Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like many recent budgets, this budget became the most leaked budget in the history of the State. It reminds me of the old bucket you would have long ago for milking cows. It would be leaking at the bottom, so all the milk would be gone out of it, but the Government is only leaking the good news. It leaked all of that over the past few months, and particularly the last few weeks, to give itself a little pat on the back. To be honest, there was no need in having today’s showpiece. Most people knew all the positives that would be announced anyway.

However, no one spoke about the mini-budget last month when the VAT rate on hospitality increased from 9% to 13.5% or about the mini-budget when the price increase at the petrol pump meant every man and woman driving a vehicle – there are 2.2 million vehicles in this country – started paying through the nose for fuel. There were no press releases – leaks, actually, as we will not call them press releases at all – about any of that. At one time, Ministers would be fired for leaks, but now they get a pat on the back as long as the right news is put out there.

Many sectors are asking questions today. Maybe the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donovan, or someone else can answer them as the hours go by. What about section 39 workers? I attended a meeting with the Irish Wheelchair Association and users of section 39 organisation services last Friday evening. Those organisations are in a serious pay parity crisis. They cannot get staff because their competitors in the health service are paying people more. The Irish Wheelchair Association in west Cork is providing a magical service for many people with severe difficulties in wheelchairs. It provides transport and care services and cannot meet the current level of demand because of section 39 funding. A strike is imminent. The same situation obtains at CoAction. The Government seems to be lying idly by. I cannot see where in the budget this issue is addressed.

Early childcare providers have protested outside Leinster House in recent weeks. Many of them are going out of existence. I presume providers in the Minister of State's constituency in Limerick are experiencing the same difficulties as those in Cork South-West.

The issue here is that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth keeps standing up in the Chamber saying there is plenty of money, but he has never broken down the figures. He is hiding behind something somewhere and he has to be straight with the early childcare providers. Is there enough in this budget to ensure they all get something to survive? If there is plenty of money out there, which there is according to the Minister, is there money in the budget for the early childcare providers and their premises, which are closing at the present time?

The same question applies to the nursing homes. The Government is saying the country is awash with money, but is it going to go towards the nursing homes? I have a situation down in Belgooly in Cork South-West where a nursing home is closing and up to 20 patients are still looking for a home. This has been fast-tracked. Jesus, they are trying to throw them out the door as fast as they can, whatever the reasoning is behind it. On top of that, there are 51 workers, quite a lot of whom have been in contact with me today. Those 51 workers have had their rights violated. They do not know where they stand. Nobody has knocked at the door and told them whether they are entitled to redundancy and what they are and are not entitled to. They are begging for information. If any of us were losing our job in two weeks' time, we would like to know where we stood. Surely, with nursing homes closing all over the country, a budget has been put aside to ensure nursing homes end up being viable.

There are so many issues that I could spend two or three hours talking. There was very little today about farmers. We in the Rural Independent Group put in a very good budget submission. It was put together by Brian Ó Domhnaill and Triona in our office and was very strong on the supports farmers need at present because, like Deputy Mattie McGrath said, of the way the Government is treating them. The best way to describe it came from a meeting held by the IFA I attended recently where farmers said they were being treated like they were environmental terrorists. That is what Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have reduced farmers to under this new green agenda. There should have been a retirement scheme, but I do not see one, and a proper suckler scheme and a ewe rebate for farmers.

There was some mention of farmers, but there was no mention of fisheries by either Minister in their two 45-minute speeches. They have forgotten about the thousands of Irish fishermen who live in this country. Neither the inshore fishermen nor the guys who go out on the trawlers were mentioned. The Ministers have completely forgotten about them. They never mentioned them. I could not believe it. The two speeches never mentioned fisheries. I looked deeper and it appears there is a major budget cut with fisheries, so now we have the reason it was not mentioned. Fisheries is completely off the agenda. I do not think anybody else mentioned fisheries today. Why is that? Why does the Government attack the fishermen? There are thousands of them there. What is wrong with the Government? Can it not understand they are having serious difficulties with survival? There is a fuel rebate in Europe they can pick up, but the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, refuses to apply for it. They are astonished. Every other European country is applying for the fisheries fuel rebate that is available from the EU - it does not even have to come from the Government - but what happens? Ireland says "No", because our blinded Government has a vision we do not need fuel. However, unfortunately, the boats need fuel and the tractors need fuel.

That leads me on to the carbon tax and the hit on fuel. It will be €19 of an increase on a 900 l fill of a tank of oil for the ordinary householder. I think it will be €1 on the bag of coal and 20 cent on peat briquettes. How much will the increase be at the petrol pump? The Government is very nice and has put it off until April. We will have another mini-budget next April and punish the ordinary man and woman again. The few quid the Government gave them it will be sure to steal back out of their pockets again by April. The Government has done it again, as it did it a month ago when it increased the cost of fuel. People cannot afford it. They are telling us they cannot understand why they have such an uncaring Government that does not understand people are suffering. It is usually the working man and woman who are punished to death by this Government. They are squeezed out of their very existence.

I would like to see the roads budget broken down, because we have a scandalous roads budget in west Cork as well as delivery by the previous Minister. That is proved by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, which advised him there would be several deaths on roads. It is proven. The roads are in appalling condition down in west Cork. It is astonishing there is nobody doing anything about it other than Government Deputies giving out. That is a crazy situation to be left with, where the Government's Deputies and Senators are giving out about the Government. There is so much in this budget I could discuss, but it would need far more time than I have.

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