Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the points made by previous speakers. Late at night on budget day is not a good time to consider a proposal that involves a vast sum, €6 billion, with Deputies given a mere two minutes to contribute to the debate. There is no reason for it being taken tonight and there is no necessity either. We should debate this with adequate time because of the scale of what is being proposed.

From our point of view in the Social Democrats, we have no great difficulty with the principle of setting aside a rainy day fund and contributing to it. Arguably, however, we are in a rainy day situation at the moment and there are arguments for doing something else with some of that money. One of those things could be investing it in affordable housing. This Government and the previous one have chosen the most expensive way to provide public housing, through the housing assistance payment, HAP, and long-term leasing, whereby we are putting the country in hock for 25 years, with an overdependence on long-term leasing. That would be a good use of the fund that would result in providing more homes for people who need them and doing so on a more cost-effective basis.

The other thing we should be considering is investing some of this money in green energy, such as offshore wind energy, and developing an Irish company to do it, which we should have been doing a long time ago when money was available free of charge over the past ten years or so. That would have been a sound investment for the future in secure and clean energy. There is a debate to be had about the best way to spend €6 billion of public money and the Government should at least allow us to have that debate and to consider what is in the best interests of the country.

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