Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas. Is buiséad agus cáinaisnéis é seo a léiríonn easpa físe, nach bhfuil uaillmhianach agus, i ndáiríre, nach bhfuil aon chrot air. Tá sé gan tuairim nua mhór agus gan phlean mór agus nach mbeidh aon rian de nó tionchar aige go fadtéarmach. Budget 2025 has shown us that this Government is out of time and out of ideas to fix the problems in our society. I have heard the Government try to take the narrative or the rhetoric of the future in terms of the budget, but the truth is that the legacy of this project will disappear like snow on a ditch. The fact is that this budget is about today and not tomorrow. When comparing the Sinn Féin budget we would have brought forward against the Government's budget, the difference is on a massive scale. The Sinn Féin budget would deliver much greater capital spending not only in housing and in health, but also, crucially, on the energy sector and on climate change on multiple scales to that proposed by the Government.

There is no disputing one fact. For all the spiky responses from the Government benches, I have not heard a single contribution from the Opposition that has disputed the fact that the Government has spent a lot of money. When we have the good fortune to spend a lot of money what vision do we have, what legacy do we leave, and what are the choices we make? Those are the questions. The Government has made the choice to focus its tax cuts so that somebody on €150,000 will earn three times the kind of tax cut that somebody on €40,000 makes. The Government has made the choice to give a tax cut to landlords. As far as we can see, this cut is one that everyone in the Department of Finance has rubbished and raised concerns about. Former ESRI experts have outlined this cut as one of the stupidest tax reliefs they have ever heard of. That is said with the bar set quite high. The Government has decided to continue very favourable tax regimes for the banks and for other categories of people, and it has instead failed to make the necessary investments. I do not dispute that a lot of money has been spent but the Government could have properly tackled housing at long last. I agree with Deputy Eoin Ó Broin that the Government has raised the white flag. I know the Government tried to dispute this but it keeps backing policies that are not working, are making the situation worse and will not deliver the scale of social and affordable housing that is necessary.

The Government could have delivered, or begun to deliver, €10 per day childcare. In the context of my own portfolio, the Government could have begun the process of, or committed to, abolishing the means test for carers' allowance. What it has done is where other people would feel the benefit of the budget, but those who do not currently qualify for carers' allowance will not see the benefit of an increase in threshold until June. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, bring that forward to January?

People with disabilities deserve a great deal more. We have spent a year talking about the additional costs of disability with a Green Paper and so on. To her credit, the Minister for Social Protection has withdrawn her flawed proposals but she has done nothing in this budget to recognise the additional cost of disability. The increase in the payment for people on disability should have been €20 at the very least, rather than allowing them at the base rate. Clearly there needed to be a recognition of the increased cost of disability.

Sinn Féin would have increased the income threshold for carers to €730 for a single person and €1,460 for a couple, much beyond what the Government is doing and a substantial step towards abolishing the means test. We would have also introduced a pay-related carers' benefit, which the Minister should consider. She spent some time saying that people are giving out about the child benefit payment, but it is certainly not us. We had advocated a double payment. What is more, child benefit is still below where it was at in 2008 when it was cut by Fianna Fáil on the back of austerity and paying off the banks. It has not returned to that level and there has not been an increase in four or five years. We would have increased that by €10.

While I welcome some of the measures proposed, these were policies we had demanded for many years, including free school books and meals and other long-standing policies that Sinn Féin advocated.

There are objectives that we have put forward that the Government has listened to. It is clear that the Government has read the Sinn Féin alternative budget, but in terms of vision as to where this leaves Ireland in 12 months, two years or 12 years, I do not think the legacy is there.

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