Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin supports the motion. Obviously, the rainy day fund needed to be used for the rainy day we found ourselves in with the Covid crisis. It goes without saying that we are far from through this period. We are still in a very difficult situation. We need to look at the entire way our financing operation works. We need to look at our health system from a point of view of doing all that can be done at this point in time. That entails the use of booster vaccines and ensuring a best-case scenario for contact tracing. I welcome that we finally have some sort of movement on the use of antigen testing. All these tools need to be put in place. We are in a period of living with Covid so we need to do all that is necessary.

Major issues still need to be dealt with, especially from a capital expenditure point of view. It goes without saying we are in the middle of a housing crisis and the only way to get to the crux of the problem is to address the supply of affordable housing. That means providing rental properties, mortgages and council houses. We need to facilitate that provision in any way possible. Unfortunately, there has been insufficient planning to provide what is necessary for people who are suffering.

Sinn Féin accepts that as well as the pandemic, we are also dealing with a climate crisis, an energy crisis and a cost of living crisis. As I have said previously, we need the Government to address those parts of these crises that it can address. The European Union and other bigger players have greater wriggle room than we have for dealing with some of these issues. Turning off the tap in Russia cannot be sorted out by this State. I also accept that we are not sure of what the implications will be if the British Government triggers Article 16 or if doing so would be just another means of negotiating. We do not know to what the end result will be but we need to take action in relation to what we can.

We are talking about huge expenditure on the national development plan and necessary works. I am worried and perturbed that of the €5.1 billion to be spent on roads over a decade, €1 billion will be spent in the first five years. This means the business end will be in the second five years of the decade. However, we have all accepted that we action at the business end on climate change and carbon budgets will also come in the second half of this decade. For this reason, we need to have a more realistic conversation on what needs to be done.

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