Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have seen nothing, never mind actually getting to dealing with the lists themselves. We want to see the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and this Government follow through on their commitments that were made in the early summer. They got them through a 24-hour news cycle that day, but it has not actually followed through to budget day or followed through to the services in our communities up and down the country.

Consistent underfunding in primary care has resulted in huge delays in appointment times and exacerbated waiting times in our accident and emergency departments all over the country. This crisis is not a winter crisis anymore; it is an all-year-round crisis, and again there is nothing. The Government may as well have said it was going to invest in 155,000 nurses or 200,000 nurses. It would be about as real as the 22,000 it said it was going to invest in. It is not investing in safe staffing. That is why it cannot get the staff. That is why it cannot get the healthcare assistants, nurses or people to work in the health service because it is unsafe and the conditions are poor. These are the things the Government should be dealing with, not printing fantasy documents.

On transport and climate, we see there is another reduction in fares, but again it seems like another small concession to the Minister when real, transformative policies could have been implemented.

However, it seems like another small concession by the Minister when actual transformative policies could have been implemented. For two alternative budgets in a row, we have costed a €9 climate ticket. It would have a transformative impact on public transport and the climate. Instead, we are getting piecemeal and minor cuts in taxes and costs. There is no real investment in what we need. There is one line about big projects like MetroLink and the Cork commuter transit scheme, but according to a reply I received to a parliamentary question, €135 million has gone into MetroLink so far and we still have no shovels in the ground. There are no shovels in the ground as regards the Cork community rail link either. These are the types of transformative projects that we need to see delivered, but all we are seeing is a vague commitment to them in a budget every year. Quite simply, that is not good enough.

This Government is tired. It is not just running out of energy - it already has run out. That is incredibly difficult to take when we have a country that is burning and flooding, with homes falling into the sea in coastal counties up and down the east coast. While there has been some investment in the climate space and now we have a long-term climate fund, we are not seeing the just transition for workers or communities that is required. We as a country are suffering in terms of climate and you as the Government are not doing enough about it.

Many of this country's issues are down to the fact that we cannot attract workers for front-line services. I have mentioned health, but we cannot get people to drive our buses, including school buses, in rural or urban areas. There is low-hanging fruit that the Government could invest in to sort out this matter. It could tackle the red tape around waiting lists to get through the Road Safety Authority, RSA, licensing procedure. It can take nearly half a year from the point of application to when someone gets a certification to be allowed to drive a bus. Meanwhile, we have ghost buses up and down the country with services simply not turning up. Workers cannot get to work, kids cannot get to school and people cannot get to hospital appointments. This is what the poverty of ambition in the budget equates to when we boil it down to the impact on the ground.

There will be a further 25% decrease in the cost of childcare. It will be too little, too late. There should be a basic cap of €200 per month on childcare costs. We have costed this and have a plan, which we have presented two years running, but it has been ignored. Instead, there will be another piecemeal cut that the Government will sell at election time. There are workers being paid too little and parents who are paying too much. Some providers, particularly small ones on the community childcare scheme, are going to go out of business.

This is an awful budget that will do nothing to help those who need it the most. When will we have a budget for the vulnerable, for real working people and for people with disabilities? It certainly is not this one.

See this speech in context