Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity as Minister of State in the Department of Finance to speak on budget 2022. I confirm that I have handed out copies of my script for circulation to Deputies in the House.

I will highlight a number of ways in which this budget will deliver for workers, families and communities around Ireland and also, specifically, in County Laois, my own county.

On tax measures, there will be an increase in the standard rate band by €1,500 and an increase also in the personal tax credit of €50. On health, we are very pleased to announce that there will be free GP care for children aged six and seven. The threshold for the drugs payment scheme is being lowered to €100. Some €250 million is being provided to tackle hospital waiting lists. Free contraception for women aged 17 to 25 is being provided. We are also expanding the dental access to medical card patients.

On social protection and related issues, the national childcare scheme will be universally subsidised and will be extended to all children up to 15 years of age. We are giving a €5 increase in the weekly social welfare payments. The living alone allowance is to be increased by €3 and the fuel allowance will be increased by €5, with effect from midnight last night. Everybody will receive this as part of their weekly payments from now on. We are also introducing a youth travel card for those aged 19 to 23.

On housing, 11,820 new social homes will be delivered to build, acquisition and leasing programmes and 9,000 of these will be new builds, which is very important. Some 11,000 grants are being provided to adapt homes for older people and people with a disability. Some 14,800 new households will have their housing needs met under the housing assistance payments and rental accommodation scheme, which is still in existence, in addition to supporting the 82,000 existing tenancies already under these schemes.

On education and training, 1,165 additional special needs assistants, SNAs, are being provided, bringing the total number of SNAs up to 19,200. There has been the largest ever increase in funding for the delivering of equality and opportunities in schools, the DEIS programme, and this programme is being provided with €32 million next year, enabling an expansion of the service of this programme. More schools will, therefore, be brought into the DEIS programme.

An additional 350 teachers are being provided to reduce the school staffing schedules by one point for all primary schools.

Importantly for Laois and other areas including Carlow, the distance to qualify for the non-adjacent grant for higher education has been reduced from 45 km to 30 km. This will be a welcome improvement for many people in County Laois who attend Institute of Technology Carlow. Up to now, many people in Laois were excluded from this additional grant but, with these changes, they will eligible for this additional non-adjacent grant.

An additional 980 special needs education teachers working in special classes, special schools and mainstream settings to support children with special educational needs are being provided. Off-the-job training is being provided for 7,000 craft apprentices impacted by Covid-19, we are increasing payments for the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, scheme for third level and we are recruiting 800 new gardaí.

In healthcare, we will recruit a further 8,000 staff next year, bringing the overall number in the health services to 144,000. In regard to the quality of care, we will strengthen the National Ambulance Service, of which there has been much valid criticism that must be addressed. We will also invest significantly in women's health and infection prevention and control and advance the roll-out of the nursing safe staffing programme. A funding stream of €207 million has been provided for childcare and this is linked to a commitment to no increases in fees for parents. This is a win for parents, children, staff and the operators of childcare facilities.

Finally, as in previous years, every euro raised by the increase in carbon tax will be returned to the people in a progressive manner, primarily through an increase in the fuel allowance and a major home retrofitting programme.

See this speech in context