Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I suppose everybody would agree that the budget contains many positive measures that are very badly needed to address the cost of living. However, most of the measures are once off. We know the reason for that, which is that, as most would agree, the world is in a perilous state economically and we are uniquely exposed. We continually talk about being such an open, trading economy. We are a member of the European Union. Germany is in recession. The British Government seems determined to throw itself off the nearest cliff. We are very much open to the calamity that they vest upon themselves. While there are lots of one-off measures, everybody seems to accept that they cannot be continued indefinitely. On the other hand, what I do not see in this budget is any strategy towards addressing the rising cost of living and the root causes of it. The main cause of inflation in Ireland, as everywhere in Europe, is energy. We had a significant problem with imported energy in Ireland at the foundation of the State, almost 100 years ago. One of the first things the then Free State Government did was try to address that and try to become self-sufficient in energy. At the end of the day, we have no control over the cost of imported energy. We have some control over the cost of potentially generating electricity. That is why, for example, Germany is in huge trouble. It put all its eggs into the basket of Russian gas. France maintains its nuclear reactors, so it is able to power itself. We spent 20% of the GDP of this State in the first years of the State, and there were significant competing demands for the money, to achieve energy self-sufficiency and we achieved it.

The Government, of which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is a part, continually talks about offshore wind solving all of our problems, yet almost 12 months ago, Equinor, formerly Statoil, the biggest player in the market, left Ireland because it had no confidence in its ability to do business here. Much more recently, last Thursday, Shell, announced that it was leaving the market. Some in this House would say it is great to get Shell and other foreign companies out, but the reality is that we would not have built Ardnacrusha without Siemens. Primarily, we did not have the technological capability to do it, and we do not have the technological capability to harness all the wind energy off the west coast. The only reaction to this conundrum, this long-term problem, other than to throw money at it in the short term - money that everybody accepts we might not have next year or the year after - is formally to fund the setting up of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, to the tune of €4.3 million. In the context of an overall budget, where the biggest problem to be surpassed is the cost of living caused by the rising cost of energy, the GDP of this State is now projected to be at about €460 billion by the end of this year, and to grow thereafter. Give or take, 20% of that is €60 billion. To put a strategy in place to address the single biggest problem the Government is going to spend €4.3 million. It does beggar belief in terms of a lack of strategy to deal with the underlying problem. There is a lot of will to deal with the day-to-day causes - to bail out businesses and households. I agree that needs to be done, but we must also address the underlying problem and I see no sign of that from the Government.

Last year, apart from rising energy costs, the other major cause of inflation was rising housing costs. To add to the cost of building a house for any family - young, old or whatever age - people pay the same amount regardless of where they are in the country and they must pay an additional levy of 10% for concrete. That is to pay for the mica redress scheme. I have no problem with the redress scheme, but when the legislation was being passed I argued that we should do the Opposition the courtesy of going through its amendments and that we should look at recouping some of the costs from the quarry owners that caused this problem. One of the biggest companies in Ireland, CRH, owns many of those quarries. At the time, it owned fewer of them, but it obviously thought they were a good buy and that the Government would do sweet damn all to recoup any money. Sure enough, the Government is recouping some of the money, but it is from everybody who wants to build a house. People were not allowed to build a house during Covid and now they cannot afford to build a house because the cost has gone up dramatically. There are lots of rising costs. The price of wood and steel went up dramatically. The price of concrete produced in Ireland is now going to rise by 10% for each and every one of those people because of the budget. I do not see how that adds up into a strategy to reduce the cost of living in circumstances where the major drivers of inflation are energy, which I have dealt with, and housing costs, which I have just mentioned.

The Government is making it more expensive to build houses in order to get more housing stock on the market to reduce inflation. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will respond to that. I expect she will not do so but if she could, I would appreciate it, and I appreciate her sitting in for this debate given it does not relate to her Department, although this is her Government.

There are two other issues I wish to mention. The so-called universal payment towards the cost of childcare is not universal but rather relates to everybody who comes through the national childcare scheme. I accept that is a lot of people, but it is not everybody. There is no sort of tax credit system, such as that which exists in the UK, towards the cost of childcare, so it is not going to be universal, even if it was flagged as such by the line Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.

Finally, a particularly nasty addition was made to the Financial Resolutions, which everyone should read carefully. A Supreme Court case was taken regarding the drivers and passengers with disabilities scheme. The scheme was so circumscribed that it could not comply with the legislation. Applicants had to be missing a limb to qualify for the scheme; it was not enough for them just to have a condition that meant they could not drive.

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