Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This budget is certainly not about the lack of money. There is a lot of money washing around at present. The level of surplus in the financial coffers of the State is probably unprecedented. It probably even got better for the Government when €13.8 billion landed on its table, even though the Government spent €10 million trying not to get it. It is a very good day for the Government.

Particularly in the past three or four years, the cost of living and inflation have eroded a lot of workers' income and their standard of living. This has had a significant effect on how workers see themselves in relative terms. There are grave inequalities in terms of housing, health and income and they are systemic in society. We need political will to really challenge these systemic forces in society. We only have to look at housing, which is a key issue. It was the key issue in the previous election and it will be the key issue in this coming election, when we have 15,000 people in emergency accommodation. We have tens of thousands of people waiting to go on the public housing list. These are situations which I, and many people in the Opposition, do not feel the present Administration can address. It comes back to will and the political choices that people have.

Tax is a reality. We all pay tax and in most cases taxes are progressive. There is one tax that many people feel very aggrieved about and this is the universal social charge. It was a temporary measure during the crisis to pay off the bad debts and the bad policies of Fianna Fáil. Why are people still paying the universal social charge? Many people find this tax odious in terms of why they continue to have to pay it.

I want to speak about health inequalities. I acknowledge the statement from the Minister for Health on progress in the health service. Sometimes we have to put party politics aside when we see progress in health and that is good. There are also health inequalities that still exist to this day. A total of 50% of the population still relies private health insurance. Why is this the case? There should be just one health service rather than a two-tier health service, which is based on income. If people have enough money in their pockets they can get the treatment they want but if you are working class on a low income you have to wait, and sometimes you have to wait for years. This is a grave inequality that has to be addressed.

With regard to what Deputy Ward said about the overall budget for mental health, we still have not reached the level of having 10% of the overall budget, which the Mental Health Reform coalition states we need to reach. At present it is still 6%. It is well below where it should be. Again, this is a faultline in our health service that has to be addressed.

Will we ever see this level of surplus again? Who knows. We saw large surpluses 15 or 16 years ago and then it all went south after that. This is an historic opportunity to address the grave inequalities in housing, health and incomes. Can they be addressed? Many in the Opposition do not think so. As long as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are in power, we will always have these systemic inequalities in our society. It comes down to choice and the forces the Government looks at. Does it look at the forces of the free market and capitalism or the forces of putting people before profit? This is why this opportunity has failed.

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