Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I always welcome measures that improve people's lives. However, while many short-term, one-off measures in this budget may allow people to keep their heads above water for a few hours and get people out of a dark space for a short period, they will not make a real long-term difference to highly vulnerable people. This budget has definitely not future-proofed life for people who are living in poverty. Of course, we welcome the news about the cost of living. The Government is saying there is a fall in that but it is not seen on the ground among ordinary people. Listening to the Ministers talk about the budget throughout the day, it was all about the children of today and the children of tomorrow. What about the children of next week and the children of the future who are being born into poverty? This Government is doing very little. It is all talk. We have seen so many pieces of policy and suggestions around poverty but there is still no end to poverty in sight. This budget guarantees that a child born into poverty today will still be in poverty tomorrow because there is little or no support for long-term sustainable solutions for people living in poverty. I know every household will be receiving €150 in electricity credits and that is very welcome but we also know that there are many people from the Traveller community, and many others as well, who were left behind with those payments last year. The National Traveller Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, and I have raised this issue many times with the Minister of State. We have to make sure nobody gets left behind. I heard the Minister of State speak last week in the Dáil Chamber about legislation that is coming before the Houses very soon. He spoke of having Travellers specifically named in the Bill, putting special measures in place for Travellers and ensuring they will receive the credit and not miss out due to not having their own meters. We welcome that legislation.

On another note, I add that civil society groups called for a significant increase to qualified children payments and an additional welfare payment for children whose parents are receiving social welfare.The Government has committed to an increase of €4 per week but this does not go far enough. If we are serious about breaking the cycle of poverty, we need to see a significant increase in targeted permanent payments like the qualified child payment to make sure that we reach all children who are most in need.

This budget will give something to everybody in the audience. It did not give anything to lone parents. We know that children living with one parent are more at risk than children living with two parents. Why have lone parents not received the one-off payment of €400 as well?

There are 10,000 children in kinship care, with more than 7,000 in kinship care and placement in kinship placements, who are not in receipt of the guardian’s payment so the people who are looking after those children are getting no supports from the State. This is something we did not take into consideration.

Senator Craughwell spoke about NGOs. He seems to have a big problem with NGOs but I know that NGOs can work if they are run properly and that community development organisations can and do work. In its pre-budget submission, Social Justice Ireland said that that cuts to the community and voluntary sector since 2008 have never been fully restored. We did not look at that in the budget this year.

I welcome the supports for more recruitment of gardaí. However, we should be investing in our communities, including our young people, to empower them. I have not heard anything about measures for Traveller mental health. I know the Minister noted that today was national mental health day but that was it. There was nothing more about mental health in the budget except for that acknowledgement of mental health. Travellers were not named specifically in respect of mental health. When this Government was formed, it said that it would set up a national plan for Traveller mental health but Travellers have been let down again in this budget, as they were last year. We got the insulting figure of €300,000 for Traveller mental health. We do not know how that money was spent. I know that €1 million was allocated to Traveller well-being last year. Where has this money gone because it has not delivered on the ground? Traveller men are seven times more likely to die by suicide than men in the general population, while Traveller women are six times more likely to die by suicide than women in the general population. Again, and I will keep repeating this, this Government has promised us a ring-fenced budget to support Traveller mental health but this is nowhere to be seen.

Mental health in general was not mentioned in this budget if we look at CAMHS. We have a mental health crisis that needs to be recognised We need to invest in our young and older people when it comes to mental health. Travellers were not mentioned in the budget. The Traveller community was just thrown in with the Department of Social Protection. Again, we have been left out of the most important day of the year for investing in communities. These one-off payments will keep people's heads above water for a few hours or days but will not get people out of poverty.