Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In part, this budget is a response to the war in Ukraine, as a consequence of which Russia has put us under pressure.Russia has increased the cost of our imported fuel while it has in some cases simply turned off the supply of gas to Europe in an attempt to put pressure on European citizens, divide us, make people unhappy, polarised, turn against each other, abandon Ukraine and say that maybe we should let Russia have a portion of it or maybe we should walk away. Just as we have taken in nearly 50,000 Ukrainians, many of them into our own homes, we will not walk away from Ukraine. We will not crumble under this obvious pressure.

We think inflation is temporary. That is why many of the measures that we have taken are one-off measures. A large portion of the inflation is due to this artificial reduction in the supply of gas and we do not expect it will last forever. We do not expect Russia will be in Ukraine forever. The Russians seem to be retreating at this stage and taking desperate measures.

We have this package of cost-of-living measures to help people with their bills in November for electricity and gas, etc. They have been heavily targeted towards people who need them most. We worked with the ESRI to make sure that we would reach those people who are most likely to be in energy poverty as a result of increasing bills. However, it is also important that we take measures that last for the long term, and not only that get us through a few months, to prevent us from having to import fossil fuels in the first place. It is for that reason that the amount available for retrofitting will increase from roughly €330 million last year to more than €500 million this year so that we can do more than 37,000 homes.

The cost-of-living measures are temporary. Many of them will last only until the spring but they will be reviewed then. As a number of Senators said, we are in a strong economic position through successful industrial policy and prudence in our previous budgets. There is a war chest to deal with this. We have strong resolve to make it work.

A number of Senators referred to the historic introduction of a large reduction in the childcare costs. This will be worth up to €2,000 per child per year to families. That will have a significant effect. Ireland had the highest childcare costs in Europe up to now and many parents were suffering. It will bring some relief. We also understand that we have to make sure that the childcare places are available and we have to support childcare providers. We have increased core funding significantly this year. We introduced core funding for the first time this month. We have increased the amount available for next year. This is to make sure that the childcare providers can stay in business and do not shut down, and that there is availability. We have also increased the salaries that are available and improved the working conditions for people working in the childcare sector who up to now were reliant on the minimum wage but will now be paid €13 an hour. Those are the three different ways that we are looking at the childcare sector.

Many Senators, to be fair, on both sides of the House, gave credit for the many positive aspects of the budget. There were also questions and I will address some of those. The first, from Senator Gavan, is about the reduction in the registration fee for third-level students by €1,000 this year. Next year the plan in the budget states that we will change it from a universal measure to one that is targeted towards people based on their household income, and for households with an income between €62,000 and €100,000, there will be a reduction of €500 in the registration fee but for those households with an income under €62,000, there will be a reduction of €1,500 in the registration fee, which roughly halves the cost of going to college. This is in addition to the increase in the SUSI grants.

Senator Gavan had a question about home heating oil. The carbon tax increase on such oil will not come in until May of next year and in the meantime, the NORA levy is being temporarily removed, which will reduce the cost of home-heating oil by 2 cent. I understand that the price of oil generally has been moderating or softening over recent months, but it will be watched carefully. We are well aware that gas is available in urban areas but much of rural Ireland is dependent on oil.

There was also the question of how many acute beds are being funded out of the health spending increases. I need to check that with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I believe that out of the €1.15 billion extra in health expenditure, 650 acute beds are being funded.

Senator Black raised mental health funding and perinatal mental health and said that it should be provided in a way that preserves the bond with newborn children. That is a point well made. The Senator also expressed support for community organisations and asked how they would manage through this period. Although the temporary business energy support scheme is being introduced, there will be a support scheme for community centres as well, including for those that do not have trading income. There will be some form of supports for all those organisations that are part of the social backbone of our communities.

Senator Flynn asked about the problem with the energy credit scheme last year as it applied to halting sites or in Traveller-specific accommodation where there was one meter point reference number, MPRN, shared between multiple households. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan about this. We have agreed that we will guarantee that there will be the full amount for every Traveller family in the same way that people would be paid if they was living outside of a halting site or Traveller-specific accommodation. We will resolve that. We will do that by working with the local authorities. I take the Senator's point that this should not come out of the Traveller accommodation budget. It should not be taken out of funding that was meant to spent on something else. We will fund it separately and efficiently and we will make sure that Travellers are treated exactly as any other household, as they should be. There have been discussions about that.

A number of Senators referred to the fact that IVF is being funded for the first time, that contraception is being provided free of charge up to the age of 30 and that pregnant women suffering from hyperemesis will be able to get access to a drug, which they had sought for so long and which many of us had been asked to work on their behalf to obtain. Senators can see that women's reproductive rights are being asserted in a pragmatic way and women are being supported in their reproductive choices at whatever stage they are in their life, which is positive.

Senator Lombard asked a practical question about the rent credit, which is worth €500 annually for people who are in the private rented sector. He asked whether it applies to people who are renting a room and what happens if it is a couple. As I understand it, this will be €500 per person who is working. If it is a couple and both are working, they both get the €500 credit. If five people are sharing a house and they are all renting a room, each gets the €500 if each of them is working and they paid €500 tax in the previous year. It is available for 2022 and it will be paid at the end of this year after Christmas and again next year.

Apprenticeship funding was raised by one Senator. Apprenticeship funding is interesting because when we looked at it through the equality budgeting framework - there is a team who do equality budgeting in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform - they noticed that the money for apprenticeships was predominantly going towards men and that did not make any sense because it was merely based on tradition and that with a little work, we could make sure that apprenticeships were equally available to men and women. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has made much progress with apprenticeships. He included them in the CAO scheme. He has done much to promote them. When I talk to people, it is something that they are much more interested in. It is crucial for our green transition that we attract people. We are very short of electricians and other tradespeople to carry out retrofits. We are short of people to service electric vehicles. In our new green economy, many people need to be trained up in those areas and the more that we can do in that area, the better.

I think I have covered most contributions. I am happy over the rest of the week to answer any questions that Senators may have on the budget that they want to put on the expenditure side to me and I will be happy to revert to them.