Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope that when the hectic budget period is over, the Government will use all its diplomatic power to begin lobbying the International Olympic Committee to have kite-flying included as an Olympic sport. On the basis of what we have seen and heard from the Government in recent weeks via the media, we would be in with a great shout of winning a few gold medals. The whole budget has been in the public domain for weeks. It has been spun out of existence as being a great budget. The reality is that it is a budget of compromise. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that the devil is in the detail. Until we can see the detail, we will not know the effects of what it delivers for the ordinary people who want the Government to do its job and make the economy work for them, not just make them work for the economy.

The term "compromised ideas" comes to mind because there is not one big idea in the whole budget . There is not one ground-breaking initiative that would ease the cost of living or that has the potential to reduce inflation. The fundamental cause of the crisis we are in is the cost of fuel. Fuel costs affect every aspect of our lives, including our daily commutes to work and school and heating and lighting our homes. Fuel costs determine the cost of the weekly food shop and the clothes we put on our backs. However, the Government refuses to tackle the core of the crisis and continues to tax the tax. The Government could have taken my proposal to remove all excise from fuel, fuel being the common thread of the increase in the cost of everything, and it could have monitored the impact of same. Carers, special needs assistants and childcare workers gave up their jobs because it was cheaper to do that than fill the car with diesel or petrol. It would have had a positive impact. Last March, this Government said it could not reduce excise on fuel because it would cost too much and drive up inflation. Eventually, the reason given was that the EU said we could not do it.

Many media commentators and economists state that budget will potentially drive inflation. I hope they are wrong. I suspect they are not wrong because the core focus to date has not been the people or businesses of Ireland; it has been to remain in government at all costs and the tail continues to wag the dog. There was announcement that an EU directive previously stated VAT could not be removed from lifesaving defibrillators, but "after much negotiation", according to the Minister for Finance, it is now possible. I propose that this VAT exemption be extended to all voluntary charity ambulance services because they save the Government millions of euro by attending public gatherings. Such services depend mostly on voluntary contributions. On behalf of the people struggling to put fuel in their cars and food on the table and who afraid to heat their homes, the Government might apologise for not extending its negotiating skills to reducing the VAT rates on fuel because it used the EU as an excuse for that also. To do that would have been just one big idea that could have meant compromise but instead the Government has come along with short-term measures. This is because it is short-sighted and devoid of new ideas.

After last year's budget, a 40 kg bag of coal cost in or around €25 euro. Next week, it will be tipping €40. The Government's increase of €12 and the fuel allowance measures, though welcome, do not go far enough and will not cover the cost of the past year's increases. My concern is that the Government is going ahead with the carbon tax increase despite there being no readily available alternatives. This makes people depending on these measures nervous. All homes have seen the standing charges relating to their electricity and gas bills quadruple to as much as €400. Some SMEs and local businesses have standing charges of as much as €1,200. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, refused on the floor of the Dáil last week to introduce the emergency legislation required to give power to the energy regulator to deal with the exponential and totally unnecessary standing charge increases. That is nothing short of mind-boggling. Such a measure would have given certainty and prevented extortion by energy companies but maybe the idea was just too big. As the Green Party is dictating the terms by which this Government stays in existence, it is not surprising.

It is equally mind-boggling that at a time when we are experiencing the worst housing crisis in living memory, the Government will throw fuel on the fire and introduce a concrete block levy, driving up the cost of all new houses and renovations. This is incomprehensible. Instead, could the Government not resource the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to retrain and upskill all of the public servants involved, from the Planning Regulator to the directors of services and the planners in every county council, all of whom are all involved in the planning system, to ensure that they know the law and can comply with it when making planning decisions? This would save the country millions on judicial reviews taken by the people those to whom I refer have wronged because they do not know the law. Continuing professional development is insisted on in almost every other profession.

The theme of this Government is spin. Another theme is the spending of money. In particular, the Government makes headline announcements on the services which we know it does not have the physical resources or people to deliver. We did not deliver on the targets for carers provided for in last year's budget. The Government did not achieve the reductions in waiting lists provided for in last year's health budget, and neither did it issue the guidelines for the tenant purchase scheme that was announced. In this budget, it has announced a further 6,000 recruits to the public service. This is kit- flying all the way. Wexford has been awaiting a dietitian for its child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, for over two years. Not only do we not have one recruited, there has been an announcement that we will have a third CAMHS unit. These measures put the cart before the horse, as I have said many times and as has been said many times today. This is a trademark of much of what I have seen, yet serious proposals put forward by me and other Independents have been ignored. I hope the Government will remember the solutions it rejected, which were viable and which could provide energy solutions on this island for homeowners and small businesses in a manner that brings them certainty, not leaves them wondering where they are going and when they will have to pay it all back.

It is apparent that the Green Party is running the show and that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are allowing it because they can only think of staying in power. Fine Gael has been there too long to have any type of brain surge. Fianna Fáil, which was the mudguard in the previous arrangement and which is soon to be the mudguard again, is devoid of any original ideas. Did nobody hear Deputy Cowen when he said that what is required is one big idea? The only thing new today was the Minister's suit.

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