Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with my colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan.

The budget will be remembered as one of missed opportunities. It is kind of like a giveaway on steroids and is certainly grabbing the headlines; there is no doubt about that. We have lots of breathless reporting of the gargantuan surplus figure, that €25 billion, and the complex array of one-off measures. However, looking a little deeper, it quickly becomes clear that the emperor has no clothes. Never has a Government had so much and done so little. Plenty of cash has been splashed around but mainly in one-off measures. All of these payments will certainly be very welcome, particularly at this time of year, but they will not last very long. What happens then? When happens when the bonus payments dry up and prices are continuing to rise? Will homes be any more affordable? Will rents come down at all? Will healthcare be easier to access? Will childcare places be affordable or more available? Will disability services for children with additional needs be more accessible? Will older people be better supported to live at home? Will child poverty be seriously reduced? We also have to ask will the huge inequality that exists in our society be addressed in any meaningful way? Will we be any closer to meeting our climate targets? Will any of it make any long-term positive difference? Will the country work any better? The answer, in the main, is "No". This budget has just one overriding purpose, that is, the self-preservation of the Government parties. A whole plethora of one-off payments are set to be made just before, or during, when we all expect a general election. It is a bit on the nose, even for this spin-obsessed Government. You does not need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out the rationale behind all of this.

I read recently that the Taoiseach met the former Fianna Fáil leader, Bertie Ahern, in recent days. He invited him in to Government Buildings for a fireside chat. That is also quite instructive because this has all the hallmarks of a Bertie budget. Spray money around, create a distraction and hope that it is enough to win an election. However, I do not think people are that easily fooled. The Government is underestimating them. People can see that what the Government is trying to do is textbook electioneering, that is, to use people's own money to buy their votes. Worse, the Government is selling people short. Essentially, all they are getting is a few extra quid in their pockets, which will quickly be gobbled up in cost-of-living increases. It is a bad deal for the public and for the State finances. We all know the only way to significantly drive down costs for everyone is by investing in proper public services. We need to ensure people, all through their lives, have a strong social safety net through which no one is allowed to fall. We need genuinely free education, affordable housing, accessible healthcare, reliable public transport, affordable childcare and strong social care delivered in the community. Imagine for a moment what the country could look like were the social contract to be honoured and not left in tatters, as the Government is doing. That is the kind of vision and ambition we need in this country but it is not, by any means, what this Government has delivered. Regrettably, the Government prefers quick fixes instead of structural reforms and it is really shameful that, yet again, it has failed to target measures at those who need them most. The energy credits are the most stark example of this. These will be going to many people who do not actually need them, just as in previous years. After today's announcement, how much of this State largesse will have been funnelled to the owners of holiday homes? The answer is more than €90 million. In comparison, the Government ring-fenced only €19 million for spinal surgeries for children with scoliosis, which it could not even ensure was used for that purpose.

This is the Ireland of today, under this Government, where children on long waiting lists live in agony for years, with their health deteriorating while resources are frittered away elsewhere. They are frittered away on bonus payments and energy credits for the wealthiest in our society, heaped on top of the bonfire of public money that is the endless budget for the children’s hospital, or spent on a bike shed that cost nearly €350,000, a security hut for €1.5 million or €500,000 modular homes. Not only is the Government engaged in a spending splurge unlike any other, but any value-for-money considerations have been left at the door.

I want to talk about some of the measures in the budget or, to be more precise, some of the glaring absences from this document. I will start with child poverty. We were told that eradicating child poverty was a priority for the Government, as the Minister of State may remember. At least, that is what the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, said. He even published a plan in 2023, From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being. What actually happened? The number of children experiencing deprivation actually increased by 15% in the last year. One in five children is now living in a home where the family cannot afford to heat the home or afford two pairs of properly fitting shoes. Those on the Government benches, who were grinning from ear to ear earlier, should pause for a moment and think about that. On their watch, more children have fallen below the poverty line. The record budget surpluses do not mean anything to them because they have not benefited from all of this funding. The reason is simple. The Government has failed to target it at those who need it most. It ignored all of the expert advice - from the Children’s Rights Alliance, the St. Vincent de Paul, the ESRI and others - and preferred to spray money indiscriminately rather than direct it to those who need it most.

In 2023, a welfare payment that goes to the State’s most vulnerable children was increased by a miserly €2 a week. Last year, that figure was increased to just €4. This year, the Government has managed an increase of €8 but it is not nearly enough. In our alternative budget, the Social Democrats proposed increasing this rate by €15, nearly double the Government’s paltry figure. We did that because those children desperately need this support. We also proposed a range of other measures, like a public model of childcare, increased childcare subsidies for the most disadvantaged children, a new DEIS+ categorisation for schools and an increase in the threshold of the working family payment of €40.

I do not see much of that in this document. Instead, everyone - the richest families and the poorest - get largely the same child supports and two double child benefit payments. I listened to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, explaining the rationale for this on the “This Week” programme on RTÉ radio on Sunday, and I have to say that I was quite appalled by her. She made some reference to Christmas coming up and parents being under pressure to buy toys because of all the catalogues coming in the letterbox. Did she not listen before she spoke to the clip where parents of children with disabilities were crying out for basic specialist services? Does she not realise that, for some parents, the biggest struggle is not to buy the latest toy? It is to keep a roof over their children’s heads, make a choice between heating their home or cooking a meal, or buy a winter coat or new shoes. The level of disconnection from the reality of many people’s lives is extraordinary. What kind of bubble is the Government living in? Does the real world ever get a look in? We all know, or at least we should know, that the first few years of a child’s life can largely determine the rest of it. If we get those early years right, so much harm later in life can be avoided. Is it just that this Government cannot be bothered to target these resources or is it that it is so obsessed with trying to buy the next election that it no longer cares about those important things?

We see the same stubborn refusal to tackle low pay. Ireland has a real problem with low pay. Hundreds of thousands of people subsist week to week on incomes that are not sufficient to live a dignified existence. Included in this number are the one fifth of workers who were promised by the Government that a living wage would be introduced by 2026. Where does that commitment lie now, given we are nowhere near delivering on it? I did not see any reference to it in the budget bonanza. If the Government wanted to make a genuine effort to reach that target, it needed a much bigger minimum wage increase than the 80 cent announced today. The Social Democrats proposed an increase of €1.30 to €14 per hour and committed to replacing the minimum wage with a living wage in next year’s budget.

Increases to core social welfare rates, well above the €12 announced today, should also have been a priority. Instead of adequately increasing core rates and helping people in the long term, the Government reverted to its preferred approach of short-termism and one-offs. For months now, we have heard figures being bandied about in relation to social welfare increases, and figures from €10 to €20 were cited. However, despite endless commentary, I never saw any analysis of what the appropriate figure should be for such increases. Social welfare increases should not just be at the discretion of individual Ministers. They should be taken out of the hands of politicians altogether and benchmarked to the minimum essential standard of living. To do that, a weekly increase of €48 needs to be delivered over a reasonable period. If we were in government, the Social Democrats would have charted a course to get there over two years, and we proposed to start with a €25 per week increase this year. This would make a huge difference to those who are most at risk of poverty - pensioners, lone parents, disabled people and those who have lost their jobs. Again, however, the Government preferred half-measures. After some cynical politicking from Fine Gael and attempting to vilify those who have lost their jobs as somehow unworthy of support, the rate is increasing by just €12 per week across the board. It is a figure that has seemingly been plucked out of the sky by the coalition partners because it sounds a bit better than a tenner. Optics and arbitrariness are the Government's key concerns when framing the budget.

I will move on to the tax package. If there is a theme running through the tax measures in this budget, it is this: the more you have, the more you get from this Government. Those earning €75,000 will benefit in this budget to the tune of €20 per week while those barely scraping by on €30,000 will get €5 per week. Equity and fairness are entirely absent. What we have seen in recent budgets from the Government is that very principle, the more you have, the more you get. The net result is that the gap between rich and poor has widened. We have become less equal and less cohesive as a society and, therefore, less successful. Instead of disproportionately heaping benefits at the top, the Social Democrats proposed an alternative, namely, increasing tax credits by €450 and making them refundable so the benefit was shared equally. This approach would have cost the State much less, just one-third of the Government’s tax package.

Income tax is not the only area, of course, but it is essential that we do not erode the tax base that we have.

The Government has been warned of that by various agencies, yet it continues to erode the tax base year after year.

This is not the only area where the Government is looking after the better off. In fact, it could be said it is the only part of the budget where the Government made a real effort to target support. The increase in the threshold for inheritance tax is very targeted at a wealthy minority because the vast majority of people will never have to pay inheritance tax, despite scaremongering to the contrary. The idea that children inheriting a house might have to sell their home or face homelessness to pay the charge is bogus, as fair exemptions are already in place for to avoid this. Inheritance is not earned; it is received based on an accident of birth, yet we give it greatly favourable tax treatment when compared to productive activities like work. We do not tax wealth very much in Ireland; now we will tax it even less. Fewer than 3% of households ever receive an inheritance greater than the old threshold of €335,000. Now even fewer will pay inheritance tax and it is the better off who are being spared.

Gold-plated pension pots is also an area that has seen an intervention from this Government. It has moved to ensure that pension pots in excess of €2 million will not face a tax penalty. This is yet another targeted measure to benefit less than 1% of our population. Just like with inheritance tax, it seems that a well-publicised lobbying campaign getting blanket media coverage has done the trick. Soundbites and a misrepresentation of data,have proven more influential on policy than any kind of sound analysis.

We can get one thing straight: any suggestion that anyone would end up financially worse-off from taking promotions, if the standard fund threshold for pensions were not increased, is wrong. People whose pension benefits cross the threshold might face higher marginal rates, not higher overall rates, but those apply solely on the amount over the threshold, which was an already generous €2 million. This is an amount only a tiny fraction of people can ever hope to save for their retirement. Nobody would be worse off. Candidates will indeed get higher pensions. They were simply facing higher rates of tax than they expected or were lobbying for. All this move represents is an underhanded way of giving extra money to the highest paid civil servants in the country. I just wonder how many of those higher-paid civil servants had a hand in devising this change in policy. This gives an additional tax break that will be worth more than €300,000 per person to some of the best paid people in the private sector by 2030.

I also want to say something about tax proposals from Sinn Féin. It is important to refer to what Sinn Féin is proposing because the Government parties are not the only ones with big tax packages in their budgets. Sinn Féin’s alternative budget outlined a tax package worth an enormous €2 billion. Sinn Féin has flagged plans to scrap the property tax, the carbon tax and to cut the universal social charge, USC. That is quite cynical and very hard to understand from a party that claims to be left wing. It is very cynical because one cannot promise to radically improve public services and slash taxes at the same time. People are not that stupid. They get that, even if some in this House fail to understand that. Our public services desperately need investment. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past and bet the house on transient corporation tax windfalls that could disappear at some point in the not-too-distant future.

The need for investment is particularly acute in disability services. As it stands, 15,000 children are waiting for their first contact from a children’s disability network team. Tens of thousands more of those children are being denied essential services. That is a shameful indictment of the Government’s term of office. The most vulnerable left on waiting lists are denied critical supports to live a life with dignity and to have any chance of realising their full potential. This is all happening while enormous sums slosh around in the Government coffers.

If the Social Democrats were in government, disability services would have more than ten times the investment that has been flagged by the Government because this is a sector that really needs it and we can afford to do it. Included in our priorities in this area is a €30 per week cost-of-disability payment. This would be on top of the €25 increase in disability payment. This would mean that core payments made to disabled people would increase by €55 per week. Compare that to the €12 announced with great fanfare by the Government.

This level of increase is necessary because having a disability is very expensive. The Government published a report in 2021 that put the figure at an additional annual €13,100. Why did it bother commissioning that research if it was not going to do anything about it? It is yet another report sitting on a shelf gathering dust somewhere rather than being implemented. The Government has done virtually nothing to address the enormous additional costs faced by disabled people. One-off disability payments are not sufficient. Having a disability is not one-off or temporary and the Minister of State should not need to be reminded of that. Why then are these payments being made? The Government’s dismissive attitude to disabled people is perhaps best reflected in the fact that personal transport schemes that were axed by the Fine Gael-Labour Government a decade ago have yet to replaced. That says it all. That level of inertia and ineptitude is quite shocking. We all know that disabled people are more likely to suffer from isolation and poverty. One in five people unable to work due to disability live in consistent poverty. This is almost four times higher than the national average. Where are the measures in this budget to address that scandal? I do not see any and that is absolutely shameful.

I have also looked through this document to find the measures that will deliver affordable homes but they seem to be missing too. Of course, that is mainly because the Government persists with the delusion that homes costing €500,000 are somehow affordable. When starting out with that bizarre perspective, there is no hope of addressing the affordability crisis in any kind of meaningful way. My colleague Deputy O’Callaghan will speak about housing in a great deal more depth shortly.

When it comes to the health service, I am glad to see that the Government has opted not to run that service next year with an enormous built-in deficit just as it did last year, which the House will recall. It is incredible that last year the budget contained a €1.5 billion black hole in health. The budget for the health service is large and we must ensure accountability but a reform programme costs money and investment now will pay dividends in the future. As it stands, there are too many who cannot access health services when they need them. There are too many people on lengthy waiting lists for treatment. There are too few primary care centres working in communities. The scandal of tens of thousands of people languishing on trolleys persists. Critical programmes, such as the cancer strategy, have been starved of funding and regional disparities in the availability of acute care continue. This also applies to home care supports.

We cannot stand over a situation in which the midwest region is denied the resources in funding and staff that are available elsewhere.

It was intriguing to hear the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, speak earlier when he referred to an increase in health staffing levels to over 130,000 staff. The current approved staff ceiling, however, is 129,753. It sounds very strange. By how many people are we actually going to increase the childcare staff? Increases in capacity at primary care level are especially important. I would like to hear from the Government what exactly they are talking about. How much over 130,000 does it intend going? Key to that is how many over 130,000 is the Government prepared to fund?

One has to ask why this Government cannot take the long view and tackle the kind of fundamental problems that are facing this country. Instead, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that these surpluses represent are wasted in this budget, mainly because of ephemeral, one-off payments. Why has the Government wasted those opportunities? We were in a position to do something of real consequence in relation to services in this country, to make it a more united country, to make it a fairer country, and to make it a more cohesive country. The Government has wasted those opportunities.

So many people are again being left behind in this budget when they should have been the priority. When the dust settles on the splurge and when the one-off payments have been spent where will it leave us? I ask people to think ahead to next February or March. Will any of the major issues we are facing as a society such as housing, healthcare, disability services, climate action, inequality, or the lack of accountability, be better? Regrettably, I believe the answer to that question is a resounding "No". This budget is the ultimate in short-termism. It is a cynical, blatant and reckless attempt to buy votes on the cheap and to hell with the consequences that appear. Truly this is a Bertie budget. It is a Bertie budget for the ages.

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