Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is my sixth budget since my election in February 2016. Each year I have heard some good suggestions in the budget and some that are not so good but, increasingly, there is an utter failure to realise the immensity of the challenges we are dealing with, notwithstanding the lovely language used. Over and over we have heard we need transformative action and that we cannot go back to where we were. This is the language we have heard from members of the Government, and me, but they said it today. It lifted my heart to listen to this language of "we are all in it together, we have learned from climate change and the pandemic that we cannot go back to doing things the way we have done them."

I could pick many years, but 2015 was a turning point because the Dáil passed the first climate plan. We also signed up to the UN sustainable goals. Here we are now, nearly seven years later, having declared a climate and biodiversity emergency and having had the Covid pandemic. I will put this into perspective, and I will praise the good things that are in the budget because they are there, but the background is very important, so we can judge how good the suggestions are. Between 2013 and 2019, the social welfare budget was €20 billion every year. Last year, as the Minister of State knows, it went up to €31 billion. The pandemic highlighted the importance of the social welfare system in a functioning society. Social Justice Ireland state that:

Poverty data from the CSO, released in October 2020, demonstrated how adequate social welfare payments are required to prevent and address poverty. Without...social welfare [and this is a staggering figure]...41.4 per cent of the Irish population would have been living in poverty in 2019. Such an underlying poverty rate suggests a deeply unequal distribution of direct income. ...[and] even after...social welfare payments...630,000 [of our residents and citizens were]...living below the poverty line. Of...[which] 190,000 were...under 18.

I know a commission is looking at taxation and welfare. I mention this, and there will be more to come, to point out that the system was not working. The market system was being helped and abated because the ideology that it could provide for a civilised society based on profit was totally faulty. The Department of Social Protection had to come in with €20 billion per year to keep society functioning.

When the pandemic struck, it did so in the context of a crisis that was already there in the health system. I remember, before voting for the emergency legislation at the time, which is the only time I voted for it, I read out a letter from SIPTU - I will have to check what union it was - that put us on notice that the health service was at crisis point. That was prior to the pandemic. We know the public health system and public health doctors were simply not there. They could not advise us on the pandemic and could not foresee it. If they did, the structure was not there to allow them to tell us.

The Simon Community told us in February 2020, prior to the Covid pandemic, that 10,148 people were homeless and in emergency accommodation, which, in my view, was a direct result of policy. In July 2021, it had gone down to 8,132. However, that was the second month of increased numbers. Any intelligent government or any government that was open to listening would realise that the market and the profit-driven approach was causing problems, not solving them, enriching a small group of people and impoverishing quite a substantial number of our people. As a result of those policies, we faced into a pandemic utterly unprepared. We still have a housing crisis and the Government's policy is still utterly based on the market. I have said this repeatedly.

Today, in the budget, the Government is clapping itself on the back for providing more spaces under the HAP, which was introduced by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in 2014. They said it was the only game in town and that was the interpretation of the local authorities. We now have more than €6 billion going straight into the hands of private landlords. We need landlords. I am not here to give out about them but about the Government policy that stated the only game in town from 2014 onwards was HAP, utterly creating a situation that was unsustainable. That is what we are facing. The Government is clapping itself on the back that more places are being provided. I understand we might need more places temporarily, but that should be done in the context of saying we must finish with HAP, give a deadline for finishing it and build public housing on public land. I make no apology for that and I am no ideologue. The ideology is totally on the side that states the market will provide. When it does not provide, we will finance the market in every single aspect.

In that context, we upped social welfare and other payments a little today, but we did not look at the overall picture of the jigsaw, which, in the words of the Minister is that "the world is burning, and the only chance we have to control those fires is through coherent and effective policies." I absolutely agree with him. He went on to say, "[that] is why carbon taxation is so important." That is why carbon taxation should not be there at all because it is utterly divisive. It is leading us to believe that the ordinary person on the ground is the polluter. While we increase social welfare and we make it slightly easier for carers, which I acknowledge, at the same time we are punishing people. We are not punishing the data centres and the aviation industry. There is nothing in the budget but a package for the aviation industry, which is good on a temporary basis, but there should be taxation for the polluter. When we talk about polluter pays, the biggest polluter never pays. I know that from Galway because 20 years ago the people led us in saying "no" to incineration, but not in an NIMBY fashion. The people of Galway said they would produce a plan, which they did, stating they wanted to recycle, reduce and reuse. That was in 2000. A book was written about it, The Burning Issue. There were monster meetings and we showed the way. What was the response of the Government? To privatise the refuse service and to take away our power under the waste management Act. That was the response.

I can understand if people get tired because I am getting tired, despite the salary I am paid, listening to the same thing over and over, which is a narrative that is insulting and unacceptable. The people want us to do things differently. They want an equal society. The word "equal" is not good enough. It makes sense that everybody has equal opportunities. It makes for a much better economy. When we look at carers, domestic violence and mental health, and we give a little, we are utterly failing to value the importance of carers, for example, to the economy. No market-driven economy can function without functioning on the backs of carers, the vast majority of whom are women.

I see the Minister has issued a detailed statement on domestic violence.

The review into refuge spaces for victims of domestic violence that we asked for has not yet been published. There has been no clarification on that, although the Minister referred to it. I will stick to economic terms. I understand that, at a most basic level, the cost of not dealing with domestic and gender-based violence is €2.5 billion. I am like a broken record. This is the sixth budget day on which I am asking that we look at things differently by looking at the cost of not doing something. I read the newspapers and see the economists and the usual people saying we cannot afford to take action, or asking can we afford it. I ask how can we afford not to do it. How can we afford not to give mental health services in the manner laid out in the new document for which we waited a long time? At what stage will it dawn on economists that there is a much bigger picture where the economy serves society? When we do it like that, and we roll out services as basic units of a civilised society, the economy will truly thrive but that is not what is happening today. We have little bits of positive news without any overall strategy, so the Government introduces half-price tickets on public transport for the young people without realising that we must introduce free transport. We have no choice because that is ultimately the cheaper way to do it. We must look at school transport and broaden it out so it is there for rural areas. We must stop the division between rural and city life and put meaning on it.

I had the privilege of reading the national development plan. It took me about eight hours to read the whole thing. I read the lovely language in that document, including terms such as "sustainable" and "empowering communities" and I wondered what I was missing in this lovely document. The actual reality is so far removed from that language that it is not funny.

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