Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I congratulate all the junior certificate children who got their results today. I wonder if they will remember the Fine Gael budget that happened today, which was championed by Fianna Fáil. I hope they will. Will they remember in years to come the cruel disappointment that struggling families, workers and many others experienced today? General election promises have been forgotten very suddenly. The Government made promises in November, which is not that long ago, but they are already forgotten. Having promised a plan to deliver €10 childcare in the first 100 days of its term, the Government has delivered nothing. By pulling the rug on energy credits, the Government has exposed that what it provided for last year was just a cynical political ploy in advance of the general election.

The increases to school capitation funding are not sufficient and are a lot less than Sinn Féin had advocated for. Worse yet, the Government has deferred its insufficient assistance until next year, leaving school principals and teachers with so-called "voluntary" contributions already taken from hard-pressed parents. The arrogance with which the Government has tried to sell a €500 increase in college fees as a reduction is galling. To be clear, Sinn Féin's proposals announced an actual €500 reduction, which is €1,000 in the difference.

I welcome the Government's lifting of Sinn Féin's policy on abolishing the carer's means test, but the slow pace at which the Government has begun to implement this will see it take a decade to achieve. It is callous and utterly heartless. It does not recognise the work carers do and the money they save the State. To top all this off, the Government has promised a measly €10 to people with disabilities and old age pensioners, which is outrageous in light of the cuts that have already happened in electricity credits, and given the cost-of living crisis we are experiencing.

Believe it or not, it only gets worse. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has finally admitted what women have been screaming about, which is that there is insufficient endometriosis care. I had thought that the Government would actually do something about this in the budget, but it contains nothing for women suffering from endometriosis.

The budget also says nothing about additional domestic violence refuges around the country. In Cavan and Monaghan we have none. It still has not happened.

On housing, we begin to see who the winners are in all of this. Sinn Féin demanded a ban on rent increases and proposed putting a full month of rent increases back in people's pockets. That is still not happening but the big winners here are the developers.

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