Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

During the year, spending runs out of control and the Government acts like it is normal. There are billions more spent but no more houses built. There are overruns and overruns but no improvement in services. There is a breakdown in financial management in this State, from the hundreds of thousands of euro on bike sheds to the tens of millions spent renting empty offices to the billions of euro on the national children's hospital that still is not even open. The IPAS system, which is like the wild west, has seen the Government make a small number of individuals multimillionaires overnight, with billions of euro being spent without any checks or oversight. Huge sums of taxpayers' money are handed over to operators where there is no signed contract, proof of ownership or leases. This is mad stuff but this is now normal under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Government has time and again been exposed as a serial waster and nobody takes responsibility. Nobody is held to account.

That waste has real consequences, particularly when the Government deliberately underfunds other areas. For too long, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have failed the children right across this State. One in five children now lives in poverty. That is the Government's record. One in five children now lives in poverty as a result of the Government. There is a surplus of €10 billion this year and there will be one of €5 billion next year. One in five children live in poverty in this State. It is shocking the Government has allowed this to happen. That is more than 200,000 children. It is a national disgrace, and it did not happen by chance. It is happening because of the budgets the Government has introduced in this House, year after year.

We called on the Government to deliver effective measures to tackle child poverty. That means targeted and universal measures. The cost-of-living crisis has brought so many pressures on so many households. Many who never thought they would be in this situation now find themselves there because of the Government. Once again, we see no increase in child benefit rates. There is no increase to child benefits. The child benefit was higher in 2008 than it is today. Talk to any parent and he or she will say it is dearer to raise a child today than it was in 2008. However, there is nothing for child benefit. That means no relief for many families.

We need support for families and this budget should have provided it. We need to make sure that every child sees an improvement in their situation. We called on the Government to increase child benefit by €10 and provide a double payment this year, along with other targeted supports. The Government should have doubled the back to school payments. It should have extended the fuel allowance by nine weeks. That would have given people an extra €297. Instead, the Government has only increased fuel allowance by €5. That is worth just €140, less than half of what is needed.

The Government has increased core social welfare payments by €10 but as I said, that does not even keep up with food inflation. We called on the Government to increase them by €15 to reflect the reality of rising costs.

What the Government should have announced was a conscious decision to deal with the issue of child poverty. However, the reality is - and we will see the statistics in a couple of years, Micheál - that the decision here is a deliberate one to continue to leave children in this State in poverty. That is the reality of it. You can shake your head all you want. You have been the architect of the fact that one in five children is in poverty in this State, Micheál. That is the reality. Above anybody else, you have been the architect of that.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael committed to cap childcare costs. Remember that one, Simon. That was the policy that you copied from Sinn Féin and you are welcome to it but we want to see it implemented. Before the election, Simon Harris said that he would produce a roadmap within the first 100 days and that it was a priority for his Government. The 100 days came and went, 200 days came and went but still no roadmap. He said earlier this year "Reducing the cost of childcare is a priority for me and I can tell you as leader of Fine Gael we will make real progress on the cost of childcare in this budget". Where is it? There is no reduction in the cost of childcare for people in this budget. Where is the progress on the €200 a month, Simon? Instead of delivering a cap of €200 a month, what you have delivered is a cap of €200 per week. That is what you have delivered, Simon.

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