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

Given the exceptional circumstances in which we find ourselves arising from the Covid pandemic, as my colleague, Deputy Doherty, outlined, Sinn Féin will be supporting the motion. A large volume of public expenditure was required to ameliorate the impact of Covid-19 and this was necessary to prevent the worst. This means that the €500 million annual contribution for transfer from the Exchequer to the national surplus reserve fund, or the so-called rainy day fund, to be made this year will place an unnecessary burden on the public finances and as per section 6(1) of the Act the Minister for Finance is allowed to make this proposal to avoid making the annual €500 million contribution into the national reserve fund. The Minister for Finance is right to do that. It is obvious that it would be inappropriate and irresponsible to divert badly needed resources away from fighting the pandemic and it would be a needless risk to do such a thing, especially when case numbers are rising in our hospitals and when our public services are under huge pressure.

It is worth mentioning that when this so called rainy day fund came into existence Sinn Féin voiced concerns on it. When it was proposed and introduced in 2019 my party submitted amendments so that the fund could be used for the purposes of investing in housing, infrastructure and climate actions. At that time our amendments were either ruled out of order or opposed. It is said that hindsight is 20/20 but it should be obvious that the then Government was wrong to do that at the time. The housing crisis has become worse, our public infrastructure has fallen further into disrepair and our climate targets seem further out of reach.

We were so vulnerable going into this pandemic because of our infrastructural deficit which is due to years of underinvestment. The Government's national development plan clearly acknowledges that we need to make a massive infrastructural investment, particularly in the area of green investment. From our current vantage point it seems that these funds should be allowed to be used for these purposes. When this legislation was introduced the then Government also allowed the fund to be used for the purpose of a capital injection into the banking sector, something we found objectionable. Given the amount of losses the banks could carry forward, meaning they would be paying tax for decades, this seemed like a poor use of funds. Moreover we are seeing an exodus of banks and the Government continues to sit on its hands in this regard.

We know the rainy day fund is empty. The money that had been transferred to it from the ISIF had been spent fighting the pandemic but it was not applicable for the other crises we face. Our housing is in a worse state than it was when the fund was set up, we have longer waiting lists and in recent weeks we have seen over 700 people on trolleys in our hospitals in the western region after the Government told us time and again last year that it was putting huge investment into our hospitals. What has changed for those people who see family members lying on trolleys night after night and day after day? We need to make a serious investment if we want to reach our climate targets. That means we need investment in our public infrastructure and that we cannot continue in a situation whereby the Government is cutting the number of buses. We need more buses and more public infrastructure. People are struggling to buy a house or to cover the cost of rent and thousands are languishing on waiting lists. It seems that for those people when it rains it pours but it has been pouring for a hell of a long time and it continues to do so. We need to ensure that the necessary investment is made in all aspects of our infrastructure.

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