Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I raised a number of issues regarding the budget during my speech yesterday. The budget had two key tasks; to cap and reduce energy prices and to target supports at those most in need. I pointed out that the Government did not fundamentally succeed in either task. While we welcome some of the initiatives, such as the once-off payment, the most straightforward, effective way to deal with soaring energy costs is to cap the energy companies and the units. The Government says this will only hand money over to the energy companies but if it brings in a windfall or emergency tax on those companies, it will get the money to put back in people's pockets. The Government is funding €600 in energy credits but that will go straight to the coffers of the energy companies, which means it is doing the same thing with that measure. I also raised the issue of welfare payments not being high enough. The roadmap for social inclusion committed to introduce benchmarking of the State pension by budget 2019. That would have meant a €40 increase by now, but the Government is giving a measly €12 on top of €5 last year and nothing for the previous two years. I also made some points about other issues.

I will go straight to the point I was at during yesterday's debate, which is the matter of the €500 tax rebate that I am sure will be welcomed by those squeezed to the limit in the private rental sector, even though many will not be able to benefit from it, but in dealing with the crisis of unaffordable, insecure housing it is meaningless. A sum of €500 equates to somewhere between a third to a quarter of the average monthly rent and without a rent freeze, which the Government has said it will not introduce, it means very little. The housing crisis has developed over decades as a consequence of what could be called a "special relationship" between the political establishment, developers and bankers and cannot be solved overnight. A solution is possible, however, and the sooner it is adopted as a policy, the sooner the crisis can be overcome. That policy means ending the reliance on the private sector and international investment funds, establishing a safe housing company with the ability to build 100,000 cost rental traditional council houses directly on State-owned lands already rezoned to build 100,000 units.

Where are the alarm bells going off in the political establishment regarding the huge official figures for homelessness of 10,568 people in emergency accommodation, which is up 30% on last year? There has been a staggering 47% rise in the number of homeless children in the past year, from 2,029 last July to 3,137 this July. That means nearly three children become homeless every single day. That is an absolute national disgrace. Unofficial figures from Simon Communities of Ireland indicate that almost 20,000 are couch-surfing and in cars.

The crisis in the public healthcare system will continue with hundreds of thousands on waiting lists for access to care, hundreds on trolleys in emergency departments, and mental health care services that are not fit for purpose, especially for our young people. I predicted the Sláintecare report introduced and accepted by the then Government would be filed away in a drawer in the Department of Health with a note, "not to be implemented", attached. Unfortunately, I have been proved correct. It has been taken up piecemeal. The basic requirement of recruitment and retention is crucial to our health service and we are not dealing with that basic issue. No matter what extra measures the Government brings in, they will not be implemented unless we have the staff to do it. That is the key thing.

It has been suggested that we need a change of Government. I do not disagree with that. Governments come and go. We need a radical transformation in how our economy and society functions, not just in Ireland but internationally. I was proud to be on last Saturday's march, along with 20,000 other people, as part of the cost-of-living crisis campaign. I sincerely hope it is the beginning of a new movement that will fight for such a transformation.

It is a very strange situation that the biggest giveaway budget in the history of the State will leave most people worse off. Those who have done best out of this budget are two working adults with children who will gain more than €2,000 due to income tax changes, one-off energy payments or child benefits, back-to-school reductions in crèche costs, free GP visits for under-18s and cuts to third-level fees, but with inflation, and energy cost increases in particular, even they will be worse off and those on the minimum wage, lower wages, the State pension or welfare will be worse off.

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