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

Today is the day this Government will try to buy the Irish citizens with their own money. Its desperation to cling onto power permeates this budget. Ministers queue up to clap themselves in the back for divvying out the spoils to the electorate to persuade them to turn a blind eye to how they have been failed, how their families have been failed and how their communities have been failed. I wonder whether they will thank Commissioner Vestager for the part she has played in this in fighting to give us the €14 billion due to us. People know we have been here before, with the empty promises, the repeated announcements of the same projects, the claims that lessons have been learned, accompanied by feigned expressions of "everyone was responsible", yet nobody is accountable.

Again we see the squandering of hard-earned money collected from people's wage slips, tax returns from the self-employed and VAT on almost every item purchased. Blank cheques have been written with other people's money. The shocking waste of money has rightly angered people who struggle to make ends meet and who are denied services and supports they desperately need. They are angered by the €336,000 bicycle rack, the €1.4 million security hut and the escalating overruns of most expensive hospital in the world. Why did the current Taoiseach, who was Minister for Health at the time, sign off on a contract that needed 469 change orders and more than 23,000 drawings? Now we have modular homes costing €442,000 each, more than double the original projected cost of €200,000. This level of bungling and ineptitude demands more than commentary from the Government that failed to carry out its duties. The delays for children who grow into adulthood without having access to the levels of services and treatment promised by this Government from the children's hospital are devastating and the consequence of money being sucked up by the national children's hospital debacle is delays in the expansion and refurbishment of regional hospitals and other health facilities.

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