Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)

This was not a budget for the ordinary worker, the fleeced generation or the hoodwinked masses whom the Government fooled into voting for it last year. I got an e-mail from a constituent of mine in Malahide yesterday afternoon. It might interest the Minister because this individual is not a voter of mine. She is actually a voter of the Minister's party.

This constituent wrote to me and said she wanted to express her "immense frustration with the lack of improvement to childcare costs in the budget despite the high-profile nature of the promises made during the last general election". She went on to say that her vote was influenced by these assurances and that she feels extremely frustrated with what appears to have been a strategy to obtain votes, rather than a genuine promise to the electorate. It is not my voter; it is Fianna Fáil's voter, who it lied to last year and fooled into voting for it with a splurge budget and promises it has now broken. It was the most blatant smash-and-grab job in recent Irish political memory. In fact, we would probably have to go back to 1977, again with Fianna Fáil buying an election. The Minister's party and Government have no credibility after this. None at all, and why? All of the challenges that exist, like the cost-of-living, health and housing crises, are as bad now as they were yesterday. They are worse than last year and this budget has done nothing to address them in a long-term manner.

On justice, for example, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, announced yesterday that funding for 1,000 new gardaí was going to be made available. In every budget, this funding is apparently made available for 1,000 new gardaí. The Government does not meet the targets, and even if it did, that number would not even keep up with the amount of retirees. What we need as well as new gardaí are new Garda stations. We need to invest in the capital of justice in terms of Garda stations and cars. My constituency is exploding in population. It is becoming huge. My own town of Swords is bigger than two of the towns that have been included in the Government's living cities initiative, yet we have a Garda station that, in terms of personnel - as great as they are - is not even at 2009 levels. They are in a Garda station that is fit for a village, not for a town that is about to become the size of a city. We have a village like Donabate, which is becoming a huge town. It is lucky if it sees a Garda car once a day. This is true the country over.

On housing, this Government has gone with the mantra: "We have tried nothing and we are all out of ideas. What will we do? We will go back to our mates and throw more money at the landlords and developers." No one has summed that up better than my colleague Deputy Conor Sheehan in calling out the Galway tent element of this budget. The coffers are empty for couples who work two jobs and still cannot afford a home but there is always room in a Fianna Fáil budget for the developers. Rents continue to rise and there are record homeless figures monthly yet there is always room in a Fianna Fáil budget to help developers. It is absolutely disgraceful.

On public transport, while we welcome funding for big projects like MetroLink and the planning permission announced last week, we need to see improved funding for our bus services all over the country. We need to ensure buses are turning up and that there is money to grow our bus services. They are the veins of public transport throughout this country, yet in constituencies like mine, we have the Nos. 102, 33B, 41 and 41B not turning up. Everyone in this Chamber will say the same because of a lack of funding of public transport services.

On defence spending, the Minister's party criticised the Opposition for not being serious on defence. Look at our alternative budget. Look at how serious we are with regard to investing in defence and our own security while being fully committed to military neutrality. We wanted to properly invest in cybersecurity. I am glad the Minister for Health is here because she knows, or should know, the impact that the Russian-led cybersecurity attack on the HSE had. I know Deputy Cullinane knows, as a health spokesperson, how damaging that was, yet we continue to massively underfund cybersecurity in this country. Our geography does not protect us from cybersecurity attacks. We have already been a victim to it. People have got sicker and died because of that cybersecurity attack and the impact it had on our health service.

This is the budget for no one but developers and the big fast food chains. The ordinary workers and ordinary people are left absolutely bereft by the cost-of-living crisis and the fact that this Government, despite all the promises of last year, has let them down.

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