Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Section 39, section 10 and section 56 workers have been denied pay parity for far too long. We are going to see a massive impact on the community and voluntary sector and on the people who rely on that sector from next week if this is not resolved. It is a glaring gap in this budget.

There are glaring gaps on housing, pay provision and on health, but there are also two other glaring gaps. One is the lack of any overall provision for public sector pay increases. At least €1 billion extra will be needed next year for pay rises. We have accounted for that in our alternative budget but where is it in the Government's budget? The other glaring gap is the failure to increase income supports in line with inflation. If you were poor yesterday, you will still be poor after this budget and we are no closer to meeting the pension promise of a State pension rate equal to 34% of average earnings. This budget provided no permanent increases in the fuel allowance, the living alone allowance or child benefit. It did not provide adequate increases in social protection generally, unlike our alternative budget. It looks likely that we will have to have another spring package of supports when the shine wears off this year’s one-off payments.

Most shamefully, this budget includes simply inadequate measures to tackle child poverty. In a country where 90,000 children are living in poverty, we see the poorest parents getting an increase of just €4 per week. On childcare, we see far too little and the changes made are delayed for too long. I have already spoken about the Labour Party's proposal. The Government has been boasting about the so-called 25% cut to fees, but that is delayed until next September and it is an average cut. My party colleague, Senator Marie Sherlock, published examples last night of what the change will really mean. It will not have the impact the Government is claiming it will have on the pockets of parents and the increase in core funding will simply not go far enough to deliver the pay rises called for in the Big Start campaign from SIPTU.

There is grave concern too about the education budget more generally, not just in the early years area. As Deputy Ó Riordáin said, we see no reduction to the biggest class sizes in the EU, no restoration of leadership posts, no clarity on a DEIS+ model, and leaving certificate students have been left out, inexplicably, of the free books scheme.

On climate, we see failures too. The proposed infrastructure, climate and nature fund aligns with the proposals we have put forward but the conditionality that will be attached to draw down will be crucial to how it will work. The Taoiseach spoke of offshore wind energy as the moonshot for us. He referred to Ardnacrusha and the need to deliver massive State investment in building capacity in renewables but what I am hearing from the stakeholders and those engaged in trying to roll out both onshore and offshore renewables is immense frustration at the foot-dragging and lengthy delays on the part of Government in building the necessary infrastructure in order that we can achieve that moonshot. The private sector is increasingly frustrated by this. There is no answer in this budget to the question of whether we will see the funding to drive State-led investment in and delivery of the offshore wind energy that is so badly needed.

We are also seeing a lack of ambition in the context of retrofitting, public transport and cycling measures. Where is the radical plan to increase the use of public transport like Labour’s €9 climate ticket? Where is the massive investment in cycling infrastructure that Senator Rebecca Moynihan and all of us in the Labour Party are calling for?

I am out of time, although I have lots more to say. I will conclude by stating that the proposals announced yesterday may provide some short-term relief but they will not address the long-term insecurities faced today and into the future by so many families and households across our country. In truth, the budget will perpetuate insecurity and inequality. It will not deliver an Ireland that works for all. It is failing and will fail on housing, care, work and climate. It will leave too many public services unfunded, too many homes unbuilt and it will leave too many people behind.

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