Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This budget is a missed opportunity to deal with some of the lost years of austerity that have caused massive damage in our communities. I have no doubt that everyone who meets community organisations hears them time and again say that we have still not recovered from those years. We hear excuses about why things cannot be done all the time; there is no money or resources and then in the so-called "good times" we hear that it cannot be done now for this reason or that reason - fill in the blanks with whatever excuse.

Let us consider the community services programme. I acknowledge that there have been some advances regarding it. However, there appears to be no attempt to start to move towards a living wage. There is not even a single reference in the entire budget to a living wage. We have people working away, doing brilliant work and getting the plaudits and the claps on the back but not getting what we would all agree we should be striving for, which is a living wage. It is a wasted opportunity, given that these social enterprises are located in many working-class and disadvantaged communities.

There is an increasing number of children in consistent poverty, and one-off payments do not tackle the core issue of this consistent poverty and disadvantage. There is mention in the budget of an extra €1.6 million for supports for volunteers, philanthropic organisations and public participation networks, PPNs. This comes nowhere near what is required to properly support our communities in the challenges they face on a daily basis. We met PPN representatives recently in Leinster House. They outlined how seriously underfunded they are, given that they started with 5,000 groups and now have more than 22,000 groups affiliated. Their ask for all of this work on behalf of our communities was an increase in staff and core funding of €1.5 million. I do not know how the maths work out; I am sure we will see the detail as we go along. What allocation was there in the €1.6 million? Only €1 million in extra funding was allocated to the community centre investment fund. This is despite the fund being massively oversubscribed during the application process over the last couple of year. It is clear there is huge demand for the upgrading and refurbishment of existing community centres and the provision of new ones in our growing towns and villages. Sinn Féin would allocate €1 billion of the Apple tax to community, youth and sports facilities. This is the type of big investment needed in our communities across the State. Communities are facing significant challenges coming out of the savage cuts of the austerity years and a catch-up on a massive scale is required. That is what we are proposing.

For example, in my constituency, we have a huge and growing population, yet we do not have one single purpose-built youth facility. Many operate from rooms in the community centres. Some rooms have to be cleared and given back to the community centre for other groups the following day, causing huge disruption. In many of our sports clubs, members are changing in containers, with no toilets or shower facilities. Clubs such as Tyrrelstown recently got a new container and lovely dressing rooms. This is brilliant news but there needs to be a medium-term plan to build a proper, purpose-built sports and youth facility for the massive, growing community in Tyrrelstown. Corduff FC will soon be celebrating 50 years in existence. Its clubhouse is a container. Let us imagine what the club could achieve with a proper, purpose-built facility. Hartstown Huntstown FC also uses containers. Plunketts GAA Club is going to spend thousands of euro renting all-weather pitches for the winter. St. Mochtas, Erin Go Bragh and Clonee are other clubs in the same situation. The list is endless and that is just west Dublin. I guarantee that every TD in the State could mention dozens of their youth and sports organisations that are without proper facilities.

This will be seen as a one-off budget that seeks to buy votes but does not fundamentally challenge poverty and disadvantage. Community is at the core of tackling poverty and disadvantage. The people in those communities are doing more than their bit. All they ask is that the Government backs them with proper facilities supports. I do not believe that this budget does that. It is a lost opportunity and I know that if I am ever honoured enough to be on the other side of the Chamber, I will do my bit and Sinn Féin will not let the people down.

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