Conor Murphy (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I regret I do not have much of the same sentiment about the budget as I heard in the statements from him or in the Dáil earlier. This is the first budget of the new coalition and it is easy to see from it that the election is very much in the rear-view mirror of the Government. It has managed to cling on with the help of Michael Lowry and his clique, so ordinary families and workers have now been forgotten. As prices at the tills soar, rents get higher and higher, childcare costs cripple families, insurance costs spiral out of control and energy costs face double-digit increases, the Government has not offered any cost-of-living package.In an economy that the Government says is resilient, even buoyant, the cold of the coming winter will bite hard as the Government cuts energy credits that people rely on. Record numbers are already in default on electricity payments. What does the Government think will be the outcome of removing energy credits?

We know the pressures that people are under. We hear it all the time. In fact, during the last election campaign, this was the number one topic, yet it has not featured in this budget. In our alternative budget, we have costed a €2.5 billion suite of cost-of-living measures, including €450 in energy credits, a ban on rent increases, childcare fees of just €10 per child per day and a reduction in third level fees by €1,500 in 2026 while working towards complete abolition. These are just some of the things the Government could have done.

Last month, the Government announced a target of reducing child poverty by 3% by 2030. No child in Ireland should be living in poverty. Successive Governments since the beginning of the State have failed to cherish all of the children of the nation. Unfortunately, the budget announced today is the latest in a long line of failed opportunities. Budgets are about choices - who to support and who to burden. For a century, the interests of the rich and powerful have trumped the interests of ordinary citizens and those working more and more just to stand still. However, the developers have not been forgotten in this budget. The Minister of State knows who will benefit from a decision to lower VAT on apartments. It will not be the first-time buyer looking to get out of their parents’ spare room, the family living for years in a hotel room, or the couple delaying starting a family because they have nowhere to live. No, it will be the developers and the investors laughing all the way to the banks, the same bailed-out banks that the Government refused to tax on their billion-euro profits.

Sinn Féin would have made completely different choices. We put forward a €13.4 billion package, €4 billion more than the Government is offering. The vast majority of this would have been spent on providing houses for citizens. The fundamental difference is that this Government uses housing as a commodity, something to be bought and sold or rented for profit. Incredibly, the Government allocated only €1.3 billion for taxation measures. We would have taken a different approach. We would raise tax receipts from banks, landlords and the wealthiest, those who can afford to pay, not hard-pressed families struggling to get by every week. We would abolish the universal social charge on the first €40,000 of income, phase out property tax, cut carbon taxes and increase the renter’s tax credit. We would scrap tax reliefs for landlords, increase the bank levy and introduce a solidarity tax of 3% on individual income above €100,000. These are choices we would make. These are fair measures.

Unfortunately, the budget once again misses an opportunity to prioritise planning for the future through all-Ireland economic growth. The Government should really be working towards constitutional change that would turbocharge the national economy. Many economists have predicted the financial dividend that unity could bring, but the truth is that senior Government figures have set their face against that. They claim the time is not right to begin planning for unity, yet little is done to remove the obstacles to fulfilling the economic potential of our country. In saying that, I recognise today's announcement regarding the Derry-Dublin flight, although it has been a long time coming. Let us imagine the enhanced resilience and productivity of our economy with a single business sector, agri-sector, arts sector and tourism sector, the huge growth areas of retrofitting for the green economy and the development of renewable energy that simply makes no sense to address in a partitioned way. Real ambition for the future of this place would see active planning through the establishment of a citizens’ assembly on Irish unity, supported by appropriate budgets for the benefit of all who live here.

In this time of great wealth for the State, the Government has chosen to concentrate that wealth in the hands of a few, while many will go without. Sinn Féin knows that this is the people's money, not the Government’s money. It should have been used to create a fairer society, one that was promised by the Government parties in their election manifestoes. Unfortunately, we are back to business as usual. Hard-pressed workers and families will continue to suffer from flawed Government policies. It could have been so much better.