John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputies will have ten minutes each.

Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on the budget. Fianna Fáil brought forward a Private Members' motion in the Chamber last night on pensions inequities and the implementation of the 2012 budget when the then Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, introduced the cut. I know that people are tired of listening to the talk about this issue but I raised it last June after I was elected to Dáil Éireann. I could see the anomaly in what was a very severe cut, and especially in a woman introducing such a cut in a budget that affected mostly women. It was absolutely unbelievable. We had the debate last night, we will vote on it today and I implore the Government to look at the situation. It is very unfair on those persons who are affected. One of the possible solutions would be to bring back the homemaker claim. From 1994 there was an allowance for a homemaker, for women who had to give up work to mind their children and who then went back into the workforce. As a result their pensions have been badly cut. There is an answer to this. If the homemaker scheme could be backdated to prior to 1994, it could be a help and would go a long way to alleviate the difficulties being felt by those affected.

The young farmers' scheme from the national reserve was a fund of €25 million that was introduced in 2015 to support the farming community, in particular young, trained and qualified farmers. Based on that 2015 funding commitment many young farmers rented lands, paying very high rents, and committed to six year leases because a six year lease was required to qualify for the scheme. In 2016, unfortunately, no funds were made available for the scheme and in 2017 €5 million was made available. This leaves those farmers in dire circumstances. I ask the Government to look at the situation again. There is a vision for agriculture for the future to 2025, but I can tell the House that by 2020 many of these young and qualified farmers will be bankrupt if they do not get support from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to help them stay in business. Part of that agriculture plan looks to create 23,000 jobs in to the future. Unless we get support for these people they will not be in business; they will be gone out of business.

I will now turn to regional development. I had a meeting recently with the CEO of IDA Ireland in the north west. In fairness, it is trying to get employment to the regions and to get companies to move to the north west to create jobs. It is, however, having great difficulty in this regard. One of the main difficulties that was explained to me was the road infrastructure from Galway, and particularly from Dublin, to Sligo and that region. This is the N4 section. I am glad to see that the M4 was included in the Budget Statement, along with the M5 and the Macroom bypass. The M4 extension is shovel ready, the lands have been compulsorily purchased and the deals have been agreed with the farmers and those who are to lose their houses. Most of the people have been paid for their land and compensation and the road is fenced. The project is shovel ready. It is a crucial infrastructure development for the north-west region. We need every advantage to try to get companies and foreign direct investment in to that area.

I have raised the issue of decentralisation of Departments on a number of occasions. Decentralisation was announced in the 2003 budget by Fianna Fáil and while it was a good programme, one of its faults was that the three-year timeframe was too ambitious. It just could not be done in three years. People may like to move but because of family commitments, such as children in school or university, they cannot make that decision in a three year-period. I believe we should look at the idea again. Dublin city is bursting at the seams and people cannot afford to buy houses. They can barely afford to pay the rent. Despite the fact they are in good jobs, and this includes people working in Departments, they still find it extremely difficult to survive in the city. We should definitely look at moving Departments out in a very programmed way over a period of ten to 15 years. It could mean a better quality of life for many people and would probably open up more accommodation in the city, which is already stretched to capacity.

We met with the credit union movement this morning. Credit unions have €10 billion in available funds. They do a small number of mortgages but the Central Bank should be encouraged to change the rules to allow credit unions to lend money to people to buy their homes. In Ireland, especially in urban centres such as Dublin, Limerick and Galway, people are paying more in rent than they would for a mortgage to buy a house. This is a sad situation to be in. People are so stretched that they will never have a hope of putting together a 20% deposit. If a person has a good credit rating and has paid his or her rent for the last four or five years without any issues, then he or she should be considered for a mortgage, especially as the money is there. Mortgage lending is the most profitable lending that an institution can do. The credit unions, unfortunately, cannot lend the money. I know from my experience in auctioneering that banks are very selective in whom they lend to. KBC advertise night and day on television but it does not say it is only lending in Dublin, Cork or Galway. It does not say that it will not lend to people in rural areas; it is a fact that it does not.

It is time the banks were brought to heel, of that there is no question.

The tenant purchase scheme has been debated in the Dáil. It is wrong that people who are on social welfare are not allowed to purchase their house, despite the fact they could be in it for 25 or 30 years. This should be looked at and these people should be given an opportunity to purchase their house. These houses are not going to become available. The people are there and when they go, their families will be there. They should be given this opportunity and the money that is collected from that should be used to provide more housing. The local authorities should start building local authority houses. In my home town of Ballymote, County Sligo, in 1947 the Government of the day built a housing scheme of 57 well-constructed houses, which are still standing today. All that was ever done to them was that they were painted and looked after, and Storm Ophelia earlier this week did not put a dent in any of them. We should be building more of those houses for people.

I recognise it is an improvement that €55 million will be made available to the National Treatment Purchase Fund this year. This scheme was introduced in 2008 by a Fianna Fáil Government. We had waiting lists at the time but the scheme definitely made a major dent into those lists and, if funding is made available next year, I have no doubt we will see a further reduction. That we have 640,000 people on waiting lists is frightening. We should recognise the fact that when people get into the medical system, they are very well looked after in all the hospitals. However, getting into the system is the problem.

The cancer strategy was very divisive, particularly in the north west, where people availing of cancer services had to go to Galway, in particular for radiotherapy. Chemotherapy is available in the hospital in Sligo but the diagnostics and radiotherapy are in Galway. I believe the technology currently available means this radiotherapy could be delivered in the north west, at a hospital like Sligo hospital, even though it would be administered from Galway. This would save many thousands of people having to travel on buses to Galway or having to live in Galway for the period of their treatment, which might only be ten minutes of treatment per day for six weeks. It would be helpful and is something that should be investigated. I call on the Government to consider the possibility.

The child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, is another issue in the north west, where there are serious difficulties. There is a respite home in Sligo which catered for eight people and which was specifically built eight years ago at a cost of €1.5 million to provide respite to parents by giving them a weekend or a few days off. That service has recently closed and the building is being used for decongregation. The people who were availing of the service now have to travel from Sligo to Monaghan, which is nearly a 350 km round trip with somebody who is probably in a wheelchair. It is disgraceful. A commitment was given by the Department that a new respite centre would be opened by the middle of this month but, as far as I am aware, a building has not even been identified where this service could be provided.

Another issue that will arise next year is in regard to school transport. While we had difficulties this year, the situation will be even more difficult next year. Ahead of next year's programme, which will apply from early March, the Government needs to make provision to ensure the service can be run efficiently so people are not discommoded. We were lucky that things worked out to some extent this year but I can foresee a lot of difficulties next year.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Like others, I am glad to have an opportunity to speak ahead of the Finance Bill which will give statutory effect to the budget of last week. I welcome the positive developments that have taken place over the past five or six years and to recognise the sacrifices that have been made by the Irish people and by many in this House, in particular in regard to the crucial decisions that had to be made to stabilise the country at a time of great distress.

I listened to the various issues that have come to the fore in recent times. Critics will always ask, "What have you been doing for the past five years?" It never ceases to amaze me why some commentators do not seem to recognise that we were broke five years ago - no money, nothing, empty coffers, increasing demands, nowhere to go, nowhere to run. A great task had to be undertaken by the then Government, with the support of some people in this House, which is acknowledged and accepted. However, others saw the opportunity to undermine, to second-guess and to put forward unrealistic proposals which very often are about as good as they paper they are written on.

We have now reached a situation where there is at least a basis on which to build our future. For those who say it is not coming quick enough, of course, nothing ever comes quick enough - a watched kettle is the old familiar story. It could not come any quicker for the simple reason that it takes time to recover and recovery is an ongoing process. We also need to be careful to ensure we do not let it slip again. This is a warning to us all. We were, we do not ever want to be again where we were five or so years ago. The sacrifices and efforts that were made by the people over the past years should not have to be made again to achieve that same purpose of surviving. I hope that lesson has been well and truly learned at this stage and we can now go forward in the knowledge that our destiny is in our own hands. We can plan ahead for the future in a realistic way and make the necessary decisions, which we are doing, and as time goes by the country will reap the benefits.

There are still many challenges, of course, including in regard to infrastructure. I agree with the speakers who say that vital elements of infrastructure are still required, in particular in regard to roads and transport, which are hugely important. The previous speaker spoke about the N4. I remember travelling during the summer on the road from Castlebaldwin towards Sligo, where there are 31 crosses on the roadside marking accidents where people lost their lives, no doubt as a result of roads that are incapable of taking the volume of traffic thrust upon them by today's requirements. I particularly welcome the spending on roads, given the vital role they will play in the future economic development of the country.

There are also infrastructural challenges in regard to hospitals. Thankfully, the Government was in a position to be able to proceed with the new children's hospital, the new maternity hospital and a number of other major hospital developments throughout the country. The list is endless and more is always required. It is important that the Government at all times continues to strategically select the projects that require the most immediate attention and does its best to meet those demands. I believe it is doing that, and doing it well.

I spoke on the night of the budget about the application of stamp duty to the farming community, and I know something is being done to address this at present. I mentioned that the proposal could have the direct opposite effect to what was intended. In the meantime, I believe considerable discussions have taken place which, hopefully, will deal with this issue.

The previous speaker mentioned the necessity to spread the fruits of the economy evenly throughout the country, which is correct. We cannot continue to develop from east to west. We have to put in place the infrastructure that is necessary to facilitate the development that has to take place throughout the other regions.

Whether it be in Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Mayo, Sligo or wherever, we have to proceed vigorously to encourage investment. I hope the recent and continued hiccups in respect of the investment in County Galway can be resolved fairly quickly. We cannot afford to say to investors that we do not really need them here and that they should go somewhere else. We have to make up our minds. We either want investment or we do not. We should recognise that it is a very competitive space. There are others who encourage investment as well and we are up against them. It is up to us to put our best foot forward.

In respect of health, there are many challenges that will remain for some considerable time. We are among the higher echelons of funding for health services among the OECD countries. We need to step back and look at how we are spending our money. Are we getting good value? Money thrown at a situation, as has been shown in the past, does not necessarily produce the results. There is an urgent necessity to evaluate what exactly is happening, apart from Sláintecare altogether. For example, we need to examine the long waiting lists. Why do we have waiting lists? We can attribute some of it to the bad economic time we have come through. However, we have traditionally had a problem with waiting lists, to the extent that we have to ask ourselves what are the reasons. There has to be some reason to which it can be attributed. Is it because of lack of theatre space or theatre staff? Is it because of a lack of consultants or general practitioners?

I had an interesting exchange with officials from the HSE at the health committee yesterday. I asked them the same question and nobody has answered it. The fact remains that there are facilities in the public sector that are not utilised at all. I do not know why. The answer needs to be found and we should not have to wait forever for it. A consultant recently remarked that in the private sector, he can do a full day's work from morning until late evening, without interruption and with all facilities available. In the public sector, the same consultant might get two hours and then there will be a shortage of some facility. Something is missing, a link in the chain is not there. Why? Unless we come to grips with that situation, we can spend all the money we like on our health services but it will not make a jot of difference. What is the cause of the overcrowding in accident and emergency departments? Is it because more people go there instead of to their general practitioner? Is it because there are insufficient numbers of general practitioners? What is happening there?

Our population is increasing. There is great emphasis being placed on the cohort of older people in the country but that is not accurate. It is being put out as an excuse for almost everything. In fact, the cohort of younger people is greater here than in most other European countries at present. Many of those who left the country in the past, and who did not come back, were young people. Many of those who left more recently during the recession did so for a shorter time, and came back. They are here now. They are young people in productive employment who are contributing to this economy. It is not true or accurate to say the problem is that we have a lot of older people. The sooner the system wakes up to that, the better.

The Sláintecare report, to which I was honoured to contribute, will address the issues. However, unless it also addresses the structural issues, nothing is going to happen. I emphasise what I said on many occasions during those discussions, namely, that I believe the HSE is the incorrect structure to deliver services throughout the country. The Fianna Fáil Deputies will not agree with me because their party abolished the old health boards. I do not know whether they think that was a good idea now. I do not think it was, although the health boards needed to be reformed. The correct structure is to have about four regional bodies in which there would be local democracy and accountability and the input of professionals, be they general practitioners, consultants, hospitals or whatever. They should be involved in decision making at local level, as well as in the responsibility that goes with it. We would then be able to send representatives from those bodies to a national structure which could be similar to the HSE. At present, I cannot see how it is ever going to work. From the beginning, the HSE was not the correct structure to run the services throughout the country. The talents and dedication of those within the health service are better tapped when responsibility is given to them at local level. Some people would say there should be no politicians on any such body or board but that is not correct. Politicians are elected by the public to represent them and, like everybody else, they have to be at the coalface playing a responsible role and dealing with the situations that arise.

The other thing that, sadly and tragically, has not gone away is the housing situation. Other speakers have referred to it. Going back as far as the Administration that preceded the last Government, I saw what was happening, as did many others who are still Members of the House, including the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. It was quite obvious to some of us that we were heading into a major catastrophe, because we were not building on an ongoing basis. We were not replenishing our housing stock and were not creating affordable houses for those who were in an income bracket in which they could not afford to risk borrowing above their heads. Unfortunately, we have not addressed that yet. I compliment the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government on the work that is being done and that is still to unfold. However, it is like the mills of God that move exceeding slow. Unless we can accelerate the programme in a really meaningful way in the shortest possible time, this sadly is going to get much worse. Of course we should not have people sleeping on the streets and under bridges. However, that is not the major issue. It is the result of the other issues of crowding and pressure in the market space. It takes three incomes now to fund a mortgage on an ordinary three-bedroom, semi-detached house. We can work it out any way we like. A mortgage used to be two and a half times the income under the old system. It is now three times the income but, either way, two people have to work full time in the household to just barely make ends meet. After that, if anything goes wrong or if somebody falls ill, there is a problem. There is a lot of work to be done yet. It requires emergency treatment now.

There are those here who suggest from time to time that nobody thought about it but themselves. Some of us were talking about this many years ago, long before it happened and became obvious. It was clear to us that things were not happening as they should at local level. In my own county in the 1980s, it was deemed that there was a requirement of about 1,000 houses per annum. There were two ways to do that. We could have direct build local authority houses and local authority loans, and we could also develop private sites, which we did. We made 800 to 900 houses available to people within particular income brackets on an annual basis, even through the midst of economic difficulties. There was not a great deal of money available in the country then. It worked very well. We had the housing finance industry loans at the time. They were criticised afterwards by other lending agencies, of course, wrongly so. They made loans available to people who would not get a loan anywhere else at that time. They gave people pride in what they were doing, in their own home and in their work and the commitment they were making to the economy. People were delighted to take that responsibility.

We need to do much more in the context of an accelerated programme to deal with the housing issue. Building has commenced and it is accelerating, which is welcome, but time is of the essence. Those who have been squeezed and who have been waiting for such a long time are at breaking point.

I would like to mention the issue that has engaged many in the past few weeks in respect of banking, that of overcharging, switching, pressure and so on with which some of us have been dealing behind the scenes for a long time. We have been face to face with the bankers and their representatives and sometimes they were not very nice. We witnessed at first hand the attitude in lending institutions and what they thought of their customers and public representatives. We had to go into court time and again to plead on behalf of constituents. Sometimes we were welcome in the banks, but we were not welcomed at all times These issues have been arising not only in recent times but for the past eight years at least. Many were squeezed during that period and forced out of their houses. They suffered greatly and tragically throughout and I hope we have learned lessons.

I am delighted that the Minister for Finance is inviting the chief executive officers of the lending institutions to visit him next week. I hope he will speak to them in the words that need to be spoken. A few years ago one bank official said to me and a customer I was representing, "I am a businessman." I thought of other descriptions at the same time and told him so. We represent the people and they are not always wrong. When they cry out for help, we need to recognise what they are saying and tell them that we are here to help. I also hope the Minister will extend his invitation to the venture capitalists who have taken over some distressed loans. Some of them have been affable and willing to entertain customers, while others have not. The only contribution they have made is causing greater distress and they appear intent on doing nothing less. I hope the Minister will encourage them to recognise the difference between those who have struggled and paid in the past few years and those who did not pay at all because it could come to pass that those who did not pay and walked away will be thanked as well as those who struggled to make payments to the best of their ability. I hope this will be included in his portfolio on the day.

There are challenging times ahead. Nothing was ever going to be easy, as stated in the advertisement. The challenging times arise from Brexit, retrenchment in the United States and the discouragement of the international community in terms of foreign direct investment. We have our own begrudgers in Europe. Some speak out on a regular basis, for example, about the Apple tax. It is now suggested Ireland should collect taxes on profits earned in other jurisdictions, which is completely at variance with the regulations. It also represents an interference with the internal taxation regime in a particular county. This is being done to target a country that has benefited significantly from foreign direct investment, but it is not one-way traffic. Many Irish investors have invested freely abroad on a regular basis. Mr. Martin Naughton was correctly honoured in recent days by Dublin City University for his work in this area. CRH and various others have done the same all over the world. If there is retrenchment globally, everybody will be hurt, but there are those who think the more powerful will succeed. They might for a while, but ultimately they will not.

I would love to air the rest of my grievances, but it would take much longer than the time I have available. I thank the Acting Chairman

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the budget that was announced last week. As Fianna Fáil spokesperson on communications, climate action and the environment, I intend to confine my remarks to my portfolio. Many other areas have been well and truly covered by my colleagues.

I draw the Minister of State's attention to a statement made by the Taoiseach in appointing his Cabinet. He said:

I am determined that the Government should show new ambition when it comes to tackling climate change by setting out a roadmap to a low-carbon economy. Climate change will be the first item to be discussed at our first full day strategic Cabinet meeting.

They were fine words, but, unfortunately, whatever the outcome of the discussions that took place at that meeting, they had no influence on his first budget as Taoiseach. It does not take a rocket scientist to peruse the budgetary proposals from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment for the next year. Absolutely no ambition has been shown to address the issue of climate change. If we were talking about climate change in the abstract, that might be okay, but a previous Government signed up to binding targets, which must be met by 2020. We have committed to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in the usage of renewables. The Environmental Protection Agency's recent report makes it clear that we are on target to miss these targets significantly. The projections are wide and varied regarding the fines that will be levied on the State in 2020, but they could be between €500 million and €1 billion. It is, therefore, not good enough for the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to abdicate his responsibility and ask from where the money will come to meet the targets because the next question surely is from where will the money come to pay the fines that will be levied in 2020. If the Government somehow believes a relatively benign approach will be taken at European level, that does not gel with the contacts I have had with colleagues in other member states and within the Brussels architecture. The Government has engaged in window dressing in suggesting it has discussed this issue, but it seems to have filed the issue of climate action on some shelf.

One of the significant drivers has to be encouraging people to use electric vehicles and the only way that can be done is through appropriate incentivisation. I have examined the targets set in Norway and what has been achieved there. The uptake of electric vehicles has been enormous in comparison to Ireland. Free tolling and free parking are provided for, while bus lanes can be used by drivers of electric vehicles. In an effort to touch base, the Minister has introduced in next year's budget the notion of a benefit-in-kind rate of zero, with a moratorium of one year and a promise to review the position thereafter in the purchase of such vehicles. The Minister of State will understand the way companies make decisions. Much has been made of our 12.5% corporation tax rate. A reduction of 0.5% or 1% would not matter a damn to the companies concerned. The reason the rate cannot be changed is that it would remove certainty. There is certainty in Ireland about our corporation tax rate. If a measure was to be introduced in the budget whereby the staff of companies and fleet owners provided with electric vehicles would not be charged benefit-in-kind for only one year, there would be no certainty.

As sure as night follows day, the uptake will be very limited. I have spoken to people within the industry who own significant fleets and could make a major dent in increasing the amount of electric vehicles in the country. They have asked why the Government would impose that on employees and then require them to pay a significant BIK the following year. Had it been done for five years with a review thereafter, given the lifecycle of a car of four five years, at least that would give certainty.

That measure was much heralded and trumpeted by a Minister who has come to be recognised now as almost a court jester. Whenever there is an event not related to his Department but in some way vaguely relevant, he is there. He is on the radio and television. Yesterday he was there to welcome the electricity repair crews coming from Northern Ireland. He has a host of engagements in his constituency. He is like the court jester who is asked to open a pub and by the end of his presentation he is talking in the collective. It is "we"; the court jester owns the pub.

We see the same from the Minister, Deputy Naughten, on all these issues. If somebody else is doing something, he thinks he is involved in it by association and it has happened as a result of his efforts and those of the Government. We saw it again this morning. Google has introduced mapping technology to allow emergency services to pinpoint the location of a caller to the 999 or 112 service. The Minister was asked to launch it. He has taken on a much greater role. It is "we", "us" and "the Government"; it is amazing. It would not matter if it was not so serious, but it is acting as a distraction from addressing the real issues. In something like this the Minister could make a real name for himself and be able to use the collective in saying, "We, as a Government, have done something", rather than claiming responsibility as he does.

Turning to the issue of broadband, the budget allocated €15 million, which will just about pay the consultants carrying out the procurement process. We will not achieve anything on broadband this year. No shovel will be placed in the ground and no home will be connected under the national broadband plan. However, I am sure the Minister will quickly issue a press release outlining the number of farms and post offices being connected every day and claiming that "We, the Government, are making all this happen". This is another example of claiming responsibility for corporate decisions by Eir, SIRO, Virgin Media and other providers. It is amazing that the Minister, on behalf of the Government, claims responsibility for something he has nothing to do with.

There is an ultimate failure to address the 540,000 homes without broadband. Nothing in the budget indicates they are any closer to being connected to a high-speed broadband service. It does not deter the Minister running along like the court jester, believing he is part of something great. Unfortunately it is no joke from a climate-change perspective. It is no joke, given the need for the country to face up to the challenges associated with our targets for 2020. It is certainly no help to the 540,000 households with no light at the end of the tunnel for a broadband connection.

Post offices also fall under this Department's remit. The Government initiated a process of engagement between postmasters, the Government and An Post. Bobby Kerr, an eminent businessman and a very practical person, published a report. At the time the Government signed up to it and indicated that it effectively planned a roadmap for the future of the post office network. Mr. Kerr suggested that An Post should consider what kinds of services are being delivered; whether a greater number of services could be delivered in post offices; and what would help to assist the An Post network to become more commercially viable. It was very clear that it would need Government support and intervention if the Government believed in having a widespread post office network.

I had an opportunity to visit a post office in the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. I am sure he is well aware of the importance of the retention of the post office in Old Pallas. I met old people there, some of whom voted for the Minister of State. They are the same kinds of people I meet in my constituency every week. They recognise that people are not going into and out of post offices the way they did years ago. Therefore viability is an issue. Even if only 50% of the transactions now happen electronically, including social welfare and pension payments being transferred directly into their banks, it is not appropriate to close that post office. What do we say to the other 50%? Even if it goes as low as 20% of the activity that was there previously, it is not right to say to the remaining 20%, "Tough, it is no longer viable". That is the State turning its back on people.

The Taoiseach referenced it the other day and he knows the importance of keeping the harp over the door in those communities. Unless the Minister, Deputy Naughten, steps into the ring at some point, post offices will close by stealth. Every week post offices are being reviewed on a three- and five-year basis. The number of transactions is dropping. They are subcontractors to An Post and their money is cut because their activity has gone down. They cannot survive and are closing the doors themselves.

If the Minister, Deputy Naughten, believes that this somehow absolves him from responsibility, if he somehow thinks that because the contractors have made the decision themselves to close then that it is okay, I have news for him and for the Government. It is not okay because the people who still require the service are voters and taxpayers pensioners and social welfare recipients. They have a stake in society. They might not gel with the Minister's friends in Google for which he is acting the court jester this morning. These are real people who have made a contribution to the State and they deserve to be respected. They are entitled to the same services as everybody else who might be more computer literate, and more mobile and connected. They are real people and they deserve a service.

I believe that the 1,000 to 1,100 post offices we have is about right. An Post will not be able to maintain that network if it is forced to do it from current activities. It will require intervention from the State. I believe it probably requires between €8 million and €10 million a year from the central Exchequer. That is not a number picked from the air. The Kerr report had costings of between €50 million and €60 million over a five-year period. Therefore, €8 million to €10 million - it might cost more if people seek to retire - would protect the network for the next five years.

No line item in the budget allocated to the Minister, Deputy Naughten, would suggest he is cognisant of the challenge facing the post office network or that he has any intention of committing resources from the central Exchequer to support the network. He will utter fine words. When, a number of years ago he and the then Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ring, quibbled over who had responsibility for the post office network again, in another shouldering up or manning up, he said he would take on the network. He took it, all right. He took political responsibility but he certainly did not support it with any level of finance, which is very disheartening for the men and women who are attempting to keep the post offices open, who believe in their communities, and who care about the people who use the post office. In many cases it is their only social interaction.

If we devalue that as a society, run headlong after the smart economy, of which I am a supporter, and somehow distance ourselves or become entirely dislocated from the people for whom that is not a way of life, then as politicians we will have lost our way. We must be able, as Deputy Durkan has said, to represent all the people all the time. That is our duty and our responsibility. Of course I am all for technology, but the Minister is not following through on that side either. He is dragging his heels in respect of the people living outside the areas that the commercial operators see as suitable for service provision on a commercial basis. He has succeeded in creating the most complex tender and procurement procedure ever organised by Government. He is right when he says this is taxpayers' money that must be protected, but surely to God it can be done in a more time-efficient way. We are now down to two contractors, such is the cumbersome nature of the way in which he has allowed this process to develop. He somehow believes that because it is complex and he has all the jargon, words and acronyms, that somehow confuses people. I have news for him: it does not. All they want to know is when the Government will treat people who live in rural areas fairly, and they are not being treated fairly. There is no roadmap, no start date for the work to begin on the national broadband plan, no date by which contracts must be signed, no date for a contractor to start and no finish date. Project management 101 would suggest that the first thing one does on any project, after having scoped it and understood what one wants to do, is to pick a start date and, if hiring a contractor, to put on a calendar a date by which the contract will be signed. Even if there is a bit of mission creep and the project goes on for an extra week or an extra month, one gets over that - but one sets a target. There must be a target date for the contract to be agreed and signed, a target date for the work to begin and a target date for it to finish. However, the Minister is too afraid to put a date in the calendar because he would then have to accept political responsibility for failing to meet that date. This is why I term the Minister a court jester. He is there for the good times, the laughs and the opening of various events but not prepared to put his neck on the line, get behind the project and bring it to a conclusion. This is so serious in terms of the impact on our climate and our post office network and, unfortunately, as I said, the Minister has failed abysmally.

Then there is the issue of the climate change targets I talked about. There is nothing in the budget about this. The Minister talks about a renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, in the context of the renewable heat scheme, for which €17 million is set aside. This also includes the cost of the roll-out of electric vehicles. This is an absolutely minuscule amount of money for that initiative. It goes nowhere towards meeting our targets. Yes, there is some money - I will give credit where it is due - to expand the energy efficiency programme by investing an additional €35 million in the residential, commercial and public sectors for the reduction of CO2 emissions from the built environment. This and anything else that can help in this regard are welcome because we are falling way behind in use of renewables in heat, but these are just minor amounts of money in the context of what we must achieve by 2020. The Minister is used to saying to advocacy groups that he may not be the Minister next year. He may not be next year or in two years' time, but some representative cabinet will have to face the fines from Europe in 2020. If the Minister's view is so short-term that he does not believe he will be the Minister by then and, therefore, the matter does not really trouble or worry him, it shows the kind of poor ambition of the Taoiseach if he is not prepared to drive the Minister in reaching his responsibilities. It is appalling.

Another area, which I may not have enough time to address adequately, is public service broadcasting. This is handled principally by RTE, but many of our local and regional radio stations carry out, under licence, a very important role in public service broadcasting. I have a Bill which I have shared with the secretariat of the House, which I hope will come before the House relatively shortly and which I hope will get support from the other side of the House. It would see financial support given to public service broadcasters in the independent radio sector. There is no indication in the budget that the Minister is even considering this. He has a consultation process around the collection of the television licence fee. We are way behind every other country in Europe in the collection of our licence fee. About 15% or 16% is not collected. RTE is looking for additional money and the local radio sector is looking for money. There is a pot of money out there if only it were collected. This could be done through the Revenue Commissioners - simple - but the Minister has another consultation process and another procurement process and, by the time it is all resolved, I suppose he will not be Minister anyway so it will not matter.

What we need are decisions, and usually decisions that are taken are identified in the Finance Act and the Budget Statement because decisions usually require money. If the Minister, Deputy Naughten, representing the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, intends to take decisions, they will be of a very woolly nature because he has identified few if any changes in his budget for next year to achieve anything in an area that is crying out for action.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I am not quite sure where the confidence and supply agreement begins and ends regarding a budget. I am no great fan of the arrangement, like many others around the country. If ever one needed evidence of lack of delivery on the part of a government, one need only look at this budget. One will hear the normal clichés trotted out - "missed opportunity" and so on - but it is clear evidence that the Government does not understand that its first obligation is to keep its people safe. It is a clear indication to me that no imagination was shown and no vision displayed in the budget. It is simply a budget that has been cobbled together to keep this show on the road. That is the reality of this budget. As a result, the big winners continue to be big winners.

For example, I have seen in the newspapers over the past few days - perhaps it was just today - that the State has paid €221 million in legal fees. Let us examine that in the context of the budget. This morning the Central Bank is before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, where the members are trying to hold the bank to account regarding the tracker mortgage issue. That bank spent €7.5 million in legal fees in one year. How much of that was caused by the fact that the banks generally continue to drag their feet on their responsibilities, refuse to accept there is a tracker mortgage issue and refuse to deal with the full cohort of people and customers affected by the issue and, as a result, cause the bank to have to buy in expertise and legal fees? That is the impact that private sector activity has on the budget for this country. It forces an agency of the State to spend greater amounts of taxpayers' money on legal and professional fees. That is what is going on. It is a never-ending cycle, and the Committee of Public Accounts every week discovers all the inefficiencies and poor spending for the State. The committee reports it to the line Minister, who in turn reports it to the Minister of State responsible, and one gets the normal report back, which generally gives a blasé explanation as to why it had to be done.

Were this a business, it would probably be closed down because it is inefficient, ineffective and losing money hand over fist to the private sector, which is draining the State of valuable resources.

One need only consider the spend thereafter on, for example, education. The universities are demanding more money and we are demanding that there be universities in, for example, Waterford in the south east. I do not disagree with any of that, but I do disagree with the amount of money that universities are spending to achieve it, to keep their people safe and to look after their employees. There is evidence of significant waste in that sector, with money being spent on paintings or €13,000 being spent on retirement parties for individuals, while those in the sector who have made complaints under whistleblowing legislation have not been paid for three or four years. Someone needs to hold those colleges to account. In particular, someone needs to tell CIT that, as required by legislation, it needs to pay members of its staff when they are on leave because they blew the whistle on some scandal or other.

The same applies to the Garda and the Prison Service. The latter is in crisis. Numerous prison officers are out sick because of incidents in which they were badly injured by prisoners while at work. They have been put on suspended leave and are not being paid fully. They must fight for their wages. That is a scandal in itself, but when one considers the amount of taxpayers' money that is being used to prop up a system that does not work and has poor HR management systems in every sector, is it any wonder that there are problems with staff?

I challenge the Minister of State to put in place a more responsive dedicated unit rather than the €5 million on spin within the Taoiseach's office, attach that spend to the Committee of Public Accounts and take real action on reports that are being made available to various Ministers with a view towards change and reform. They are reluctantly considering, and desperately avoiding, reform because it may bring about greater efficiencies in how taxpayers' money is spent.

I wish to address the major issues in the budget. I acknowledge the work that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is doing on housing, but I am afraid that he is experiencing the reluctance of local authorities to build. How is it that large housing schemes were constructed throughout the country in the 1950s and 1960s when there was little expertise or money but there was a drastic need for public housing? Local authorities did that work well. They now have the expertise and vast amounts of money, yet for some reason they are unable to deliver. They do not build houses. They no longer collect rubbish. They no longer have anything to do with water. What in the name of God are county managers actually doing? For what are they getting paid? The Minister needs to call them in again and tell them to build or buy the houses that are necessary if the waiting lists that exist in every county are to be reduced. There are 3,500 people on the list in Kilkenny, a number of sites that are ready to be built on and developers who are ready to construct, yet there is no appetite within the local authority to do it.

I challenge the Minister to make available a scheme, such as the shared ownership or grant scheme, to ensure that that the block of people in the middle, who do not qualify for local authority housing because they are over the money threshold even though they do not have enough to qualify for a loan, are included on some list. A scheme should be made available to such people so that they might buy or construct a house for their family. I want local authorities to build extensions to keep people in their homes. There is almost a refusal by local authorities to do that kind of work.

I want local authorities to buy houses for the families of children with special needs. For several years, I have raised in the Chamber a case that I have been dealing with in Kilkenny. The Respond! Housing Association has three units that could each house a family. It has planning permission. However, for ten years or more that site has remained idle. A house was constructed that could house a family with special needs but it has been vacant for at least ten years. I have brought this matter to the attention of the Minister and Respond! but nothing has happened because the connection between the Minister, Respond! and the local authority is gone. They no longer respect public representatives. In fact, we are a nuisance. I challenge Deputies to pick up the phone right now and telephone their county managers, then tell me whether they get through. County managers pay lipservice to the legislation when meeting Oireachtas Members. Were the Minister to exercise his authority where it was necessary to make them do their job, we would have houses on the ground. There is no need for a further agency, just as there is no need for an agency to make cheap money available to developers. We own AIB and have a share in another bank. Why can the Government not tell them to loan a particular amount of money in a particular scheme?

We are too fond of creating quangos in this country and outsourcing problems to other agencies. That is rife within the HSE, which is essentially dysfunctional. It does not know how many managers it has. It knows that it has too many, that there are more managers than front-line staff and that more respect is given to managers than to front-line staff, yet the latter are the Band-Aid holding all of the HSE's services together. Without them, their dedication and their passion, the health service would be in a worse situation.

How capable is the management of the HSE in respect of its services and the money that the Government gives it? The HSE still does not have a single accounting system. Rather, there are a number of systems across the country that do not speak with one another. As a result, the HSE does not know what is happening in the health service at any given time. What we do know is that, in each year over the past few years, the HSE has almost tipped €1 billion in overspending. It has received an increase in this year's budget, but that will only offset what it overspent last year. The HSE is constantly running ahead of its spend and is marching just to stand still. It is crazy that the HSE does not have someone who will take responsibility. I have no confidence in its management. I have the greatest of confidence in its staff because, once someone is in their care, he or she progresses well. However, the waiting list to get into their care incurs a major human cost.

I urge reform of and greater accountability in the HSE, with a management structure to equal any business on the front line of best practice in this country. That is necessary. Change managers are needed to ensure that the reforms required to bring about a better health service are enacted.

Politicians act in good faith, now as they did in the past, and try to do their best, but they are challenged by a system that beats them down over the short period a Minister holds office.

It is the same with An Garda Síochána. We had a crisis in the Garda that went on for months on end and resulted in the departure of two Commissioners and a Minister, yet I have not heard the House debate the new plan and strategy for the force. I have not heard any discussion of it. I challenge the Government to bring its plan to the floor of the House. A strategy is needed because no single person can manage a force with 12,000 to 14,000 members and be the Accounting Officer before Dáil committees week in and week out as well as appearing before the other organisation overseeing the Garda. With respect to those within the force, it needs a new, modern and dynamic system of management. There is a need for education for those who want to join the force such as there is for doctors or nurses. Why do we not have courses like that for the Garda? Why is there no officer corps within An Garda Síochána as there is in the Army? Why do we not break down the force according to its responsibilities as is done in France and then make them accountable for the money they spend? They do not have a single system of accounting within their force.

If I stand up to criticise the Garda, the health service or a local authority, I want to be able to do so with the intention of trying to improve their lot. I want to see a better force. Politicians, however, do not ensure that a better management system and a better force is provided for. That is where we fall down. When Mary Harney was Minister, I called for a truce around health whereby we would all buy into the same policy and try to support the Department's patient-centred initiatives. We had it recently in the health committee, but when it brought forward its strategy, the money was not put behind it. Nothing happened.

The one issue in health which we have to grasp is mental health. We talk about it in the House and say there are millions available, but what happens on the ground thereafter is shocking. Young people with mental health issues who turn up for care do not get it. I know of numerous cases where people turned up for care, were refused or received the wrong care or ended up in a community setting and subsequently took their own lives. That is a fact and we have to do something to address it. If we do not have the fully qualified people at the front line, we must do something about it. Our young people are being destroyed by the challenges of life for which they are unprepared, for some reason or other, and we have to reach out to them. The services are not there, however. The same thing happens as older people go through life and come to need support and services.

The single complaint that emerges loud and clear from life in modern Ireland is the fact that the banks have driven so many people to their deaths. Many people have committed suicide because the banks have spent every single day tormenting families to collect money. One vulture fund recently told a client that it did not care where he got the money. He was told to ask friends, neighbours, family, his mother, his father or the credit union as long as he got the money. "We want money" is the attitude of a manager in a vulture fund. As long as we allow that to happen without regulation, the quality of people's lives will be tested day in and day out. The Central Bank will acknowledge this morning that its does not have the powers to deal with the tracker mortgage issue. It does not have the extended powers necessary to tell banks to pay the cohort of people who have been proven to have been put on the wrong rate and proven to have been taken off the tracker. The Central Bank does not have the power and so it tries to cajole the banks or put moral pressure on them. No bank, to my knowledge, understands moral pressure. Banks understand their bottom line and the need to protect it and they ignore what we say in the House.

While I welcome the statement of the Taoiseach yesterday and the fact that the banks are being brought in to explain their stance, he and the Minister for Finance should beat up on the lot of them. They should threaten to withdraw their licences or to restrict them. There are other players in the market. Sparkassenbanks in Germany want their model to be permitted in this country. Today in Germany, ten year tracker rates stand at 1.1% but one cannot get that here. The banks are running roughshod over every well-intentioned politician and regulator because they can. We should ensure by way of legislation and penalties of one kind or another that the day comes when the banks cannot do that. The day must come after which headlines asking why no one will stand up to our bullying banks never again appear in our newspapers. The banks should not be allowed to bully families or individuals. Addressing that is the responsibility of Government and it is what I mean when I say any Government is obliged to keep its people safe. We have not done that.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I call the Minister.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Deputy.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Sorry for the elevation.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Acting Chairman has a crystal ball.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Acting Chairman. I am here by the skin of my teeth having been at a committee and I am grateful to be facilitated.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is welcome.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on budget 2018, the main thrust of which is to make life easier for families, help people who need it most, improve the lives of older people and invest in our rural communities. I welcome the prudent approach adopted as we need to learn lessons from the reckless financial management of the past which brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. To that end, I welcome the establishment of the rainy day fund with an investment of €1.5 billion. I also welcome the capital plan which is crucial to the delivery of key priority projects in social housing, roads and schools and will be critical as we move to develop our 2040 planning framework. I greatly look forward to contributing to that process and to proposing investment and connectivity to Offaly through access to our county town of Tullamore via a link from the N6 at Kilbeggan.

I welcome the increase in HAP funding which will be very helpful for people looking to accommodate themselves in their local areas. I welcome also the investment next year in new social housing. There are very many working people who simply cannot provide a house for themselves. The one thing we can do is to ensure people can get a roof over their heads as that is where they can make a great start in life.

The increase in stamp duty from 2% to 6% has been a cause of concern for many, in particular those who are midway through transactions and have budgeted for the lower rate. I hope it will be clarified that if contracts have been signed and deposits have been paid over, people will pay the 2% which they understood they had to budget for rather than the 6% rate. I appreciate that it is 6% for new transactions. A number of farming families have also contacted me on the age for transfers, which they feel is too low at 67. I hope we will be able to increase it.

Last year, I welcomed the investment of €5 million through budget 2017 to establish the Healthy Ireland fund.

I welcome the additional investment of €5 million, which underpins the commitment to the Healthy Ireland framework. However, it is only a drop in the ocean in terms of what is needed. I would like to see that funding increased year-on-year rather than remain at €5 million because the Healthy Ireland framework is essential in preventing physical and mental illness. Prevention should be our objective.

I also welcome the introduction of the sugar tax, which was flagged last year. However, I would prefer if it had been hypothecated to be targeted specifically at tackling the challenges of obesity, be that in relation to people in need of bariatric surgery, investment in our secondary schools and colleges or ourselves to improve our own quality of life. I appeal to the Department of Finance to reconsider its proposed use of the yield from this tax. Prevention is not spoken about enough in relation to this area. I welcome the investment in An Garda Síochána and the recruitment of an additional 800 Garda and 500 civilian staff. I also welcome all of the other services that are being rolled out through the Department of Justice and Equality, including the additional funding for CCTV systems and community text alert schemes.

Brexit is the greatest challenge to our country and economy in recent times. Our SMEs, which are the backbone of our communities, having access to the Brexit loan scheme at low interest rates is to be welcomed, as is the retention of the 9% VAT rate to support the hospitality sector, which I believe really needs assistance. While this sector is booming in particular areas, the 9% VAT rate is vital to counties like Offaly that are still developing their fantastic tourism product.

I welcome the additional funding for the cultural sector, including the Arts Council, the Irish Film Board, Culture Ireland, the national cultural institutions and the creative children initiative, Waterways Ireland and many other agencies associated with our built and natural heritage. However, as I have said time and again the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht does not get enough money. The Minister and her officials can only do so much with the money they are given. In Irish society, we are achieving enormously in the arts. We should be investing more in this area by way of a capital funding programme for the arts, similar to the sports capital programme. We are not only achieving at national level but at international level in terms of our writers, singers and actors. We need to do more for them.

As stated by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, climate change is the global challenge of our generation. It was fantastic to hear a Minister for Finance acknowledging this because as a society, and individually, we are answerable to our children and grandchildren for our actions or, more important, inactions in terms of reducing our carbon footprint. There is an onus on us to ensure a reduction in energy use in all public-owned buildings. I welcome the allocation to facilitate energy efficiency programmes because a reduction in energy use in public buildings, commercial buildings and the residential sector will make a huge difference. I also welcome the allocation of €17 million for the renewable heat incentive. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grant, the VRT relief and new 0% rate of benefit-in-kind will incentivise the uptake of electric vehicles. However, if we are serious about moving to electric vehicles then we must address the issue of distances and the lack of charging points. If I had an electric car, the only place I could charge it is on the far side of Merrion Square. That is the only charging point around here. This issue needs to be addressed in the context of new housing and commercial developments. We need more charging points in public places. People will not make the move to electric cars if there are not sufficient charging points.

I welcome the changes in the social welfare area, including the €5 per week increase in all weekly social welfare payments, the telephone support allowance, about which I know many of us have received representations, the increase in family income supplement, FIS, and the €2 per week increase in the qualified child payment. There are also other changes in terms of prescription charges and so on which I believe will be of real benefit to families and individuals.

Taxation is a matter that exercises us all, particularly the workers who kept the show on the road when the country was in austerity and striving to manage. They went to work every day and paid USC, the pension levy and their taxes. It was wrong that people moved to the high rate of tax on reaching €33,800. I welcome that the threshold in this regard has been increased to €34,500. In terms of attracting home our emigrants who left in times of austerity this is a really good move in the right direction. It will ensure that take home pay is attractive to them. The reduction in the USC rates from 2.5% to 2% and 5% to 4.75% is also welcome and will be vital in that regard.

I referred to SMEs earlier. We need to focus on them more and to acknowledge what they are doing in their communities, regardless of whether they employ one, two, five or ten people. It is incumbent on us as public representatives to recognise the fantastic work they do in providing services in our communities and employing people. There is often a great deal of focus on foreign direct investment and what US companies are considering locating in our towns and so on. We need to focus on the businesses already operating in our towns. For example, Grant Engineering in Birr and Glenisk Limited, which produces dairy products such as yoghurt, are fabulous local companies in my area which employ local people and will not up and leave when tax breaks run out. These businesses are invested in our communities and we need to focus more on them. The increase in earned income credit of €200 which brings the overall threshold to €1,150 is very welcome. It sends out the strong message to vital people in our communities that we appreciate them.

I welcome the rural social scheme and the increase in placements on the scheme to 250. The scheme is providing a fantastic service on a number of levels, socially and economically, for people in our communities. It is important people are able to learn new skills and to meet and connect with new people. All of this contributes to the mental and physical health and wellbeing of our people, which is the objective of the Healthy Ireland framework.

The increase in the number of SNAs to 11,000 is very welcome. It is important that all children are taught in mainstream schools. To do this successfully, we need suitably qualified people to help them. We cannot expect principals and teachers to handle all of that.

The 50 cent increase on a pack of cigarettes is welcome. I believe taxation can be used as an instrument for behavioural change. An important element of the national cancer strategy and our tobacco strategy is a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025. People should avail of the opportunity to give up smoking as it is now a very expensive habit. I plead with people not to take up smoking and I encourage those who do smoke but want to quit to avail of the many fantastic services available to them free of charge, including the HSE service quit.ie.

I welcome the budget, although there are many other areas I would like to have seen addressed in it. That said, it is a prudent budget and I support it. I thank the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the staff involved in preparing it. I also acknowledge the role of Fianna Fáil in the budget in terms of its advocation for certain elements and themes therein.

Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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First, I welcome a visiting school from my area.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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They are all very welcome.

Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the budget and the Finance Bill.

I want to acknowledge the positives in the budget. There are also some negatives, however, and some missed opportunities. I will deal with this in a constructive rather than in a negative way so as to highlight the remaining issues and concerns that all of us meet on a daily basis in our constituencies and clinics. I also want to acknowledge Fianna Fáil's positive role and input in ensuring that fairness be applied in this budget and that it helps everyone across society, particularly those who are more vulnerable and more in need. This role came about through the confidence and supply agreement and proved very important in both the 2017 and 2018 budgets. I further acknowledge the work of my colleagues, Deputies Michael McGrath and Dara Calleary, in this regard. When the electorate threw up the result that it did last year, matters were left very uncertain for some time. Fianna Fáil, however, did the responsible thing at the time in supporting and facilitating Fine Gael's minority-led Government rather than putting the reputation of the country at risk. We were at a very vulnerable point at that stage and had just come through a very difficult period, so people both in Ireland and looking in from abroad needed to see maturity and common sense prevail. It is very important that Fianna Fáil's role in facilitating this minority-led Government be acknowledged positively. We have been able to play a positive role and make a positive contribution both to this and to the last budget in the areas of concern to the people who gave us our mandate.

One area on which we must focus is the cost of living. I will focus on two areas in this regard: motor insurance and variable mortgage interest rates. There has been a missed opportunity here. We need to be stronger in these areas so as to drive down the cost of living. In driving down this cost we can help people and families, give them more money to spend, reduce the pressure and give them spending ability in their local communities which in turn helps the local, regional and national economy. This is very important. Motor insurance is, as we know, a huge issue and premiums have increased by 30%, 40% and 50%. The recent figures from the CSO show a slight decrease but this has not been felt by many and certainly not at the scale that is needed. It is important that we implement the recommendations from the joint Oireachtas committee so that premiums can remain static in the first instance and then be driven down. CSO figures also show that insurance claims have collectively fallen in the last 18 months to two years, meaning that there is no real reason why premiums should be increasing at the rate that they are. This is particularly true where individuals and families have had no change in their circumstances, be it with regard to a motor, home or business policy. There is no justification for this. It is wrong. I spoke about it at the Committee of Public Accounts and I called for it to be investigated. That investigation is ongoing. It is fundamentally wrong to put people under pressure unnecessarily.

On the issue of the variable mortgage interest rates, I worked with my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, to bring forward a very good Bill which is now on Committee Stage. The Bill looks to strengthen and give powers to the Central Bank to enforce and ensure that the commercial banks fall in line with the rest of Europe on this matter. We are currently at interest rates which are 1.5% to 1.8% higher than the rest of Europe, which is completely unacceptable. These rates result in a €200,000 mortgage netting €250 a month, money that could be back in people's pockets so as to give them a greater spend. Bringing the areas of motor insurance and variable mortgage interest rates in line with where they should be would give the average family an extra €300 a month, thus relieving a lot of pressure. We need to focus on ensuring that we can actually deliver in these areas as this would bring immediate relief to the constant pressures stretching families at the moment.

Some €4.3 billion has been announced for the capital investment plan for infrastructure. Is this an announcement of a figure that has already been allocated and identified for projects? I hear the same projects being mentioned again and that concerns me. These are very worthy and necessary projects, such as the Sallins bypass in my own constituency, and many other examples. I acknowledge that this is positive. However, as this announcement has been made a number of times in 2017, I wonder whether this new funding will be going into projects already announced, or whether additional funding will be put into new projects. This is of major importance if we are to develop and help all of our constituencies, and the country as a whole, into the future.

We need to bring major capital investments in road infrastructure. The N3, N4 and N5, for example, major roads connecting the north west with Dublin, need investment. This will translate in turn into foreign direct investment, FDI, relocating into these areas thus moving companies out of Dublin, giving them other opportunities to bring employment into these areas and, importantly, helping those economies. In delivering the road network we create employment and a feel-good factor. It is also a matter of carrying out much-needed upgrade work. We need to build on the excellent work done in the past on investing in our infrastructure. This infrastructure has been left static for years now. With borrowing currently at such a low level and interest rates at virtually 0%, we need to capitalise on the situation and invest in our road network so as to open up all of these areas to employment, industry, and tourism, which is also hugely important to the national economy. We need to look at the situation critically and start serious investment in these areas.

Public transport is also an issue. Dublin is virtually a car-free zone because of the level of regulations and guidelines introduced to assist with public transport. Public transport is being developed and used a lot more in my own constituency of Kildare North, provided the infrastructure is put in place. The Dublin Bus route coming into from Dublin to Celbridge, Lexlip and Maynooth needs more capacity. It is currently at full capacity, so much so that in the morning buses often have to pass by bus-stops without picking up passengers. This area needs investment. The Bus Éireann routes 115 and 120 out to Kilcock and Clane are also at capacity and need further infrastructure and investment. The trains on the Kilcock and on the Hazelhatch-Sallins lines are also at full capacity and need further investment to ensure that members of the public who want to use public transport can be facilitated in doing so, and do not have to turn up for services unable to cater for them. If we are serious about promoting public transport then we must continue with aggressive investment to ensure that people are taken out of their cars and that there are services there for them to avail of. The services are there but they need to be extended and expanded so as to offer greater capacity.

With regard to localised infrastructure, we are currently depending on the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, which comes under the Minister of State's own remit. This is an excellent scheme and will open things up for all of the right reasons. I have been getting feedback from local authorities, however, that the process from sign-off to actual delivery is extremely slow. There are different reasons for this, from paperwork to the various phases that have to be worked through. For these reasons, LIHAF might not deliver in the way it was expected to. I am more than happy to engage with both the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Murphy, on this matter, which I also raised with them last week.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I think LIHAF has got quicker.

Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Let us take my own town of Celbridge. It has a population of 22,000 and has needed a second bridge for the last 20 years. I welcome the support I have received on this matter from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, and his officials. The first phase of this process has commenced and this will eventually lead to a project going to tender to deliver a second bridge for Celbridge. This is hugely important for the development of the town. We need the funding to allow this to happen faster, however. Clane, Maynooth and Naas all need ring roads, which would open up proper infrastructure and allow for future developments in a holistic way. Again, however, the investment required here needs to be accelerated. It looks like we are now depending on LIHAF to make the infrastructural improvements in those areas and many others around the country. We need to move faster on this. We need to look at what are the issues and how they can be overcome with a view to having projects delivered.

As Deputy Dooley mentioned earlier, broadband is another serious issue that is not being addressed.

Broadband is now as important as electricity or a phone in one's home because people want to work from or are studying at home. When children are at school and in college broadband is a necessity. It is no longer a luxury. We, therefore, need to accelerate the national broadband plan. The information I have received in tabling parliamentary questions on areas in which the service needs to be upgraded is that the national broadband plan has still not been put out to tender. That is a massive issue. There are areas which are crying out for a service and which are being held back without it. That is also very important.

There are missed opportunities in the areas of health and social welfare. While I welcome the increased investment in the National Treatment Purchase Fund, it is still not having an impact on waiting lists for the likes of adults who need spinal surgery, the waiting list for which stands at 38 months for a routine operation, and children who need orthopaedic treatment, the waiting list for which stands at two years for operations determined to be urgent. The mental health service which was alluded to presents a major problem. It needs to be resourced and funded properly.

I welcome the increase of €5 in pensions and all other social welfare payments. When the Social Welfare Bill is brought before the House, I will speak in detail to the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, about the Tús scheme and the bereavement grant. I called for the telephone allowance to be reinstated and I am delighted that measures have been taken in that regard. The allowance is very important to people who are living on their own and in isolation. They need the allowance not only to contact the outside world but also to be able to use panic alarms and panic buttons to ensure their security.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I commend Deputy Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy for commenting in her concluding remarks on the positive role Fianna Fáil played in strongly advocating for a number of measures which are being implemented in budget 2018. My colleague, Deputy Frank O'Rourke, has referred to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, the increases in social welfare payments and the additional funding for other specific areas. I was glad when Deputy Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy referred to Glenisk. I had some involvement with the company a number of years ago when I was in a position to allocate an additional milk quota before it was decided to abolish quotas in 2008. I was glad to engage in discussions subsequently with its partners in the United States. It is a very strong major international corporation. Its pioneering role and that of so many other small companies in counties Offaly, Cavan and Meath, among others, is of huge importance to local economies. Before I had become familiar with Glenisk, I remember former Deputy Brian Cowen speaking to me in glowing terms about its potential. His comments swayed me to ensure some of the much sought after milk quota would be allocated to the company.

I am glad that the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, is in the Chamber. He may recall that, on a number of occasions at Question Time, I have raised with him and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the issue of income eligibility limits for social housing. I have highlighted the issue for him and the Ministers, Deputies Simon Coveney and Eoghan Murphy. The limits applicable in Cavan-Monaghan are no longer tenable. The Minister of State may recall that I highlighted the case of a young man who was an apprentice. His partner who had, unfortunately, lost her job was in receipt of a jobseeker's payment. They had a child and were above the income limit to qualify for social housing. I also highlighted the case of a young single mother who was rearing three children, two of whom were in primary school and one in second level education. She was working in a low paid job and in receipt of family income supplement, yet she was above the income limit to qualify for social housing. The fact that she was in receipt of family income supplement demonstrates that her income was not sustainable.

The Minister of State's Department cannot continue to insist on a payment such as family income supplement being factored in in the assessment of income when someone is applying for local authority housing. The people concerned have no hope of securing a mortgage from a mortgage provider, yet they do not qualify for social housing. They are in no man's land. On the day I raised this case the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, gave me a commitment that a review would be set in motion. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, then indicated to me - as I do not want to misrepresent him, I will paraphrase what he said - that a review had not taken place, or if it had, nothing had been done. I appeal to the Minister of State that it is essential that income eligibility limits to qualify for social housing be revised. I only know about the position my constituency, but they are much too low and need to be revised. If they are not revised, we will deny a whole generation the opportunity to be tenants in a local authority house when they have no chance whatsoever of getting a mortgage.

Deputy Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy also referred to Brexit. I have the privilege to represent two Southern Ulster counties. Here in the Oireachtas and also in our political work at home we are consumed by the issue of Brexit. I have highlighted the fact that the economies of counties north and south of the Border, including Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Tyrone and probably Armagh, are heavily dependent on three sectors - agrifood, construction products and engineering. They are the three sectors which are most heavily dependent on Northern Ireland and Britain for their export markets and they have already been hit because of the weakness of sterling. I appealed to the Tánaiste to ensure there would be sector-specific responses to prepare companies to meet the further adverse impacts of Brexit when we reached 2019. She said she would give the matter every possible consideration.

I have been appealing to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to prioritise meeting the infrastructure needs of the Border region. I mention this to the Minister of State because, by their nature, the products being exported from the area in the three sectors mentioned have to be transported by heavy goods vehicles. As a neightbour, the Minister of State will know that the road infrastructure in Cavan, Monaghan and some adjoining counties is not up to the standard we all wish to see. The Government has the competence to decide where resources should be allocated for infrastructural development. I speak to companies which export to Northern Ireland and Britain. Thankfully, many of them are large, but they started off as small indigenous enterprises. Some of them are now multinational corporations. They speak to me about the additional costs incurred because of the poor road infrastructure.

We know that, for historical reasons, there was no investment in the Border region. One of the key ingredients in ensuring there was no investment was the Troubles which were inflicted on the province of Ulster and adjoining areas for many decades. Thankfully, particularly since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, many local companies have become all-Ireland companies. They may have started in counties Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone, but, thankfully, they have become cross-Border enterprises. I think of food companies such as Lakeland Dairies and Lacpatrick. Lakeland Dairies has three processing sites in the South and two in the North. LacPatrick, formerly Town of Monaghan Co-op which had its headquarters in Monaghan town, has two processing plants north of the Border and one in County Monaghan. These companies have raw material and finished product travelling north and south and to ports and airports. They need local infrastructure to be upgraded if they are to have any chance of remaining competitive. We know that there is a big competitive world out there and of the particular pressures caused by the weakness in sterling. These sectors are very heavily dependant on the British market.

I am glad that the Minister for Justice and Equality will be in a position to increase recruitment to An Garda Síochána. Again, Brexit which is looming brings the concept of the Border back to us when we had thought it had gone from our psychology forever. The Cavan-Monaghan Garda division covers a very long land border with the neighbouring jurisdiction. There are very demanding policing requirements to be met in the Border area. I have appealed to the Minister for Justice and Equality to ensure, when the Garda Commissioner is allocating the additional Garda personnel throughout the country, the particular policing needs in the Cavan-Monaghan division will be given particular attention. Unfortunately, since 2010 the number of gardaí in Monaghan has been reduced by 28%. The number of gardaí in County Cavan has been reduced by 20%. We will need to increase these numbers again because of the extra demands which will arise from Brexit. Unfortunately, there has been a spate of crime in rural areas in both counties. I have appealed to the Minister to ensure, when the additional Garda personnel become available, the particular policing needs in the Border region will be given the utmost priority. We know that when criminals engage in misbehaviour in the Border region, they can get away very quickly into the neighbouring jurisdiction.

Unfortunately, the neighbouring areas north of the Border have historically been very lightly policed so I appeal for additional Garda numbers for the Cavan-Monaghan division.

In the area of health, there is a problem in the Cavan-Monaghan area in respect of the provision of services to children with disabilities. Not only are children not getting services, they are not even getting assessments prior to treatment. I have appealed to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, to ensure the particular needs of children with disabilities are prioritised within their allocation of resources for the HSE. It is not acceptable that children have to wait exceptionally long times just for an assessment in respect of occupational therapy.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Deputy to wind up. He can continue when the debate resumes.