Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry but credit for this budget must go to the people of Ireland because this is their budget. They have sacrificed so much in carrying the burden they have carried for the past 12 years, or since the crisis in 2008. This budget is one they have made themselves. Without them, we could not have borrowed money to invest in our future. Great credit must be given to the working men and women and the businessmen and businesswomen of our country.

There are a couple of measures I really welcome, the first being the Covid restrictions support scheme. It is an excellent scheme and I look forward to seeing the terms and conditions and to the opening of applications next week.I welcome the shared island fund and the €500 million the Government has put in there to strengthen our Border communities. There are about 1,500 cases of Covid-19 in the North today so now more than ever we need to be investing in our people as an island.

I welcome the €19.2 million for our local government fund. It is important that we strengthen our local government and anything we can do in that area that puts the citizen first, is important. I am looking forward to finding out the details.

There were a number of misses and I will mention two of those which are important to me. I would have really liked to have seen something like a medical card for the terminally ill in this budget and we talked about it before with the Minister for Health. This is a time when euthanasia is being discussed in this country and yet we are cribbing about giving those who are dying a medical card. We can do better. This was also an opportunity to bring back the bereavement grant, which we got rid of in December 2013. Many families who have been affected by Covid-19 may not only have one funeral but they may end up having two funerals within their family and the cost of funerals is significant.

There is one issue I want to highlight most specifically, namely, mental health. The winter plan does not seem to give that matter due attention. The budget rightly acknowledges the significant stress, anxiety, worry and fear that Covid-19 has brought to the people of this country. There has been much talk by healthcare professionals in this area of a tsunami of mental health issues, which is expected to hit in the coming months. The Psychological Society of Ireland has predicted a threefold increase in general mental health difficulties as a direct result of Covid-19, as well as stating that the impact of this will be felt for a long period of time. Considering this, while the funding outlined in the budget is welcomed, as is the case with any funding aimed at mitigating the effects of our mental health crisis, I must point out that it still falls short of what we should be doing. The mental health funding outlined in the budget amounts to 1.25% of the moneys made available to the health service as a whole. The World Health Organization recommends that each state dedicates 12% of its health spending to mental healthcare. While €50 million is no small sum, it is dwarfed by the figures which surround it in this budget. Most notably perhaps, I mention the €1.3 billion fund ring-fenced for Covid-19 measures, when the mental health fallout may prove to be the longest lasting effect of this virus.

The additional pressures associated with the Covid-19 pandemic have uncloaked the underlying tension and fragility that many Irish people live with, including: strained social bonds; overstretched families; inadequate childcare provision; drug and alcohol misuse; and financial uncertainty. I do not know how many young people I have known who have lost their lives to suicide during this pandemic. Anything we can do to support our young people and those who are affected as a result of the fallout of Covid-19 needs to be done and we need to do better. I have serious doubts as to whether the funding allocated in this budget will be enough to allow the relevant services to attain the goals set out by the Government in this year’s Sharing the Vision mental health policy. Let us not pursue a frugal course of action in this regard that will result in our saying in years to come that we should have done more. I echo the call of Fiona Coyle of Mental Health Reform to not "leave those who need mental health support out in the cold".