Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Here I stand on yet another budget day, disappointed once again and frustrated at the many missed opportunities and the regressive nature of this budget.

The pandemic showed that the provision of proper healthcare services and the eradication of homelessness is actually achievable, despite decades of governments telling us differently. For the Government to recognise the benefits of this but yet revert back to a pre-Covid type budget shows just how backward looking it is. It shows where priorities truly lie and it is not with the people it represents.

Privatisation of essential services has failed us time and again and will only continue to do so. However, despite these negative consequences, we carry on catering to the private sector. We only need to look at the mess that is National Broadband Ireland to see these consequences. Constituents of mine in Donegal have recently been told that the earliest they will have access to fibre broadband is 2025. This simply is not good enough.

Effective ways of increasing revenue include introducing a wealth tax and getting rid of tax reliefs which tend to benefit higher income households rather than lower income households. As Dr. Tom McDonald states, a good tax system would have zero tax reliefs. Investment in public services would be much more effective than tax cuts.

It is nothing short of ridiculous that we are here discussing the budget of 2022 without having any clear indication of what will be offered to families suffering the effects of mica. The document states that funding for the remediation of homes affected by defective concrete blocks has been increased to €40 million. I think it was also €40 million last year so I do not know where that increase came from. I would love to know what exactly this means. If this is all the funding that will be allocated to these families, it is not nearly enough to provide them with the 100% redress they are entitled to. These families deserve answers now and it is downright shameful that this is not a major focus of budget 2022.

I see no real commitment here to tackle the housing crisis properly. Much like Housing for All, this is watery and lacks any sort of vision. We need proper action on the crisis and on tackling homelessness, especially rural homelessness, which is so often ignored. The Department refused to fund a north-west Simon Community rural homelessness project that would have focused on helping those in hidden homelessness. If the Government were serious about that, it would have taken that on.

The decision to reduce the vacant site tax from 7% to 3% is a joke and needs some serious reconsideration. A Bill introduced by the former Deputies, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, in 2018 would have set it at 25% and Fianna Fáil promised 15% but we have ended up with 3%. It shows who runs policy within the Government.

I have been inundated with calls regarding the student accommodation crisis, yet this budget does not seem to reflect this issue at all. Providing €200 in student grants will be a drop in the ocean for hard-pressed families.

I strongly disagree with the Minister’s allocation of funding to the treatment purchase scheme rather than investing this in public health services. The constant funding of the private sector over the public sector needs to end, but this seems to be a theme of Government policy.

The allocation of €24 million for mental health services is just not enough. Investing properly in mental health services is more important now than ever before. I support Mental Health Reform’s call to invest €85 million in these services, which is little enough.

We need to invest properly in disability services and to recognise the incredible work of our carers, especially during the pandemic. I would have liked to have seen investment in a carer’s pension for our long-term carers.

While my expectations of this budget were very low, I am truly appalled to see there has been no mention of the fishing industry at all. Fishing has taken a significant hit in the past year due to the pandemic and Brexit. I had expected to see the budget recognise and address this urgently. The industry and the communities that depend on it have been repeatedly let down by the Government, which refuses to fight for Ireland’s fair share of fishing quotas in Europe.

A very important area we need to address, and which I feel is missing in this budget, is overseas aid. Ireland spends just 0.31% of GNI on overseas development, which is well below the international target and is not good enough. If the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it is the importance of our global community and ensuring nowhere is left behind.

Local authorities could have real potential to solve the housing crisis if we changed the way we treat and fund them. They should have increased responsibility and accountability to the people. The need for this is reflected in the retrofitting programme for estates. I have constituents from Clós Naomh Chonaill, Glenties, Ballybofey and Castlefinn who have been waiting years for new windows and doors. They are now being forced to endure another winter in a cold house.

I support the increase in the fuel allowance but the increase is pointless for houses that cannot keep in heat. This is an area that must be seriously addressed and local authorities could provide many solutions if we gave them the opportunity.

Investing in rural development and the rejuvenation of our town centres is incredibly important. An essential way of addressing this is by increasing the minimum wage to €15 per hour and encouraging employers to offer permanent instead of casual contracts. Minimum wage jobs are a major feature in rural communities and ensuring those employed there are paid well and offered permanent employment is an important way to have people stay in rural areas, thus rejuvenating town centres.

The development of rural transport is also incredibly important and I was very disappointed with the comment from the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, stating that not every road project in the national development plan is guaranteed to be constructed. This comment refers to projects in my county of Donegal, no doubt, which is constantly left behind in every area of development but which is totally dependent on its road network. I was also disappointed to see an increase in fuel prices, which would disproportionately affect rural communities that do not have access to public transport, especially in Donegal, which has the highest rate of forced car ownership.

An area that has been totally left behind in the wake of Covid-19 is the arts industry. I welcome a universal basic income for artists, but a Covid-19 fund should be set up for those in the arts community to allow them to get back up and running. They play a major role in our public life and this should be recognised.

It is clear this budget is not about transformative change in any way. Everything is spread too thinly, with no real difference made. There may be small gains but there are very few important changes. The process is instead regressing back to what is seen as a normal, pre-Covid budget but "normal" is not nearly good enough. "Normal" was high rates of homelessness, a crumbling health service and a country that prioritised foreign investment over the needs of its own citizens. This is not the normal I want for this country and this, in my eyes, is an incredibly regressive budget.

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