Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend all of those who are organising the rare breeds conference in Mulranny this weekend, starting on Friday. It is a very important conference which I attended last year. Wonderful work is being done in this country on rare breeds, their development and the importance of that to the agricultural sector. It impinges on other sectors as well. I wish the organisers well for the conference in Mulranny on Friday and I look forward to attending at least part of it.

I wish to talk about the rainy day fund. We should not be looking at a rainy day fund when we have a crisis in housing and health. The recent stability programme update shows why the so-called rainy day fund should be scrapped. The €500 million to be put aside next year will only be money diverted from services. It is more akin to a black hole than a rainy day fund. It is a crisis now for 10,000 homeless people and hundreds of thousands on the waiting list. There are also hundreds of people on trolleys every day in hospitals. They do not need reassurance that we are prepared for the future. They need things to happen now. It is an insult to them to say that it is better to lock people's money away while so many are waiting for treatment. I just received a call from a woman who was to have a vital procedure in Galway hospital today. She was all ready to go but she was told there is no bed. There has been a reduction in the number of nurses in recent years, including in Mayo. The money that has been set aside for the rainy day fund should be put into the services that are needed right here and right now. It should also be used for investment in infrastructure in rural areas. Last week I spoke about a community between Westport and Louisburgh that did not have any proper quality water. There should be a reconsideration of the rainy day fund and the investment should be made there. That makes absolute sense because of the multiplier effect in terms of job creation. It is vital that such investment is made now in rural areas. We recently ratified the UN convention on disability. Substantial funding will be required to ensure the implementation of the convention. The money should be used for that as well.

In reply to my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, the Minister for Finance recently said his intention remains to transfer €1.5 billion from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, and to make annual transfers of €500 million per year in each year from 2019 to 2021, as was published last month in the stability programme update. What guarantees are there that this will not just be a backup fund for bankers and speculators if they behave deplorably again? It is being said that this is to make our economy more resilient, yet the Government continues to reference the economic crash when justifying its set-up. There needs to be a rethink about that. It shows the Government does not have an understanding of the immediate issues that need to be addressed here and now. If we did not have homeless people and people who are left waiting on trolleys for vital treatment, then we could have a rainy day fund, but not under the current circumstances.