Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I congratulate the Minister for Finance, Deputy McGrath, on his first budget. I am delighted that his wife and seven children were here to listen. However, it is a failed opportunity. It is a typical accountant’s budget that just moves the figures around and manages them.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, said it was a great country in which to be a child. Goodness gracious, what is he thinking about? How could he say this? It could not be further from the truth. It is certainly not the reality for our children with additional needs. Our disability services are failing in every aspect. Our children cannot get essential therapies, such as speech and language and occupational therapy. They wait years for an assessment with little or no hope available.

Regarding children and mental health, there are no child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, teams. We know what happened with the Kerry CAMHS. There is the whole situation regarding disabilities. Young children and everybody with disabilities are suffering. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, promised in May that if people did not get assessments by 1 August, because they said they were not operational, she would pay for them herself. There is no sign of that in this budget today. These are again empty promises from this Minister of State. It is shocking.

The measures introduced today do not come close to meeting the needs of people with disabilities and there has been no mention of pay parity and preventing the impending strike of section 39 workers. That is a huge issue. Is the Government in a cul-de-sac here or do its members have bags over their heads, because they do not know what is going on? Have they all gone into the new kitchen to test out the cuisine? Somebody said there was going to be Christmas dinner in there tomorrow. The Government members are like turkeys voting for Christmas if they think this is going to save them, but it is not.

Today marks world mental health day. The Minister did not acknowledge where the funding of €115 million is in his budget. It has gone into the big, cannibalised HSE funding and we cannot get any services for mental health out of that because it is a failed entity in its entirety, and it is carrying on.

In our pre-budget submission, we wanted for USC to be abolished. Why? It was introduced back in 2010 as a temporary measure. I remember the man whose portrait is up on the wall today said at one time that it was a temporary little arrangement. I am referring to Brian Cowen. USC should have been abolished. The current Taoiseach promised in 2016 that if he were to be re-elected he would abolish USC.

What kind of hollow promise was that? USC is a savage tax that was introduced as a temporary measure during the financial crisis, yet here we are many years later and we are reducing it by a miserly 0.5%. USC costs an average working couple almost €50 per week. That is €2,600 annually. Our ordinary working families are being fleeced. The USC needed to be halved at least. On top of the minimal 0.5% reduction in USC, workers will have to pay 0.1% extra in PRSI. It is a trick of the loop anywhere you go. The Government puts a dolly mix into a cement mixer and only churns out the nice bits.

Regarding carbon taxes, the price of diesel now stands at €1.90 per litre. While the Government has delayed the hike in excise duty, it will press ahead with the carbon tax and add a further 2.5 cent per litre to diesel and 2.1 cent per litre to petrol tonight. We will table an amendment, as will Sinn Féin, to stop this from happening. The carbon tax regime is regressive, especially for rural citizens, who have no option but to drive their cars to commute to work or college, to attend appointments or just to live, yet we continue to penalise them as though they have a choice. They have no choice. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are doing this at the behest of the Green Party. It is an awful attack on rural citizens.

Regarding energy, this budget needed to reduce the cost of living. While the energy credits are welcome, we are not tackling the spiralling costs of living. One-off payments are okay, but they will not cut it. The Government will not tackle the energy companies. Our electricity and gas prices are the highest in Europe. They are nearly double those of some European countries. Why will the Government not tackle the conglomerates and big businesses?

Older persons will receive an increase of €12. For goodness sake, it is the same miserable increase as last year. We sought €30 and thought we would at least get €20. Does the Minister of State know what €12 extra will do for pensioners and people with disabilities? Quite literally, it will do nothing.

We welcome the increase in the income disregard for the carer's allowance, but it does not go far enough. Why are we still going to means test all these carers? They do valuable work in keeping loved ones and sick people out of hospital. There are many children providing care to their parents and other loved ones. That is a shocking situation that borders on exploitation. It is disgraceful.

The reduction in childcare fees is certainly welcome, but it will be of little use if the Government does not address core funding. Small crèches in rural towns have been giving good employment and top-class childcare, yet they are not being listened to. They have a major problem with the one-size-fits-all core funding model.

What can I say about our health services? The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. We cannot identify how much of the €22.5 billion will be for mental health services. We are going to hire more nurses and get hundreds of more beds. From where will we get the nurses? The nurses we have are leaving and going to far off shores. There will be free GP care for many age groups, but we do not have enough GPs. We cannot get them and the Government will not provide anything to support or retain them.

The increase of €20 million in Garda operational funding is welcome. The Garda needs to be supported. There are a lot of them about today. Garda Commissioner Harris was in or around Leinster House today. He should come in more often and listen to Government and Opposition backbenchers, who support the Garda and want it to be respected. What will the overtime bill do? It will bring people from County Tipperary - I meet them - to Dublin to get overtime while living in dirt and increase the opportunity for lawlessness in our area. It is another con job.

The Government nearly forgot about agriculture. Thanks to the Green Party, the Government's main aim in agriculture is to demonise and attack farmers day in, day out. It will not look at the pollution caused by public authorities and industry, but it will get the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to do a report that is not honest, straightforward or fair. The EPA will not look at its own issue at all. The agriculture sector had been expecting some meaningful support today for the cattle and sheep industries, but we did not get it. Our primary industry is being reduced when it should be at the top of the agenda so that we can keep food on tables and keep families working and on the land. Budget 2024 has failed to recognise farming as the vital industry it is.

The €90 million for retrofitting social housing is welcome, but there are 24-month delays and only 190 of the approximately 15,000 applicants awaiting retrofits in Tipperary have been done. The Government has known for a long time that the scheme is not working, so why is it not changing the scheme or putting more funding into it? It claims that the money from the carbon tax goes into retrofits, but it does not. That is untrue.

Regarding education, there are some welcome measures in respect of college fees and supports for families. Regarding the announcement of more than 1,200 new SNA posts, though, I suspect we will continue not to have SNAs without there being improvements in pay and conditions. They will vote with their feet and not be available. I welcome the IT grant for schools to buy new equipment, which was expected last year. There will also be a welcome increase of €60 million in the capitation grant for schools.

The Government spoke about how some aspects of this budget would not be implemented until 2025. Why does the Government have to play with the figures and play mind games with people and tell them they will have money in 2025?

I wish to put some figures on the record. Do not get me wrong, as I have nothing against Ukraine, but the expenditure report lists the 2024 expenditure ceiling as €96.6 billion. In 2024, the Government will gift €6 billion of taxpayers' money to NGOs so that activists can use it to ask the Government to implement the legislation they want. The figure increases annually without them even having to look for it. Earlier this year, €5.5 billion was set aside for spending on the Ukrainian situation. The budget signs away €225 million per year of taxpayers' money to be sent overseas to help Third World countries fight climate change on foot of a promise made to Europe to do so for four years at a minimum. That is another €1 billion. By my count, 11% of the whole pot of money today is being put beyond the reach of ordinary families, sick children, pensioners and carers so that it can be spent on fantasy projects, the mushrooming NGO industry and funding for the war in Ukraine. We have to have checks and balances. I always say that we must have a cap on the number of refugees. We cannot just continue heading down a cul-de-sac. None of our people from the cradle to the grave will see even a cent of 11% of today's funding. That money is being put away just to be the good boys in Europe and to support our international friends at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and others. I do not know at whose behest it is happening, but our primary duty is to look after our people from the cradle to the grave. The Government has failed miserably and has not respected people or told them how it would respect them in the future. It is like a shower of snow falling in the leafy constituency of the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, in Cork beside the sea. It will be gone off with the first ray of sunshine. It is the same with this.

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