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

This impacts on patients and healthcare staff throughout the State. The people in Mayo want me to ask how many more projects are handled in the same manner. How much more of our money is wasted? How much more is this Government hiding from us? How many times is commercial sensitivity used to cover up costly mismanagement of projects and the granting of open-ended, undefined contracts? Lessons are never, ever learned by Fine Gael or by Fianna Fáil. Let us cast our minds back to 2005, a time when the country was awash with money just as it is now. The Celtic tiger roared loudly, Fianna Fáil and their friends partied on borrowed money they should never have been lent in the first place and citizens were later forced to pick up the tab of austerity. Is it any wonder that people are saying here today that we should talk about the here and now and forget about what has happened up to now? I remind the Government that the HSE's PPARS computer system, estimated to cost €9 million ended up costing in excess of €220 million, almost 25 times more than the initial costing. Here we are, 20 years later but have lessons been learned? No, they have not. Why? It is because no one responsible every pays; only the taxpayers pay. Transparency matters, accountability matters and competence matters. Tá tábhacht ag baint le saoránaigh.

Today we hear more promises and over the next couple of days we will watch the unedifying scramble of Ministers and backbenchers as they fight to get on the airwaves to blow their own trumpets. The fact is that we have had decades of solid evidence to prove that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will again be reckless and careless with our money. Over the past 13 years too many people have been left behind by Fine Gael-led Governments. Too many people have suffered the consequences of bad policies and the failure to keep promises, not least the children who have been made to wait too long for their spinal surgery, the children with scoliosis who were promised. The Taoiseach has left the House now but he promised. They were promised. When I saw them last week, after Deputy Mary Lou McDonald hosted them in the audiovisual room, being pushed out in chairs in the pouring rain, it brought it home to me how much this Government has failed. A 15-year-old boy came into my office who has been told it is too late and the Government will not even give him a second opinion abroad. I got a letter from the Taoiseach wishing him "all the best". My God, he promised but he certainly did not deliver.

Today there are more promises from the parties of empty promises. Today we sit here surrounded by billions of euro, 14 of which Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil fought to have spent elsewhere. In fact, they spent €10 million of taxpayers' money fighting so that one of the richest companies in the world could benefit from being facilitated to pay no tax on €104 billion in profits. Lest anyone try to misconstrue Sinn Féin’s support for foreign direct investment and acknowledgement of the 250,000 plus jobs in Ireland, our commitment to remain competitive by urgently tackling the infrastructure deficit, particularly in housing, renewable energy, water, telecommunications and decarbonisation, is absolute, alongside our commitment to investment in education and training. The new OECD minimum corporation tax rate means it is more important than ever to invest in the drivers of foreign direct investment. Our indigenous businesses deserve tax fairness and opportunities to thrive. Our overreliance on a very small number of companies to produce year-on-year surpluses leaves our small open economy in a precarious position and vulnerable to geopolitical shocks, yet the Government has no explicit strategy to grow the regions and address key infrastructure deficits, particularly along the western seaboard. The Atlantic economic corridor is paved with empty promises and rhetoric. Macroeconomic headlines mean little to people who do not have a home of their own or cannot pay the bills.

Tar éis 13 bliain den Rialtas seo, tá sochaí an-míchothrom fós againn. The wealthiest 10% of Irish households own approximately €518 billion or 48% of total household net wealth in the country. This creates conditions where extremely disadvantaged groups end up pitted against each other for the allocation of resources and this will continue after this budget. More than 500,000 people live in poverty, almost 177,000 of whom are children, yet we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world. People rightly ask why. One of the Government’s biggest privileges and responsibilities is the task of devising policies to reflect the needs of the population it serves. The needs of those who give it the power to protect, to cultivate opportunity and to break the cycle of poverty are never met. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have failed miserably. We know that living in poverty can have extensive and multifaceted effects on individuals, families and communities. We know too that enforced deprivation and financial and educational disadvantage can be transgenerational without the right interventions. How deep will the scars of child homelessness, the denial of access to psychology, mental health supports, speech and language therapies or other vital supports run? How many generations will be crushed by the failures of Fine Gael-led Governments over the past 13 years?

The Housing Commission called for a radical reset of housing policy. Tá an leabhar scríofa ag Eoin Ó Broin and the answers are there. That is the radical reset. Sinn Féin has clearly shown how we can bring homes back into reach for people. The Government keeps lauding itself about how successful its housing policies have been. Just imagine the situation if they had not been successful. We could have 14,500 people homeless and more than 4,000 of them could be children, an affordable home could cost €500,000, crippling rents could be a reality and the average age for owning your own home could be 39 if the Government's policies had not been so successful.

Home owners impacted by the defective blocks scandal must have 100% redress and we must have a public inquiry into how thousands of families were conned into buying and building homes that turned out to be worthless.

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