Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Its only interest is to exploit the real pressures individuals and families face. As we saw when the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, debated with the Sinn Féin spokesperson earlier this year, the sound bites simply do not stack up to even the most basic scrutiny. Their costings and building numbers are little more than inventions designed to claim to have a plan rather than actually to have one.

It is certainly true, however, that there are key differences between us when it comes to those few areas where Sinn Féin has actually detailed its policies.

We support the principle of home ownership and prioritising the interests of first-time buyers in the market. Sinn Féin wants to abolish the help to buy scheme, abolish the first home scheme and abolish the Croí Cónaithe vacant and derelict properties scheme. Together, these schemes have helped many thousands of households and will help thousands more in the years to come. Yet, Sinn Féin’s ideological opposition to helping people buy homes would see these schemes scrapped. While it professes to care about the undeniable difficulties faced by private renters, the reality is that its plans would lead to the near elimination of the entire sector. Blocking private owners from being able to limit tenancies, prevent the sale of properties and a host of other restrictions would lead to an even worse situation then we face today. As with so many areas, the core tactic of Sinn Féin on housing has been to hope that the media lacks the time or inclination to look beyond the sound bites and examine its policies fully. This budget marks a moment when its cynicism has caught up with it.

We all saw, during the pandemic, the incredible quality of our health professionals and a system which saved so many lives. While it faces very difficult challenges, our health system has expanded dramatically and is treating more people with better outcomes than ever before, but we must go much further and that is what we are doing. The budget delivers on our commitment to continue to expand the core capacity of our acute hospitals, with more health professionals and more acute hospital beds. A series of initiatives will link with this capacity to treat tens of thousands of people on waiting lists and to reduce the waiting times faced by all. However, we are going much further to improve access and quality. This year we removed inpatient charges for under-16s and next year, we will remove them for all patients. Next year we will also widen the eligibility for the GP card, which will allow thousands more people to be covered. Allied to general measures like this, we will push forward with our plans to develop new services. Women’s health services will receive major support, including expanding free contraception from age 25 to 30 from September next, providing supports for the first time in relation to IVF treatment, expanding women's health hubs and providing additional funding for screening. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has set out our ambitious objectives for these and other services. As the Minister of State, Deputy Butler has detailed, a further major increase in mental health services will be implemented. Support for older people with a range of needs will also be extended, as will the development of the Minister of State's highly innovative and important dementia strategy. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has also set details of nearly €30 million in new funding for expanded disability services.

Education has been a priority in each of our budgets, and this year we are going further again to strengthen our schools, help families, support children with special needs and improve the learning environment for all. This budget will support a record number of building and refurbishment projects, another reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio and more than 1,000 new special needs assistants, SNAs. These and a range of other measures will help us to further develop inclusive and quality education. The introduction of free books for primary school students is a radical move to comprehensively address one of the big costs facing families and it will benefit half a million children next year. Our commitment to education extends to the higher education and training sector, where direct aid will benefit every student and increased funding will help strengthen the system as a whole.

At this time of increasing division, angry debate and growing populism, ensuring that we have diverse and professional cultural and media communities in Ireland is more important than ever. Yesterday, we signalled the beginning of a new era of support for culture and media in Ireland. As the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, has outlined, she will be implementing range of innovative and comprehensive schemes to support activity in all parts of our country. While the Arts Council will receive record funding, a specific initiative will be implemented to support the night-time cultural economy and to help organisations meet rising costs. The basic income scheme for artists will continue. Sports and language initiatives will be expanded. However, it is important to specifically note the range of spending and tax initiatives which we are putting in place to support the Irish media. As we enter the third decade of widespread access to the Internet and the new dominance of social media, we need to decide whether we want an independent professional media in our country. If we do nothing, then the brute force of technology and competition will do here what it is doing in much of the world. The media will become dominated by falling standards, falling employment and an increasingly shrill public space. If this happens, the first thing which will disappear is coverage of local events. I believe that just as we need to support Irish cultural creativity, so too, we need to support professional journalism. There is a public good in a profession which seeks to inform the public on the basis of clear ethics, balanced research and the ability to challenge both itself and all parts of our society. We can secure another century as a growing democracy if we have a media which has security to enable it to operate to the highest standards. That is why we are abolishing VAT on published media and we are significantly expanding direct funding for public service broadcasting. We are also creating a new media grant scheme, which will prioritise coverage of local democracy and the justice system, and are establishing an independent commission for online safety and media, addressing an urgent and growing need. That commission will have a very significant role to play in the years to come.

The budget announced yesterday is a broad programme of action. It protects our economy against further shocks in the future, while delivering help to people at a moment of real need. It is a fair and progressive budget, which benefits all but gives the greatest support to those with the greatest need. It underpins initiatives to address urgent needs and long-term development across key public services and national challenges. In housing, health, education, rural communities, social protection, culture and many other areas, it enables a wide range of new initiatives. It is an ambitious, credible and detailed plan for helping our country at a difficult moment, and developing public services in the service of all of the Irish people.

See this speech in context