Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

My God, what could have been done with this budget when we look at the wealth in this country. Oxfam has advised that 1% now own 35% of financial wealth and 10% own 54% of total household net wealth. Profits trebled in the last ten years. Corporations might have made more than €300 billion profits after tax last year. If we had a government that was prepared to use the State surplus along with the Apple tax and go after some of this wealth, we would have a government that could transform Irish society. A free national health service, a free State-provided childcare service and free public transport would be within reach. Instead we have a government with no vision introducing a one-for-everybody-in-the-audience budget in an attempt to buy an election and a government which is determined to defend the interests of the rich and powerful at every hand's turn.

This could have and should have been a landmark budget but it is not because of this Government's slavish adherence to free market ideology, trying to find market solutions where market solutions have failed before. The Government's free market obsession can be viewed right across the spectrum of government, from bike sheds to bungalows.

Let us take the issue of housing. The market is not delivering nearly enough houses. In particular the market is not delivering nearly enough affordable homes. Here was an opportunity to set up a State construction company with a laser-like focus on building not-for-profit social and affordable housing. The usual mantra that the money was not there would not cut it. The Apple billions gave the opportunity to provide the seed capital for such a company. This Government, facing a giant open goal with the ball at its feet, blew it. We have no State construction company, no seed capital, no not-for-profit social and affordable housing and not even an increase in the State's housing targets, which is quite incredible. We have the same old same old, only more of it, throwing money at developers and landlords. It is clear the housing crisis will not be tackled in the way it needs to be tackled by this Government. A new government can only tackle it by changing the policy and ending the reliance on these market-based solutions.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael may well believe that ship of government is sailing into calm untroubled waters after this budget, but there are rocks up ahead and the budget does not seem to be steering away from them. One of these rocks is the HSE's pay and numbers strategy. During the summer, the Government announced an end to the recruitment freeze in our health service but then it replaced it with a recruitment freeze by another name. The Minister's pay and numbers strategy is causing distress and anger right across the workforce in the HSE. Some 88% of Fórsa members polled report staff vacancies in their own departments. Health service unions say the caps Government has imposed will leave at least 2,000 vacancies unfilled. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is balloting for industrial action on this issue in just 13 days' time. This Thursday I will join INMO, Fórsa and SIPTU members at a lunchtime protest at the gates of Cork University Hospital. This is an early warning for the Minister that he sails on with that one at his peril.

While I am on the health service, I have two other brief points. There is a €3 billion increase, but €1.5 billion of that makes up the shortfall from last year and a further €1.2 million is just to maintain existing services. There is very little for new measures there. I think it might be heading for some difficulties over the winter with that.

In November 2022 Transgender Europe ranked Ireland 27th out of 27 EU countries for trans healthcare. It reported that a trans person in Ireland might wait up to ten years just for an appointment with a specialist. This is not acceptable nor is the outdated approach at the national gender service. We need a significant increase in funding for trans healthcare and a switch to a new GP-led informed consent model.

In 2021 the Department of Social Protection commissioned a report from Indecon on the cost of disability in Ireland. The report found that disabled people had to cover special costs averaging between €8,700 and €12,300 per year - the cost of medicines, the cost of care, the cost of extra heating and the cost of taxis and travel. This budget is proof if proof were needed that the Government does not see disabled people as equals. It increased disability payments by €12 a week and threw in a once-off payment of €400 - a combined total of a few bob over €1,000. That is a mere fraction of what disabled people need, even according to the report that the Government commissioned, if there is to be any semblance of equality for disabled people in our society. If the Government cannot take a giant stride towards income equality for people with disabilities when the State coffers are overflowing, disabled people will rightly draw the conclusion that the parties in this Government will never take the steps that disabled people need. We also need to see the abolition of the punitive means tax on disabled people who will not take charity any more. They will stand up for their rights and we will stand with them.

The Minister announced extra funding for Uisce Éireann. People will want to see this money going to improve their water supply rather than to feed the fat cats at the top of this organisation. Last Thursday night I stood with residents of the Mount Farran estate in Blackpool on the northside of Cork city as they protested over the prevalence of brown and orange discoloured water flowing from their taps. These residents were outraged that Uisce Éireann now has 16 people on its payroll who were each paid more than €200,000 last year. They asked why there are such big bonuses for the people at the top when the ordinary householder has to put up with disgraceful discoloration. Many other communities in Cork and other parts of the country will be asking the same thing.

There is an epidemic of gender-based violence in our society. Women's Aid received more than 40,000 disclosures of domestic abuse last year, the highest ever recorded in the charity's 50-year history. The Istanbul Convention signed by this State commits the State to one refuge space for every 10,000 of the population. To hit the Istanbul target there would need to be 512 spaces in this State. The total cost would be €1.27 billion to bridge from where we are to that. How much did the Government commit to organisations dealing with gender-based violence? An extra €7 million. To the Government's shame, with coffers overflowing these organisations will still be forced to go out and organise raffles and other fundraisers to provide the services that women need in 2025.

On 20 October hundreds of services will be cut from five Cork city bus routes. Bus Éireann states it cannot recruit and retain the drivers needed to serve the routes. At the end of the day this is because of the wages and conditions of bus workers, which are inadequate. This issue should have been addressed in the budget. The people of Cork and those who rely on public transport throughout the State have been let down by the failure today to address this issue.

The minimum wage is to increase to €13.50 an hour on 1 January, as recommended by the Low Pay Commission. It is a paltry pay increase when rents are sky high and the cost-of-living crisis still bears down on people and especially on the low paid. The Low Pay Commission also proposed that young people under the age of 20 should be entitled to the full minimum wage as and from 1 January. The Minister was silent on this matter in his speech. I ask the Minister to break his silence and to clarify the position. It would be outrageous if the Minister were to defy this recommendation and keep in place a wage structure that discriminates openly against young people. I ask for clarification please on this issue.

If we had a government in the State that was prepared, in the interests of the very many, to go after the wealth that has been cornered by the very few, and couple it with the Apple tax money and the State surplus that is there, and if we had a government with a vision of a better society, better public services and better lives for ordinary people, we could have had a transformational budget. As I said at the outset, we could have a free national health service, free public transport and free State-provided childcare. These were within the grasp of a Government that had vision and that was prepared to take on the vested interests in society. Unfortunately it is clear that is not the Government which the Minister of State is representing in the House today.

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