Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Aire Stáit. We are hearing more and more people every day talk about the cost of living. Someone said to me recently that it should be called the cost-of-everything crisis because the price of everything is going up. Workers and families who find themselves constantly struggling from week to week needed to hear that this budget would make things more affordable. They needed to hear that rent and groceries would be made more affordable. They needed to hear that electricity and gas bills, childcare, car insurance and education would be made more affordable. Today they will hear some positive messages, such as the increases to the minimum wage and social welfare payments, which are welcome. However, by the end of the week, or even by the end of the day, most people will realise that this budget has done little to nothing to help them to afford their bills, shopping and day-to-day expenses. This is where the real failure is.

I will focus on housing first. Under successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, housing targets have been set too low and most targets, low as they were, have not been met. The Government's failure to adopt key recommendations of the Housing Commission report, or indeed recommendations from my own party, means that the Government will not meet its own targets for public or private housing next year. The tax measures announced for housing, as we have seen from previous budgets, do not necessarily translate into providing additional housing. There are currently 16,353 people in homelessness, including 5,145 children. Another record high was set last month. It is desperately sad that the Government's budget speeches in the Dáil made no mention of those individuals or their families who are living in homeless accommodation today.

In County Laois, our biggest problem is affordable housing. I do not necessarily mean the Government's version of so-called affordable housing because a lot of those units, what few have been built in Laois, are still not affordable for many ordinary workers, and especially for younger people and families. Laois is not getting any investment in affordable housing from the LDA. An increase in affordable housing units is desperately needed. Housing is the single biggest issue for the Irish public. It can and must be fixed. That there was no mention of homelessness today is shameful. That can only be fixed if the Government changes its mindset and prioritises ordinary workers over landlords and investors.

Young people will not be happy with today's budget. Most young people cannot even afford to rent a property. They now rely heavily on the room-to-rent scheme. I am talking not just of students but also young workers who are now in room-to-rent situations. The constant rise in prices is pushing up the rent, too. However, they do not qualify for the renter's tax credit and have little to no protections. A €500 reduction in student fees will not feel like a reduction because fees are €500 higher than they were last year. What do the young people of today have to do to get this Government to listen to them? Sadly, I do not think that any young person planning to leave Ireland and work or live abroad will feel that anything has changed after today's budget. I do not think the Government has done anything to convince those people to stay. We will continue to lose this generation of young workers to the likes of Sydney and Toronto.