Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I condemn the comments made by the DUP leader, Ms Arlene Foster MLA, earlier this week when she dismissed the Good Friday Agreement and suggested that it could be altered at the whim of the DUP. That should not be surprising to us because, in 2003, Ms Foster left her own party because of her opposition to the Good Friday Agreement. Her party supports Brexit. It is important that Ms Foster understands, as she does not seem to understand, that this is an international treaty between this State and Britain and it is lodged under the United Nations. She needs to get to grips with that. As co-guarantor of the Agreement, the Government and the British Government need to make sure that is upheld as well.

Members of this and the other House have asked why we do not just set up the institutions in the North and have commented that there are no preconditions. However, it is a precondition of any government to treat all of its citizens equally and it is not right for people here to advocate the setting up the institutions where there are not LGBT rights and where there are not rights for everybody in society. For example, people have had to wait decades just for the truth through legacy inquests. While we desperately want the institutions to be up and running, we could certainly never advocate the setting up of the institutions under such an arrangement. Perhaps all of this gives people down here a better insight into exactly what we have to deal with in the North.

Today, I commend the Sinn Féin alternative budget to the House. I commend my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, and others who have worked so hard on this. This is an alternative budget and it is about lifting the burden from the ordinary people of the cost-of-living crisis and investing in their full potential and in the public services they deserve. It has been fully costed and it takes into account the cost of living. The cost-of-living crisis, we must remember, exists because of Government policies and priorities.

We have presented this budget. We have shown how, through increased investment in education, housing, health, and agriculture and support for enterprise and development and job creation, we can have a different type of society. The additional revenue raised by closing tax loopholes, increasing betting tax and introducing an income levy on those earning in excess of €140,000, among other measures, could be used to open hospital beds. Contrary to some of the nonsensical statements that are made by Members who desperately need to appease their vested interests and those who control their thinking and the actions of those in power, 99% of workers will pay no additional tax under a Sinn Féin budget or a Sinn Féin Government. That is a fact. I accept 1% of the wealthiest in our country are asked to pay a little more but does anybody think that those earning €140,000 a year should be entitled to tax credit? Does anybody think that banks, which made €2.6 billion last year, should continue to be given a tax holiday? If Members think that, this is not the place for them. There is an alternative and that is the Sinn Féin budget.