John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that the overall economic performance of the country has stood the test of Covid-19 and the war and so on. That is being shouldered by many of the small to medium-sized businesses that all of us know within our own constituencies. They are, if you like, hiding the fact that they are experiencing enormous difficulties just to continue in their development and hold on to jobs. That must be recognised.

The National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, has done very well in the context of the overall national debt of €240 billion. It has borrowed long. Its interest rates are reasonable and will appear to be even more reasonable as interest rates increase. It continues to have €30 billion in cash assets, which is a good, prudent measure and a good policy measure.

There are many risks to our economy. One of the main risks, which has been mentioned by previous speakers, is the risk of corporation tax where one in every four euro is collected and included in that corporation tax. If we strip that €6.7 billion out of the figures, we will find that all the other figures that make up our tax take are actually weaker than what we expected. There is a real problem in terms of corporation tax and how other taxes are performing.

That will give the true story of what is happening in the economy. It will show the true difficulties that businesses have with regard to their performance in markets at home and abroad and paying their taxes. I believe that is a problem that is being stored up because during the Covid-19 pandemic many businesses warehoused their tax obligations, and they will have to be paid at some stage.

Looking at the overall economy, one can certainly put forward an argument that the policies have worked and the economy is doing well, but my measurement of all this is always to look at how the people we represent are faring. They are not faring very well. On a micro level, people who are elderly, who are marginalised in any way, who are sick or who are carrying debt difficulties from the past, are in serious difficulty. That is where I want to see the moneys that will be pushed through on budget day go. It is our responsibility to see that it goes to the weakest in society.

Then there are the other issues, such as Sláintecare. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council said that the Government has not costed its planned major healthcare reforms under Sláintecare beyond this year and that there is no clarity on how much progress has been made to date in terms of the overall cost of those reforms. Again, we have the headline figure being announced by the Department or the Minister, but when one looks from the bottom up at what the performance is like and what the outturns are, they are not very good. All one has to do is walk through the gates of Leinster House most weeks when the House is sitting. For example, cervical cancer sufferers made a presentation in the audiovisual, AV, room. They have described what they are being put through in the tribunal and in the courts as barbaric. Money is required to resolve that. It is a crisis. We must show compassion and deal with that issue. It is a budgetary issue because that is where the money comes from.

Those who are campaigning for an end to the thalidomide argument should be supported. Instead, we are pushing them through the courts. The Department has to provide documentation relevant to that which will cost it the best part of €4 million, yet it will not turn around and resolve that issue. It is an issue that has gone on for far too long. As regards the Lyme disease issue, people have been outside the gates for as long as I have been a Member of the House and to this day they are not being recognised. The laboratories in Germany are not being recognised. They are recognised in the rest of the European Union, but apparently they are not good enough for the Irish Government. That has to be changed.

These are the small things at the bottom end of the scale that are causing me and the people concern. Recently, I met three women. Again, they were in the AV room and they met with Deputy McDonald with regard to the mesh issue and what they are facing in their daily lives relative to correcting that procedure. It is bureaucracy gone mad. It is insufficient money. It is a pathway, as it is called, within health that is simply not delivering. That has to be examined. It is likewise with regard to mental health and therapists for those who have autism or who are on the spectrum. They cannot get them in the schools. It is fine for the summer statement to announce these big figures or for us to say on budget day that we are allocating billions of euro to health and millions of euro somewhere else. However, at the bottom end of this where the money is supposed to be spent, it is not being spent. Public service delivery has almost collapsed for those who need it most. Many families who have children with autism come to me. They cannot get through to the HSE about their care and where they should go. They cannot get therapists or speech and language therapists. Special needs assistants, SNAs, are refused.

We had the outrageous situation in Carlow where there are two schools on the same site, being attended by students from the same families, and one has received DEIS 1 status and the other failed. Is it a gender thing? I do not know because the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, said to me that these are not matters that should be published. I believe they should be published. It should be known how that decision was made. That, too, is about supporting families. It is about budgetary measures and the big figures we are talking about allocating again this year.

I have said repeatedly in this House that the mental health services are in dire straits. In private mental health care at present one cannot get an appointment with a psychiatrist until next year. If somebody is in a mental health situation where the health circumstances require that the person be seen right now, it is not much use telling the person that he or she will have to wait until next year. It is the same in the public services. However, when I raise these questions with Ministers, I am told what the big picture is and that the HSE will get back to me. That type of politics and that type of budgetary spend are not acceptable to me. The Taoiseach tells us that government is about getting things done. On the bottom rung of the ladder things are not being done in a way that would satisfy the general public and that would give me at least the impression that we have public services that are being delivered correctly. People generally are suffering because of the inefficiency within the public service and the lack of proper policy to ensure that all those services are delivered to those who need them most.

I ask my Green Party colleagues, or the ones I know who are in the Government, please to try to inject a little common sense into their budgetary take on things. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said, in a comment regarding greenhouse gases and so forth, that the impact on the public finances has not been fully assessed or factored into budgetary plans. They are daft not to do that. Everything should be factored into a budgetary plan. Looking at agriculture and the 22% target: if it goes beyond 22% they will destroy rural Ireland. Maybe that is their mission. I do not know. Certainly, in policy terms it appears to be their mission. We have tried time and again at parliamentary party meetings of my party to explain all these issues. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, might ask why I am raising them here. I am raising them here because I do not think they are heard within the parliamentary party democracy that we have. I ask the Minister of State to tell his Green Party colleagues to lay off rural Ireland and to ensure that it is 22% and no more. Everyone is willing to do their bit, but they are not willing to be screwed in the process for some goal that the Minister of State believes in.

Finally, I wish to say something about democracy here. Bills have been rushed through this House at an alarming rate, so much so that even the President has commented on it. We do not debate them in full. Now there is a move to restrict the length of time for pre-legislative scrutiny on many issues. I am a member of one of the political parties, but I choose to try to change it from within. I may not be successful, but I will not stop trying.

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