Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Regardless of whatever spin might be put on this budget by the benches opposite, the truth is that housing remains the greatest challenge facing Irish society. The Government's message in budget 2024 is that the housing crisis is going to get worse, not better. We also have a crisis in our health services, and the message from Government is that the crisis is going to get worse, not better. The budget delivered no new funding that would, for example, deliver any of the promised 1,500 additional beds. There is no additional funding for mental health services or for new medicines and therapies. The crises we have seen right across our health services will get worse under this Government.

The recruitment and retention crisis that affects so many right across the public sector, from teachers and nurses to gardaí, will get worse as a result of this budget. It will be acute within our Defence Forces. This is the area for which I have responsibility in Sinn Féin. Our Defence Forces stand at a critical juncture, and this week's budget indicates that this challenge will not be met with the type of vision and ambition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Due to the failures of successive Governments comprising those two parties, we are facing a retention and recruitment crisis within our Defence Forces. In every year of the current Government's term, more people have left our Defence Forces than have been recruited.

With regard to capital expenditure, the Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces set out very clearly what was required: a capital investment of €250 million every year for ten years. Last year, that target was not met. It was missed to the tune of €70 million by the Government. This year, it has been missed again by a further €70 million. There were no measures in the budget to address why our Defence Forces are at this critical juncture.

To make matters worse, having delivered a pathetic budget that will not meet the needs and objectives of our Defence Forces, the Government, instead of being honest about it, has tried to spin it by saying it has allocated an extra €30 million to our Defence Forces. This in itself is not sufficient. What the Government does not say is that half of the money is going towards pensions. In other words, it is facilitating those who have chosen to leave the Defence Forces. As if it were something the Government should claim credit for, it is providing for pension entitlements that are exactly the same as those that anybody else in the public sector rightly deserves.

Probably the most crass element is the suggestion of the Tánaiste that the Government has spent more money on capital than originally envisaged. The truth is that the amount allocated for capital expenditure in our Defence Forces will be the exact same in 2024 as in 2023. To take €30 million out of one line of the budget and put it into another, pretending it somehow represents an increase, as the Government has attempted to do, is actually an attempt to treat members of our Defence Forces as fools. Well, they are not fools; they know and understand what is required.

We need to ensure that we apply the working time directive for members of the Defence Forces. There was no measure in this budget to do that. The Defence Forces know they need the capital investment that will give them the equipment and resources to do their job, but there has been no additional investment in this regard. They know that they need a sea change in Government thinking. As a result of budget 2024, they can be absolutely sure they will not get that from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, and certainly not from Green Party.

Sinn Féin wants to see Defence Forces that are fit for purpose and can protect our neutrality. It wants to see Defence Forces that can monitor and defend our skies and seas and that can protect Ireland from the modern cyber and hybrid threats that we face. This is our commitment to the Defence Forces and it represents what Sinn Féin would do in government. There is now a very clear choice facing those concerned about the future of the Defence Forces: they can continue with the ongoing neglect under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael or endorse the change for the better that Sinn Féin represents.

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