid and Brexit, we cannot ignore climate change. This is a progressive tax and the fact that the money will be redistributed makes it a fair tax. It will help us to meet the challenges of climate change going forward.

See this speech in context