Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

Access to services should be based on need and not where people live or their ability to pay privately. That is not the case for so many, however.

It is certainly not the case for the people who have an eating disorder and need inpatient care. We still only have three specialist public inpatient beds for adults, and they are largely based on where a person lives. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental health illness. Sending people abroad or relying on private healthcare is not the solution we need. People need inpatient beds. All that this budget delivered was a token reference to eating disorders, nothing more than those words.

We must also provide perinatal care, a place where a mother and baby can be together in cases of post-natal psychosis. Currently, there is no dedicated mother and baby perinatal mental health unit on this island. This means that mothers, North and South, who need to be admitted for inpatient care are separated from their newborns. We need a specialist all-island unit.

There is so much talk of the economy today, although there is also talk about other things. When we talk about the economy, we need to think about what the economy is. An economy is made up of the people who live in it. The future of that economy is the children who are raised in it, and they are being failed. Childcare is an essential service, not just for families but also for the economy. Almost half of one-parent households with children live in deprivation. Access to affordable, quality childcare is one of the key factors to take children out of poverty. Parents in this State pay among the highest costs for childcare in the OECD. These high childcare costs are forcing families into poverty. They are forcing women out of the workforce or preventing them from returning to it. The Government presumably recognises this given the fact that both parties promised to deliver €10 per day childcare in the run-up to last year’s general election. There has been no mention of that today, however, and the Government has squandered the opportunity to deliver it. The Government has done very little to increase capacity at a time when tens of thousands of children have no childcare place. The Government could have adopted Sinn Féin’s detailed childcare plan that would cap childcare costs at €10 per day, which it seemed to think was absolutely fantastic last year, but not so much this year. Such a policy would transform the lives of thousands of families up and down the country. Investing in childcare is good for the economy, parents and the educational outcomes of our children.

When we look at the here and now and what our economy will bring, we have to look at our young people and what kind of society we are giving them. It is outrageous, when the State is as wealthy as it is now, that three out of five young people are considering emigrating, with more than 80% of young people saying they believe they would actually have a higher standard of living abroad. Given the wealth in this State, that is outrageous. Young people deserve the opportunity to build a good, secure life in their own country. The Government has forced a generation to choose between living with their parents well into adulthood or moving abroad and leaving their families, friends - although a lot of their friends are abroad - and communities behind. This is a national disgrace.

Most young people will watch today in the hope that maybe they have been listened to and that there is something in the budget for them because the Government has seen that they are struggling and that it is not fair that they are forced to go to Australia or other countries. Can the Ministers imagine how deflating and frustrating it is for people to think they will never be able to afford their own home?

Students will look at this budget and see that it will make life harder for them by increasing the cost of higher education while continuing to rely on expensive, luxury student accommodation owned by international investment funds rather than simple, good-quality homes, which is what is needed.

So often in recent years I have heard it stated by those on the benches opposite that student fees would be scrapped. Instead, the Government has chosen to hike them by €500. We are clear that student fees must be abolished. While there is often big talk about apprenticeships by the Government, the reality is that apprentices have to wait too long to get their off-the-job training. As a result, it takes them months or even years longer to complete apprenticeships than should be the case. At the same time, their wages stagnate. Apprenticeship fees must be abolished.

Our farms are part of the fabric of rural Ireland and a critical piece of our economy. Recent developments in agriculture, particularly in the context of the EU's deal with Mercosur coming down the line and a 22% cut to the CAP budget, will have a negative effect on future farm incomes. One of the biggest challenges for Irish farming is generational renewal. The Government had an opportunity to show the next generation of farmers that there is a future in Irish agriculture by funding a generational renewal scheme, but it failed to do that. It has not done enough to support farmers, particularly smaller farmers and those with family farms, who have faced a crisis regarding the spread of tuberculosis. The Government should investigate anti-competitive practices to ensure fair and stable prices for farmers, increase suckler and sheep improvement scheme payments and invest in an accelerated testing and vaccination programme to tackle TB, which is at its highest level since the 1990s.

Last weekend, we had Storm Amy. When you come from the west of Ireland, a storm means something serious. We all experienced Storm Éowyn and its aftermath. One thing we know for certain is that the climate crisis is worsening and that the frequency of climate-induced natural disasters is increasing. Storm Éowyn brought the west of Ireland to a halt. That happened after decades of neglect on the part of successive Governments. That results of that neglect came home to roost, with basic infrastructure not fit for purpose. It is certainly not fit for the changing weather. To be clear, there are still cables on the ground as a result of Storm Éowyn and Storm Darragh. Last weekend, we saw a strong weather event in the form of Storm Amy. There is little doubt we will see more such storms over the coming months. Instead of assisting the communities that have been affected, the Government has chosen to place the burden of bearing the cost of those storms directly on the people.

In this budget, the Government had the opportunity to stand up to the big polluters. It could have introduced a pollution tax on private jets and ended our reliance on fossil fuels by investing in strong public renewable energy infrastructure. Instead, it has pushed the cost of climate measures onto workers and families through regressive and divisive policies such as carbon taxation. The carbon taxes outlined in the budget are inherently unjust. They increase the cost of essential travel without providing any alternative vital public transport infrastructure. They represent an unjust, failed and technocratic approach to environmental policy and make existing social and economic inequalities worse.

Climate and environmental policies should benefit all of society. Realistically, we will only achieve our climate goals if all working people and families are part of the just transition. Instead, the Government - surprisingly backed by Independents from rural areas - has made it more expensive for people in rural areas to travel to work, to make essential appointments and simply to live.

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