Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They will continue to pay big fees, continue to search for spaces that do not exist, and continue to be stressed today and worried about the future. Our plan would deliver the change they need, not just soundbites. It is a plan to make childcare affordable at €10 a day per child by next September, a plan to deliver early years educators and childcare professionals the pay increase for which they have been campaigning for years, a plan to build capacity, increase childcare spaces across the country, and extend leave to 52 weeks for parents to care for their babies in the first year. These are important steps on the road to public provision.

Our plan would be a game-changer for parents. Let me be clear; when we give families a commitment, we will keep it. Childcare at €10 per day would be delivered with Sinn Féin in government.

Two weeks ago, the Taoiseach hit out at a Sinn Féin plan to invest €1 billion of the Apple tax money into working-class communities, those who really took the pain when Fianna Fáil destroyed the economy and bore the brunt of Fine Gael's cruel austerity measures. He said that we should not be dividing Ireland. It says everything about his mentality that levelling the playing field for those communities left behind is somehow divisive. Tellingly, he displays no such concern when it comes to tax changes, dividing Ireland into winners and losers, skewed to benefit those at the top the most. Take the income tax package, for example. This will mean that somebody on €150,000 will get €959 of a break, but a worker on €40,000 will only get €369. I want to know where the fairness is in that. "More for those who have more" is a real Fine Gael mantra. There was a better and fairer way to give people a break on their take-home pay. USC was brought in by Fianna Fáil following its disastrous crash. It was supposed to be a temporary, emergency measure but the last decade has been spent hardwiring it into the tax system. Our proposal is to abolish the USC for the first €45,000 of income for every worker. This would mean that average workers would not pay any USC at all. It would put €604 back into the pockets of those earning €40,000. That would have been fair.. That is the approach that should have been taken.

Another year, another budget, and this lot just could not resist giving a tax break to landlords again, with €800 this time. This is more than is being given to most workers. Contrast this with the Government's failure to deliver a decent increase to the minimum wage. We would have delivered an increase of €1.10 per hour. Low-paid workers have been thrown under the bus once again.

What of the banks that have made a massive profit on the backs of mortgage holders paying big hikes in interest rates? The Government did not lay a glove on them. There was no increase in the banking levy, not one red cent extra. Sinn Féin would have increased it by €400 million, to ensure the banks pay their fair share. The Government has made it very clear, if anybody needed reminding, whose side Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are on, and it is certainly not the side of workers and families. The parties never have been and they never will. Some 230,000 children in this State are living with deprivation, up again on the watch of this Government. Despite all the blather, this budget will not change that reality. So much for the Government's aim of making Ireland the best country in Europe to be a child. People now look at these soundbites, and in the wake of this budget wonder where is the follow-through and the seriousness in any of this.

Why do carers have to wait until next July to get the benefit of the means' test threshold increase? It is not right that carers are again pushed to the back of the queue. Sinn Féin would have increased the income thresholds to €730 for a single person and €1,460 for a couple, in contrast to the Government proposal, which falls very short of that. Our measure would have seen almost 4,000 additional carers becoming eligible for carers' allowance. It would also have meant that 6,590 people currently on a reduced payment due to means testing would have become eligible for the full payment. In government, Sinn Féin would abolish the means test for carers' allowance. Our budget would also have introduced a pay related carers' benefit for those who have to give up work to care for someone. This would ensure that a carer would not see his or her income fall off a cliff edge and would see his or her income protected. People with disabilities have the right to live their lives as equal citizens, with access to work, education, services, and independent living. We know that people with disabilities are at a much higher risk of poverty, yet one would not guess that from the budget We proposed a €20 weekly increase in disability payments instead of the €12 decided on by Government. This difference would have been very significant. People with disabilities deserve far more from this Government. I want to use this opportunity to again call on the Government to ratify the UN optional protocol on the rights of people with disabilities.

The Government's failure to address these big issues and more, begs the question - who on Earth would trust this Government of serial wasters with the billions in the public purse? The Government is great at spending and wasting other people’s money. The waste exposed on its watch has been breathtaking. Examples include: the most expensive hospital in the world that is €1.5 billion over budget; the most expensive bike shed in the world at €336,000 and the most expensive security hut in the world at €1.4 million. The Government used €10 million of the public’s money to stop us from receiving €14 billion in Apple tax and of course modular housing costing more than €400,000, that is, more than homes built of bricks. The Government's incompetence is off the wall and its members are incapable of taking responsibility.

Maybe the reason Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will not tackle housing, health and childcare is not only because they have the wrong policies. Maybe it is also because they simply cannot and are just not able. The Government has the financial firepower and the resources now. That will not always be the case, so we need a Government that will use money and resources wisely, plan and invest in the future with real purpose. This has to mean an end to waste and delay, the culture of mañana, the go-slow, the never-never. People regularly ask themselves why do basic things not work here? How is it that services, infrastructure and efficiencies taken from granted in other countries always seem to be an ask too far here? Things like affordable housing, affordable rent and childcare, healthcare when you need it, public transport and properly funded classrooms, that is, the staples of a decent standard of living and society, always seem too far away in Ireland. It is too much, too far for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, in government after government.

The Government is responsible not only the housing crisis, for eye-watering rents and childcare costs, but also for the system and culture that has enabled these crises. There is an inertia that sees members of Government sit back as commentators and spinners, as these crises have damaged and hurt people. The anaemic, half-baked provisions of the budget reflect once again that they simply should not be in government. There is no way that €25 billion of the people’s money should be put into the Government's hands. It has shown again and again that it cannot be trusted to make the right choices and competent decisions.

Pé rud atá ráite faoi bhuiséad flaithiúil, ní raibh sé flaithiúil le pobal na Gaeltachta. Is ar éigin go raibh pinginí rua suaracha ar fáil dá dteanga. Tá nós ársa ag na Gael an uimhir seacht a úsáid chun béim a chur ar rudaí. Tá brí chumhachtach ag baint leis. Mar shampla, déanfaidh mé mo sheacht ndícheall, rud a chiallaíonn go bhfuil mé dáiríre. Feicim go bhfuil seacht n-uaire níos lú maoinithe beartaithe sa bhuiséad ná mar a mhol Sinn Féin inár mbuiséad malartach don teanga. In áit an €63 milliún breise a bhí molta againn, níl ach €9 milliún aimsithe ag an Rialtas, maoiniú TG4 san áireamh. Colour me shocked. Fad is atá géarchéim thithíochta agus teanga ag brú na seacht mbáis ar an nGaeltacht, agus an t-aos óg ag éileamh Gaelscolaíocht agus uaillmhian an tseachtar laoch, cá bhfuil Fianna Fáil agus cá bhfuil Fine Gael? Bheadh Sinn Féin seacht n-uaire níos fearr don Ghaeilge. Dhéanfadh mise mo sheacht ndícheall.

This is the final budget from this Government. It is a budget that seeks to use billions to blind people to more than four years of repeated failure. The budget is the Government’s day. It is a day to make everything seem rosy in the garden but I do not believe the people will be fooled. The time is coming when they will have the opportunity to ensure that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil do not get to introduce the first budget of the next Government. A general election is coming and the sooner, the better.

Only the Taoiseach knows the date but we say bring it on and name the date. It is clear that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil now believe they are cruising back into the doors of Government Buildings and waltzing back to power hand in hand. They believe they will have it all their own way again because, in the end, they truly believe that government belongs to them and that they have some special right to power. The ordinary people of Ireland might have something to say about that. The Government wants to believe that those of us who believe in real change are on the back foot and that those of us who are determined to make Ireland a better, fairer and united country are on the ropes. It can believe that if it wants. If we enter this election as the underdogs, so be it. We have no fear of that because there is now clear blue water and a clear choice. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have the backs of vulture funds, rack-renting corporate landlords, financial speculators and all of those at the top. We have the backs of ordinary workers, families and communities, those who have waited too long for a government that is on their side. People now have a decision to make. Workers and families cannot afford another five years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael running the show. It is time for a new government with the right priorities and the determination to roll up its sleeves, get the work done, make improvements, invest in the future and make a lasting difference to people's lives. Sinn Féin will deliver a government for working people. I call on the Taoiseach to call the election and let the people have their say.

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