Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be associated with the Ceann Comhairle's expression of sympathy on the death of former Minister, Ms Mary O'Rourke.

I have been listening to the debate for the past while with interest. Not too many of us, on both sides of the House, disagree about what we would like to get done. A lot of it is about how we get there. Many of us would like to get to the destination a lot quicker than we feel we are travelling. I believe that incrementally, this budget will gradually improve the lives of people.

I will start with a matter I am familiar with, having spent 15 years as a teacher, which is education. I will mention the further expansion of the roll-out of free schoolbooks. It is one of those things that the Minister initiated a number of years ago. We are now finally at the destination where free schoolbooks have been extended to all secondary school children. It is something that all of us have been calling for but it has taken a number of years, and a number of budgets, to get there. I welcome that full roll-out. When we talk about helping people in poverty, it is those types of actions that will make life easier for those children and their parents by tackling the costs associated with education.

We are also seeing further expansion of the hot meals programme to include all primary schools. I emphasise to those schools that have not applied for it that they should do so in 2025. I find that the people who ring our offices to give out that their school has not been selected have not applied. Whether that is because they do not have the facilities or whatever the excuse might be, I encourage the schools that have not applied for the programme in the past to do so now.

I again acknowledge that the Minister has increased the number of special educational needs, SEN, teachers by a further 768 and has provided for an additional 1,600 special needs assistants, SNAs. I have spoken often about special education during my term in the Dáil. I have seen the direct impact of the interventions we are making in special needs. That includes the massive roll-out of the number of autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes. It is important that we have the people, the SNAs and SEN teachers, to staff those classes.

I will move to infrastructure. I was glad to hear that as part of the Apple windfall of €14 billion, the four pillars that the soundings suggest have been identified are transport, water, housing and electricity. It is imperative that we put an awful lot of our resources into those fundamentals. I will touch on the issue of water, which Deputy O'Connor mentioned earlier. I have spoken in the past about the problems in Cork city in particular. Replacing the mile after mile of cast-iron pipes in Cork city will cost hundreds of millions. I do not care what side of the House one is on. We can throw as much money at the issue as we want in the short term but, fundamentally, it is going to take time. Irish Water admits it is limited by its own capacity, on which there are constraints. It is good to see that is one of the areas that is going to be the focus of that Apple windfall in the coming weeks. I give a shout out for Cork city, in particular, because the area has experienced massive problems with discoloured water and excess manganese in the water in the past two years. There is funding that can be put into the treatment plants, in particular, in the short term to combat the worst of the discolouration and the water supply we have, which is not up to standard.

The lack of water infrastructure is one of the greatest inhibitors to development in many of our towns and villages. I often cite the area of Carrignavar, which is a perfect example. It is only ten or 12 minutes from the city centre. It is about to benefit from the new BusConnects roll-out, which will provide a much-improved service. It is only 12 minutes' travel into the city centre for the people who are working there but there has not been a house built in the village for the best part of a decade. Judging by Irish Water's current capital plan, a house will not be built in the village until 2036 at the earliest by my estimation. It comes back to my point about giving money to things such as that. We can give the money to Carrignavar in the morning but Irish Water is telling us it will take seven years to upgrade the plant, what with planning, tendering, environmental reports and so on. That is the real crux of the matter. We can throw all the money we want at stuff but unless the system changes and adapts to the needs of society, money is not going to solve many of the issues we have.

I will speak about childcare as the parent of three kids. I have a three-year-old, a four-year old and a five-year-old. Many people say to us that childcare is nearly the same kind of stress on a household as a mortgage but for many of us, the cost exceeds that of a mortgage. I welcome the expansion of the national childcare system. There will be a further 44% increase in the system and the estimates are that it will benefit most families to the tune of €1,000 per annum. That will reduce costs considerably and it is a welcome initiative. We are talking about transforming the way we do childcare but I return to my point about it being done incrementally. It will take time to massively overhaul that system.

I will move to the idea of making our communities better and building better communities. Many people have spoken in this Chamber in recent months about how people feel unsafe in city centres, in particular. Dublin and Cork definitely fall into that category. While I welcome the 1,000 new Garda recruits who are going to be budgeted for in budget 2025, I must say that if we get the same number of recruits in Cork as we have in the past 12 months, it will fall far short of what we need. In the most recent roll-out of gardaí from Templemore, Cork got only four and only one went into my constituency. There is genuine concern from businesses and people in the city centre. There is a severe drug problem in Cork city centre. It is impacting people in outlying estates because there are various feuds and drug-related recriminations for people who are building up large drug debts and so on. It is a major scourge on society at the moment. While the 1,000 gardaí are welcome, I firmly believe there will have to be extra targeting of resources to combat that issue.

I will also mention housing. Many parties are saying that they would scrap this and scrap that.

What the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, has secured in the budget has given certainty to first-time buyers in particular, in that they will now be able to rely on the fact that the first-time buyer's grant will be there until 2029. This is a major relief to many people – they are maybe a bit younger than myself, but I was in that cohort not so long ago – who are going to purchase their first home. It is a reassurance for them that they can rely on the fact that the Government has budgeted for the grant up to 2029. In recent months, some parties in the House have modified their positions on this matter. Initially, they were going to scrap the grant, but now they say they will phase it out over three years. They are trying to adapt to whichever way the wind is blowing. Therefore, it is important to put on the record the certainty that now exists for buyers going forward.

I do not believe I need the rest of my time, but it would be remiss of me not to mention business. There was disappointment in the small business community over the past 24 hours regarding the budget. Having read some of the newspapers, maybe that disappointment stems from overpromising or people trying to lead businesses up the garden path. Such accusations are being made, but whatever the excuse, the measures introduced in the budget have fallen short in addressing the expectations of many small and medium-sized enterprises. I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, to revert to his colleagues and ensure that this message is heard.

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