Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak. In the short time available for me to speak on the Finance Bill, I am only going to be able to cover a fraction of the issues. I will certainly address the concrete levy because this is a farce. It is showing the white flag to the real perpetrators of that awful mica and pyrite crisis. Those perpetrators were the quarries. The Minister obviously has no appetite to touch big business. We see that across the country. He has decided to put the problem onto the building of every house. The levy will add at least €4,000 to the cost of building even a modest 2,000 sq. ft house. Under pressure, the Minister has backtracked and halved the levy. It is still the wrong way to go, however.

The sacred cows and the windfall profits of Cement Roadstone plc, which owns 99.9% of the quarries - if not in name it owns them indirectly - should be tackled.

The same applies to carers. While there are welcome increases in the threshold, there was nothing meaningful done for the carers, such as having their pay linked to issues like the fuel allowance or the plethora of other payments there are. They do an enormous amount of work and keep people out of hospital. Now we have the problem where we cannot get home helps. The Government certainly had an opportunity to do something here.

The announcement in respect of the Croí Cónaithe scheme was made at the ploughing championships. The Government is wonderful with announcements but it does not even consult any of the agencies which deliver this. That is why we have blunder and bluff.

The Government also announced funding for the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, which I welcome for businesses but in the Finance Bill we now see that the number of businesses which this scheme is covering has multiplied. The amount of money for the scheme was inadequate in the first place because shops and businesses I have quoted here have contacted me and they are still going to be paying €7,000 a month extra for their ESB bills compared with last year, and that is after having received the support from that scheme of up to 40%. Now if the number of people getting a slice of the cake grows in number, this sum will be totally inadequate. The Government is playing with people with these figures and giving them out in a spin.

This Finance Bill lacks any vision or any kind of imagination or understanding of why the people are hurting so much. This budget and this Finance Bill is the biggest con job that has ever been perpetrated on the people because the Government is taking the money. The price of diesel now at the pumps has gone up to €2.02, and I saw €2.079 yesterday in Mullingar, or somewhere in the midlands, on Sunday. Half of that is tax. The more the price goes up, the more the Government is reaping in. The price of fuel or oil is the common denominator whether it is social activity, at work, agriculture or industry.

Also, agus is mór an trua é an rud sin, benefit-in-kind was a good scheme which got people up early in the morning, out to work to travel the roads, and I had many such people on to me. These are excellent people who worked so hard and who want to work and pay their way. They were turning over, getting business and generating money for their companies and this was a savage attack.

Every aspect of this budget has the Minister, Deputy Ryan's fingerprints all over it, even on the bikes scheme. There is extra relief to get some kind of a cargo bike. Everywhere you go, you see footpaths and roads being dug up and being narrowed to crucify the motorists and to make lanes for bicycles and so forth. I am not anti such developments but common sense must prevail. Every aspect of this budget has been drawn in green ink and I was going to say red ink. It is a green document. It is not looking after the business people, the people on the housing list or anyone in that category. It is just looking after itself, to keep Government bums on those seats there and to ensure the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and his party will not pull out of Government.

See this speech in context