Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

This budget has very little to do with ordinary families across Ireland. It is to do with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and where they are in the election cycle. After the budget, I picked up some Fine Gael election material.

So many promises have been broken. The Deputy is right that the Minister believes he can hold the Government together. There will not be an election for a couple of years and the promises can wait. As it was just before the last election, the sweets will follow and the Government will hope the people will forget before the next election. The people will not forget that the budget has abandoned families and certainly taxpayers.

In the election promises, the Minister's leader claimed that the Government would make work pay but work is not paying in Ireland in 2026. There is no reward for working hard or taking on additional shifts. People essentially pay almost 50% tax over €44,000. What can you buy in Ireland with €44,000? A decade ago you might have got yourself on the property ladder but not today. It is extremely low. You enter the higher rate of tax at €44,000 and, with PRSI contributions and the USC the Government claimed was temporary, you end up in a situation where work does not pay. It is hard to believe the Government and parties that campaigned so strongly on making work pay have delivered a budget that is so far removed from the election promises. The failure to index the bands is really unfair on hard-working families, individuals, nurses, gardaí and teachers who are struggling to get by. They will see a modest increase in their pay this year, perhaps, but it will be swallowed up by taxation. They will be significantly less well off. The Minister has essentially introduced a tax increase. That did not appear in any Fine Gael election manifesto. The saving is in the region of €445 million, a very modest figure.

I want to raise the issue of VAT and apartments. I welcome this. There is a viability issue with apartments. I hope this measure will see an increase. Viability in terms of housing is felt right across the construction sector. It is felt in Mayo. I spoke to a developer last week who has planning permission for a relatively big development in a medium sized town in Mayo. He says he cannot afford to build it because of the viability gap. He cannot make a profit on that development. That is the viability gap the Minister has forgotten about for ordinary developers trying to build in rural Ireland. I ask him to consider the fact there is so little development happening, particularly in rural Ireland, despite the fact there is such a housing need. It is because of the viability issue but the Government is effectively saying it does not exist outside of apartments.

I want to speak about spending in respect of IPAS. The Minister is overseeing a budget of €1.2 billion of taxpayers' money in terms of IPAS centres. Last week the Comptroller and Auditor General found so many issues involving lack of governance and a failure to manage the public purse in this regard. It is an enormous amount of money. It is absolutely shocking to see the Minister taxing ordinary Irish families on relatively low incomes at almost 50% while at the same time allowing a budget to balloon to €1.2 billion with so little oversight and management of that budget. We read this morning of a horrendous situation last night in the Citywest Hotel where an alleged incident took place-----

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