Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this today. I have listened to a good few contributors in between committee meetings this morning and I will say something I have said many times since I came in here: the Government is more reactive than proactive. Let us be honest - we do not always agree on either side of the House - but we are all here to represent the people outside this House.

All the announcements were being drip-fed to the media prior to the budget brought a level of expectation to the people for whom we are supposed to be working. The people in middle- to low-income households were worried about energy costs before the budget and, unfortunately, they are still worried about it after the budget. It was a missed opportunity to cap the energy crisis which, as Sinn Féin said last summer, would have given more certainty. A worrying story was reported last week in a local paper in Cork, about Castlemartyr village, which is an area in my own constituency. A drop-off box had been set up as part of a collection for torches and batteries for old people. Despite us patting ourselves on the back or the Government patting itself on the back, as a fella said to me a long time ago, a pat on the back is only a foot and a half away from a kick on the backside.

I will also touch on investment in mental health. As a former spokesperson on mental health, I was extremely disappointed with the €14 million additional moneys that the Government has set aside. I have been coming in and out of here for the past four years battling over this and even Mental Health Reform is saying a minimum of €35 million should have been the investment. Our budget proposal was to invest in €81.7 million in mental health. Other speakers have mentioned what we are putting into the health service and, yet, we are still closing beds. We are still closing respite beds. Nothing that was promised in the last budget has come to head.

Transport and connectivity was another area. One still cannot get a bus from Youghal to Midleton in County Cork to connect up with the train for connectivity. These areas would assist people because, obviously, energy prices have risen very high. Certainly, the Government should be promoting public transport but those are very simple little things.

I welcome measures regarding schools and school buildings. I will be and always am fair, in that I welcome that moneys have been invested in east Cork because there is a considerable issue in this area. However, we also have a massive issue with school transport, which I will take the opportunity to raise while I am here. I do not know whether there is anything that can be done to alleviate the fact that a person over 70 cannot drive a school bus. I spoke to school bus operators who are willing to do a six-month or 12-month medical on this to speed up and facilitate stuff.

We spoke a while ago about energy costs and retrofitting. There also needs to be urgency when it comes to facilitating businesses that have invested considerable money in solar panels and, yet, cannot sell the excess electricity back to the grid. I was hoping that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, would be here. Good news broke two weeks ago in east Cork about a big hydrogen plant to go on the site of the Whitegate oil refinery. The following week, unfortunately, one of the main players there, Shell, pulled out. However, there is a considerable opportunity for our own wind and hydrogen energy. I spoke to a couple of businessmen. One of them said that we have the potential to be the Dubai of Europe when it comes to wind energy and the associated energy that goes with it. Another businessman told me that one of the by-products of hydrogen is oxygen. He said we will have so much of it that we will be able to give it to the hospitals. The old saying goes that where there is an action, there is an instant reaction. I urge the Government to take that on board with urgency because we do not want to fall behind.

The biggest fear I have when we talk about tax breaks and tax proposals is that more than 1.8 million people will not benefit from this budget when it comes to tax. Those are the people who are struggling.

I will leave the Minister of State with one thought. I hope he can revisit this if it comes to an emergency, which it is. We are coming into the winter months. Old people are absolutely terrified. I would love to see the Government do a U-turn and say we need to cap energy prices and go back to what we were in May last year to give the people certainty.

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