James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for sharing time. I join in the congratulations to my colleague the Minster, Deputy Chambers, on his first budget. I do not doubt that it was a difficult task for him and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to piece together the budget over recent months.

I want to share some of my thoughts and feelings on the budget. There are very obvious positives around the reduction in income tax for households. There has also been a small reduction in the universal social charge. Other measures will make a contribution to households in the form of one-off payments, etc., which I support.

I will be quite clinical in focusing my comments on the issues facing small businesses. I represent a rural constituency that is full of towns and villages. I know just how vital it is to ensure that we have vibrancy among the businesses the main streets of our towns and villages in order to keep life alive in rural Ireland.

When I speak to the owners of small businesses, whether cafés, restaurants or public houses, I discover that they are quite angry with the Government in respect of what they see is a systemic underestimation of just the level of pressure they are under. It is not just down to VAT; it is to do with the increased cost of doing business. We can look at the huge utility bills which they are being hit by. There are also other aspects such as changes to employment laws, increases in the number of statutory sick days, changes to allowances and increases in the national minimum wage. I accept that there were major issues for young people being taken advantage of, whether they were secondary or third level students, who were engaging in part-time employment. At the same time, I have to outline to the Dáil what I am being told by many decent, honest small business owners in my constituency who I trust. They tell me that they are under significant financial pressures.

I am hearing that payments relating to the increased cost of business support scheme are being delayed. This must be dealt with as a matter of urgency. If record budgets are being introduced in the House, there is a need for the money raised by Revenue to be shifted from the coffers of the Department of public expenditure and the Department of Finance and put back into the pockets of those who need it the most. I take this opportunity to reflect upon that. I am listening to people and I relaying what I am being told to Dáil Eireann and to the Government.

I welcome the extra money being provided to Uisce Éireann for capital expenditure purposes. People may not necessarily feel positive overall about the performance of Uisce Éireann, but there is a chronic needed to fund wastewater treatment infrastructure in rural Ireland. I spoke at last week's meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts about the village of Ballyhooly where people do not have sufficient water pressure to shower and where their washing machines, cookers, etc., cannot function properly because of the lack of a quality water supply. The sewerage facilities in their homes are not working. Before this budget, villages like that were being told that they might have to wait up until 2029 to get funding to solve these problems. That is absolutely disgraceful. It shows that we are not doing enough to get stuck in when it comes to these places in order to try to deliver the wastewater treatment infrastructure.

The reason this is a good investment for the taxpayer to do this is that we can provide homes. Small builders can go in and hire five or six bricklayers from the local GAA club or other people who may not feel ready or may not want to go on to higher education or pursue an apprenticeship but who could work in construction. This is the type of grassroots recruitment of people to work in the building industry that happens in Ireland. That is why it is so important to enable the construction of homes in rural areas, whether in small villages or towns. This is something which must be addressed. There is an extra capital allocation of approximately €1 billion in the budget as a result of the sale of AIB shares. That is a very positive move. and I commend the Government on its decision in this regard. We need to use that money in Ballyhooly and elsewhere.

There is fury among the public regarding the waste of public money on projects that have either gone over budget, like the national children's hospital and small things - as Albert Reynolds said, it is the little things that can catch you - like the bike shelter and the security infrastructure. I am getting many messages today about the introduction of mobile phone pouches at a cost of €9 million. The small things are really annoying people. The Government needs to be a great deal more tuned in when it comes to wasting public money.

The same can be said of projects costing billions or millions of euro. The next Dáil should have a joint committee to deal specifically with the national development plan in order that we can bring in all of the relevant stakeholders, representatives of State agencies and civil servants from the Department of public expenditure and other relevant Departments and put questions to them on why projects are not being delivered on time, on budget and on scale, particularly in circumstances where problems occur. This is not to ignore the positivity around projects that have been successful; it is to address problems where they occur. That, for the Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, would be a much better idea than appointing a Minister for infrastructure.

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