Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Now that the dust has settled from the political theatre of yesterday, we can all now clearly see just exactly where the deficits and fault lines lie. We can see where the lost opportunities have occurred and what exactly it all means for the general public. I am afraid that the general consensus is, that despite all of the applause from Government Ministers, that this is a budget that has just not risen to the occasion and has fallen flat. Rarely has so much cash been splashed about with so little impact. Indeed, I also wonder just how much of what was announced yesterday was actually nothing more than a restatement or repackaging of commitments made already over the past few months.

In the context of education, I welcome some measures like the extension of the free schoolbook scheme to junior cycle and the extension of child benefit in respect of children aged 18 who are in full-time education.

I raised this issue over the last year and half. I am glad to see that I was listened to on this one in terms of providing child benefit to those children still in full-time education at 18 years of age.

I also see that there is a capital funding commitment in 2024 to facilitate the rollout of urgently needed school building projects. This includes the progression of about 300 building projects. However, as far as I can see, these commitments were already made in the national development plan which I referred to last week and this very issue in the education committee. There is nothing new there really. I think the Government might be misleading the public into believing that there is something new. That is just a repackaging of an old announcement.

I would like clarity on the commitments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, that parents accessing private autism assessments would be reimbursed. This was stated in May and we still see nothing put in place. Those parents need clarity.

When we look to agriculture we can see more clearly the major fault lines of this budget in a rural context, the missed opportunities and that so many sectors were not fully supported in terms of what was offered. The maintenance of some tax reliefs is very welcome. The increased funding for the sheep sector is a step in the right direction. It will be €20 per ewe, which is certainly better than what was offered in the budget last year. However, I remain very concerned about other sectors such as the beef and suckler, tillage and dairy sectors, given the fallout from the nitrates debacle. These sectors need proper and urgent support. Agriculture and food production are really taken for granted. The fact that agriculture sustains 170,000 jobs is taken for granted. These jobs are very important to our economy, to trade and to imports.

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