Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is an objective observation. At a recent finance committee we examined the heads of the Bill for legislation underpinning the rainy day fund. Contrary to what the Minister of State has claimed, there was no mention of corporation tax receipts. The fact is that there would be a legal obligation on the State to account for €500 million a year if there was a decrease in corporation tax receipts. Many families are only one unexpected bill away from being in serious financial difficulty.This could involve the car breaking down, an unexpected medical appointment or urgent repairs to the house. We have more than 700,000 still on the waiting lists and every day across the State there is on average 400 patients on trolleys in our hospitals. I know a man who has been waiting four years in excruciating pain and he cannot have the treatment that he needs because the resources are not there to do it. I have raised it with the Minister since the first day I came into the Seanad. That gentleman is not the only one. There are many such people. The concept of a rainy day fund is fine, but how can we leave people in that state and say, "Never mind, we have a rainy day fund and at the end of the day, you should be really happy because the debt-to-GDP ratio is projected at 66% for this year and declining to 63.5% in 2019"? It is as if one should continue waiting in pain for an urgent appointment and ought not to worry because the GDP is okay.

Vast areas of rural Ireland are still without reliable high-speed broadband connection, and even mobile phone coverage. The Western Development Commission was before the Joint Committee on Rural and Community Development two hours ago outlining all the infrastructure deficits in rural Ireland. These are all problems that need investment right now. The trouble is that investing in capital projects, whether it be in the development of the strategic zone around Knock Airport, the western rail corridor or Merlin Park hospital, is not a zero sum game. The multiplier effect of capital investment in such projects is what will protect us. That, not saying that we have stashed away so many millions of euro that we can give to the bankers when they mess up again, is the roof over our heads that will be there if we have another economic crisis. We know from the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach that nothing has changed in the culture of our banking system, auditing system etc. They will do the same all over again. The red carpet is rolled out for the vulture funds by Government and they get charitable status. There is charitable status for vulture funds - one could not make it up. All of those millions could be put into vital infrastructure.

As a party, we have shown how we can invest in these areas in rural Ireland, and by using the fiscal rules ensure that there would be a Government surplus in 2021. There is only 12 months difference between our target time of reaching this point and the Government's. This time and the fiscal space could be used to tackle those problems that leave people who are working every available hour finding that they are barely managing to get by.

This full employment preoccupation drives me crazy for two reasons. First, there are areas within my own constituency where we have 30% plus unemployment. We have significant youth unemployment. We also have people who are working every hour of every day who cannot pay their basic bills. They are looking around to see whether they can bring their child to the doctor or not. We should not be congratulating ourselves that we have full employment when people cannot earn enough to pay their basic bills.a

Sinn Féin will have the back of these people. We will ensure that investment in areas such as childcare means that reduced costs will encourage more working women and parents back into the workforce. I will give one example of why this drives me crazy. In terms of our autism services, we have fantastic children and young people who have an autistic condition. Many of them are wonderfully talented people who could specialise in development and, indeed, do a much better job than some of our Ministers and some of those in these Houses do, were they given the opportunity and were the investments made for the diagnosis and the early intervention to encourage the unique talents that they can contribute to our economy and to innovation. For me, that is worthwhile spending. That is spending that one will get back tenfold. There has to be imagination and creativity around how we approach all of these matters.

I have much more to say but I will leave it for another day. There is a different way. There are different choices to be made. As for taking lectures from Fianna Fáil on how to run the economy, I will leave it at that.