Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister said, the purpose of the Appropriation Bill 2023 is to give statutory authority to the amounts voted on by the Dáil during the year from the original Estimates, further Revised Estimates and Supplementary Estimates. The Bill used to be just waved through the Dáil without any debate. It is important that this is no longer the case. This House needs greater scrutiny of the budget, not least because of the new budget gimmicks, as they were described by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, in which the Government uses new and creative categories of expenditure to obscure and confuse the budget process. The self-imposed spending rule was not a good idea in the first place and became meaningless in the face of sustained inflation. Transparency is paramount. One bad decision should not lead to another. We have seen the ever-expanding use of Supplementary Estimates.

The International Monetary Fund provides guidelines for public expenditure management, with which I am sure the Minister is familiar. The guidelines state that "...excessive use of supplementary estimates cause difficulties, and usually indicates a lack of budget discipline." It goes on to state that "The basic principle ... is that supplementaries should not be necessary, as long as the budget is well prepared..." The handling of the health budget for next year completely contradicts the IMF guidelines on Supplementary Estimates. In earlier contributions in the Dáil, we heard about the number of people waiting on trolleys, people who cannot get beds and the recruitment embargo and its impact. There was an announcement of an additional €92 million but even with that, we are currently in serious bother.

Is the Valproate inquiry included in that amount? It has been promised and awaited for for a long time. I know a chair is being sought at the moment. I urge that the inquiry be set up as quickly as possible. The families impacted by Valproate have waited for years to get the truth behind why Epilim was prescribed to pregnant women and the impact it had on their children.

We have also seen the substantial use of capital carryover. The Bill before us deals directly with carryover facilities. The use of the facility has ballooned since 2020. This was initially understandable and justified as it was largely a result of Covid. However, since then, the Government has struggled to get a handle on capital expenditure. In recent years, as the amount of money provided for capital expenditure has been rising, so too has the level of capital carryover. Capital carryover almost reached €800 million in 2020.

It hit €820 million in 2021, accounting for 7.8% of the total capital budget. Last year it was €687 million, and this year €532 million in capital expenditure will be carried over into next year. It could be said there are slight improvements there, but this is still far too high, in particular when we consider the progress is in part due to the Government agreeing for the State to absorb a large percentage of construction cost inflation from ongoing projects.

I am extremely concerned about the delivery of capital projects. We get contradictory messages from Government. On the one hand it blames the cost of inflation for its inability to deliver projects. On the other hand we see the Departments struggle to spend their capital allocations. We see the Department of Education far overspending its capital budget due to construction costs. This is what you would expect to see as a result of two years of high inflation.

We have also seen this in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. I take a moment to reference the report recently done by the Irish Cancer Society about people with severe health conditions, even terminal diagnoses, who are returning to cold homes they are unable to afford to heat. I urge the Minister to work with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to provide the capital flexibility for SEAI to provide basic insulation for people who are very ill. I am working with people in County Mayo who are extremely ill. We have to do something about the situation with SEAI, even if that means giving it direct funding. What we are being told at the moment is there is a 26-month waiting list for people who are seriously ill. It is far too long. We need a system that can respond and fast-track certain cases when we are talking about people who are extremely ill. Will the Minister look at that? It is a good scheme in terms of what can be done with it, but it is no use asking someone who is really ill to wait 26 months.

I return to the issue of capital investment. During times of inflation, we would expect to see capital budgets being maximised. Inflation should mean more money is needed to deliver the same number of projects. However, the Government has not in any meaningful way revised the NDP ceilings set out in 2021. This means the same level of ambition outlined in the 2021 NDP cannot be achieved. It is as simple as that. Unless the capital budget is increased to reflect increased costs resulting from inflation, we are left with two options. We either cancel projects or make savings by slowing the pace of projects. We have severe infrastructure deficits, and I know from my constituency of Mayo the desperate need for health projects, for water, road, rail and grid infrastructure, and the list goes on. I sincerely welcome that the track is finally being cleared between Athenry and Claremorris for the western rail corridor. The western rail corridor has become a byword for regional development in the west. For too long, certain regions of rural Ireland have been falling further behind. I note there was a meeting the other day between the North and Western Regional Assembly and the Taoiseach, where the removal of matching funding requirements for the URDF and ERDF was pointed out to him. That should be considered, but so also should there be discussion of the necessity of the key projects of the N17, and the Claremorris to Collooney western rail corridor.

The EU Regional Competitiveness Index shows the scale of the infrastructure deficit in the west. Out of 234 regions across the EU, the west of Ireland ranks 218th for infrastructure. That places the region in the bottom 7%, alongside some of the poorest regions in the EU. This is of huge frustration to people across the west, who have had to fight tooth and nail for the small stretch of rail line, which is the western rail corridor, and for other vital infrastructure that people need to capitalise on the expertise and the Atlantic economic corridor. For it to mean something, we need the infrastructure to go with it. We need a commitment from Government on the extension from Claremorris to Collooney. This would connect the west of Ireland. It would connect Sligo to Galway, and Mayo to Sligo. People in Mayo need confirmation on the N17 and they need to know when that will progress. They also need to know about Mayo University Hospital. It is bursting at the seams, and working to 125% capacity. These are all capital projects that have to be delivered, and it is having a detrimental effect on the current quality of life of people in the west and in rural Ireland, and will have into the future, unless these projects are delivered. There is no point announcing things, and them disappearing for a number of years until we come to elections and they are announced and regurgitated again. People demand far more than that and people need more than that.

We have already lost too much time. The 2024 budget announcement was the moment to get back on track. Cabinet Ministers were warned of a €14 billion deficit in September. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has warned there will a €19 billion black hole in our capital budget by 2030. IFAC has said that an extra €2.7 billion will be needed each year between 2024 and 2030. That is what is needed for delivery of the same projects outlined in the national development plan. I believe the final version of the independent evaluation of the NDP conducted by the ESRI is on the Minister's desk. He said two weeks ago he was seeking to agree a publication date with the ESRI. I ask him again today when that will be reviewed. We need to look at these projects and where we are with the NDP, and we need to see how we are going to deliver what is needed under the NDP in a timely way.

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