Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to contribute to the debate. I do so from a rural perspective, as part of the Rural Independent Group and as a rural Deputy from Laois-Offaly. I raise the severe defeat for Ireland in regard to our 12.5% rate of corporation tax. That loss is conservatively estimated to be in the region of €2 billion annually to the economy but, of course, that is just the beginning. Almost as important as the fact we have lost something vital to our national interests when it comes to the public finances, this is a loss of any kind of meaningful sovereignty in the context of determining the shape and form of our taxation policies.

EU solidarity has shown itself to be a total fiction. International solidarity and respect for the right of sovereign nations to determine legitimate taxation policies has been shown to be a myth. In recent weeks, Ireland has been strong-armed into surrendering the jewel in the crown of its foreign direct investment policy and I am very concerned about that. The Government has the gall to try to sell this as a win for Ireland's finances and for our international standing, but it is far from that. That is the kind of apologetic tone and shrinking regard for the destructive views of other nations' political and economic interests that has just lost us billions of euro in potential revenue.

As for future budgets, it means we will now have to operate within a more confined fiscal space. This will trickle down to the ordinary people in the shape of a loss of service supports, a loss of funding and a more uncertain economic future for their children. This is all the more striking in the context of what the Parliamentary Budget Office, PBO, previously noted as the necessity to maintain the resilience of the tax system, an important factor in the sustainability of the public finances. The PBO has rightly pointed out that important questions are starting to arise as to how resilient the tax system is to unexpected and systemic shocks, such as the financial crisis of 2008 to 2013 and the pandemic crisis of 2020, which we are still experiencing.

This makes it all the more difficult to understand or fathom why the Government, for all its rhetoric, seems determined to actively endanger and threaten the capacity of rural Ireland to maintain employment levels within formerly strong indigenous sectors such as forestry, horticulture, farming and agrifood production, not to mention the threat to thousands of jobs in our agricultural merchant sector because of the interpretation of EU regulations that, as usual, the Government and the Attorney General seem to go over and beyond to appease our EU masters, for some reason selling out our country. The fishermen, for example, were sold out. We are seeing it now in agriculture and our businesses; the Government is not standing up for the people. It is a disgrace and it is shameful to the legacy of the leaders of 1916, who fought for the freedom of this country.

The Government is happy to sell out every sector, no problem. All it does is sell it out at the stroke of a pen, time after time. It is a job in all those sectors, not the type of showpiece budgets we are witnessing today, that is the greatest security against poverty and increased risks of intergenerational deprivation. It is not just a job, of course, but meaningful, well-paid and stable employment that Irish people deserve. Instead, what we have seen from the Government since it took office is no respect whatsoever for rural Ireland, with anything but the dedicated support for rural employment that we and the communities of rural Ireland that are struggling so richly deserve. I will again mention my constituency of Laois-Offaly, which has been badly treated by an unjust transition. No alternatives were put in place. It was foisted and imposed on my constituents; it is shameful. We want to have meaningful employment or a rollback of those measures. We have been treated harshly and unfairly in regard to transition.

The entire forestry sector has been completely destabilised. I remind the Minister present, and I raised this issue with the Tánaiste and, indeed, the Taoiseach, that 10,000 jobs in the forestry sector are at stake. The economy in rural Ireland is at risk of collapse. I sometimes wonder if the Government is waiting for the collapse of the economy before it is going to act. What is it going to do about this crisis? The Rural Independent Group brought forward amendments relating to a forestry Bill that has not served or done any good. There is still a backlog of thousands of licences, and jobs are at risk. It is not good enough. I call on the Government, yet again, to please take action.

In tandem with that, there are 17,000 horticulture jobs at serious risk. Thousands of tons of peat are being imported from Latvia. What the Government has done is an insult to the Irish people. The Minister for Transport and the Government collectively must explain to us and our constituents how it makes sense to have thousands of tons of inferior-quality peat imported into this country, while there are 17,000 jobs on the brink of being lost. I do not understand it. The carbon footprint is increasing. It makes no sense. The climate action policy that was put before us was fit for the recycling bin or the shredder. It was not fit for purpose and had no alternatives. It made ludicrous statements that cannot be backed up. The Government must take collective responsibility here now. We need to know how this makes sense.

Again, I call on the Government to introduce emergency legislation. I have explained the problem a number of times to the Tánaiste, as have the stakeholders in the forestry sector. The Government is well able to introduce emergency legislation at the drop of a hat when it suits. Why not do it for the people of this country and for the 17,000 people who deserve no less than that? I am stating that quite strongly tonight because there is no mention of any supports for those people in the budget. The Government must explain the logic of what it is doing. As far as I am concerned, there is no logic. It is absurd to think that after the theatrics of today are over and the Government's various commitments to support employment and the rural economy fade away, sections of our community will remain under threat because of the same Government. There is no meaning or substance to anything it is saying.

In addition, we have an energy policy that is creating the foundation for a dramatic loss of confidence in this country as a destination that can be relied on to keep the lights on. We all are going to be in the dark fairly soon. Again, I call on the Government to show a little cop-on and common sense and to roll back the ludicrous policies it has decided to pursue with regard to employment in rural Ireland and the Irish people, which are to the detriment of the people. How on earth have we arrived at this point? It is nothing short of a point of stupidity. Until the underlying threats to basic areas such as energy are dealt with, all the budget commitments in the world about growing investment will amount to little more than the Government shouting in the wind. It needs to prove itself here.

There is also a social housing and health emergency in the State that today's budget is unlikely to solve unless there is a total reversal of the approaches that have brought us to this point. There has to be a wake-up call here. I welcome any positive small steps in the budget to alleviate the chronic needs of our people, but I passionately believe in the values of the 1916 Proclamation by true statesmen who served this country, in the importance of cherishing all the children of this island equally and in serving the Irish people.

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