Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with the Order of Business outlined. I wish to raise three topics on the Order of Business. The budget next week will probably be the most important in my lifetime in terms of its gravity and impact on people's lives. We are expecting not only the ordinary budget but also a cost-of-living package. I am sure many people will have been speaking to local businesses across the country and will know the pressure they are under. While we need to help households, families and citizens, we must also assist small businesses.I spoke to one small retailer in Ballinrobe in Mayo. Their energy bill in August of last year was approximately €17,000 for the year. This year it is €47,000. That shows the colossal increases that businesses have sustained in a short period of time. As was put to me bluntly by this particular business, if something is not done soon, difficult decisions will need to be taken. I take that to mean that they may not be able to continue trading or to continue to employ people locally which of course would be of huge significance to any small town, right across the country. I have spoken to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, about this. Obviously, none of us has any details specifically about next week’s budget, but I understand that the Government has committed to a significant package for businesses. I look forward to the details of that and to that much-needed easing of pressure on small business.

The second issue I would like to raise is dealing with the stress on families, which merits a wider debate in this House when we can facilitate it, perhaps with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, at some point. I would like to see an increase in or an extension of parents’ leave and subsequently parents’ benefit. It went from five weeks to seven weeks last year. This was the leave that mum and dad, or either parent, can take up to the first two years of a child's life. With all the talk about childcare, the cost of childcare and if, as rightly we should, we are putting huge funding into childcare, we also have to focus on facilitating parents to stay at home for longer if they choose to do that and on trying to take a little pressure off families by facilitating mum and dad to get much more extra time in that first year of life, which is needed. We as a country should be aspiring to a year’s leave for mum and a year’s leave for dad. Ultimately, this is about investing in children, about investing in families and about taking the stress off parents. For many households, both parents are working, they are like two ships passing in the night. They are seeing their child early in the morning and late at night and it is putting much pressure and strain on families. One way to alleviate that pressure is to give parents more time off in those early years. Again, this is something that I have raised directly with the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, who I believe is raising it with the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, in the context of next week’s budget.