Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this budget. When we look at the figures, this is the biggest social welfare budget, with investment of €26.5 billion. There is investment of €25.8 billion in health, €11.8 billion in education, €4.5 billion in further education, €8.9 billion in children and €7 billion in housing. How can we do this? How are we in a position to be able to support people at every stage of their lives in this country? It is thanks to the highest employment numbers we have ever had. There are 2.7 million people at work. The level of employment was mentioned today. It is set to increase by almost 110,000 people in the next two years and the unemployment rate will stay low, at approximately 4.5%.

During the Covid pandemic, we were putting all those measures in place. That was not long ago - only three or four years. We had no idea the economy and businesses were going to bounce back. We put measures in place that led to businesses being able to maintain real success. We can never take this for granted, however. Many of the multinationals constantly undertake global cost-cutting measures. We know the next technological advances are around the corner and we have to stay up to speed. I acknowledge the work of development advisers, whether at IDA Ireland or Enterprise Ireland, as well as the funding that we deliver into innovation and research and our universities. We try to stay ahead of the curve. We are going to be dealing with digitalisation and AI and all these measures that will probably immeasurably improve our lives, but also lead to additional challenges for a small country in a global economy. There is success here. My queries, however, are on how we are future-proofing ourselves. What are we doing? How are we going to be on the innovation index? How do we compare with Singapore?

The funding that is going into universities under the direction of the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, is an interesting aspect of this. We need to see how we are funding our third level sector. Yes, we have probably the highest number of third level graduates per capita globally, but we need to ensure we see that funding and innovation. We sometimes hear that Europe is very different from America when it comes to venture capital, VC, investment in innovation and cutting-edge technologies. People go to the United States. When we consider medtech companies in Galway, for example, their VC funding is an exit strategy to companies in the States. Europe needs to change how it looks at this. Europe needs to become more agile and change how it looks at regulation in this area. Those are elements that we, in government, can feed into.

The Minister of State went through a number of items, such as tax credits and so on. One of the elements brought into this budget that is incredible and a real win is that people on carer's allowance now qualify for the fuel allowance payment. If people qualify for the fuel allowance, that means they also qualify for the warmer home scheme. This is one of the mega elements of the budget. It will further provide for families and carers, in tandem with the increase in the income disregard. Many of us want to see a lot of changes in respect of carer's allowance. Carers are the people who ensure people can live longer in their own homes. Of course, I also welcome the measure relating to home help hours. This budget is incredible as it will ensure there are more supports for carers.

We often speak about infrastructure in this House. I note that one of the Ministers announced today in his budget speech that more than €99 million has been allocated to the Port of Cork. That allocation to develop a larger port will ensure we are able to do more offshore renewable energy. The provision in respect of infrastructure costs relating to broadband is another major aspect of the budget, as well as the provision for water infrastructure. When it came to building a development in my town of Ballinasloe, there was no water infrastructure. Uisce Éireann must be able to put the services in place as not having that sort of access when developing housing and developments in local areas is a real constraint. If the IDA is seeking to locate a company in the Minister of State’s home town, Roscommon or Ballinasloe, the first thing it will ask about is the housing in the area. It will ask where the people will be able to live and stay. If we do not have the water treatment plants to facilitate building capacity in our towns, it is a huge issue.

One of the measures I would like to have seen in the budget - perhaps it is in it - relates to local authorities and affordable housing. How are we going to incentivise local authorities to provide affordable housing? We are allocating a budget for it and I have not read the finer details yet, but I am curious about how we are going to incentivise. Local authorities are not getting involved in affordable housing because there is an administrative challenge to that. There is more administration involved. If they are providing something like local authority housing, there is less need to engage on an individual level than there is for affordable housing. How do we ensure that our local authorities are going to do this?

I also welcome the investment in the Future Ireland Fund, the agriculture reliefs and the change to inheritance tax. The latter is a major point for farmers in the context of succession and passing land from one generation to the next. It is very welcome. I commend the budget.