Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for giving up her time to be here.

In the past few weeks, Senators on this side of the House and across the floor have raised the lack of basic public transport services in our rural communities. I spoke on the Order of Business about the transport difficulties in rural Limerick caused by the lack of capacity and unsuitable times, but I could just as easily have been speaking about countless counties in Ireland. The story is the same everywhere: bus services do not exist and do not run when people need them, communities are cut off and young people have no choice but to leave or start driving. We are told that a record investment is being made but those investments are not being felt on the ground. Rural Ireland is being discriminated against. Young people are tired; they have had enough of promises that do not reach their towns and villages. Our small towns are at breaking point and our villages are hollowing out. We cannot keep young people in our communities. They want to stay, raise families and build their lives but how can they do so when there is no affordable housing, no reliable transport and no jobs close to home? For those who must commute into Limerick, Cork or further afield, the situation is becoming impossible, with rising costs, higher carbon taxes and still no viable public transport alternative. People are being punished for simply trying to get to work or college.

In the Limerick County constituency, we have a Government Minister and a Minister of State, yet on the ground the reality is that people feel abandoned and unheard. It is not just about economics anymore; it is about dignity and the right to live and work in your own community without having to choose between paying for fuel and paying for food. People across the island are at breaking point. They were at breaking point last week and they are even worse this week. Budget 2026 cannot just be about figures on a page; it has to be about fairness. It should have been about reconnecting with real Ireland. If this Government continues to turn its back on rural Ireland, it will break not just counties like Limerick but also the hearts of people who have built them. Last year in the budget, school transport accounted for 173,000 seats. This year, it accounts for 170,000 seats. We are losing out in the budget for school transport at a time when we are at breaking point with school transport in rural areas. That is putting more parents in cars. It is increasing diesel and petrol costs which people cannot seem to afford. These costs are getting higher and higher every time.

Senator Rabbitte spoke about our alternative budget and our election promises. Our election promises were based on five years; the alternative budget was based on one. In the year on which we based it, in order to bring the cost down to €10 per day we focused on crèches and childminders who are registered with Tusla. To get everyone into it would take more regulation because, as the Minister of State will know, not all childminders are regulated or registered with Tusla. I wish to make it clear that the cost for 2027 would have been higher than the cost in this alternative budget.

I want to touch on reducing the cost of childcare, which is great. I completely agree that we need childcare places. It is great to see the Government putting that into the budget but where is it going to get the staff to provide these childcare places? In Limerick last year, 98% of graduates in the childcare programme went on to do an extra year to go into primary school teaching. In other words, 98% of people who were going to go into childcare left childcare before they ever started it. Pay and conditions need to be looked at.

The bottom line, from what I can see, is that budget 2026 was for landlords and developers. I can only imagine that all of those who stood up today and said they welcomed the budget, or welcomed it yesterday, must only have landlords and developers living in their constituencies.