Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This Government has three central goals. We need to provide affordable housing for our people, we need to deliver health reform and we need to accelerate climate action. We have to stick to that course and focus on those three tasks while also managing an energy crisis that arrived on our shores in a way that no one could have expected. Energy is being used as a weapon of war and that has affected and changed everything. This has become the issue we need to urgently address. We have to make sure that we address this immediate crisis in a way that helps keep us on course in delivering housing, reforming public service and tackling climate change. I believe this budget helps us, as a country, to do that. Looking back at the formation of it over recent months, it seems to me that there are seven key strategic aspects that we needed to take into account, which we did.

The first strategy of Government, even before we began to form this budget, was to recognise that, in this cost-of-living crisis and inflationary period, we could try to reduce the cost of public services. We could put money back in our people's pockets through things we have control over. We cannot easily control some of the international factors but we can address some of the cost-of-living factors here at home. We are now doing that. In that context, the 25% reduction in childcare fees is of great significance and importance. The way these changes were thought through and designed as a two-year strategy means that the conditions are in place to improve workers' pay and conditions and to make sure that suppliers have the opportunity to meet the needs and to then bring in a significant cut in the cost that we know will go to the hundreds of thousands of parents for whom this is an everyday cost. The thinking in respect of delivering reductions in public transport fares is the same. There is a reduction of 20% for everyone and 50% and for those under 24. This latter cut is expanding as we speak. We expanded it to younger people and night-time services last week. It is important that we do so while also expanding public transport provision, which is what our budget provision allows us to do.

Significant investment in PSO services is another example where we cut the costs for people at a time when that is what we needed to do. Every family will know about the costs faced by young families with children in primary school. It is a small thing but that cost hits every September and now it is being covered for next September. It is similar for families with people in university and third level. That is a tough time for families and we are again reducing the cost there at this particular time. That is really important. We will go further. There is a scheme to put photovoltaic, PV, panels on every school roof in order that schools can start cutting some of their bills, not just families and individuals. We have tackled inflation at source where we could.

The second thing is that this budget had to be progressive. For all the budgets introduced by this Government, our first test has been whether they were progressive. Based on independent economic analysis, we are helping those on the lowest incomes. It will never be materially the same as someone on the top in terms of the actual gain but if we do this year in, year out, and progressively benefit those on lower incomes, that will help us bring progressivity into our system. This budget does that, not just in the €12 increase but the other long-term measures like the increases in the working family payment, the qualified child allowance and the domiciliary care allowance. I could go on. Critically, there is also a significant tranche of one-off payments, particularly this autumn, including the Christmas bonus double payment and so on. We learned a lesson in the Covid crisis that giving cash to people in difficult circumstances in this way does work. The pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, did that. All the analysis showed that such an immediate injection of cash at the correct time matters. The best way of addressing poverty is giving people funds, particularly at this difficult time, and this budget did it at scale.

The third principle is that we have to be responsible with the public finances. Sinn Féin says, rightly, that people want and need certainty. The first certainty they need is that the Government is not going to break the books or put us in a situation where we cannot afford what we might want to do and where there is not a reserve that we can turn to. We cannot have open-ended blank cheques or uncertain mechanisms the payment of which people cannot be certain about. We have produced a budget in a way that is ambitious in progressivity and tackling inflation but without the uncertainty that we cannot pay for it. We had to ask the economic question of whether we would be adding to inflationary woes here and I believe the judgment call in this regard is right and that the €11 billion package is the right one. Even though this budget is large, we are going into a period this winter where there will be significant deflationary pressures as money has to go on paying very high energy bills and as interest rates go up. It is, therefore, appropriate. There may be some economists out there, although I do not think there are many, who will say this is not the time for putting money into the economy. I disagree. What we are doing is responsible and it is responsible that I back that up. The National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, announced this morning that it will not be borrowing further this year because it is fully financed. In a world of real uncertainty, where bond yields, etc., are shooting up in different directions in neighbouring countries - we do not have to look too far to see that - that certainty is a real strength to our country and our people.

It was also important that we give certainty to our businesses to make sure they can get through this exceptionally difficult period. I am very proud of the work the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has done with the Departments of Finance and Enterprise, Trade and Employment on those business supports, which are vital. It is responsible that we help keep jobs because that is the fundamental area where certainty is needed to get through a difficult period.

The fourth of the seven principles we have to apply is that we do not leave people behind. We need to try to make things universal because everyone is going to be affected. It is not easy with targeted social welfare models, using the likes of the working family payment and others, which are good ways of addressing areas of acute poverty. It is right for us to apply the energy credit in a universal way because there will be people in different circumstances. Every family is in different circumstances and it is appropriate for us to help them. The increase in the child benefit and the home carers allowance recognises that every family has different circumstances. Every family has to raise their children whatever way is best for them and I believe the likes of those child benefit payments are the right way of leaving the choice with the families as to how they work their way through this. We cannot be judgmental. We have to cater for every different type of need. That universal element in what we have done is hugely important.

Fifth, this is at its core an energy crisis caused by our dependence on fossil fuels. We have to make sure we use this moment to pivot, not just to address the immediate cost-of-living crisis but to allow us to accelerate decarbonisation and the development of our own natural resources. That is the best long-term security and certainty we can bring to our people. This budget, along with the two previous ones, is doing that at scale. In agriculture, we have provided €500 million for agri-environment schemes. That is an additional €200 million, allowing 30,000 new farmers to participate in them next year. There is a 12% increase in the forestry budget because we need to scale that up at speed. There is an 80% increase in funding for organic farming. This will be beneficial because there are high prices not just for fossil fuels in transport or energy but in the cost of fertilisers. Allowing our farmers to reduce that cost base but increasing or maintaining output, which is what happened this year, is a fundamental change that is occurring and it is being supported by this budget.

The protection of the natural world as we make the energy transition is key. There is an 83% increase in funding for nature protection over the three budgets this Government has introduced. That is hugely beneficial right across the country. With regard to the circular economy, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will be introducing a range of measures this year and next year that will help cut the cost by reducing waste and increasing recycling. That is supported in this budget.

Critically, regarding energy, which is the source and core of the problem, I will go to Brussels on Friday. I talked to the Commission again yesterday and I am confident that we will be able to get mechanisms whereby we can address the windfall profits that need to be brought back to help our people. We will do that with Europe and within the European system because at the centre of this war is a desire by the Russian Government to divide Europe. We will work closely with the Commission in getting the measures right for us here at home but we will do it as part of a united European approach. When it comes to market reform, it would be easy to say the whole market can be completely altered with just a stroke of the pen. Which market should we change - the intraday market or the forward market? We could do that with a switch and find ourselves causing more problems than we would solve. We will work with the European Commission on the reform of the electricity and gas markets but we will do so in a co-ordinated way, recognising the complexity of the matter. We need to get this right in order that investment continues to flow into our country to support the energy transition. That is happening. It is happening in offshore wind, in the solar revolution that has started and in retrofitting, which is the best way to protect our people. It is scaling up in a predictable, reliable and certain way every year. The budget has gone from about €300 million last year to €500 million next year and will go up again the following year because of the funding mechanisms we have put in place. That is working. It is happening. It is what Irish households want to do and they are doing it at speed and at scale.

The sixth principle is one of the most important. Whatever we are doing now in this budget and elsewhere, we have to strengthen democracy, including our own democracy. This is in essence a war between a democratic view of the system and an autocratic one. The front line in that is not just the energy war but a war of disinformation. It is a war that is using social media and other networks to present simplistic, divisive, populist and nationalist solutions that are not going to work. To counter that, to inform our people and strengthen our democracy, we need a powerful and strong media. We need questioning journalism.

That is delivered in this budget. The recommendation of the Future of Media Commission for a 0% VAT rate to help our media outlets has been introduced. We are funding RTÉ with the €15 million that the commission report recommended. We are funding TG4, including children's programmes.

We are not just investing in the media but in the arts too. The arts can question what is happening in society, including the Government and every holy cow. Having a strong arts culture and community is extremely important for a questioning democracy, which is what we seek to be. My colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, delivered on that in spades in the budget yesterday. She protected the money going to the Arts Council and provided new funding supports.

The hardest test for our democracy will be how we manage taking in people from Ukraine. This is not easy. We all know that communities right across the country are under stress. They are under stress from their own housing needs and it is hard if more people are coming in, but we have a duty to do that to the best of our ability. This budget backs up the supports and provides funding, as it had from the start. There was no question about it. From the Taoiseach's first meeting with the European Council in Avignon, we said we stand on the democratic side and will do whatever we can, not sending weapons but every other support that we can. That is an important part of the response.

One of the most important elements of the budget for me, which perhaps does not grab the headlines or seem that significant, is the investment that we, as a small island, are making in overseas development aid. There is a 17% increase to €1.2 billion. There is an additional €30 million to address the immediate crisis caused by climate change in the Horn of Africa and additional €10 million from my own Department for climate finance. We will follow up on what we said at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow, in a world which is full of division, doubt and a breakdown of international order. It benefits us to recognise that we, as a relatively wealthy country by any measure or metric, have a responsibility to help the poorest. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Simon Coveney, getting that funding was significant for the sense of the strength of our democracy.

A principle in setting the budget is trust. How can people feel trust in their Government and the State if the Government does not have trust within its own corridors? This has been a difficult budget process. It is not easy. All three parties and the Independents who support us have different political perspectives. It comes through every day. There are different cultures, views and approaches. In devising this budget, as with everything else we have done in the last two years, my sense, along with my colleagues, is a sense of trust that the information they provide is correct and honest and, to the best of their knowledge, it is the latest information. When one trusts that information coming from colleagues, it allows decisions to be made quickly. One does not have to second guess the motive or double down in the face of opposition, but instead one can find solutions. This Government is functioning with that trust between three parties. That is important during this time of crisis.

From my perspective, I trust the public service and the Civil Service in the way they serve the State. They have to be part of that trust arrangement in order that we and they can make decisions quickly. We make mistakes in the public service and the political system, but, at the heart of our country, in our democratic republican system, we have structures, including the Seanad, Dáil and the public service, which serve the Irish people. Those structures are not always right and they make mistakes, but we hold people to account and listen to the Opposition. That is my experience in delivering this budget.

There is no point in having trust unless we deliver. We need to focus on delivering what is promised in the budget. We know that we, as a State, will have to step up to do much more to deliver housing at the required scale and speed. We are committed to doing that. We realise that we cannot just increase the health budget every year but that we also have to start to work within budgets to make sure we get the most out of them. As the Minister of State, Deputy English, said with regard to the digital revolution, we need innovation in our public service in order to get the best from what we have.

We will deliver in respect of climate. We will deliver on turning this country around in order that we can rely on and have our own power. The latter will ensure that we will not be held to ransom. It will also ensure that we will create employment, as well as playing our part in protecting the global environment and our local environment.

This budget gives us a mandate to deliver in all the different areas for next year. Some commentators said there are many different elements. That is the nature of government. We have to address every sector and provide for every person as well as we can. This budget does that. We now need to sit down and start to make sure that we deliver.

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