Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There are areas of this budget where I wish more had been provided, specifically stay-at-home parents. This is an area I feel very passionately about and it one the Minister of State mentioned.

I am astounded by the 25% cut in fees provided in the childcare package for people who avail of a crèche. This was one of the Green Party's core commitments when we went into Government. We thought the initiative might take another few years to introduce but it has been accelerated, with funding of €1 billion provided for childcare next year. When it comes to stay-at-home parents, and this falls under the Department of Social Protection, we must ensure that all parents, regardless of the choice they make, are supported and protected. Those who forgo an income to care for their children also have childcare costs because they are no longer in receipt of an income. The number of stay-at-home parents in Ireland is particularly large when compared with other European countries, which is no bad thing. This area needs to be looked at again next year, notwithstanding the increase of €100 in the tax credit.

A couple of weeks ago, the Government announced that childcare professionals were to be paid properly for their work. This is the first time a Government has ever used core funding to support crèches and enable them to pay their workers a proper wage.

If we consider the other benefits for families, I believe this is a budget that supports families. It recognises that people with dependent children, who cannot work, do not have tax credits or are not entitled to social welfare payments, need more support. That is exactly what this budget does.

The Green Party had five specific asks going into the budget, all of which are being delivered. The first was to provide financial assistance to families and small businesses under financial pressure due to the rise in the cost of living, with particular emphasis on those least able to meet the rising costs. That is being delivered in the budget. The second was to help to accelerate Ireland's move away from fossil fuels to renewables so that we end up producing our own clean energy rather than importing expensive dirty fuel. The third was to place a windfall levy on fossil fuel companies that would go straight to those who need it most. The fourth was to cut childcare costs and the fifth was to ensure continued investment in public transport, delivering low-cost, high-quality services. All five of these measures are provided for in the budget.One of these was financial assistance for families and small businesses under financial pressure because of the rise in the cost of living, with a particular emphasis on those least able to meet the rising costs. This is being delivered in the budget. We also asked that help be provided to accelerate Ireland's move away from fossil fuels to renewables so that we end up producing our own clean energy rather than importing expensive dirty fuel. We asked that a windfall levy be placed on fossil fuel companies that goes straight to those who need it most. We also asked for cuts to childcare costs and to ensure continuing investment in public transport delivering low-cost, high-quality services. All of these measures are in the budget.

The fossil fuel crisis warrants some comments from me as the Green Party representative. I agree somewhat with Senator Gavan that there is no easy way to deal with this. This is because we are dealing with a fossil fuel crisis not of our own making in this country. It has been caused by a war and Putin. The cost of gas on the international market is 14 times what it was several years ago. We must deal with this responsibly as a Government. I do not believe that an energy cap is a responsible measure and I will explain why. Sinn Féin states that underpinning this policy is that it creates security. We have seen that it absolutely does not create security. The UK, which has been using this for some time, has had to keep increasing the cap. In fact the cost has been increasing for the end user. Windfall taxes are the correct approach. What we have outlined in the budget is that if we cannot secure windfall taxes against fossil fuel companies at European level we will introduce them in this country. Energy caps take from the people in Ireland who most need it and hand it over to fossil fuel companies. Essentially the companies are told they can continue with the fossil fuel industry as long as they want and the country will back them up and hand over the hard-earned cash of our people. A windfall tax looks for energy companies to give back and then for us to use that money for the most vulnerable. This is the correct approach even in these difficult circumstances.

As an education spokesperson it is important that I commend the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who is supporting her, on installing solar panels on every school in Ireland. This was announced in recent days. It got every child in the country very excited. Even children who do not have solar panels at home, or who do not have a prospect of having them in the next short while, can be part of the energy transition. The whiteboards in their schools can be fuelled by the sun. Nothing brings it home more to children than seeing how they can be part of climate action.

The Green Party is very supportive of the measure regarding free school books for primary schoolchildren. I note, however, that the cost of €110 per child for school books is predominantly as a result of book companies bringing out edition after edition. Families who have several children or who know people in their community who have used older editions are not able to reuse them. They have to buy a new book. This is why it was in the programme for Government that we would try to end the practice and look for a more sustainable approach to school books, have more lending of school books and end workbooks. It is important to make sure we are not now saying that families will not pay for school books as the State will do so but that new editions will still be created, unnecessarily creating more waste and wasting money. It is important to voice the perspective of the Green Party on this issue. It is probably slightly different to other parties in this respect. It is an important point. Families know they have older editions of books sitting in the press that they are no longer able to use. I could say an awful lot more. I took up a lot of time discussing energy, which was correct. I will now hand over to the next speaker.