Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will start with a few simple budget-related questions. The Minister's starter, for five points: who said, in March 2017, that Ireland will achieve its target of ending reliance on hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation for long-term accommodation for homeless families by July 2017? That was the Minister, Deputy Coveney. The next question for ten: who said in 2016 that Fine Gael in government would abolish the universal social charge, USC, in that Dáil term? That was the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar. Question No. 3: does the Minister know what a food library is? The Minister can nod or shake his head. A food library? No? The Cork Penny Dinners charity is now rolling out food libraries in schools and crèches across that city. These are mini food banks that include rice, pasta, tins of beans and tins of peas. They are displayed on shelving in discreet areas. Hard-pressed parents can avail of these without having to reveal financial difficulties to teachers and principals. This is in Ireland in 2023, under the Government. What will the budget include for those families? Some of them struggle with mortgages.

There have been ten interest rate increases. For people on trackers and variables, it is like being put on a rack and stretched. The Government should cap mortgage interest rates and make the banks that it privatised cover the costs from their superprofits.

On gas and electricity charges, the ESB, a company owned and controlled by the State, yesterday announced half-yearly profits of more than €600 million. Here is an opportunity to slash gas and electricity prices, not by 15%, not a trim but a major cut, and to tell the ESB it is to operate on a not-for-profit basis and pass the profits on but no, the Government defends those profits and leaves the energy bills sky high.

The Government is a government with no vision. A socialist government, looking at a €65 billion surplus over four years, would spy a real opportunity to put in place transformational change in Irish society, strong public services the likes of which we have never had, free State-run childcare, free public transport, a State construction company to build a big increase in social and affordable housing and a one-tier national health service free at the point of entry, but the Government sides with the millionaires rather than the millions and then squanders the rest of it, sprinkling a bit of dust here, a bit of dust there, on this and on that, trying to buy a few votes and to sneak the next election.

We want a budget for the millions, not for the millionaires. We want real change, not spare change. How can the Minister defend the Government's plans for a status quobudget when the country is crying out for real change?

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