Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. When I was listening to the speech yesterday I was minded of the great philosopher and musician, Noddy Holder, who, in 1973 on "Top of the Pops", screamed through the microphone, "I said Mama but we're all crazy now". It is nice to see the Government move ever so slightly to the left. It is fair to start with some positives on the budget. As the House knows, Sinn Féin likes to give a balance approach to these matters.

I welcome the additional funding for disabilities. I pay tribute to the many campaigners in that sector. The Government has made a good start this year. I also welcome the education funding. We would have gone further. We would have made a difference of two points in the pupil-teacher ratio, but one is still welcome. We want to especially welcome the funding for the shared Ireland unit. Again, we would have made it €140 million instead of €100 million, but it is important to recognise it. We also recognise the Christmas bonus. It is not technically part of the budget but it is important that people know that it will be included.

In a similar vein, we regret that the increase to the minimum wage next year is a pitiful 10 cent. This has led effectively to the end of the Low Pay Commission, as matters stand. That is more than regrettable in terms of the way that has worked out.

Overall, we are disappointed and I will summarise why that is the case. Yesterday was clearly a day for action but there was no relief for the people who saw their pandemic unemployment payment cut. There was no relief for renters. There was no right to a pension at 65 years. There was more new money for developers and landlords than for genuinely affordable housing. Nothing was delivered for families paying the highest childcare costs in Europe. There was not enough to help small businesses survive. We will see increasing costs for people throughout rural Ireland with carbon taxes and motor taxes. There is little ambition to get to grips with the crisis in our health service.

Our first priority would have been those who are struggling and barely clinging on having lost jobs and incomes, those who need the pandemic unemployment payment restored, those locked out of home ownership in the middle of a pandemic as well as the renters who simply need a break. The Minister should have reversed the cut to the pandemic unemployment payment for those who have lost their jobs as increased restrictions are reintroduced. Unfortunately, he did not do so. The Minister should have reversed the cut to the temporary wage scheme, but again he did not do so. This means we will have businesses closing unnecessarily. This means families slipping into further debt and, in some cases, at risk of losing the roof over their heads. The Government should have grasped this unique opportunity to have the largest house-building programme in the history of the State while stimulating the economy, addressing the affordable housing shortage and giving people real hope in these difficult times that they can secure a home for their families.

I will go into further detail about the housing issue. The new Government has failed its first and most important test on housing. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has failed to secure the level of capital investment required to tackle the social and affordable housing crisis. This is more of the same failed policy of the previous Government. It is a missed opportunity to invest in a truly ambitious public housing programme. I will highlight some key points. The budget was totally silent on the needs of renters. We saw 593 extra real social homes above what had already been committed to for 2021 by the former Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in Rebuilding Ireland. Only €110 million for affordable housing split between 400 cost rental homes and an as yet undefined shared equity scheme. There was no additional funding above what had been committed for local authorities to deliver affordable homes to rent or buy on council land.There were no targets for affordable homes to rent or buy in 2021. Perhaps most disappointingly, more new money will go to private landlords and developers. Some €208 million more will go to the various housing schemes than will go to genuinely affordable homes for working people. Less than €110 million is set aside for affordable homes when the shared equity loan element has been deducted.

I also want to raise the issue of health. The Government failed to adequately invest in critical care and intensive care beds. This is the fundamental reason we were so vulnerable to Covid-19 last March. It remains the key reason that we are so vulnerable to a second wave. The Government has only provided for 66 ICU beds, an increase of only 41 from where we are now. Sinn Féin would have delivered an additional 100 ICU beds. The Government announced 1,146 new acute beds for hospitals but what the Government did not tell us is that the difference between the number of beds we will have at the end of next year compared with this year is just 107. The Government was double counting and was including temporary beds that it intends to close. The Government once again failed our front-line healthcare workers. Yesterday was a day to turn claps into actions and to deliver pay equality for nurses. Sinn Féin would have used this budget to deliver this. The Government failed to provide additional home help hours beyond the winter plan, which ceases in April. Sinn Féin, on the other hand, provided for an additional 1 million hours.

The cut in support for the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, from €410 to €203 was short-sighted and should have been reversed. Extending this flawed scheme to the end of the year at the lower rate is far less than what was required. It is widely accepted that subsidising the wage bill of employers and keeping the connection between employee and employer is one of the most important interventions we can make. Cutting it to this level has already forced businesses to close their doors and has moved people onto the PUP, which is more costly to the State. There is no logic to such an approach. Our proposal will allow a maximum of €410 for the most affected sectors, namely, the hospitality and tourism sectors and parts of the retail, arts and leisure sectors if the business suffers a 50% downturn.

The retrofitting programme is welcome. Sinn Féin supports any measure that simplifies and makes green energy grants and supports more accessible. However, the Government's announcements on plans to introduce a national retrofitting programme are deeply flawed, as they require many householders to acquire more personal debt to retrofit their homes.

There are many more points I would like to make but I am sure my colleagues will do so in due course.