Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. While the budget contains some welcome measures for which Sinn Féin has been advocating for years - I will claim those as a victory on our part - others that the Government is introducing are being implemented in a half-baked way. The failure to implement a rent freeze ensures that renters will continue to face financial uncertainty, given that landlords will use the tax credit to hike rents. We have long advocated for renters to receive a tax credit worth one month's rent and for this to be accompanied by a rent freeze. One cannot be done without the other, but that is the problem with what is in the Government's budget. Students will lose out because they cannot avail of it, nor can the lowest paid workers, given that they are not in the tax bracket. Units are not registered either. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, is from the same constituency as me and will know from the people coming to his office that there is a great deal of unregistered rental accommodation. Unfortunately, an opportunity is being missed.

The budget provides no additional social and affordable homes for purchase. The provision of these units is an essential component in resolving the housing crisis. Speaking as a member of a party of affordable home purchase, I am disappointed by this. The Government has written a blank cheque for landlords, increasing rent subsidies by €97 million. These were introduced as a short-term measure. Like me, the Minister of State will remember when they were introduced.

The vacant homes tax is a step in the right direction, but a small one. As the Minister of State knows, the value of many of the properties in question is low. In Laois, they will be rated at €99 per annum. Three times that makes €297. That is not enough of an incentive to get vacant properties back into use. It needs to be stepped up, and I advise the Government to go further.

The lowest paid workers will receive a derisory 80 cent increase in the minimum wage. That does not even keep up with inflation. We called for an increase of €1.40 in line with our plans to reach a living wage by the end of 2023. The Government's income tax changes also fail to benefit lower paid workers. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, the medium wage is €36,095, meaning that fewer than 50% of workers will receive a benefit from the higher tax threshold moving from €36,800 to €40,000. We would have reduced USC on a tapered basis so that low- and middle-income workers would benefit more. This measure would have meant an extra €700 for those on €35,000 or less but the Government's means €190. That is a fact.

The budget does not deal with the root cause of the energy price crisis. Instead, the Government has written a blank cheque for energy companies. As previously, the energy credits for households will be pocketed by the energy companies. We wanted a cap on energy prices. The incentive for the companies not to hike up prices would have been the introduction of a windfall tax to ensure that they would be financially penalised for price gouging.

Workers and families face a further increase in the carbon tax in October, yet the Government's retrofit plans do not prioritise low- and middle-income households. Sinn Féin proposed a number of targeted retrofit schemes that would prioritise regions like the midlands in particular, where there is a high dependency on solid fuels. We also proposed a tiered scheme based on household income.

The Government has continued its scheme to subsidise the purchase of large electric vehicles. I do not have a problem with grants for electric vehicles, only large electric vehicles like SUVs and Land Rovers. From the figures we have received over the past year, many of those are in places like south Dublin, where there is adequate public transport. People in Laois-Offaly are subsidising those.

Turning to health, we welcome the decision to adopt our long-advocated proposal to expand the GP visit card. This is a welcome step towards the reformed system under Sláintecare. However, there are no targets to address the crisis in the hospital system. This is disappointing. There are no figures in the budget for additional critical care beds despite Ireland being well below the international average at approximately half the OECD level. Sinn Féin's alternative budget committed to expanding hospital capacity rapidly, including through an extra 37 ICU beds.

While there are some welcome measures in the budget, and despite the fact that the Government is committing large amounts of public money, it has failed to put much of that money where it is most needed, particularly in health and housing. That is disappointing.

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