Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

On behalf of the Labour Party, I begin by offering our deepest condolences again to Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison, the parents of young Harvey Morrison Sherratt. I have spoken, as have my colleagues, with Gillian previously and we are thinking of them today, as indeed we are thinking of all the parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida who have faced unconscionable delays and obstacles in accessing necessary treatments and necessary surgeries for their children. All of us are thinking of the experiences we have heard about from those parents.

One story that stays with me is told by parents who described lying awake at night listening to their children crying in pain while awaiting surgery. Those are appalling experiences for any parents or children to have to endure. It is in this context that this House is being asked to vote confidence in the Government and the Tánaiste today and we patently cannot do so. For us in the Labour Party, this motion is not one we can support and, of course, we must oppose it. Indeed, it derives from a broken promise. To reiterate again, it was a promise made by the Minister, Deputy Harris, in 2017 that no child should wait longer than four months for spinal surgery. It is a broken promise when we still see children waiting but this is just one in a litany of broken promises. We could put it another way. We could say that never before have the actions of a Government been so divorced from the manifestos on which the governing parties ran. To put it bluntly, these are broken promises. Just today, we are seeing a sixteenth deadline passed and more delays in the opening of the new national children’s hospital. We have seen enormous issues with the governance of children’s health in Ireland. All these issues are, of course, uppermost in the minds of those parents whose children are awaiting surgery.

It is not just children, however, who had been appallingly treated by the State. It is also people who are awaiting a home of their own and have given up hope that they may ever access a home of their own. Let us not forget that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael canvassed voters for their support less than a year ago on the basis of a fictional housebuilding projection. The figures for housebuilding last year were grossly overstated.

On childcare, promises were made that childcare fees would be capped at €200 per month within 100 days. That promise has disappeared. Cuts to student fees disappeared and we see instead a €500 increase. Promises were also made around classrooms and the numbers of teachers, but these have simply been done away with. A promise was again made and not fulfilled about the abolition of the means test for the carer's allowance. Nothing has still been done on securing justice for thalidomide survivors, an issue I have been pushing with the Taoiseach for many years now. Many households are still bearing the real burden of the cost-of-living crisis and of soaring energy costs, with 300,000 households in electricity arrears. Indeed, it could be said that the only election promise on which the Government has made good immediately was the wrongheaded VAT cut for hospitality and hairdressing, which is a narrowing of our tax base, with no evidence it will have any positive impact on businesses, workers or consumer prices. Uniquely, we in the Labour Party opposed that cut in last year’s budget in our manifesto last year and in our alternative budget this year.

The Government’s budget last week has offered no respite and no sense that promises will be kept or that it will remedy the defects. Ireland has a wealthy economy for sure but the society feels poor and people feel let down by the Government. Its members are hearing it as we are. Two hours of self-flattery and backslapping, which is what we have been promised with this motion, without having had the actual tabling of any motion of no confidence in the Government, is really not what people are looking for. When I travel the country meeting people, I encounter a sense of insecurity about the future and a sense that children are being most impacted by the failure to act by this Government, including children who have additional needs, children with autism, who are on long waiting lists for services and places. There are 5,000 children without a home and many more children in poverty. There is an uncertain future and an insecure present, with children paying the highest cost of all.

It is at these times that people look to the Government for improved public services, a minimum essential standard of living and supports and security. Before the election and since, we in Labour have been articulating a vision for an active State that will take responsibility for ensuring the welfare of children and of people for providing supports and the security that people need. This is our vision and we continue to offer this alternative vision for Ireland’s future. Without a commitment to that vision and a commitment to delivering on the promises the Government parties made in their manifestos last year, children will continue to bear the brunt.

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