Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Government spin is that this is a back-to-normal budget after Covid-19. It is that. We are going back to the capitalist normal of reliance on the market, which means a further deepening of the housing crisis when rents are completely out of control, prices are going through the roof and 10,000 people are homeless. It means a further growth of the hospital waiting lists when there are already close to 1 million people on them, while public money continues to be funnelled to private healthcare. It means continuing to fiddle while the world burns and climate catastrophe approaches.

During the pandemic, the Government was forced to take action it previously said could not be done. It was forced, given the inadequacies of our public healthcare system, to take the private healthcare system into the public system, although, of course, it did that at extortionate and outrageous cost. The Government stated that a rent freeze and a ban on evictions not only could not be done but that they were unconstitutional and yet it was forced to do both. It was forced to introduce a pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, at a level designed so that people could survive on it. It is back to normal now. Payments for carers, pensioners and unemployed people are at a level below the poverty line. It is national fiver day. The Government wants a pat on the back for giving all these vulnerable groups of people a fiver. The irony is that in the Minister's own speech, he admitted the inflation rate is going to be 3.7%. The Government is, therefore, not giving people a fiver. Do the maths. The people I am talking about are on a payment of just over €200 a week. A €5 increase is an increase of 2.5%. What is being given to people is less than the rate of inflation. The Government is, in real terms, imposing a cut on carers, pensioners and the unemployed with this budget.

On housing, we have returned to the normal, that is, rule by landlords for landlords. There is nothing here for renters. There is not a single item in the budget for renters. On the other side, for big landlords and developers, there is a full suite of tax breaks. There is another extension of the help-to-buy scheme, which would be better named the help-to-profit scheme. It was originally lobbied for by the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, and the construction industry. It was designed simply to push up prices and to put money into the pockets of private developers and it has now been extended yet again.

The pre-letting expenses relief for landlords has been also extended. That is another tax relief for landlords. Most horrifying of all is the pathetic zoned land tax. Fianna Fáil campaigned in the general election on the basis of increasing the vacant site tax to 14% from the 7% at which it currently stands. It has since come to power and has the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, but instead of following through on its promise to double the vacant site tax from 7% to 14%, it has cut it from 7% to 3%. What is it people say about campaigning in poetry and governing in prose? That is a generous way of describing the gap between the promises and the reality. This move is going to put more money into the pockets of speculators and developers, and will not incentivise land-hoarders to give up land. The 3% is not only below the inflation rate, it is substantially below the increase in land prices. There is, therefore, no incentive at all for these people to stop hoarding land.

On healthcare, the big headline is the Government is going to increase the number of intensive care unit, ICU, beds by 19. Fair play. We have one of the lowest rates of ICU beds in the OECD per 100,000 people. It was one of the reasons we had such long, extended lockdowns. Our healthcare system was badly exposed to Covid-19. An extra 19 beds will still leave us at the bottom of that table. It is completely inadequate.

The Government will try to make much of an extra €37 million for mental health. Weight that against the extra €1 billion-plus that is actually required if we are to reach the WHO recommended level of 12% of our overall health budget. It is pathetic. At the same time, contained in the same budget, is an extra €50 million for the National Treatment Purchase Fund. In other words, more money will go out of the public system and into the private system, as opposed to being invested to build a national health service that is free at the point of use, which is what we need.

On climate, there was an incredible line from the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. He said, "Studies have shown that carbon taxation is likely to be the single most effective climate policy that can be pursued by government." He has no source, citation or anything like that to back up that ridiculous, untrue notion that is not based on evidence. The evidence is clear. Carbon taxes have been introduced in multiple jurisdictions. One study looked at 19 jurisdictions and found that the impact on carbon emissions was modest at best. The study also found that if one relies on that measure, it will take 110 years to do what is necessary. We do not have that time. We have ten years. A country such as Ireland should be hitting zero carbon emissions by 2030. It is a regressive measure, as even the ESRI admits, that will hit working class people hard. It will make their lives harder in a context when people, in many circumstances, do not have an alternative. This nonsense idea that studies have shown that a carbon tax is the most likely policy to make an impact is an excuse for not doing what is necessary and standing up to the big polluters and big agribusiness in this country. It is an excuse for not standing up to the fossil fuel industry. It is an excuse for not dramatically shifting policy and implementing the kind of radical eco-socialist policies that are necessary for a democratically planned economy and the rapid transition we need. Instead, what we have, in addition to the carbon tax, is the very definition of a half measure in the offer of half-price public transport for 19- to 23-year-olds. In the face of climate catastrophe, with the Green Party in government, that is pathetic. We need free green and frequent public transport. We have been arguing that for years and including it in our budget statements. There was no reference in either of the Ministers' speeches to the biodiversity crisis. Is that any surprise? The Government is, yet again, going to fund the greyhound industry more than it funds the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

It is going to give €19 million to the greyhound industry. That is absolutely incredible. My jaw almost hit the floor when it was announced that the Government is giving an extra €63 million tax break to the banks. With KBC and Ulster Bank pulling out of the Irish market and laying off thousands of workers, the Government is going to give them a parting gift of an exemption from the bank levy. I wonder what sort of lobbying took place. On what basis was the decision that these banks would not have to pay the €63 million they would otherwise have to pay justified? That €63 million would be enough to abolish all inpatient and emergency department charges for public patients. It would be enough to hire 100 speech and language therapists, 100 psychologists, 100 occupational therapists and 100 physiotherapists while still having enough left over to restore housing adaptation grants to 2010 levels. Instead of improving our health services and supporting people with disabilities, the Government is striving to give another tax break to the banks. The Government's approach is back to normal all right.

In this budget, the Government made the choice to protect the rich. Every year, People Before Profit proposes a millionaire's tax on the assets of the super-rich and every year Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael reject it. This year, that millionaire's tax would raise more than ever before because the amount of wealth held by the millionaires in this country is higher than ever before. Household wealth increased by almost €90 billion in one year. It is now almost €900 billion. The top 5%, all of whom are millionaires, hold almost 40% of that, more than €350 billion between them. A millionaire's tax of 2% on assets worth more than €1 million would provide enough money to fund free college education for all, free school meals in every school nationwide, free public transport for all, a reduction in the pension age to 65 and the building of 10,000 extra homes. The point is that the wealth is there. However, to build these universal public services, we will need to kick out the Government and fight for a left government committed to ecosocialist change.

I will make a final comment on the promises around free contraception because the fine print attached to the proposal is quite scandalous. After years of saying it could not be done, the Government has agreed to fund free contraception. However, if you look at the fine print, you will see that the Government is sneaking disgraceful and sexist restrictions into the measure. According to what was announced today, free contraception will only be available to women under 25. I am sure it is not news to the Ceann Comhairle that people over the age of 25 also have sex and do not all want to have children. Most importantly, why on earth is looking after contraception to be solely the woman's responsibility? Why will the measure not apply to condoms, which not only prevent pregnancy, but also tackle sexually transmitted infections? This should be corrected now and the free contraception plan should be opened to all.

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