Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The budget announced today - I suppose it was not really announced today but announced in press briefings for the past fortnight - does, in fairness, have much to commend it but it is also disappointing in certain ways. As Independents we speak independently. It is not with regard to the balance between spending and saving and not spending all the money we have right now and all of that but with regard to how some of the money is spent. Some very small measures that could have been taken that might make lives a lot better are not being taken.

A schools capital budget of €940 million was announced. That is going to provide for the 300 building projects currently under way. I presume they have been budgeted for already. Then there is €200 million for schools building projects that will commence over the course of 2024 and 2025. How much of that €940 is new money and how much is money that is being announced again? As well as announcing a budget through press briefings, this Government is quite good at making the same announcement more than once. I suppose when good news is limited you announce it as often as you can and hope the media will broadcast it as new. Any capital expenditure on schools is very welcome and I welcome it.

My question is with regard to existing schools and the difficulties they are increasingly facing with funding. I hope there will be an announcement and some detail on this. There is no mention of it in the budget but I hope there might be some increase in the capitation fee. I know this from schools across Clare. It is obviously more expensive now to run a school than it ever was. Insurance costs are up for no apparent reason because we were told insurance costs should be coming down. The Government has taken various measures to drive down insurance costs, none of which seem to have been successful as of yet. Nevertheless, insurance costs are going up. It seems inexplicable to me. While I am keenly aware that not every national school is owned by the State - in fact, very few if any are and the vast majority are owned by religious communities across the country - they are all run by the State. They all have to be insured so why is every single national school in Ireland paying out for insurance? Surely the Department of Education, which is funding each and every one of them, could bring them together and form a self-insurance scheme. It is certainly big enough to achieve that.

The insurance industry is making a killing here. I want to be careful with my words. Nobody is suggesting it is doing anything illegal but it is being facilitated in making a lot of money off the backs of communities across Ireland through the insurance of these schools. The profits must be huge from insuring those schools. I am aware of one school in Clare that applied for an insurance refund for all the time the school was closed during Covid. I think it was offered €50. It beggars belief that schools have to insure themselves and there is not some Government scheme in place whereby the public liability of schools is brought into the general public liability of State institutions because effectively, that is what national schools are. The State says they are not because they are owned by religious bodies. That is correct but in the O'Keeffe case against Ireland in the European Court of Human Rights, the State was certainly found liable for everything that went on in the school. If there is an upside to that, it is that the State should look at insuring schools and taking that cost off them. In any event, even if it was to do that, energy costs have risen dramatically and parents have less disposable income so schools are finding it harder to make ends meet. I do not see anything to do with capitation in this budget.

The other thing I wish to raise is disability. Again, there is €64 million for disability but no mention of the disabled drivers' scheme criteria, which have been promised. That was a nasty little detail brought into the first budget passed by this Government to change the criteria. There are 1,200 people who cannot appeal the decision against them at the moment and no movement on that despite repeated promises by this Government throughout this term.

With regard to agriculture, is the best farmers can hope for now to be forgotten? That is essentially what has happened in this budget. Yes, the residential zoned land tax is not going to be implemented this year so they can engage with their local authority but the difficulty is that the engagement process is flawed. Farmers across the length and breadth of this State have applied to have land dezoned and local authorities have said they are going to continue to zone their land. What more can they do? They have engaged. There is no change, unless there is going to be a change to the procedure of engagement or a change in the finance Act. The Minister of State is nodding. I look forward to seeing the finance Act. I hope there will be more to it than just putting it back a year and kicking the can down the road. I hope there will actually be legislative changes.

The other issue is the flat-rate top-up change, from 5.5% to 5%. It seems very small, I know. It is a small amount but it is not something that will cost the Government anything because it is supposed to be revenue-neutral. The amount farmers get back was reduced because it has to be revenue-neutral in accordance with EU law and the incomes were increasing, as were outgoings. This year, as the Minister of State will be aware - or I hope he will be as a Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - farm incomes are well back and there is no change whatsoever as of yet. I have written to both the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine about this. Hopefully there will be an announcement in the Finance Act.

With regard to designated areas, the Government continues to promise there will be a scheme to replace the hen harrier scheme and the Burren Life scheme.

There was no mention of it today, yet farmers are told they should have confidence in how the nature restoration law will be applied and that they will be compensated. There is no compensation whatsoever available to them, however, for the designation of their lands.

Lastly, I wish to mention the three-card trick with regard to the funding of childcare. In September of next year, it will be 25% less, but there will be fewer childcare providers by then, given they are going out of business because they simply cannot provide a service for the level of money they are receiving due to rising costs.

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