Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on budget 2024. I want to give particular thanks to RTÉ and the media for, as usual, giving us a full rundown on the budget this morning before the Ministers even arrived to deliver it. There was a time when leaked budget information resulted in the resignation of Ministers but these days, it is standard practice.

We could be forgiven for confusing last year’s budget with this year’s, given it is just as underwhelming and nonsensical. Against almost every organisation’s advice and budget submissions, the Government has again introduced once-off lump sum payments that do nothing to help with the ongoing cost of living crisis and the high rate of inflation. Energy credits are again being thrown out to those who do not need them, which, in my view, is a particularly stupid way to spend €1.6 billion or 13% of the total cost of living expenditure. This is more than we are spending on health, housing and childcare. Incredibly, this budget has proved even more disappointing than previous ones. I was shocked to see both Ministers failing to address some very important issues and even more shocked to see such major gaps within the budget document itself.

Despite acknowledging that today was mental health day, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform mentioned cybersecurity more than he mentioned mental health. The Minister for Finance did not even mention it at all. The published budget document does not even allocate mental health its own section, while the likes of Covid-19 and Met Éireann both get their own sections within the document. This demonstrates just how troubling the Government's priorities are.

There has been a serious decline in the mental health budget in Ireland from 13% of the overall health budget in 1984 to just 5.1% in 2023. This is despite a rise in those experiencing mental health difficulties to around 40% in Ireland and the fact that Ireland’s prevalence rates of mental health difficulties are relatively high in comparison to international estimates. In its budget submission, Mental Health Reform asked: “Is mental health the forgotten crisis?” I think the two Ministers have shown us today that, sadly, the answer is “Yes”.

Our disabled community has been completely let down by this budget. To celebrate the creation of a national savings account while there are hundreds and thousands of disabled children and adults who cannot access basic support, services and equipment is an insult. A €12 increase is sorely inadequate. We need at least a €50 weekly ongoing cost of disability payment on top of the existing allowance. It is very hard to understand why the Minster has decided not to continue the cost of disability payment, acknowledged and introduced for the first time in budget 2023 at €500, and I know disabled persons organisations, DPOs, are feeling particularly let down by this. I am also disappointed that the income threshold for those on disability allowance was not increased.

The Minister raised the income threshold for carers but I ask why it exists at all. Carers are providing the State with a crucial service, not to mention the financial burden they are removing from the State. We know that disabled people are more at risk of poverty than any other cohort, with Ireland’s dismally low records and the lowest rates of employment for disabled people in the EU. Why is the Government insisting on perpetuating poverty by limiting the ability of carers to provide necessary care and earn or work within their chosen sphere? It is a breach of the right to equality, as well as being blatantly cruel, classist and discriminatory.

Many areas within this budget do not seem well thought out at all. After reading through the changes in take-home pay, I cannot fathom how someone on €25,000 a year will see an increase of €5 a week, while someone on €100,000 a year will see an increase of €17 a week.

I was also extremely disappointed to see no new spending on culture, arts, Gaeltacht, sport and media for next year. Tá sé ríthábhachtach go n-aithnímid an tábhacht a bhaineann lenár gceantair Ghaeltachta chun ár n-oidhreacht náisiúnta a choinneáil. Caithfimid na Gaeltachtaí a chosaint agus ligean dóibh fás agus forbairt. Is píosaí ríthábhachtacha dár gcultúr iad. We need to recognise the importance of the role our Gaeltacht regions play in upholding our national heritage and we need to protect our Gaeltachtaí and enable them to survive and grow. They are vital pieces of our culture.

With regard to housing, Housing for All has failed. Since publishing the strategy in September 2021, homelessness in the north-west region has increased by a massive 80.2%. I would love to say I was surprised at the lining of landlords’ pockets but, sadly, given the Government’s track record, I am not surprised. However, I am shocked, as anyone with an ounce of empathy would be, that the Government can use the budget to provide relief to landlords under a sham pretence that there was a risk they would leave the market, while renters are facing soaring rents and uncertainty. We need to implement emergency legislation to cap rent prices and reinstate the eviction ban, and we must not delay in allocating the €210 million necessary to ensure 100% redress for mica-affected homeowners.

Regarding rental shortages, in Donegal, 21% of families are renting and 14% of adults are living with their parents. There is no shortage of properties in Donegal; the properties exist, but they are being used for Airbnb and holiday rentals. We need to incentivise landlords to switch existing short-term letting to long-term. That is important and will become even more important as the mica redress gets under way and people need somewhere to live while their houses are being repaired.

We know that the cost of living has taken a massive toll on all households. We have a Taoiseach who recently made reference to “Benefits Street” yet forces low and middle income families to deliberate as to whether both parents can even afford to work because the crippling childcare costs are terrifying. The State should be prioritising a universal, publicly-funded childcare programme. This should include a scheme similar to the access and inclusion model, AIM, in the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme to allow for the accommodation of disabled children and children with complex care needs. We need to assist our most vulnerable in meaningful ways.

I had to laugh when the Minister said he is ensuring Ireland is one of the best places in the world to be a child. Currently, more than 671,000 people are living in poverty in Ireland, of whom 188,602 are children. Last year, 539 people sought support from the North West Simon Community, including 244 children. As the Children’s Rights Alliance states, addressing the socioeconomic rights of children is not a charitable process and it is not an opportunity for the Government to pat itself on the back and say it is a job well done. This is a basic obligation. At the beginning of this year, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Irish Government to raise social welfare rates to reflect the cost of living as a key means by which to ensure children have access to an adequate standard of living and it urged Ireland to address the root causes of homelessness. The Government and its budget have failed to do this, while at the same time trying to make us believe that a slight reduction in childcare costs and a measly weekly increase in qualified child rates will create a global haven for children in this country. Where is the universal childcare? Where is the security of a home to call their own? This country is a haven for the rich, not the children, and that is what this budget shows.

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