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

The question for the Minister, Deputy McGrath, is where is the vision. George Bush Snr. famously struggled with what he described as the "vision thing". It looks to me like the Minister, Deputy McGrath, might be the George Bush Snr. of Irish politics because here was a real opportunity. Even if we do not think that budget surpluses will add up to €65 million over the next four years, even if we estimate conservatively that the figure might end up being somewhere between €40 billion and €50 billion, here was an opportunity to put in place a range of public services the likes of which Irish society has never properly enjoyed - free public transport, free State-provided childcare, a health service free at the point of use and publicly owned, and a State construction company to boost construction of not-for-profit social and affordable housing and guarantee a steady income stream for the State for generations to come. But no, instead, the Minister, Deputy McGrath, has decided to spread the surplus very thinly, with a mishmash of half-measures that will genuinely satisfy few. There is no vision. Instead of real change, which people were crying out for, people are being given spare change.

Let us have a look at some of those half-measures. On childcare, the Government is going to reduce childcare costs by 25%. It is not enough but it is better than nothing. However, when is the Government going to do it? In September 2024. To the people who are being hammered by high childcare costs, who feel the burden to be that of a second mortgage, the Government takes the Johnny Logan approach – "What’s Another Year". It is not good enough.

The Government is increasing the minimum wage to €12.70 an hour from 1 January but the living wage is now calculated at €14.80 an hour. The living wage is calculated as the minimum amount required by a person with no dependants for a life of dignity in our society, but the Government has set the minimum wage at more than €2 an hour less than the living wage. That is not good enough either. It is a real let-down for the lowest paid workers in our society.

On mortgage interest relief, the banks are making record profits and it is estimated the banks and financial institutions could make profits this year of more than €5 billion. With a bit of vision and, more than that, a willingness to take on the profiteers, the Minister could have capped mortgage rates at 3% maximum and compelled the banks to cover the costs from their soaring profits. But no, instead, the Government introduces a piecemeal mortgage interest relief scheme that will benefit just 165,000 households, and even those households will only have a fraction of their increased costs covered. I predict that the minority who benefit will be dissatisfied with the maximum payment levels and that the big majority who get zero relief will damn the Government for leaving them out in the cold.

In terms of health services, on which I will make more points tomorrow, the Government has an industrial dispute on its hands and another one on the way. It has decided to freeze administrative posts in the health service instead of cutting back on hiring from agencies. Completely understandably, this has provoked administrative staff to take industrial action and the problems caused by that industrial action will be the responsibility of the Government, and the Government alone. Next Tuesday, indefinite strike action is due to start at 20 section 39 service providers. It is very noticeable the service users, who include some of the most vulnerable people in our society, almost to a man or woman support the workers and oppose the Government on this issue. The Government needs to pay decent wages and restore the pay link with the public sector for these workers. This budget fails to do that and the consequences of that failure will be seen by one and all next week.

On social welfare payments, a €12 increase on the pension is a 4.5% increase but inflation is well above that. It is officially at 6.3% but housing and utilities are at 16.5%. Over two budgets, from August 2021 to August 2023, inflation has been more than 15.5%, yet in that period, under this Government, the pension has gone up by just 9.4% and jobseeker’s and illness benefit by 11.53%. The Government is cutting welfare rates.

On the universal social charge, the Government is reducing the 4.5% rate to 4% next year. In other words, for every €9 the Government collects from workers at the current rate, it will next year collect €8, a small enough cut in a tax that is universally hated. The Minister, Deputy McGrath, is the first Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance to introduce a budget since 2010. When the late Minister, Brian Lenihan, introduced his budget that year, the population were given to understand that the USC was a temporary measure.

The current Taoiseach went on to promise in the general election in 2016 that if Fine Gael got into government, that the USC would be abolished in the last Dáil. It never was but it should be abolished now. It is an unjust tax from the austerity era and should be gone.

The Government might say that the State needs that money to run health and other social services. Fair enough, but it can be got from other sources. We need wealth taxes in this society. The number of people in this society whose net wealth is more than $50 million - I am unsure as to why it was calculated in dollars - rose from 655 to 1,435, more than double, between 2012 and 2021. The richest 5%, 93,000 households, a point made by Deputy Paul Murphy, between them have €388 billion and an average wealth of €4.2 million each. A mere 2% tax on that wealth, allowing €1 million for a principal private residence, the family home, could raise nearly €6 billion. If one was to introduce a 50% tax rate for those individuals earning between €100,000, and €150,000, a 55% tax rate for those with incomes between €150,000 and €200,000, a 60% tax rate for those between €200,000 and €275,000, and a 65% tax rate for those with an individual income of more than €275,000, a deeply progressive taxation, it would raise €3 billion.

With regard to corporate profits, these were €75 billion in 2012 and grew to €250 billion by 2021. It more than trebled in less than a decade and has risen again since then. As pointed out by Deputy Boyd Barrett, it is entirely possible when the new figures come in that despite a record corporate tax take, there would have been €300 billion in untaxed corporate profits in this State last year.

The problem which the Government has here is not just the vision thing. It is the fact that it will not take on the profiteers, or the capitalist market, or deal with the root of the problems because the Minister of State and the Government are tied to those vested interests by 1,000 strings.

I raised the idea of a State construction company. I would not just have that set up but I would nationalise at least the big five construction companies in this State, use their resources, and pool them together to tackle and solve the housing crisis, with a massive increase in social and affordable housing. The same approach needs to be taken to the commanding heights of the economy as a whole. We need a society which is run for the needs of the many, not for the profits of the few. We need a socialist government with socialist policies, a complete break with the market and a different way of organising the society. When we have that, then and only then can we have budgets which are organised for the millions in society, not for the millionaires. We need socialist policies and a socialist budget.

See this speech in context