Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In my few minutes, I want to focus on the complete and utter lack of any systemic plan of action in budget 2024 to address the historical underinvestment in the northern and western region and the lack of ambition by the Government to deliver balanced regional development. Before I get to that, I want to mention one or two other issues, to which I will return over the coming days and weeks as we discuss these proposals in detail.

I welcome the increase in the income disregard for payment of the carer's allowance. It is precisely the level of increase my Private Member's motion called for last March, and while it brings carers back only to the level they were at in 2008, it means more carers are now eligible for the carer's allowance.

One-off measures in this budget constitute a total of €2.5 billion of the total sum. While every euro is welcome, one-off payments do nothing to address the underlying causes of poverty; they simply paper over the cracks. They are a "now you see me, now you don't" type of payment, in that last year's payments have disappeared. They are not building blocks. It is like starting from ground zero every time. That means people with disabilities, pensioners, carers and other vulnerable groups are worse off because core social welfare increases have not kept pace with inflation. Pensioners' spending power is now €19 less per week than it was in 2020, and that is similar for people with disabilities and carers. Speaking of people with disabilities, they experienced utter shock and disappointment when they saw that the cost-of-disability payment of €500, which had been acknowledged and introduced for the first time in budget 2023, was not continued. It is gone. The cost of disability is ongoing and these people, who hoped it would continue, have been left without it. While one-off payments are headline-grabbers and do make a difference, they are just like the lights on the Christmas tree - when you switch them off, the tree goes dark again.

For the rest of my time, I want to concentrate on the non-delivery of any positive discrimination towards the northern and western region, which has endured historical underinvestment year after year. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly's recent budget submission underlines the stark realities of why the region is falling further behind. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe's, own Department calculated in its report that the number of projects of scale, funded by the NDP, that are to be delivered to the northern and western region account for about 14% of the regional allocation, yet the region's share of the population is 17.6%. Rather than address historical underinvestment, the Minister's Department is adding to it.

Some in this House might ask why we need front-loading, so I will give them plenty of whys. The gap in disposable income per capitabetween the northern and western region and the eastern and midland region increased from ten percentage points in 2010 to 25 percentage points in 2021. This has led the European Commission to downgrade the region to the status of “lagging”, while the Commission’s 2023 country report on Ireland tells us there is a stark difference in the disposable income of households among the regions. The northern and western region has a below-average concentration of technology and knowledge-intensive jobs, where we are 7% below the State average. The region's economic performance has worsened compared with the EU 27 average; I will not give the statistics but they are pretty stark. In funding for higher education, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, has stated institutes in the northern and western region received general capital funding of €93 less for every graduate between 2010 and 2021 than did any of the other regions.

Those figures are simply unacceptable and those stark statistics make not just the argument but the strongest possible case for immediate action to combat the unsustainable rise in regional inequalities. This budget needed to implement a stimulus package of about €500 million, as the Northern and Western Regional Assembly asked for - sizeable but not huge in the overall context - to deliver higher valued economic activity in the region. That would include front-loading many of the projects in the NDP, such as the urgent need to upgrade the N17 from Sligo to Tuam.

It is not just roads, rail, housing and education infrastructure we need to front-load. Just over 12 months ago, more than 50 consultants in Sligo University Hospital wrote to the Minister for Health, in complete frustration and desperation, outlining the myriad problems being faced at the hospital. Just two days ago, 78 Donegal GPs wrote to the Minister for Health calling for urgent action on the emergency department in Letterkenny University Hospital. The call, however, is not just from the regions. In May of this year, just five months ago, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association issued a statement saying patient health in the west and north west was at risk due to excessive delays in care. Hospitals, groups of GPs and national organisations are all saying the same thing, namely, that the Government is not delivering for the northern and western region.

The evidence is there. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly sent it to the Government and it has not acted on it. This budget, other than for a few soft words from the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, about balanced regional development, said nothing and did nothing to address systematically the ever-widening regional imbalances or to begin, in any real way, to deliver on balanced regional development. In a budget of plenty, the regions have been short-changed again, and I am beyond disappointed.

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