Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When it comes to addressing some of the most fundamental aspects of the cost of living, the Government's measures seem, at best, ineffective and, at worst, to be exacerbating the problem. This Government is basically telling us that it is sorry but that it cannot deal with housing, healthcare or childcare. It is giving us a couple of quid and suggesting that we all forget about it and move on with our lives. That does not wash with people any more. If the Government cannot tackle the big systemic crises that we face, what, in the name of God, can it do? Let us take childcare for example. It is like a second mortgage for families. The current model has utterly failed families, early childhood educators and crèche owners. One can tinker with it all one likes, but a failed model is a failed model. The Government is providing additional funding of €78 million. This is, of course, welcome. In exchange for extending the universal subsidy to the age of 15, fees are to be frozen, but the fees are to be frozen at already inflated levels. It is not a reduction. This sector has been starved of funding for years. The Government has increased that funding but this will not negate the need for fundamental changes in the sector. It has provided additional funding for wages, which is to be ring-fenced. That is, again, welcome, but no wage scale has been provided. Staff will have to wait to see what kind of increase they will get. I will look with interest at the detail of the Government's announcement and what it will mean for the sector because I am concerned that the devil will be in the detail.

While I welcome this element of the budget, it seems more like plans on paper. So many people, particularly women, are locked out of the workforce by the unaffordability of childcare. We need to tackle that. We have a vision for childcare. It is backed up by a detailed plan that would deliver for parents and for those working in the sector. Over the course of two budgets, we would cut the costs for parents by two thirds because that is what is needed.

While many women are locked out of the workplace as a result of the cost of childcare, many who are locked out of third level education will also look on with despair. Since Fine Gael came to power in 2011, it has implemented harsh cuts and commercialised this sector. Not only did it commercialise housing, but it is also doing the same with this sector. It pushed an ever-greater share of the financial burden onto students and parents by doubling fees. While funding levels have been rising incrementally since 2017, this has only barely covered the cost of additional student places. It has again chosen to provide pre-allocated funding, which makes for good soundbites, rather than providing adequate core funding for higher education institutions, which need such funding to deliver for students and wider society.

The Ministers have regularly talked about the need for catching up in primary and secondary education after the impact of Covid but this budget means that many DEIS schools will still not have access to hot meals. There is no additional funding for school completion officers or home-school liaison services. There is nothing of any significance to help secondary schools and the reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio is inadequate. There is nothing regarding educational psychologists and no movement on free books, despite this being a commitment in the programme for Government. Our schools will also remain underfunded because there is to be no increase of any scale in capitation grants, which will force schools to ask for voluntary contributions from parents and hungry children.

If we are serious about tackling the climate crisis, we need to take radical steps to reduce carbon consumption. That is a fairly straightforward concept but it is not fully understood by this Government. We all know that we have a car culture in this State but, let us be frank, in many areas people are forced to own cars. The two key issues are accessibility and affordability. We need to get people on public transport but how are we to do that in light of those two key issues? Last week, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, suggested that fares would not be reduced for a number of years while today it was announced that they would be halved for those aged 19 to 23.

I welcome that as a first step, but it clearly does not go far enough and is not fast enough. We would deliver free public transport for those aged under 18 over the course of two budgets. That is the kind of vision we need. We need to change the culture of the youngest generation and that is where we will start. It is imperative we incentivise the use of public transport to try to tackle transport emissions and instil the habit of using public transport from an early age.

What about all of the areas where people have no public transport available to them? I am thinking of those areas between Galway and Dublin on the No. 20 Expressway bus route. The Government is telling the people of rural Ireland to get out of their cars, but is not willing to provide additional public transport. What does it expect of those people? Build it and they will come.

We were told that the purpose of carbon tax was to help us reach our climate targets. The latest increase will mean an additional €40 on a fill of oil. Yet, the Government allowed more than 70 data centres to be built. The Taoiseach only recently called for the fast-tracking of more. The average data centre, as we know, uses the same amount of energy as a small city the size of Kilkenny. The Government has allowed the energy equivalent of 70 Kilkennys to be built, which places incredible pressure on the energy grid. Ordinary people have to pick up the cost in terms of rising energy prices.

When we hear about energy price inflation, know this: the inflation has largely been imported. The overwhelming majority of the data held by data centres in Ireland is from other jurisdictions. The reason they are here is because when companies build data centres, they can essentially write off much of the cost of construction through generous capital allowances. That is why our budget wants to put a stop to this. The taxpayer is essentially subsidising the cost of construction. Data centres can use up huge amounts of energy which means higher energy costs and that pushes out further our carbon emissions targets.

The capital expenditure laid out in the budget pales in comparison with what a Sinn Féin Government would do. Not only do we believe this is appropriate, we think it is absolutely necessary to tackle the scale of the crisis in our public infrastructure. That is by no means a niche view. The IMF and the EU Commission have said in recent times that the poor state of our public infrastructure is an underlying weakness in our economy.

As has been outlined, we have signed up to the OECD process which will see our corporation tax rate move to 15% for companies with revenues above €750 million. It was said our 12.5% rate was seen as the cornerstone of our economy and a chief plank in our industrial strategy. It should be clear that to remain competitive, we need to invest. This competitiveness will have to be built on the strength, accessibility and affordability of our education system. It will be built on the skills, talent and hard work of our labour force. It will rest on how affordable, accessible and desirable a place to live this is. It will be dependent on the quality, connectivity and accessibility of our public infrastructure. All of this requires investing for the future in our future.

The scale of our capital expenditure needs to be commensurate with the scale of the challenges we face. We believe the Government's budget fails in this respect. The housing crisis will continue to get worse. We will continue to see the construction of office buildings and hotels and very little in terms of affordable and social homes. We have proposed the building of 20,000 affordable and social homes because that is what is needed.

With regard to health, Sláintecare is foundering on the rocks with a lack of Government follow-through. More than 900,000 people are languishing on waiting lists. We are calling for significant capital investment and now is absolutely the right time to do it. Investment is something that can create an asset which can generate a return. Public investment creates public assets from which we can all benefit. It is time to invest in our people and-----

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