Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)

Yesterday was my first budget in this House. Having spoken to a number of families last night and individuals who contacted me, they have looked at that budget yesterday and found absolutely nothing of substance that would help them. These are working families and working men and women. If the Minister takes the ordinary middle-income working family with two or three kids, there is no change in the price of their groceries or in their household bills. The tank of diesel or petrol costs more. Voluntary contributions remain. There is no help with childcare costs. Groceries are a prime example. They are an exorbitant cost. Families are cutting back to cover basic needs. The mother or father who is skipping a meal to make sure his or her child has a meal would have seen nothing for him or her in yesterday's budget.

This farce about the 9% VAT on gas and electricity supplies is just a cover. It will not help the more than 1 million homes, families, individuals and others who rely on a tank of home heating oil, specifically lower-income and rural households. What am I to tell a pensioner living on the side of the hill in the likes of Carrignavar or Mourneabbey who will not be helped by this Government because they have to rely on home heating oil? Along with this, there is €5 extra for fuel allowance. Five bloody euro. What an absolute farce. I looked it up this morning. A packet of firelogs is €10, so you would have about enough for a half a packet of firelogs. We are told an extra 50,000 people will be reached by the working family payment. My understanding is that they will receive that in March 2026 and it will be backdated to January 2026. It will get you nothing in the colder months of November, December, January and February.

Locally, yesterday's budget once again highlights the lack of follow-through from the Government on significant projects like the Mallow relief road and the Cork to Limerick motorway. Both of these projects are vital for the development of Mallow and its environs, as well as connectivity and safer routes between our second- and third-largest cities. These projects cannot just be shoved into the general budget of the Department of Transport or Transport Infrastructure Ireland. They should have been recognised as stand-alone projects by the Government.

On education, there have been improvements. I will accept that but they in no way go far enough for the ordinary child in the local voluntary school. The Government has now announced DEIS plus on two occasions yet there is still no clarity on what funding will actually be available. It can produce surgically accurate figures for restaurateurs and builders but not for our most disadvantaged children. It is astonishing, in what Simon Harris has declared a child poverty budget, that the Government cannot even outline how it intends to resource the schools serving those most in need. Ireland is one of the richest countries in the world, yet ESRI research shows that one in five children, that is, over 225,000, live in families below the poverty line. Projects like DEIS plus are vital and urgent. We need to see this reflected by the Government.

There was no mention of student-teacher ratios yesterday, even though it was a commitment in the programme for Government. There was absolutely no mention of the roles of secretaries and caretakers across our schools, who had to go on strike. There was no significant or firm funding commitment for the school transport system. The so-called continued investment in school transport is another empty promise. There is no fooling anyone in the school transport system and families across this country.

I welcome the announcement on new special needs assistants and special education teachers but I was in schools where I have seen allocations being made. What actually happens is that teachers and SNAs are taken out of mainstream environments and put into special education needs settings. I hope that is not going to be the case here as well.

There is a significant lack of progress being made for the most vulnerable people in our society. It is particularly affecting those who are working within our country. That is the knock-on effect for many people here.

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