Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. It is great to see him here. Overall, this is a very positive budget. It is no surprise that we were all a bit concerned and worried, as we would be, because we meet constituents all the time who are worried about their futures, their families, and about the cost of living. This budget very much aligns with Green Party policies and principles, which are about protecting the most vulnerable, progressive systems of taxation and social welfare, while also ensuring the future is a greener future. We do not just put in place nice words and policies but ultimately we underpin all of that with the long-term funding that will be in place long after this term of Government. That is what we see in this budget. It is a responsible, competent budget with a responsible, competent set of policies backed up with money.

The Minister of State has gone through the detail himself but a number of things stood out to me, one of which is about microgeneration. There has been a solar revolution in this country that has been brought about because people really care about the environment and about making sure they have something cost-effective when it comes to energy. They want to be part of the solution. When we took the VAT off solar panels and ended the requirement for planning permission, and retained grants and extended them to businesses, farms, schools, community buildings, all of those things have led to a 250% increase in solar panels across this country. There was a time maybe a year ago when people would have said all Ireland was good for was wind. What we are seeing is that a huge amount of the energy being produced now is coming from solar panels. One really positive thing in this budget is giving back to people who are doing that. This is rewarding people in their pockets and saying that there is a tax disregard of €400 instead of €200 when it comes to what people bring back to the grid. It is about how they play their part for other people and producing energy for those who do not have solar panels at all. We announced a scheme of solar panels on all school buildings last year. I brought it up in the education committee last week and I acknowledge the Minister of State personally has been doing a huge amount of work on solar panels for school buildings. It is time now for the Department of Education to use the funding that Green Party Ministers have put in place. It was time a year ago but at the very least, it is time now because young people who might not have solar panels on their homes want to also play their part when it comes to this revolution.

I also mention, as the Minister of State did, the climate and nature fund. We have heard the concerns from a lot of environmental NGOs around the fact that we need to bring people with us when it comes to climate action and action on nature. There was concern in Europe regarding the EU's nature restoration law, for example; a lot of which was unfounded and based on misinformation. However, what we did was said that the action would be backed up by a fund that would support farmers and local communities. One example of something that can be done with a fund like this is to open a new national park like the national park that is being opened in Dowth, in County Louth and across the border in County Meath. We will see a transformation, not only based on green policies, but based on money backing those up.

When there is a difficult period for people, such as we have seen with the aggression towards, and the illegal invasion of, Ukraine, the amount of power Putin ended up having while controlling our resources, and the global inflation and cost-of-living challenge, who are the people who suffer most? The most vulnerable suffer but it is also people who have children. Children do not earn any money and they only cost you money. In difficult times, when there are extra people who are being fed and clothed, those are the people who really need the supports. I was going through the budget and we had the great little brief guide. Apart from the big measures that are mentioned, when we go through the items and look at the temporary cost-of-living measures, half of those are to do with children and those in schools. There is an extra €100 for the back-to-school clothing allowance; more money for school transport; free books now extended up to third year in secondary school; 900 more schools to benefit from hot meals; and the waiving of all fees for junior certificate and leaving certificate. All of these things demonstrate the Government's acknowledgement that we know who our constituents are and who the electorate is. We know who is struggling and we are trying to do the absolute best we can in a sensible way with the money that is available. I was also delighted to see some of the measures for young people in this budget. As people will remember, the Green Party put a measure in place last year and the year before which would reduce public transport costs by 20% for everyone but we reduced them by 50% for young people up to the age of 23. In this budget, we have increased that for 24-year-olds and 25-year-olds who will be brought in under that as well.

On top of that, we have the announcements from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris - and I hope there will be more by the end of the week - on expanding the SUSI grants, where there is a huge expansion, and on a reduction of fees in third level. All of these things have an impact on the most vulnerable, namely, young people, children and families. All of the measures relating to social welfare, which have been outlined, impact these people, as well as those middle-income families who are struggling. My time is up. We will undoubtedly discuss some of the issues because we want to make sure we follow up in order that everything gets over the line.