Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The €4.1 billion cost-of-living package recognises the challenges that families, workers, businesses and young people face. As a Fianna Fáil Minister in a coalition Government, I am delighted to be supporting this budget. I am very proud that the principles of my party have been put forward in this budget by our Ministers, together with those from the other parties. I am very proud that Fianna Fáil is in government and that we are making real changes that are putting money into people's pockets.

Undoubtedly, people are facing hardships. Therefore, we have put together the largest social protection budget day package in the history of the State. As the old saying goes, we cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails. Ireland is a small, open economy and we cannot always control events, but we can decide how we respond. Thanks to our strong economy and full employment, we can respond aggressively to this crisis. In Ireland today, more than 2.5 million people are in employment. This is the most people who have ever been at work. All we hear, though, day in and day out from the Opposition are complaints and problems to be exploited, with no solutions offered and no recognition that this country is in one of its best places ever and that this situation has enabled us to undertake the redistribution we have in this budget.

I am very proud of the role that Fianna Fáil is playing in this Government by delivering the type of progressive and protective measures we have announced. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said here that there is a divide between those who want to solve problems on this side of the House and those among the extreme left that we have for an Opposition who wish to exploit problems. Many in the Opposition scramble for sound bites. Fianna Fáil is finding solutions to problems people are facing today. As we demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic, we will not shy away from taking decisive actions in the interests of the people, and of all the people.

In primary education, our history demonstrates the transformative effects education can have on our society. I look back to our Constitution in 1937, to Donogh O'Malley and his contribution to education, that of Patrick Hillery in expanding third-level education and even that of Eamon de Valera in bringing Trinity College Dublin, TCD, into the State system. We have much to be proud of in this country. All that history and the progress we have made is continually denigrated by those on the Opposition benches. I am certainly not going to continue to accept that.

The Government is now reducing class sizes and reducing costs for families and there has also been a huge increase in funding at every level in education. We now have a historically-low staffing ratio at primary level. We can see this already when we visit primary schools, with smaller classes than we saw several years ago. This will improve even further next year. Turning to special education, we are doing a great deal in this area. We always need to do more, because, quite frankly, it seems there are more children with diagnoses who need the attention of the State and extra supports in primary and secondary schools. Moving on to third level, I am also glad to see that a significant proportion of those who have got college places this year have got there via the higher education access route, HEAR, or disability access route to education, DARE, schemes. It is great to see that level of inclusivity at third level.

Yesterday, I attended the GradIreland careers fair at the RDS. What I was struck by most was the positive energy to be found among those students, mainly final year students and recent graduates. They are interested in the future. To me, they were inspiring. Notwithstanding the problems that are out there and that must be faced, the aspirations, excitement and interest those students have is never reflected on the Opposition benches. We never hear about creating opportunities in this country. We never hear about what investment we are going to have to undertake to ensure there are jobs for our graduates. We have record numbers of job openings now.

We also have record numbers of young people attending third-level education. I salute them and we will work in every way to support them. This is why the student contribution fee has been reduced this year. There will also be a permanent reduction next year as well for most students. Taking last year's budget, for example, we changed the adjacency rules which means that more people qualify for the non-adjacent grant rate. In Meath East, this decision has meant the grant situation has changed drastically for those students living in Donore, for example, and studying in Dundalk or those living in Dunshaughlin and studying in University College Dublin, UCD.

This is about fairness.

On pensions, budget 2023 delivers for everybody in society. That is what Fianna Fáil has always been about. At the outset, the €12 a week increase is an additional €624 for recipients annually. A once-off double week will be paid to pensioners, at Halloween and at Christmas as well. There will be a lump sum of €400 for those in receipt of fuel allowance. Living alone allowance will involve a lump sum payment as well.

Significantly, the qualification threshold for fuel allowance is being increased from the new year. This will bring over 90,000 pensioners into the fuel allowance scheme. One of the main complaints I get from pensioners who may have a very small pension to put with their State pension is that they do not have fuel allowance. Tens of thousands of those pensioners will now be brought in.

On the EU, we have seen a real positive impact over many decades of EU funding. That continues through the PEACE PLUS programme, which the Government will be contributing to along with the UK and the EU. The Government has received, and it is still distributing, €1 billion of funding from the Brexit adjustment reserve and I am proud to have played my role in helping to negotiate that. That continues. Ireland will receive almost €1 billion in EU funding from the recovery and resilience facility but, more importantly, Irish companies will be able to benefit from that facility all around Europe because we have one of the most export-driven economies.

I look forward to this budget being passed. I am glad of the important assistance in the form of energy supports that has been given to our citizens. We will continue along that path towards income equality that we have worked on for many decades . All of the statistics show that the position in this regard has only been improving in recent years, despite what the Opposition would tell you.

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