Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget announced today. A lot of money is being given out. There is a lot of detail that we have not seen yet. Something that came to my mind at the very start of this is that so much money is being flayed out all over the place, the most important thing will be how we are going to manage it. How are we going to make sure that money reaches where it is intended to go? With the social welfare payments, it will get to the people who need it but if we look at infrastructure and how we will spend the capital money, there are issues that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

We have a procurement and public spending code that is not fit for purpose. It delays projects and adds more costs to them. We have a flawed national planning framework whereby we deny the zoning of land and, in turn, this denies young people a chance to build a house in their local town or village. This is because the local area plan must go with a core strategy.

Last Sunday morning I was at a protest in Loughrea. Approximately 500 people came out at 10 a.m. in the rain because the Office of the Planning Regulator and the Minister want to dezone land that was zoned for recreational purposes. This is badly needed in Loughrea but we have a Government policy that says we cannot have it. We have to think about how we are spending money and how we are accountable for it. We have had plenty of examples in recent weeks of how things have got out of control entirely, probably because of the ego of an architect or an architectural design that creates large costs with taxpayers' money and no accountability.

Something else the Government has to take into account leading into an election is that the Northern and Western Regional Assembly area is in decline. It is a lagging region. We should be positively discriminating in favour of the region in terms of investment. When I hear about all of the money being spent today I have concerns about the Galway city outer bypass. Where is that? Where is the western rail corridor? Where is Galway port? There is great news about Cork port but where is Galway port? What about all of the towns and villages in all of our counties that are devoid of wastewater treatment plants which means, in turn, housing cannot be built? I see that €1 billion has been allocated to Irish Water. When I look at what it is for I do not see a large amount of money being put in for the fast-track development of wastewater treatment plants.

The budget has been neutral for farming. The concept that farmers have such volatility in their income at present is not being taken into account in the budget. There are announcements of millions for this and millions for something else. It is about how it is implemented and how quickly the money gets to the farmers' accounts. If they do not have certainty of when they will get their grants this will destroy their cash flow. It means that farmers are thinking about getting out of farming rather than being encouraged to get into it.

I have a concern about the residential zoned land tax. It is important that we clarify this once and for all. It is more than 18 months since I first raised it with then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, who stated then that there was a problem. We are still talking today about getting a resolution for it so that active farmers can continue to farm without having a fear that the land would be taxed. It should not be taxed, and people accept this, but there seems to be inertia with trying to get a plan in place to exempt functional farmers.

I am a member of the Committee on Disability Matters and I am concerned about carers and children who have disabilities waiting for services. They are waiting to get assessments. With regard to the CDNT unit in Tuam, this time last year parents were protesting because of the lack of services. Money is being put into taking on more staff but money was put into this last year and staff were not taken on, for whatever reason. I know of people who have emigrated because the HSE would not give them a permanent position. It is important that we do not just throw money at a problem. We have to have an effective way of getting people to work in our health system. The only way we can do this is by making it attractive and giving people permanent jobs and putting in enough people to take some of the stress out of the job.

The review of the housing adaptation grant and the housing aid for older people has been going on for a hell of a long time. Today money has been announced for these grants, which are administered and which help people with disabilities and keep people in their homes longer. I do not see the detail of whether there is an increase in funding to allow a bigger grant to be given or whether there is an increase in the income threshold for people so they can get the highest possible percentage grant from the local authorities. They are fantastic grants but because of construction inflation we need to make sure the money matches what is relevant in today's world and look at the income thresholds.

Another issue I have raised with the Minister is with regard to the primary medical certificate. It is a Department of Finance issue. The primary medical certificate is not fit for purpose. The criteria are too strict and everybody knows this. The Minister has been reviewing it for a long time. Now is the time to put in place proper primary medical certificate criteria in order that people who need help to become a bit more independent and adapt their cars can get the certificate.

I welcome the baby boost of €420 but what about the babies who will be born in October, November and December? Why will this grant not be given to babies born from now on, seeing that it has been announced? It is unfair to leave babies and families out of it just because we pick a certain date.

It will not be a huge amount of money in the overall scheme of things. I ask the Minister of State to consider that as a generous gift for Christmas.

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