Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I convey my personal sympathies and those of the Fianna Fáil group to the family of the late Emma Mhic Mhathúna. I commend her bravery and strength in recent months. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.

We have all come from either the Lower House or we were watching the budget on the monitors in our offices. One of the cornerstones of the confidence and supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is that there would be a 2:1 split in favour of spending on services over tax cuts. That stipulation was in evidence in today's budget, which was yet another progressive budget because of the Fianna Fáil influence. We saw many progressive announcements today, including an increase in the old age pension, unemployment benefit, carer's allowance and the disability allowance, a reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio and an increase in spending on the National Treatment Purchase Fund. We will also see an increase of 800 in the number of gardaí. These measures are all due to Fianna Fáil entering into a confidence and supply agreement with the Fine Gael Government. The influence of Fianna Fáil is clear from the fact that there has been much more progressive spending and fairness in the past three budgets.

I was disappointed, however, when it came to other elements of the budget. The Government fell short on climate change. A small surcharge was introduced in the rate of vehicle registration tax, VRT, for diesel cars but nothing that would make a significant contribution to enable us to meet our climate change targets. I read today that Lidl Ireland is to ban non-recyclable packaging in all its stores before Christmas.That is something I welcome, but the Government could have used this budget to encourage other stores to reduce the amount of non-recyclable plastics they use.

I was disappointed with another item. Although the spending on health is huge - it is one of the largest spends per capitain the world - there is nothing in this budget on implementing Sláintecare; there was not even a hat tipped to it.

The housing plan announced was not that ambitious. Fianna Fáil negotiated for €300 million to be ring-fenced for affordable housing. However, but for that, I do not believe this plan will change much in terms of producing the houses people need now. It will not go any way towards dramatically increasing the supply in the coming short period.

There will be much debate today on the budget. Ultimately, it was a progressive, fair budget. However, we need to consider where we are going with health spending, which remains high, and whether we are getting the results. We also need to ensure that housing provision is key so that all of us have somewhere to return to at night. Ten thousand people are still living in homeless accommodation, including 4,000 children, and we need to take urgent action to help those people. Discussing the budget is great, but we need action. We need sods turned and housing provision to happen fast.