Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget. I welcome the increases for pensioners and people with disabilities. They probably need more, to be frank, but I have to at least acknowledge it. I welcome the increase in the carer's supports thresholds. The ideal scenario is that if someone packs up a job to mind another person, regardless of what their partner earns or has, it saves the State a lot of money. The amount of work that is done throughout this country needs to be acknowledged. The new thresholds of €1,000 and €2,000 are a step in the right direction. There are many people who help out their fathers, mothers and loved ones and basically give up their lives to look after them and that needs to be recognised.

It is a disappointing budget for agriculture. Yes, there is money for TB and it is needed but, other than that, there will be what the then Minister, Deputy McConalogue, gave for tillage last year and a small bit more, but none of the schemes are getting any increases. I question where the €300 per cow we heard about in the programme for Government has gone. Is the cow gone or what has happened? That was badly needed.

There is a lot of money there for housing, in fairness. When one reads the document, the sad part of that budget is that affordable housing was never mentioned. We all represent different areas. I know in Roscommon if someone earns more than €35,000 they are not eligible for social housing, but what about affordable housing? If someone is working and earning €35,000 or €40,000 and multiplies that by four there is not a hope of them being able to buy a house in a lot of areas and we have to look at that. I do welcome the budget for housing, and I know there is a Bill going through the House at the moment to try to make a roadmap to get through the planning issues, because the problem is that although there might be money, it is harder to spend it because of the blocks that are put in place. We have to drive them out of the way - we have to doze them out of the way, to be honest - because what is happening cannot go on, with judicial reviews and all of this craic constantly blocking progress.

Irish Water's overall budget is €1.4 billion. It will do some work but if we are trying to build the numbers of houses we are talking about, if we do not have the roads, sewers and water needed we are going nowhere. That budget is spendable and Irish Water needs more upfront for a few years to try to catch up enough to make sure people are left in a situation where houses can be built, because that is a major problem.

On the infrastructure side of things, I note the N5 is in the budget again. This is the third budget it has been in and there is also a road in Cork. I want to see the likes of the M20 done. The road from Milltown heading to Sligo and Donegal needs to be done. The road from Kells heading to Monaghan needs to be sorted. I welcome moneys for rail infrastructure and all of that. Many Deputies have spoken about the western rail corridor. Problems need to be sorted out. I know between the Leas-Cathaoirleach's constituency and Galway there were problems with flooding and the likes of that need to be sorted out.

The most difficult part I have found in this budget relates to the people who, as a former Taoiseach, Mr. Varadkar, said, get up early in the morning and go to work. I saw a figure in the newspaper that a lot of them are €70 per week worse off to go to work. That is a damnable situation and, in my opinion, they are even worse off than that for this simple reason. For people living in rural Ireland who have two cars, they will be hit with the carbon tax of €170 to €200 extra per year, between heating their house and driving two cars. While there is public transport and Local Links here and there, people going to Galway city from the Minister of State's, Deputy Grealish's, area or from my neck of the woods have to drive as there is no public transport there and there is no point in saying there is. People come home at different times or go to work at different times. They may have a youngster going to college. I find it hard to understand how someone can say that when they pay more, we have looked after them. Going to college will cost €500 more this year than it did last year. I know that was an emergency measure, but I would have gone to the extra €46 million. I think the whole thing cost €92 million altogether last year. Bear in mind, the people who are paying the fees are the people who are out working every morning. That is it. There is no point in saying they are not. They are earning €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 and those people will pay the extra part.

As I said in the tillage debate earlier, I welcome the money the then Minister, Deputy McConalogue, gave last year and the few quid with it. We need to make sure we look after the tillage sector.

In regard to education, I have taken a few phone calls tonight about SNAs. While I appreciate there is more in the budget for SNAs, and that is great, there are schools that at this minute are having trouble getting SNAs and we need to make sure we address that.

We are where we are and I know we have to watch for stormy waters coming. I know there are some bodies that say we are going a bit beyond our means. I understand all of that. We have to make sure the people who are bringing in the taxes are looked after as well. As I said earlier, affordable housing was not mentioned in the budget speech. That is an awful reflection. It is not all about social housing. It should be 50:50 in my opinion because the nurses, gardaí, front-line workers and people who are working in factories or any industry are the ones who pay the bills to run the country, on top of the bigger companies.

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