Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2024 brings another very positive set of announcements but seriously that is all they are - positive announcements. Nobody listening to the Minister today would think that we are in the worst housing crisis in living memory. We had backbenchers applauding one another when they do not even understand the problem. The Government is clapping itself on the back when people are facing into a winter of discontent under very harsh cost-of-living circumstances. It is congratulating itself on building 30,000 homes a year. Why did we need to put in place a Housing Commission to tell us that we had a deficit for the last ten years of 250,000 houses and that we should be building somewhere between 45,000 and 65,000 homes per year, not the 30,000 that we are trying to achieve and will probably miss anyway?

There is no Ardnacrusha-style idea from anybody in this Government. It is telling us that it will fund 1,000 additional gardaí and 2,000 additional staff to enhance the capacity across acute and social care services. We need more nurses and more teachers. We need more of everything, but the real issue is that there is nowhere for them to live. Irrespective of whether we bring them in or whether we try and get them from Wexford to Dublin to teach classes up here, there is nowhere for them to live. The same announcement was made about An Garda Síochána last year. It is now October. The 1,000 additional gardaí that were funded turned out to be 633. That number will probably not cover retirees, those out on sick leave suspension or those who are leaving in their droves. The real issue is where they would live if we had them. The world knows Ireland has nowhere for people to live even if they come here to work and fill any of those jobs.

The Government claims that people on middle incomes will be better off by €1,500. Let us do the figures on that and see if it stacks up. I will break it down in order that people can better understand how the Government thinks they will be better off and whether it really pays to work. Someone working can only avail of the €1,500 until tomorrow, when the carbon tax increase comes into play. The latter is 2 cent when we take into account the tax on the tax, which is what Government does. The budget booklet figure of 1.28 cent per litre is actually the amount without the tax on the tax, which will be done later. For a middle-income family in a rural area who run two cars and pay the tax for all the others who are receiving social protection, the 2 cent carbon tax increase will drive their fuel bill for the year up by €250 per year. To that can be added the cost of their home heating and every other item that comes into their household.

The Minister of State of all people knows that the Government has driven up the cost of filling every truck, van and delivery vehicle in this country by at least €40 per unit. One haulage company in my constituency will face an increase in its diesel bill of €21,000. It does not go into fresh air; it gets passed on to the consumer to whom the Government gave the €1,500 tax break. Each time I mention something, it erodes that €1,500 down to virtually nothing. As it stands, just those items means the €1,500 turns into €21 a week for working family.

I will now outline the impact the social protection measures in the budget will have for somebody who is on jobseeker's payment. I have broken it down so that people can easily understand it. I am under no illusion that these people also need it. As previous speakers said, everything the Government does has driven the cost of living upwards. Inflation is continuing to climb. It is €12 a week by 52 weeks, which is €624 a year of an increase to the jobseeker. Two double payments amount to €440. A once off fuel top-up payment of €300, a once-off living-alone allowance of €200 and the fuel allowance is €924 for 28 weeks of the year. The total for the jobseeker per annum is €2,488, which works out at €48 per week for a jobseeker, when the actual middle-income earner is in receipt of €21. The latter will be eroded through anything that the minimum wage might drive up and anything that fuel carbon tax increase will drive up.

The question is: does it pay to work? It was mooted that USC is being reduced by 4%. In 2016, the current Taoiseach told people that if he was back in power, he would get rid of the USC. What we get today from a Government led by the Taoiseach is a reduction of 0.5%. Did he forget what he said? Those in government make pronouncements to the effect that they will make sure it pays to work. I am not so sure that is to be seen from the announcements made earlier.

I move on to home care supports. I am just trying to point out that, unfortunately, the Government's announcements are just that. Last year, when it announced millions of euro of an increase in home care support hours, 515 people were waiting on home care support delivery in County Wexford. This year, we have 510 individuals waiting. This represents a reduction of five in the number waiting. However, we are not at the end of the year yet and I expect it to increase over the winter months.

We have 883 children on a dental treatment scheme waiting list in Wexford. Some of them have been on that orthodontic list for over 60 months. A total of 164 special needs children have been waiting on dental care for more than 24 months. I could go on. I very much hope the 25% reduction in childcare costs does not result in a 25% reduction in childcare providers when the Government is sailing off into the wind.

See this speech in context