Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Earlier today I had a look at some of my comments about last year's budget and I was especially critical of Government inaction on support for family carers and the provision of childcare. Today, I am happy to say I am really pleased to see a long overdue increase to the income disregard for accessing carer's allowance. That has increased from €665 to €750 per couple per week. We can add to this the increase in the capital disregard from €20,000 to €50,000 and such changes will ensure a greater number of families will be able to access carer's allowance.

That means test was called "the mean test" and it penalised so many full-time family carers, many of whom were lifetime carers. The capital disregard of €20,000 meant so many middle-aged and older carers could not put money aside either for their pensions, which the State did not provide, or a nest egg to support the person for whom they cared. Today's news is good news for those families.

It is worth noting that approximately half of the 90,000 people who currently access carer's allowance, a figure of approximately 45,000, can only draw down a half rate. The increase in both disregards today means many of those 45,000 people will be able to increase the carer's allowance they can access. However, the other 45,000 who are accessing a full rate of carer's allowance now will see very limited benefit in today's budget. I was most disappointed that carer's allowance was not recognised as a qualifying payment for fuel allowance. All families in the State are being hit with very significant increases in the cost of energy but family carers, especially those caring for older persons, will see increased energy bills as we head into winter. This is an example of where we are not connecting the dots and helping to ensure those who care within the family home do not sometimes have to make impossible choices between heat and food.

I also mentioned childcare, and over the past 12 months I have many times asked the relevant Minister to support the sector. The increased funding for childcare is welcome but it falls well short of the €75 million that would be needed to guarantee a living wage to those working in the sector, 95% of which are women. Retention of workers in this sector is a major concern. A further €75 million would be needed to ensure access for parents to the service. Having said that, today's investment is significant. If the Minister could guarantee this is the start of a multi-annual programme, I would be satisfied with that.

There are a number of other matters I wish to raise and I will get to some of them tomorrow. Above all else, however, I cannot express enough my real disappointment that budget 2022 basically ignored agriculture. This is the single most important economic and policy statement of the year but it has ghosted agriculture, so to speak. From the perspective of policy direction or agricultural supports, budget 2022 is a non-event. Given that climate change is a central plank of this budget, why was agriculture, a sector that is expected to do much of the heavy lifting in reducing emissions, basically ignored?

Macra na Feirme summed up the Government's commitment to agriculture when it said the Minister for Finance had told young farmers "to go gaming instead of farming" because there are tax credits for gaming but rollover for agricultural programmes.

There is much talk about just transition but the reality is we have a carbon tax that penalises rather than incentivises. If anybody suggests to me the next Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, will deal with such agricultural matters, I may lose the will to live. As it stands, the CAP budget will hold the same as the preceding CAP budget, so in the context of increasing prices, it will amount to a decrease. Additionally, Pillar 1 payments across the board will see a cut of 25%, and that money can only be recouped when farmers avail of two of the five proposed eco schemes.

There are two concerns. The first is that for 25% of the income, farmers will have to do much more just to maintain the income and there is no new money. I was at a meeting in Carrigallen last Friday night and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, was there. It was made very clear to him that many of the proposed eco schemes will simply not be suitable for farmers in that region, and that is my second concern. There is a real concern that a quarter of the Pillar 1 income will not be available to some farmers. There is also the question of the agri-environment schemes under Pillar 2 and whether Pillar 1 eco schemes will be a benchmark for them. How much more will farmers have to deliver to access Pillar 2 agri-environment schemes?

Added to this is the huge and disproportionate impact of carbon tax on farmers and rural people. The carbon tax is meant to incentivise people and we all agree with it. In today's context, however, it is seen to penalise. It is meant to encourage a switch to cleaner fuels, electric vehicles and public transport but in rural areas, very often there are no alternative fuels to oil, coal or peat. We do not have gas lines running beside our homes and there is little infrastructure for electric vehicles. Whatever there is in towns and cities, there is none in rural Ireland. I do not need to tell the Minister about the dearth of public transport in rural areas.

I was delighted to hear the Minister proposing a 50% cut in the cost of public transport for those aged between 19 and 23. It is good, and if they are going between Sligo and Dublin that would be fine. If they are trying to get to the institute of technology in Sligo from Geevaghor perhaps Mohill in south Leitrim, they will not be able to avail of that 50% reduction because public transport is not available.

It is quite clear, and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, analyses show, the carbon tax will cost rural and agricultural communities more. Farmers are being promised a just transition, but there is no evidence of it.

There is nothing extra for the suckler cow, which is the mainstay of the rural economy in the constituency I represent, and nobody is talking about the fact that there is drop of 46,000 in the suckler herd. There is nothing for the ewe premium, no front-loading for areas of natural constraint, ANC, and no light at the end of the tunnel for those who are frozen out of the results-based environment agri pilot, REAP. There is nothing around support for microgeneration and solar panels and there is no greater access to the grid. I do not know how this happened.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, said today that:

Farming families have...a central role to play in protecting the environment over the long term. Supporting the next generation of farming families is essential...[for] guarantee[ing] the long-term future of agriculture and the agribusiness sector.

In the context of today's budget, those words are meaningless, hollow and empty. This budget bypassed agriculture.

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