Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last night, a commentator described this budget as a "scoreless draw" in which there was no significant advance for anyone but no goals let in either. That is now the strategy in regard to budget-making. As there are too many vocal lobbies to satisfy, the goal must be to give something to as many as possible, minimise criticism and if the budget is out of the news cycle in 48 hours, it is job done and a great success. It was not always thus. Once upon a time, the annual budget was the opportunity for Government to advance its strategic vision and set out in concrete financial terms how our nation was to advance. Now there is no strategy, no strategic vision and no clear pathway, year by year, to achieve a transformational goal.

There is no clear destination, for instance, for the achievement of a new health service, in which I know the former Minister for Health who is sitting opposite me has an interest. There is no strategy to achieve an integrated, responsive, equally accessible health service, with timelined stepping stones and the resources to back it. Now the budget is a political three-card trick. It is no longer the centrepiece of public policy implementation but, rather, the day when as many sectors - or should I say "voters" - can be given just enough, the Government hopes, to quell their complaints. Where is the leadership that would be demonstrated by Ministers coming in here at budget time, as true agents of change, to argue for transformational policies, set out the vision and the arguments, and take on the counterarguments with thought-out proposals and conviction? Now everything is short-term, with the focus not on the next generation but the next general election or even the next opinion poll.

Three major issues demand a clear long-term pathway to fundamental change in our nation. In health, as I have already mentioned, major battles need to be fought to achieve a transformational strategy. I do not see any relish on the Government's side to set out that strategy and achieve it. In housing, ideology is still evident despite all the talk. A zoned land tax of 3% is to replace the current vacant land tax of 7%. There is nothing for renters, as has been repeatedly noted. Instead, there are tax breaks for landlords. It is the same strategy that got us into the housing mess in the first place, when we abandoned proper house-building in the glorious bubble of the 2000s.

On the third and equally important issue of climate, the Government has enacted legislation that is a victory for the Green Party, but what is it really? It is a legal framework without specifics, the equivalent of passing a law in 2011 to say we are going to have a balanced budget or a deficit of less than 3% in 2016. Setting the target is the easy bit; achieving it is damned difficult. The achievement of our climate goals requires a change across all of society for which all our people must be prepared. The specific measures needed will meet huge resistance unless it is made abundantly clear that hardship and harm for our citizens will be avoided.

The specifics of that - not generalities or vagueness - must be spelled out. Frankly, that has not been done. Setting out a climate Bill with a framework that states we are going to reduce certain things is the equivalent of saying we will have a balanced budget and pretending it can be done in some painless way. We have a lot to do because none of that vision is set out now in this short-term approach. It is as if the Government sees itself as an interim steward of the country and the economy. Its policies are designated to survive the present, not plan and map the future.

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