Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator Gilroy mentioned that the Opposition would be scrambling for something to criticise. Unfortunately, some people did not have to look very far to find criticism in the budget. I will go through some of that later.

The key to any budget day announcement is that there should be some long-term programme, because only then will we be able to see how the details of any budget service that programme. I do not think that has been done today, or in the capital plan announced a number of weeks ago. Long-term planning is not sexy and does not roll off the tongue when one is on the doorsteps talking about elections but, ultimately, it is the stuff of economic and social prosperity. When people ask us what difference it will make to them, it is the absence or presence of housing waiting lists, people waiting on trolleys, special needs provision and disability services.

Looking to services over the next couple of years, the State faces demands for higher expenditure in the areas of health, education, social protection and pensions as the composition of our population changes. In addition, the cost of providing the existing level of public services is likely to rise in line with the forecast general rise in prices and wages in the economy.

A number of weeks ago during the pre-budget debate in this House, I mentioned the capital programme announcement. The economist Michael Taft has said that the projected €27 billion expenditure on public investment between 2016 and 2021, as outlined, actually represents stagnation. In 2015 public investment was about 1.8% of GDP, and the €27 billion package over six years represents around 1.9% of GDP. That means that between this year and 2021 the average annual increase will be less than €250 million.

The best way to describe this budget is that it is like déjà vu. If we cast our memories back to a time when, for example, corporate taxes were slashed, capital gains tax and inheritance tax were halved and the effective personal tax rate fell by 25%, we could see ourselves back in the 1997 to 2007 era. At the time that was grand. The money was rolling in from property tax revenue and then came the crash. We were exposed, and our hollowed-out tax base, which hid behind the fig leaf of property taxes and development, was exposed.

Let us now consider budget 2016 and all the little goodies that are being dangled before us. We are hoping that the shiny distraction of tax cuts, tax relief and buzzwords will distract the Irish people from the realities of what is happening.The 50:50 split between tax and spending cuts is more of the same old idealists' budgetary policy that benefits high earners in the main and strips public services of desperately needed investment. The cut to USC and changes to PRSI will put three times more in the pocket of someone earning €70,000 compared to the average worker. The Minister is giving those earning €25,000 a meagre €227 annually, yet he has put over €900 back into the pockets of individuals earning over €70,000. By reducing the USC in an inequitable way, cutting CGT and raising the threshold for CAT, and reducing corporation taxes, the Government is hollowing out the tax base for the long term and reducing the State's coffers. It is deeply dishonest.

While some money has been put back into people's pockets, the Government is exacerbating the notion that people are only consumers. These tax cuts are coming very much at the expense of critical public investment. The Government might be giving a feel-good budget, but the people will be forced ultimately to shop for their pensions, education and health care in the future. We are not seeing that long-term programme that I was talking about. We are seeing the creation of some kind of shopping centre with the menu of tax breaks and the famine of real investment.

I sat attentively while listening to the budget being delivered, waiting to hear what would be done for young people, and yet again there was nothing. It highlights the Government's apathy towards young people. Senator Gilroy mentioned that the Sinn Féin policy is merely a policy of giving young people an extra few euro, but Sinn Féin policy, like that of Labour's own youth wing which lobbied Deputies, Senators and councillors in the Labour Party and last week even met the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, is one of welfare equality. Senator Hayden was on the Labour Youth Facebook page this week mentioning that those under 26 have to pay rent and cover their living costs just like everyone else, and that what we end up doing is pushing young people into poverty for no justifiable reason. That is an important point. I was very annoyed that we did not see the restoration of jobseeker's allowance rates for young people. Not everyone of the Minister of State's age and mine is fortunate enough to have the salaries and expenses of an officeholder. Both the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, and I were under 25 when we came into these Houses, but jobseeker's allowance for young people was cut both by the previous Government and by this one. It is important that it is restored and that we achieve both welfare equality and equality right across the board for young people. The Minister of State mentioned, for example, that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was in a position to announce an increase in pension payments and an increase in the fuel allowance. He stated: "These targeted increases are important for the groups concerned and will again help to ensure that the benefits of recovery are widely spread." We need to see a recovery for young people also.

The Minister for Finance, at the end of his speech in the Dáil, stated that "today's announcement will be further developed if we are returned to Government". When one makes a comment like that, who needs an election manifesto? Maybe that might win over some but as they start to get their water bills or see their relatives on trolleys, waiting for hospital appointments, living in sub-standard accommodation or, worse, dying on the streets from homelessness, he can be assured that this spoonful of sugar will not help the medicine go down.