Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for being here and giving us the opportunity to speak on yesterday's budget. I welcome and support it. A lot of good work has been done within it, starting with the carers. While I am absolutely not taking away from what Senator Ruane said, I think the Government had good intentions. A positive signal that we are going in the right direction is the increase in the income disregard from €625 to €1,000 for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for a couple.That is really welcome. I totally understand the point about being on an RSS, CE or Tús scheme, that it has to be 20 hours. Someone will not qualify at 18.5 hours. I totally understand where the Senator is going on that and her contribution is very valid.

In the little time I have, I will focus on the OPW. I was absolutely delighted to see a 27% increase in its budget related to flooding. Coming from where I do in east Galway – and we do not need climate change all the time – back in 2016 we were nearly a constituency under water. The Minister of State, Deputy “Boxer” Moran, with the support of the two senior Ministers, has an increase of 27%. That increase will bring the budget up to about €130 million, which will mean more schemes can be brought onstream. When considering the number of schemes waiting to happen as well as the small minor works that the local authorities are trying to access, that funding is really welcome. Ring-fencing of carbon tax money of €558 million for the SEAI is very welcome. That is another measure to help with energy poverty. Hopefully the €3.5 billion for ESB Networks and Eirgrid will go some way to addressing our capital infrastructure piece that is badly required.

What has been achieved in social protection has been mentioned a few times. It was targeted and it is more sustainable and more permanent rather than the once-off measures. The increase in the weekly child support payment and the family working payment are not once-off. They are permanent, every week and it means families can plan. That was the Government’s intention in putting this budget together.

I was a little surprised by Senator Tully's comment on capacity within childcare. I am surprised because I also read the Sinn Féin prebudget submission on childcare. Its capital piece was cut back from €345 million in last year’s election budget to €200 million this year. When trying to build and add capacity, €200 million will not go very far. I welcome that the national childcare scheme has been expanded to cover another 35,000 children and there will be another 8,400 children in the ECCE programme. Additional funding is being set aside for that under the AIMs.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler achieved an additional €26 million non-pay for mental health. I understand 300 whole-time equivalent posts have been allocated for mental health services. She has very clearly set out how she plans to spend and invest in it in her submission, placing crisis support nursing in all nine model 4 hospital emergency departments and establishing three new crisis resolution teams for areas with model 3 hospitals as well as Traveller mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. Drugs funding got an increase of €11 million across a number of different strands. That is welcome but more needs to be invested in the drugs area.

In my last 40 seconds I will wear my cynical hat. It is wonderful how the Ministers work so hard to achieve budgets, and we do welcome them, but they are only as good as how they are operationalised. That is the sad reality of it. You are only as good as the team on the ground that will put it in. Unfortunately, in the disability sector, it takes far too long for the funding that has been secured to meet the families. If we want to be very open and transparent with everybody. We need to provide the timelines for when the money will drop. In disability, will it be in June? Will it be March? Will it be next September in childcare? People do not ask much but they like to know the truth. They like to know when it is happening, when it will be in their pocket and when they will feel the benefit. Timelines would be great. A step change is also required from some of the organisations delivering funding to the people on the front line.