Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Social Protection, I am conscious that while inflation is falling, the cost of living continues to impact families and households across the country. When you go to the supermarket, you might have the same groceries in your basket, but the bill is a lot higher at the checkout. This budget is about giving people a bit of extra help and putting money back in their pockets. It is the largest social protection budget package in the history of the State, with over €2.6 billion worth of measures. It focuses on supporting pensioners, carers, disabled people and working families.

Older people have worked hard all their lives and they have helped to build up this country. I want to make sure they are looked after in their retirement. This budget will see double pension payments in October and December, a €200 living alone lump sum for widows and older people, a €300 lump sum on fuel allowance and, from January, a couple over 66 will be able to earn €1,048 per week and still qualify for the fuel allowance, ensuring thousands more pensioners will qualify for a payment. There will be a universal companion pass for all over-70s so they can bring their son or daughter or a friend on the bus or train with them. With my rural hat on, I know that country people do not like driving in Dublin, so I think this is going to be a very popular measure. The State pension will be increased to €289 per week from January, representing a €41 increase in weekly pensions over the lifetime of this Government.

I am sick to the teeth of people giving out about child benefit being a universal payment. Do working people not deserve some support? Young families are under pressure. They are working hard, paying their mortgages and paying childcare, and I want to help them. This budget will see a double child benefit payment in November and a second double child benefit payment in December in the run-up to Christmas. I am also increasing maternity, paternity, adoptive and parent’s benefit to €289 per week, meaning these payments are now on a par with the State pension as the highest in the social protection system.

We are introducing a new treble child benefit grant for newborn babies from January. I have been contacted in the last 24 hours, as I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle has been, by many women whose babies are due to arrive in December. They are worried that their babies will arrive too late for the double child benefit payment at the start of December but too early for the newborn grant in January. As a mother, I do not want to see any woman or baby miss out. I am pleased to inform the House that babies born in December will be eligible to receive the newborn grant when their mother receives the first child benefit payment in January. Do not worry - the Christmas babies will be looked after. I thank my colleagues, in particular Deputy Alan Farrell, who raised this matter with me.

The good news is that when those babies get a little bigger, they can look forward to receiving a hot dinner when they start primary school. It is one of my proudest achievements in politics to have grown the hot school meals programme from a small pilot project to universal provision in 2025, which will see every primary school child in the country receive a hot dinner in the middle of the day. The hot dinners are a great leveller. All the children sit down and eat together. There is no stigma attached to it. All the children are treated equally. Not having to think about what goes in the lunchbox every day is one less thing for busy parents to worry about when they are heading out to work in the morning. I will also be working with the Department of the Taoiseach and other stakeholders to deliver a pilot project to tackle holiday hunger over the holiday periods.

The Taoiseach, Deputy Simon Harris, asked all Ministers to focus on child poverty as part of this budget and he supported Ministers in driving forward this agenda. The child support payment will replace the old IQC payment and is targeted at low-income families. I am increasing the rates to €50 per week for under-12s and €62 per week for over-12s. Annually, these payments are worth €2,600 for each child under 12 and €3,224 for each child over 12. These are targeted payments to tackle child poverty. In addition, I am increasing the income limits in order that more families can qualify for the working family payment and there will also be a €400 working family payment in November.

I will move on to the issue of carers. As we all know, family carers work 24-7.

I recognise our family carers. I listen to them and I have worked hard to try to enhance the supports available to our carers. Last year, I passed the legislation to ensure that long-term carers will have access to the State pension. This year's budget will see double carer's payments in October and December, a €400 carer's lump sum in November and carer's benefit will be extended to the self-employed. The carer's support grant will be increased to €2,000, its highest ever level and carer's allowance will be made a qualifying payment for fuel allowance. There had been no changes to the carer's allowance means test for over 13 years before I was appointed Minister for Social Protection. Since coming into the Department I have doubled the means test income limits from €332 for a single person and €665 for a couple in 2021 to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple in 2025. This means that in 2025, a couple will be able to earn €1,250 per week and have €50,000 in savings and still qualify for the full carer's allowance payment. I know that more needs to be done on the means test and more will be done in future years if we are given the chance. When one looks at the pitiful supports provided to family carers in Northern Ireland, carers know exactly who they can trust.

There is also a major package of supports for people with disabilities as part of this budget. This includes a €400 cost-of-disability grant in November, two double payments in October and December, and a €20 increase in the domiciliary care allowance to €360. There is a €12 increase in weekly disability payments. Disabled people will also benefit from other targeted supports such as the €300 fuel lump sum and the €200 living alone lump sum.

Next year, 2025, will see the introduction of two generational reforms of the Irish social welfare system. The new pay-related benefits scheme will commence on 31 March 2025 and the first enrolments under the new auto-enrolment pension scheme will commence on 30 September 2025. As Minister, I have driven these two major reforms. I designed them and passed the legislation and I am delighted to announce the start dates as part of budget 2025.

This week, I will sign the commencement orders to ensure that there can be no going back and this will become a reality in 2025. This is my fifth budget as Minister for Social Protection. I have learned at this stage that no matter what we do, it will not please everybody and there will always be calls to do more. We cannot do everything but we can and we should give a helping hand to those who need it most. When one looks at this budget in its totality, the lump sum payments, the weekly increases and the targeted measures, I believe this is a package that delivers for our older people, carers, people with disabilities and working families.

Members should ask whether this budget makes life a little bit easier for people. I believe the only answer anybody can give to that question is "Yes".

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I take this opportunity today to emphasise the importance of community work in all its various forms across the country. We invest in built infrastructure and in public services but infrastructure and public services do not, in and of themselves, create communities. The glue that pulls it all together is very often our community organisations and workers and, invariably, our volunteers.

We do not always give this reality due recognition. The pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis have underlined how important community is and how important it is for us to invest in community supports.

Over the past four years, I have ensured that significant supports have been provided to community and voluntary organisations to help them weather the storms of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis. One of the first challenges I faced as Minister of State was the funding deficit of community groups funded under the community services programme, CSP. Many were at risk of closure at the time due to Covid-19 but I secured funding to ensure their survival.

Building on that, I reviewed the community services programme, restructured it and introduced a new funding model which has provided additional funds to those organisations working in areas of highest need. Yesterday, I was glad to confirm that I have secured an additional €3 million for the CSP in 2025. Over the budgets of this Government, I have increased the funding to the CSP by 17%.

There is no community programme that has such a wide reach and has more contact with people most in need on a daily basis than the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. It has been my mission, not just to strengthen and grow SICAP, but to grow awareness and appreciation of the programme at the highest levels in government and in Departments. I have grown the budget for SICAP by 36% over my time in office and yesterday I was happy to announce a further increase for the programme for 2025.

I want to mention our volunteer centres. During my time in Government I have launched our first national volunteering policy and I have heavily invested in our volunteering infrastructure to ensure that we have a volunteer centre in every county in Ireland. Including yesterday's budget increase, I have grown the overall volunteer centre budget allocation by 44%.

Our investment in volunteer centres is some of the best value for money we can get. Volunteer centres encourage and support volunteering locally by supporting and guiding individuals who wish to give their time freely but they also engage hugely with local groups and match up available skills with need.

Speaking of volunteers, I want to acknowledge our public participation networks, PPNs. This is an extraordinary network of over 17,000 groups nationally. Every local authority area has its own independent PPN funded by my Department and the local PPN is absolutely key in local policy formulation and in facilitating participation and representation of communities at a local level.

The PPNs are a relatively new structure and I am glad to say that during my time as Minister of State I have conducted a review of the PPNs and, in collaboration with the network, we have recently completed an implementation plan coming out of that review. The national network of PPNs is growing. We have a new path forward so I was especially glad to announce a significant increase of 15% yesterday on last year's budget allocation, leading to an increase of 36% since budget 2020.

I have also had the opportunity to develop new community-based programmes. I have introduced a new community development programme that goes back to the core principles of bottom-up community-led development and I saw the amazing and impactful outcomes of that programme at an event in Athlone only last week.

Earlier this year, I established a new community connection project. This project will fund 30 new community workers across the country who will have a particular role in addressing community division and misinformation on people seeking protection. It will run in parallel with a research project that will gather localised best practice in preventing and addressing division and tackling misinformation. It will work in collaboration with the community engagement team I have established in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Before I finish I want to mention what I think will be an increasingly important programme going forward, beyond this Government. In 2022 I launched the empowering communities programme. Based on the Pobal HP Deprivation Index, I selected 14 of the most disadvantaged communities in the country and put community workers on the ground in these areas. The geographical areas selected are relatively small with a view to facilitating intensive community work in those areas that need it most. Since then, I have been able to expand the programme to three other locations and yesterday I was delighted to announce a €1 million expansion of the programme. I place particular emphasis on this programme because despite progress in many areas in Ireland, there are still areas around the country in towns and cities and rural areas which continue to be left behind. I believe the empowering communities programme will be central going forward to significantly increase social inclusion and social cohesion nationally.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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This is a good budget for every household in the country and for every individual. As a Minister of State in the Department of Finance, it gives me great pleasure to rise to commend this budget for the House but also to speak to the conditions that have allowed us to deliver a good budget.

The conditions of our economy do not happen by accident. They are not some fluke, as some people would imply. This is the product of over a decade of prudent, sensible, financial management in the face of serious issues. This was the coming out from a financial crash that devastated our economy and led to nearly 16% unemployment; the travails of Brexit; a Covid-19 pandemic the likes of which we have not seen in a century; a war in Europe the likes of which we have not seen since the Second World War; and a cost-of-living crisis that has impacted every household of every size and every business. Yet, we stand here to deliver a budget on the back of an economy that is still growing. Inflation rates are some of the lowest in the European Union and we have more people in work in the country at the moment, 2.7 million people, than the 1950 census shows we had living in the State.

The earning power of Irish people at the moment is the highest it has ever been in history. It gives us an opportunity to have a record tax take, not just corporation tax but also income tax and VAT. This allows the Government to recognise some things. I hope we all agree that Members all enter this House with the same ambition. I acknowledge that we all want to do it in different ways, which is good and proper, but we all want to make people's lives that little bit easier. We want to help people. That is the core of why we sought office, I hope, and I would like to say that of all colleagues. In this budget will see a cost-of-living package to be delivered this side of Christmas that will go directly to the people who need it the most. It will also ensure that all those people in the State who pay their tax, who work hard and play by the rules get a little bit of their own money back.

Equally, within the Department of Finance we are able to introduce an ambitious taxation package that recognises the fact that Ireland has the lowest rate across the European Union where someone goes into the highest tax bracket. It is right that we have increased that threshold by €2,000 to make sure that some day, we hope, we get to a threshold of €50,000 before someone pays the upper rate of income tax. We have seen a cut to USC on earnings up to €70,000. That is right. This is not introducing 22 new taxes that will stymie an economy and punish people for working hard or for trying their best in society.

Beyond that we also see taxation measures being used best in the way we want to deliver housing. No one can deny that this budget is ambitious in building housing with 10,000 social homes to be built. We will see renewed figures in what we seek to deliver. Last year, we delivered more than 33,000 homes and this year it will be 40,000. In this budget there are measures on the one hand that will work to make sure individuals can build the homes and also deter such scenarios whereby 200 homes were bought by institutional buyers last year. This increase of stamp duty will equally see that the people who worked hard all their life, who bought their own family home and paid tax on it once, if not twice, can leave it to the next generation. Of course, taxation will, and should, be paid but the threshold at which taxation is paid is increased in the recognition of rising property prices and of rising contributions.

There are two other points that are crucially important. I read some of the comments today from the armchair economists who said this will fuel inflation. Irish inflation has come down drastically after the really high inflation rates of the previous two years. The flash inflation rate for September has Ireland at the lowest in the European Union at 0.2%. This budget provides for the infrastructure development of the State. The sale of shares in AIB will allow us play huge money not just into housing, but also into energy and water provision, and to make sure that our country continues to be attractive to foreign investment and continues to be able to support indigenous economic growth. This is why those infrastructure projects that are so desperately needed will get the real support and funding from this budget, never mind any discussion about any other windfall measures that will need to be spent and discussed in the first quarter of next year.

Crucially, this budget responds to the need of the population and of our businesses to make sure we can continue to grow our economy. Without a growing economy any promise made in this Chamber or any commitment to impact the societal and community needs of our country is just hot air. We must have a growing economy and an ability to plan for the future. Once upon a time we had a rainy day fund and it was lambasted by many Members in this House but when it rained we needed that fund desperately, such as at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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What about the money for the bankers?

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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Yes, €64 billion.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputies, please.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Respectfully, the Deputy can interject thereafter. We have a situation now where we set two funds up recently that will enable us to plan for the future. More than €15 billion will be invested in those funds to ensure that when we need that support, or when the economic tides change globally or indeed domestically, that we have those funds not only to dip into but also to invest and generate a return for future generations.

This is an ambitious budget for an ambitious country that knows we can and will continue to develop economic growth and that unlike before we have our economic models spread across a number industries such as life sciences, pharmaceuticals and med tech, the tech sector, and - crucially within my own brief in the Department of Finance - in international financial services, a sector that employs 57,600 people and will employ a further 9,000 in the coming years. I commend the budget to the House.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas. Is buiséad agus cáinaisnéis é seo a léiríonn easpa físe, nach bhfuil uaillmhianach agus, i ndáiríre, nach bhfuil aon chrot air. Tá sé gan tuairim nua mhór agus gan phlean mór agus nach mbeidh aon rian de nó tionchar aige go fadtéarmach. Budget 2025 has shown us that this Government is out of time and out of ideas to fix the problems in our society. I have heard the Government try to take the narrative or the rhetoric of the future in terms of the budget, but the truth is that the legacy of this project will disappear like snow on a ditch. The fact is that this budget is about today and not tomorrow. When comparing the Sinn Féin budget we would have brought forward against the Government's budget, the difference is on a massive scale. The Sinn Féin budget would deliver much greater capital spending not only in housing and in health, but also, crucially, on the energy sector and on climate change on multiple scales to that proposed by the Government.

There is no disputing one fact. For all the spiky responses from the Government benches, I have not heard a single contribution from the Opposition that has disputed the fact that the Government has spent a lot of money. When we have the good fortune to spend a lot of money what vision do we have, what legacy do we leave, and what are the choices we make? Those are the questions. The Government has made the choice to focus its tax cuts so that somebody on €150,000 will earn three times the kind of tax cut that somebody on €40,000 makes. The Government has made the choice to give a tax cut to landlords. As far as we can see, this cut is one that everyone in the Department of Finance has rubbished and raised concerns about. Former ESRI experts have outlined this cut as one of the stupidest tax reliefs they have ever heard of. That is said with the bar set quite high. The Government has decided to continue very favourable tax regimes for the banks and for other categories of people, and it has instead failed to make the necessary investments. I do not dispute that a lot of money has been spent but the Government could have properly tackled housing at long last. I agree with Deputy Eoin Ó Broin that the Government has raised the white flag. I know the Government tried to dispute this but it keeps backing policies that are not working, are making the situation worse and will not deliver the scale of social and affordable housing that is necessary.

The Government could have delivered, or begun to deliver, €10 per day childcare. In the context of my own portfolio, the Government could have begun the process of, or committed to, abolishing the means test for carers' allowance. What it has done is where other people would feel the benefit of the budget, but those who do not currently qualify for carers' allowance will not see the benefit of an increase in threshold until June. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, bring that forward to January?

People with disabilities deserve a great deal more. We have spent a year talking about the additional costs of disability with a Green Paper and so on. To her credit, the Minister for Social Protection has withdrawn her flawed proposals but she has done nothing in this budget to recognise the additional cost of disability. The increase in the payment for people on disability should have been €20 at the very least, rather than allowing them at the base rate. Clearly there needed to be a recognition of the increased cost of disability.

Sinn Féin would have increased the income threshold for carers to €730 for a single person and €1,460 for a couple, much beyond what the Government is doing and a substantial step towards abolishing the means test. We would have also introduced a pay-related carers' benefit, which the Minister should consider. She spent some time saying that people are giving out about the child benefit payment, but it is certainly not us. We had advocated a double payment. What is more, child benefit is still below where it was at in 2008 when it was cut by Fianna Fáil on the back of austerity and paying off the banks. It has not returned to that level and there has not been an increase in four or five years. We would have increased that by €10.

While I welcome some of the measures proposed, these were policies we had demanded for many years, including free school books and meals and other long-standing policies that Sinn Féin advocated.

There are objectives that we have put forward that the Government has listened to. It is clear that the Government has read the Sinn Féin alternative budget, but in terms of vision as to where this leaves Ireland in 12 months, two years or 12 years, I do not think the legacy is there.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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Another budget and another round of short-term supports for business. It appears that the Minister for enterprise massively overestimated his capacity to influence his Cabinet colleagues because he was all over the media publicising his own down-to-the-wire negotiations pleading for the VAT reduction sought by some in the hospitality sector, but he failed to convince anyone. It looks like a back-of-an-envelope scheme, although I hesitate to even call it that, that was cobbled together at the last minute. It is another one-off payment for struggling businesses when what they need is a real and meaningful contribution that recognises that the cost of doing business for SMEs is putting them under severe pressure.

The Minister's latest attempt at providing supports fell far short of what was required. While SMEs were calling for help, the Government was putting one convoluted scheme after another in place, with ever more complex ways to access funds. Massive amounts were returned to the Exchequer, not because they were not needed - they were desperately needed - but because the Government could not design a scheme that was fit for purpose. As with those schemes announced in the previous budget, we will have to wait for the detail on this one. This latest scheme of the Government will be judged on whether it is accessible for SMEs. Many will be excluded because they do not have a rateable premises or because their rates are too high. This is the case for many businesses in the Dublin area and the Government will know this because it left them out of previous schemes.

What did the Government do for enterprise? It decided to pit business against workers by telling workers on the minimum wage that they will only get an increase of 80 cent per hour. In what way does this recognise that there is a cost-of-living crisis? In what way does this help the lowest earners to keep up with their bills? This is the biggest signal yet that workers will have to wait for a different government if they are ever to get the living wage. Working adults aged 20 and under are still on sub-minimum rates of pay, where they will stay until there is a new government. Instead of helping SMEs to pay their workers a living wage and ensure they have access to appropriate levels of paid sick leave, the Government tells workers that they will have to wait. It does not need to be either-or.

On the other hand, Sinn Féin would have supported businesses to be able to keep up with rising costs while ensuring that workers can get the pay increases and the sick pay they need and deserve. That is why we proposed a €250 million PRSI rebate package for businesses employing workers on low incomes. We value labour and workers. This is why we proposed a decent raise in the minimum wage of €1.10 per hour, as the next step in the plan to move to the living wage. That is why we have also tabled legislation that would change the Low Pay Commission to the living wage commission. We are serious about delivering for workers, because we understand that people on low incomes need a hand up but the Government is more interested in giving its old pals, the vulture funds and the corporate landlords, another dig-out. Workers know who is on their side and so do our SMEs. We have listened and we do not buy the Government line that there has to be a choice between supporting workers or supporting business. A Government that is serious about action over spin can do both but that is not this Government.

We believe in growth that supports working people but the Government is hoping that workers will be dazzled by the spin and the big numbers. I welcome the decision to release some of the money in the National Training Fund. Sinn Féin tabled legislation to enable this fund to be accessed some time ago. It is really good to see that the Government is finally catching up with us.

This budget fails utterly to recognise the housing crisis or its impact on businesses. The lack of affordable accommodation for workers and families is shameful and is also a serious impediment to growth. In my constituency, the Fingal Chamber of Commerce tells us that the slow delivery of infrastructure, and specifically housing, presents a threat to Ireland's competitiveness and reputation, resulting in a direct impact on recruiting and retaining workers and worryingly, the ability to attract additional FDI. Almost 43% of businesses in Fingal said that the availability of housing rental accommodation is a serious issue. Chambers Ireland has said that the greatest challenge facing SMEs is the lack of available talent, which is driven by affordable and appropriate housing being unavailable across most of the country.

I will end on this. The parties that caused the housing crisis will not be the ones to fix it. The Government that thinks that a house costing €500,000 is affordable will most definitely not be the one to deliver affordable housing.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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This budget is a missed opportunity to deal with some of the lost years of austerity that have caused massive damage in our communities. I have no doubt that everyone who meets community organisations hears them time and again say that we have still not recovered from those years. We hear excuses about why things cannot be done all the time; there is no money or resources and then in the so-called "good times" we hear that it cannot be done now for this reason or that reason - fill in the blanks with whatever excuse.

Let us consider the community services programme. I acknowledge that there have been some advances regarding it. However, there appears to be no attempt to start to move towards a living wage. There is not even a single reference in the entire budget to a living wage. We have people working away, doing brilliant work and getting the plaudits and the claps on the back but not getting what we would all agree we should be striving for, which is a living wage. It is a wasted opportunity, given that these social enterprises are located in many working-class and disadvantaged communities.

There is an increasing number of children in consistent poverty, and one-off payments do not tackle the core issue of this consistent poverty and disadvantage. There is mention in the budget of an extra €1.6 million for supports for volunteers, philanthropic organisations and public participation networks, PPNs. This comes nowhere near what is required to properly support our communities in the challenges they face on a daily basis. We met PPN representatives recently in Leinster House. They outlined how seriously underfunded they are, given that they started with 5,000 groups and now have more than 22,000 groups affiliated. Their ask for all of this work on behalf of our communities was an increase in staff and core funding of €1.5 million. I do not know how the maths work out; I am sure we will see the detail as we go along. What allocation was there in the €1.6 million? Only €1 million in extra funding was allocated to the community centre investment fund. This is despite the fund being massively oversubscribed during the application process over the last couple of year. It is clear there is huge demand for the upgrading and refurbishment of existing community centres and the provision of new ones in our growing towns and villages. Sinn Féin would allocate €1 billion of the Apple tax to community, youth and sports facilities. This is the type of big investment needed in our communities across the State. Communities are facing significant challenges coming out of the savage cuts of the austerity years and a catch-up on a massive scale is required. That is what we are proposing.

For example, in my constituency, we have a huge and growing population, yet we do not have one single purpose-built youth facility. Many operate from rooms in the community centres. Some rooms have to be cleared and given back to the community centre for other groups the following day, causing huge disruption. In many of our sports clubs, members are changing in containers, with no toilets or shower facilities. Clubs such as Tyrrelstown recently got a new container and lovely dressing rooms. This is brilliant news but there needs to be a medium-term plan to build a proper, purpose-built sports and youth facility for the massive, growing community in Tyrrelstown. Corduff FC will soon be celebrating 50 years in existence. Its clubhouse is a container. Let us imagine what the club could achieve with a proper, purpose-built facility. Hartstown Huntstown FC also uses containers. Plunketts GAA Club is going to spend thousands of euro renting all-weather pitches for the winter. St. Mochtas, Erin Go Bragh and Clonee are other clubs in the same situation. The list is endless and that is just west Dublin. I guarantee that every TD in the State could mention dozens of their youth and sports organisations that are without proper facilities.

This will be seen as a one-off budget that seeks to buy votes but does not fundamentally challenge poverty and disadvantage. Community is at the core of tackling poverty and disadvantage. The people in those communities are doing more than their bit. All they ask is that the Government backs them with proper facilities supports. I do not believe that this budget does that. It is a lost opportunity and I know that if I am ever honoured enough to be on the other side of the Chamber, I will do my bit and Sinn Féin will not let the people down.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Níl mé cinnte faoi sin. Like the four budgets before it, this year's budget is unprecedented. It provides more than €6 billion in capital to help us to deliver social and affordable homes for our people.

It is the most that any Government has ever invested in housing. It is made up of more than €3.1 billion in Exchequer funding, an additional €1.25 billion to the Land Development Agency, which the party of the Members opposite would abolish, and €1.65 billion in Housing Finance Agency funding. On top of that, we have an additional €1 billion for Uisce Éireann, bringing its overall funding to €2.7 billion. As we all know, Uisce Éireann is pivotal for the future delivery of housing.

In every single budget, we have built on the previous year. This is clear to see in the number of homes we are delivering. This has increased from 20,000 homes in 2020 to what we estimate to be close to 40,000 in 2024. By any fair assessment, that is serious progress although challenges undoubtedly remain. We have managed to do this despite a global pandemic and the brutal war in Ukraine and the associated challenges. Our construction sector is growing and is expected to keep growing while those in the rest of Europe are declining. More people are buying their own homes than we have seen since the mid-2000s. Some 500 first-time buyers are buying homes every single week. This upward momentum will continue and grow as a result of this Government's budget.

We are investing more than €2.3 billion in affordability. A combination of Exchequer and other funding will support the initiatives we have put in place, such as the affordable housing fund, which allows our local authorities to build affordable homes for our people; the secure tenancy affordable rental scheme; the help-to-buy initiative, which puts €30,000 of the tax people paid back into their pocket to help with a deposit and which Sinn Féin would also abolish; and the first home scheme. We have seen more than 12,000 people register for the first home scheme and there have been 5,500 approvals to date. The help-to-buy scheme has been extended to the end of the decade, providing certainty and stability to home purchasers and home builders alike. Those who are saving right now should know that this Government has their back.

We have allocated €2 billion for the delivery of more social homes through our local authorities and approved housing body partners, which are crucial to delivery. This is the most we have ever invested in social housing and will mean more homes for those who are the most vulnerable, that is, our elderly, those with disabilities and those without a home to call their own.

We have allocated €303 million for the delivery of homeless services with a particular emphasis on ensuring that households at risk of homelessness are prevented from entering emergency accommodation and that those in emergency accommodation are supported to exit into secure tenancies as quickly as possible. This level of funding will be kept under review throughout 2025.

An increased renter's tax credit for both this year and next has been announced. This is €1,000 per renter to help defray the cost of rent, which we know is too high for many. While the renter's tax credit will assist in the immediate term, our delivery of cost-rental homes through a further €390 million under the cost-rental equity loan and secure tenancy affordable rent scheme with additional funding via the LDA will ensure a continued strong pipeline of affordable rental homes, over 4,000 of which have already been approved.

In just over four years since this Government came into being, we have introduced many different schemes and initiatives focused solely on delivering more social and affordable homes. Each of these schemes is delivering for our people and significantly so. One consequence of their success has been the reaction of the Members opposite. They get particularly exercised by our schemes, which they know are working. So exercised is Sinn Féin that it has gone as far as to propose scrapping, abolishing, ending and restricting most of our initiatives to take the legs out from under home buyers. Through its alternative housing plan, which I will call "A Home You Will Never Own", it has put on record its absolute hostility to home ownership. I am not deterred and nor is this Government. As we see real progress being made under the schemes, my focus has been on ensuring that we have the necessary funding to deliver and accelerate them, which we do. I am confident that, under budget 2025, these schemes will continue to deliver for people right across this country.

I have heard a lot of faux outrage from the Members opposite about new housing targets not being revealed in the budget. I have always said that the revised targets would be published in October and we will do that. Our revised housing targets will not be plucked from the sky but will be based on evidence and on the good work carried out by the Housing Commission, the ESRI and others. We have never been found wanting as regards financial provision in our housing budget. This remains the case today.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Our built, natural, architectural and cultural heritages are an intrinsic part of who we are. They provided our lifeline during the Covid pandemic. This Government has invested like never before, making the greatest investment in the history of the State. We have had another record budget this year, which underscores our commitment. Our core heritage funding has increased by almost €18 million to a total of €172 million, an increase of 11.5% on 2024. This includes €90 million in allocations for capital spending and €82 million for current spending.

On the National Parks and Wildlife Service, two years ago, when I met the Children and Young People's Assembly on Biodiversity Loss down in Killarney, I promised that this Government would do all in its power to protect nature. We have done that. Core funding for the National Parks and Wildlife Service has increased by €15.7 million to a total of €78 million, an increase of more than 25% on 2024. This includes €29 million for our national parks and nature reserves, an increase of €5.4 million on 2024. This will enable us to protect, enhance and restore nature and to create new national parks where we can. We have already done that with Brú na Bóinne and Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara. It also includes an increase of €6.5 million for science, research and nature protection to €23 million, which is up 40% on 2024. This will enable us to conserve more species and habitats in the wider countryside and meet our legal obligations under the birds and habitats directives. It will further support our ongoing and really fantastic work on wildlife crime. We are making significant progress in that area. It will also allow us to plan for the implementation of the nature restoration law, which again this Government has led on.

With regard to water quality and the implementation of the water action plan, funding has been increased by €4.5 million to almost €40 million, an increase of 13% on 2024. This will enable us to invest in water protection, restoring our free-flowing rivers and removing barriers, working with the farmers, State bodies and local authorities.

With regard to built heritage and monuments, support for the built heritage and national monuments and the National Monuments Service has increased by €1.65 million to €27.5 million. This enables us to support even more communities across the country to conserve the local and built heritage through the really fantastic grant schemes, the built heritage investment scheme, the historic structures fund and the community monuments fund. Over 3,000 projects have been supported under these schemes to date.

Funding for the Heritage Council has been increased by €2.2 million to €18.8 million. This is to support its incredible work in raising public awareness through Heritage Week, the biodiversity officer programme and the heritage officer programme.

As we look ahead, we have seen an increase of €100 million in core funding for heritage over the lifetime of the Government. We started with €70 million in 2020 and now have more than €170 million and are heading towards a very significant increase in 2025.

On electoral reform, the Electoral Commission, An Coimisiún Toghcháin, is doing its work. The Government continues to support that.

I thank all of my team on the heritage side. Looking at the progress over five budgets, that trajectory needs to continue into the next government.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I welcome budget 2025, which was announced yesterday by my colleagues, the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Chambers. It will make an enormous difference to people's lives, particularly to those of many families.

Turning to my own Department, budget 2025 provides very important funding in areas under my responsibility. In the area of planning, budget 2025 makes provision for the largest ever budgetary allocation to An Bord Pleanála, totalling more than €38 million. An additional €6 million has been provided to the board to support a sanctioned staffing level of more than 300 people, which has now nearly been met. This will assist in enhancing the delivery of key housing and infrastructure projects. It will also facilitate the elimination of backlogs and ensure enhanced capacity to operate to new statutory timelines as the organisations transforms to become An Coimisiún Pleanála further to the enactment of the Planning and Development Bill. We are also making €13 million available for additional planning, recruitment and training at local authority level.

This will support more than 213 additional full-time planning-related posts in local authority planning services, as well providing support for training and an enhanced planning skills pipeline underpinning the ministerial action plan on planning resources, which will be published to coincide with the finalisation of the Planning and Development Bill 2023.

I am particularly pleased to welcome the increase in funding for the private homes grants of €100 million, which is an increase of €25 million on the 2024 allocation. This increased funding underpins the implementation of the recommendations I brought forward under the review of the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with disabilities. It will, therefore, ensure the scheme will continue to be fit for purpose and deliver effectively for older people and people with a disability.

Scaling infrastructure for the future is crucially important and, as outlined, regarding the direction of travel and the pathway in this budget, we are scaling our infrastructure to meet future demands. The strategic use of the €14.1 billion Apple windfall will address known challenges in housing, energy, water and transport infrastructure. This significant financial boost will help to future-proof our economic, enterprise and industrial model, ensuring we will have opportunities for future generations.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I watched the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and his Ministers of State give their budget press conference yesterday. I do not think I have ever seen the Minister look so uncomfortable. He appeared not only deflated but at some points even defeated. He was almost like a man who did not want to be there, which was not unlike his very brief presence today in the Chamber. When we look at what happened yesterday, it is hardly surprising that the Minister was so uncomfortable. Billions of euro in additional expenditure were announced by almost all the other Ministers in their press conferences but in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage virtually nothing extra has been allocated for the delivery of social or affordable homes. The Minister can come in here and talk about €6 billion having been allocated for next year but that figure is a fiction. It is just like when the Government said that €5 billion would be spent this year. That has proved to be a fiction, and the €4 billion announced the year before that was also a fiction.

Probably the best way to explain this is the fanfare about the allegedly increased funding for the Land Development Agency. In his budget press conference a year ago, the Minister said he was going to allocate an additional €6 billion of capitalisation to the Land Development Agency. He had not even discussed it, let alone agreed it, with his other Ministers. Days, weeks and then months passed by. Only at the end of December was there a Cabinet agreement that, in fact, instead of €6 billion, it would only be €1.25 billion sanctioned at the end of last year, with a further €1.25 billion to be provided this year but without any clarity on the source of funding. Yesterday's announcement of €1.25 billion in funding for the Land Development Agency is the third time this funding has been announced. It was announced last October, last December and now. It is not additional funding. It is funding for the LDA to deliver on the existing targets within the existing Government plan but with nothing additional. In fact, there is still a €3 billion black hole in the LDA's finances, creating uncertainty as to whether it will deliver on its programme out to 2028.

When we look at what was announced yesterday the total extra capital spend for housing was a paltry €330 million. That is the sum total of what the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, secured in his budget negotiations. This is why there is no increase in the delivery of social and affordable homes next year in existing targets. The Minister is right in that he always said he would revise those targets at the end of October, but that is too late for 2025. This means we will not get any increase in much-needed social and affordable homes next year on existing targets. That means that house prices and rents will continue to rise and so too will homelessness. One of the few areas where there was a significant increase in funding was in homeless emergency accommodation, where an extra €61 million was announced. This was an admission by the Government that homelessness next year is going to continue to rise. I am not surprised by that.

Interestingly, the €100 million extra the Government and the Minister greatly celebrated for the inflationary and controversial first homes scheme did not come to pass. It has only been increased by an extra €30 million and the targets remain as they were originally at 2,000 purchases for next year. The Minister talked about the renter's tax credit. An extra €250 will be of no use if the money goes in one pocket and out the other in the form of a rent hike by landlords. It is essentially a payment to landlords and not to tenants. Sinn Féin has always argued that unless rents are capped at the same time as increasing the tax credit, the credit will be of no real benefit to renters.

On the adaptation grants, the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, said there is an extra €25 million for them. Unfortunately, he has now left the Chamber, but that is not what the budget book says. It states there is €25 million for disability grants and €75 million for adaptation grants. That is a total of €100 million, and that is what was in the budget for this year and it is what the budget book says will be there for next year. There is no increase in the funding for the retrofitting of social homes, despite the fact that many of the people living in those homes do so in serious fuel poverty. Again, we have been given two different figures on defects. The budget book says the funding is €70 million, the same as this year, while a sum of €100 million was mentioned at the press conference yesterday. Either way, this goes nowhere close to tackling the scale of Celtic tiger-era defects and defective blocks or other materials. Looking at the budget as a whole, when it comes to housing it is a wasted opportunity. It is more of the same and means that nothing will change next year.

We have set out a very clear alternative. It would have seen an extra €2.4 billion of direct capital investment in social and affordable homes next year to double output. We have also published a detailed and fully costed alternative housing plan to show how we can deliver real affordability, end long-term homelessness and increase the supply of private homes at more moderated prices for first-time buyers. What the Minister made clear yesterday and in his very brief appearance here today is that next year things will continue in the same way if this Government is in power. House prices will rise, rents will rise, homelessness will rise and people will continue to be unable to get secure and adequate affordable accommodation. That is why what we really need is a general election, a change of Government and a change of plan to start tackling this housing crisis.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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The international media has been describing Ireland as a country with more money than sense over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, very few people would be able to disagree with that statement, including anybody who has seen the scandals in relation to the bike shed, the waste of money and the lack of cop-on in relation to the security hut, the €225 million of Exchequer funding that has just gone to waste in a number of rail projects and the modular homes that are twice the price we had bargained for. There is also the national children's hospital and the delays and increases in costs we are seeing occur there. It is clear that there is a real problem at the heart of this Government in spending people's money well.

It is always easier to spend other people's money and we saw that approach yesterday. There was a real urge just to splash the cash and not care too much where it goes as long as the Government could tick those boxes and say everybody got a little bit. What we saw yesterday was a Government in election mode. It was not a Government in an investment-in-the-future mode. It was not a Government thinking about its role in directing positive change for this country and having a vision for it. What we saw was a Government trying to buy off small cohorts of people one by one.

I would love to know what the discussions were when all the Ministers were sitting down with their officials looking at the budget and how they worked out where they would prioritise. Did they think about what they would give new parents, ask if a €240 bonus would keep them happy and then tick that box and move on? There was a missed opportunity here to do something really positive that would leave a legacy. It is a huge amount of money just to fritter away and not leave a legacy behind. While people will welcome and appreciate the few hundred euro extra in their pockets because many of them are struggling, what they got yesterday will not make a blind bit of difference to them in the long run.

I will give a few examples.

I am going to talk about the baby boost. It is absolutely incredible how the Government is able to spin the figures. Everywhere in the media and in every forum where a Government representative is talking we hear about a €420 baby boost. The reality is that parents were entitled to €140 so the increase is actually €280 and only approximately 60,000 parents will be able to avail of that in any given year so it is actually quite a small amount of money. The reality is that the money, while it will be welcome because the birth of a baby is a very expensive time in any family's life, will be gone in the blink of an eye and those families will then have to worry about childcare. How they are going to pay for childcare? Are they going to be able to get childcare, even if they can afford it? Are they going to be able to get flexible and age-appropriate childcare for their children? That is really where this Government has missed an opportunity. It would have been so much better, and the Social Democrats would have been absolutely delighted, had the Government announced that it was going to invest heavily in a public childcare system, something that will be strong and be there for years, a new model of childcare based on what we have in education. It would be something that parents could rely on rather than the current approach which is just to give bits and subsidies to the private sector. It is really unfortunate that the Government has not done that. The Green Party wants to see a public childcare system and apparently Fine Gael wants to see it as well. I am not sure what Fianna Fáil's position is on it, although I did hear that the Tánaiste said it was a hare-brained idea. However, at least two thirds of the coalition want to see public childcare so why did they not put it in the budget? Why did the Government not invest in it? It is something that would make a huge difference to parents. It would be transformative. The Government has a huge amount of money available to it. It should make transformative changes rather than frittering it away with payments of a few hundred euro here and there that nobody will notice or remember in six months or a year.

Finally I will refer to the other aspect of my spokesperson role which is climate and the environment. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, was talking earlier about the 6.8% reduction in emissions that we saw last year. I am going to welcome any reduction in emissions but I want to bring a dose of reality here. First, a 6.8% reduction is not sufficient and second, the reduction that we saw last year was not primarily from any Government policy. That reduction was there because we had a twelvefold increase in the electricity that we were taking from England and those emissions were not counted in our accounting system. The other primary driver was the fact that fertiliser use fell, which was welcome, but that was driven by high fertiliser prices. We need to see a much greater focus on climate but we also need to get rid of the spin. The last thing we need is the public thinking that this Government is making progress on the climate crisis. We are certainly not making the kind of progress that we need to see and it is not just me saying that, but the EPA and the Climate Change Advisory Council. It will be clear to anybody who can read any of their reports that the Government is not doing enough when it comes to climate, nature, biodiversity and our environment.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am going to talk about the health budget obviously. This year's health budget is about more services and faster access for patients, more capacity and urgent reform. The total health budget for next year is a record €25.8 billion, representing an increase of nearly €3 billion on 2024. In addition to this extra €3 billion, over €900 million of one-off funding from previous years has now been agreed as recurrent funding. New measures in this budget total €335 million.

This funding is very welcome and much needed to provide care to a growing and aging population, roll out new and improved services, reduce costs for patients, increase the speed of access for patients and reform and modernise our health service. We have funding to hire more than 3,500 more healthcare workers. Given that there are currently around 3,000 vacant funded posts in the HSE, this means that between now and the end of next year the HSE is now funded to hire an additional 6,500 healthcare workers. We have funding to open another 335 hospital beds and 615 community beds and to expand services for patients in many different and important areas. This includes cancer care, women’s healthcare, trauma services, dementia services, maternity care, palliative care, rare diseases, cardiovascular health, stroke services, neurology, organ donation, genetics and more.

In budget 2025 one big area we are focusing on is cancer care. I have allocated an additional €33 million to cancer care which will have a full-year allocation of around €46 million. This includes €10 million for cancer medications, €2 million for post-mastectomy products, nearly €2 million for bowel screening and around €16 million for the national cancer strategy, with a full-year allocation of over €22 million. Critically, as part of that, there is a full €5.5 million in recurrent funding for all of the amazing cancer support groups we have in all of our constituencies. They have really welcomed that funding.

This will be the fifth health budget in a row where we have prioritised women’s healthcare. We are investing an additional €35 million in women’s health. HRT medication will be provided free of charge from January 2025. Eligibility for free IVF will be extended to include donor-assisted IVF as well as for couples who already have one child.

I am investing €30 million in new medicines coming from targeted savings within the medicines budget. Waiting times, as we know, remain too long but important progress is being made. The average outpatient waiting time has fallen from over 13 months to just over seven months in the past three years. That is nearly a 50% reduction in average waiting times and I really want to commend our healthcare workers all over Ireland. It is an extraordinary achievement. It has taken huge effort, blood, sweat and tears, long days and weekends but to have halved the waiting time in this country in just three years is remarkable and I salute them for having done it.

We are investing €420 million in waiting lists next year, an increase on last year. This includes €230 million in funding to the NTPF and €190 million for the HSE to continue the work it is doing on reducing waiting times for patients. Critically, we are moving this funding from being one-off to recurrent. It was always very valuable and well used by our healthcare workers but it was uncertain. It is now recurrent so not only can they drive on, they can plan for years into the future which is very welcome. We are also opening six new surgical hubs which is going to make a difference.

This is the second year in a row that the number of people on trolleys is going to fall but we know that we still have a long way to go. In this budget we are staffing six new injury units around the country and funding expansions for five emergency departments. We have been working hard to increase the services pharmacies can provide. We passed new legislation and the expert group has reported on things like prescription extensions, common conditions and so on. It is going to bring in a new era of community pharmacy in our country. To that end, I am allocating €25 million for next year, with a full-year allocation of €50 million to facilitate an agreement between my Department and the Irish Pharmacy Union. Preliminary talks have been going on for some time but we are putting €50 million on the table so that my officials and the Irish Pharmacy Union can get into formal talks now about delivering what is needed in communities.

There is no doubt that we have a lot more to do to improve productivity. While we have invested and continue to invest significantly in our workforce, bed capacity and in other infrastructure, we must, as a matter of urgency, modernise how care is delivered. A lot of progress has been made over the last few years but more is required. We must have a highly productive health service. It means the maximum amount of care for patients and the best value for taxpayers.

I am allocating dedicated funding to develop advanced practice for health and social care professionals. I am progressing the role of physician assistant and funding training courses for operating theatre assistants. These are two new roles that we are bringing in. Critically, I am allocating €23 million in recurrent funding for our new e-health strategy. We are going to have the patient app at the end of this year, shared care records at the end of next year and we are now building up a big team, several hundred strong, to deliver our e-health ambitions over the coming years.

Waiting times, trolley numbers and costs for patients are falling but we have more to do. We are about half way through our journey to deliver the healthcare service our country deserves. This budget is another important step on that journey.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted to announce a further investment from budget 2025 for health and well-being, and the national drug strategy. Some €9.5 million will be used to support a range of health and well-being initiatives, including physical, sexual and reproductive health. Building on the success of Sláintecare healthy communities, we have secured €1.2 million to extend the programme to four additional locations in 2025, benefiting an additional 100,000 people. Work will commence on plans for expansion to an additional 12 areas. In addition, €500,000 will be allocated to support breastfeeding - this is National Breastfeeding Week - including the recruitment of additional lactation consultants to provide specialised support services targeting areas of disadvantage.

Regarding obesity measures, I am delighted that in budget 2025 we will fully fund phase 1 of the model of care and provide initial funding to start phase 2, which we would hope to fund in 2026. We are funding measures relating to sexual health, men's health, mental health and vaping, as well as a male cancer survivorship and rehabilitation programme in Dublin and Cork.

For the ongoing implementation of the national drugs strategy, I am happy to unveil an additional €4.2 million in budget 2025. With this additional funding I want to ensure that drug and alcohol services are available in all parts the country for those who need them. The money will enhance access to services for high-risk drug users for the prevention of drug and alcohol use among children and young people and for minimising the harms of drug use. The measures in this funding include community-based drug services to be expanded by €2 million, with three WTEs to meet increased treatment demand. In addition €1 million will provide for 24 WTEs in order that integrated community alcohol treatment services can be rolled out on a national basis. New services will be established in HSE Dublin and midlands and HSE in Dublin and south east. Existing services will be expanded to ensure full geographic coverage across all health regions. The plan is for €1.8 million to be provided for the service in 2026. In total an extra 34 whole-time equivalents will be employed to deal with drug addiction and alcohol addiction which is a very welcome development.

Overall this budget is good in respect of providing the necessary care and treatment required by people who have addiction problems.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to update the House on a very positive budget for mental health and older people. The total allocation for mental health services for 2025 is just under €1.5 billion, which represents an increase for the fifth year in a row. I have secured additional funding of €127.5 million in order that our services can grow and meet demand, and €16 million for new developments on which I will now give more detail.

I have allocated an additional €2.1 million for 45 whole-time equivalents to open the remaining 18 beds in the new Central Mental Hospital, Portrane. Some €2.5 million will support CAMHS to increase core staffing, reduce waiting lists and develop a new CAMHS emergency liaison service. An extra CAMHS hub team will provide crisis cover for services. I have also secured the most substantial investment to date in our national clinical programmes of €5.7 million for an additional four adult ADHD teams, two eating disorder teams, two early intervention teams in psychosis and two dual-diagnosis teams, that is, for 96 whole-time equivalents.

The additional four ADHD teams will complete the nationwide roll-out for ADHD in adults. There will be approximately €1 million for measures on suicide prevention and Traveller mental health, including expanded counselling and bereavement support. I am also pleased to announce a €2 million initiative to increase access to counselling in primary care with a specific focus on providing counselling support for men.

Regarding older people, budget 2025 will bring our investment in services close to €3 billion next year. This is an increase of €349 million, the largest allocation ever for older people. I have secured over €120 million for home support hours to help people stay in their own homes for longer. In 2025 we expect to deliver 24 million hours to almost 60,000 people.

For the fair deal and the nursing home sector, I have secured an additional €72 million to meet next year's demand and help nursing homes with rising costs. A total of 615 additional community beds will be delivered in community nursing units and community hospitals throughout the country.

Dementia continues to be a priority for me. Some €17 million has been invested in new dementia services and supports since 2021 and we will provide a further €2 million to improve access to dementia diagnosis and care. There will be five new dementia advisers, bringing the total to 34, and increased funding for dementia day care at home. The share of home-care hours to be ring-fenced for people with dementia has increased again this year to 20%.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Cullinane is sharing time with Deputy Ward.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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This time last year when I took to my feet, I warned that the Government's funding of the health service was chaotic. I said that the health service would need a very significant bailout, in the region of €1.5 billion at least and possibly higher. I was joined in this by the head of the HSE but, as the Minister might recall, there was serious pushback from the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for public expenditure and reform who said that we were alarmist, that we were wrong and that the health service would not need that level of additional funding, only for in the summer economic statement the Government having to come in to bail out the health service with €1.5 billion to make up for what we had warned the Minister about in recent years.

Almost all of the €3 billion that has been announced as so-called additional funding for the health services is, as the Minister knows, money for the health service to stand still. We are playing catch-up for years of not funding existing levels of service, ELS. None of this, or very little of it, will go towards new measures. In fact, the Minister only secured €120 million in additional current expenditure beyond what was already committed for new measures. I know the Minister says he is repurposing money elsewhere from ELS and from money that goes from non-core to core and so on to allow for new measures but in reality, the current additional allocation according to the Government's own expenditure booklet is €120 million. That is a fact. That is what is in the Government's booklet, as presented on budget day.

Worse than that, when I took to my feet last year, I warned the Minister about not funding the national cancer strategy. Therefore, I welcome the funding this year, of course. However, last year the Minister was not in a position to do that because he was left naked without any additional funding at all and there was very little scope for any new measures. That is the reality of how the Government chaotically funded the health service last year. It has been stop-start funding for all of these national strategies. It was the same with new money for new drugs and the Minister had to go and scramble to find money from savings elsewhere to save face.

For all the talk about reducing waiting lists, they have barely come down. I acknowledge that the number of long waiters has come down, but the number of people waiting for care has pretty much remained static - there is about a 4% drop. Community waiting lists have gone up by about 50%. They are hidden waiting lists and we have to drag that information out of the Government almost on a quarterly basis because are not published. Many children with disabilities cannot get access to services. The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health talks about additional funding where she includes ELS money while presenting that as new money. The actual additional money for new measures for mental health is a drop in the ocean compared with what is needed to deal with all the challenges we have in mental health.

We have not turned the corner on the trolley crisis, far from it. The trolley crisis is now an all-year-round problem and not just in Limerick but in many hospitals. We should rightly point to the exemplars of hospitals that have done well, but many hospitals have not and much of this is down to capacity.

I welcome, as I always do, additional funding that goes into the health system. I welcome every single euro of additional funding in the budget that goes into providing better healthcare services. However, I must also call out the failure in how the Government has chaotically funded the health service over recent years, how it has been forced to play catch-up at a very expensive time by way of having to pony up €2.5 billion just for the health service to stand still because of the failures of the Government and the failures of the Government party leaders to property support the health service.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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This is my fifth time responding to a mental health budget. While the Minister of State can mention record budgets all she wants, people want results and I will talk about results. I am going to talk about the Government's legacy in mental health after five years. When it took office, 2,115 children were waiting for CAMHS appointments. Today that figure stands at 3,681, a 74% increase on the Minister of State's watch. Five years ago 223 children had been left languishing for over a year for a first-time appointment with CAMHS. Today, 504 children are waiting for an appointment, a 126% increase on her watch. We have had damning reports into CAMHS by Maskey and the Mental Health Commission. They have pointed to children misdiagnosed, mistreated and lost in the system. Five years ago, there were 72 operational CAMHS inpatient beds and today that stands at 51.

There were only three adult inpatient beds for eating disorders in the State when the Minister took office and, surprise, surprise, today there are still only three adult inpatient beds in the State.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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It is scandalous.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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In 2020 we had a scandalous 9,689 children on waiting lists for primary care psychology. Fast forward to 2024 and we now have whopping 18,368 children waiting. This is the Minister's legacy. It is a legacy of heartbreak and children being denied every opportunity to reach their full potential. Sinn Féin has a plan to resolve this. We have an action plan for mental health. We have solutions to solve the problems that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have created in mental health.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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This budget is certainly not about the lack of money. There is a lot of money washing around at present. The level of surplus in the financial coffers of the State is probably unprecedented. It probably even got better for the Government when €13.8 billion landed on its table, even though the Government spent €10 million trying not to get it. It is a very good day for the Government.

Particularly in the past three or four years, the cost of living and inflation have eroded a lot of workers' income and their standard of living. This has had a significant effect on how workers see themselves in relative terms. There are grave inequalities in terms of housing, health and income and they are systemic in society. We need political will to really challenge these systemic forces in society. We only have to look at housing, which is a key issue. It was the key issue in the previous election and it will be the key issue in this coming election, when we have 15,000 people in emergency accommodation. We have tens of thousands of people waiting to go on the public housing list. These are situations which I, and many people in the Opposition, do not feel the present Administration can address. It comes back to will and the political choices that people have.

Tax is a reality. We all pay tax and in most cases taxes are progressive. There is one tax that many people feel very aggrieved about and this is the universal social charge. It was a temporary measure during the crisis to pay off the bad debts and the bad policies of Fianna Fáil. Why are people still paying the universal social charge? Many people find this tax odious in terms of why they continue to have to pay it.

I want to speak about health inequalities. I acknowledge the statement from the Minister for Health on progress in the health service. Sometimes we have to put party politics aside when we see progress in health and that is good. There are also health inequalities that still exist to this day. A total of 50% of the population still relies private health insurance. Why is this the case? There should be just one health service rather than a two-tier health service, which is based on income. If people have enough money in their pockets they can get the treatment they want but if you are working class on a low income you have to wait, and sometimes you have to wait for years. This is a grave inequality that has to be addressed.

With regard to what Deputy Ward said about the overall budget for mental health, we still have not reached the level of having 10% of the overall budget, which the Mental Health Reform coalition states we need to reach. At present it is still 6%. It is well below where it should be. Again, this is a faultline in our health service that has to be addressed.

Will we ever see this level of surplus again? Who knows. We saw large surpluses 15 or 16 years ago and then it all went south after that. This is an historic opportunity to address the grave inequalities in housing, health and incomes. Can they be addressed? Many in the Opposition do not think so. As long as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are in power, we will always have these systemic inequalities in our society. It comes down to choice and the forces the Government looks at. Does it look at the forces of the free market and capitalism or the forces of putting people before profit? This is why this opportunity has failed.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Next is the Minister, Deputy Foley, who is sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to inform the House that I have secured a budget of almost €12 billion, which is a 9% increase on the funding achieved in budget 2024. There is an increase of €712 million in core current funding and an increase of more than €360 million in core capital funding compared with the original national development plan allocation for 2024. These are the headline figures but my focus in budget 2025 is very much on what it means for school staff, parents and families.

I meet parents the length and breadth of the country and I know how stressful, challenging and difficult it can be for them. One parent recently told me they felt like they were on a hamster wheel and I really do get that. In budget 2025 I am announcing that the free book scheme will cover all students, from primary school right through to the completion of the leaving certificate examinations. This will alleviate the financial pressure on parents of 940,000 students. It is important to acknowledge and thank our school leaders and school staff for their work and commitment in implementing the free schoolbooks scheme this year and for all they do in so many ways for the young people in their care in the world of education. With regard to the schoolbooks scheme, the Department of Education will allocate an administration support grant to primary, special and post-primary schools in the 2025-26 school year, based on the size of the school, to assist with the additional work required.

I know that finding special education school places can be an enormous stress for parents also. In the budget we will hire another 1,600 special needs assistants and 768 additional special educational needs teachers. This will open up 2,700 school places next year for children with additional educational needs. I acknowledge there have been delays in finding places for some children with additional educational needs this year. I welcome the fact the National Council for Special Education has confirmed to me it has 24 places available for the 16 children still in need of them and that the issues regarding the need for school places will be resolved in the coming days.

Since becoming the Minister for Education more than four and a half years ago I have prioritised the summer provision programme and I am pleased to confirm the budget provides more than €65 million in permanent funding for the summer programme for children with special educational needs and students at risk of educational disadvantage. I am also pleased to confirm we have had a 20% increase in the number of schools offering the summer programme this year. This permanent funding will allow us to continue to cater for the continued growth of the summer programme.

I know that mobile phones in schools are an issue of enormous concern to parents and I will provide funding to secondary schools to procure mobile phone pouches or other storage solutions in order that students get a mental break from their phones during the school day. I have heard some Deputies criticise the €9 million allocation for this scheme as a waste of money but I have made this decision based on international research, which has highlighted the negatives of having mobile phones available in the classroom and in school grounds.

Last year a report by UNESCO, the UN's education agency, recommended that smartphones be banned from schools to improve learning and to tackle classroom disruption and cyberbullying. UNESCO cites evidence that removing smartphones from schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom improved learning outcomes. It noted that having a mobile phone nearby with notifications coming through is enough to result in students losing their attention from the task at hand. One study found that once distracted, it takes students up to 20 minutes to refocus on what they were learning. I believe this new scheme will support positive well-being among all our pupils. It will help them to learn in their classrooms, make friends and engage with one another without the distractions that can arise from mobile phones.

I know too that many parents feel under pressure to support their schools with voluntary contributions.

That is why I am increasing the State funding for primary and secondary schools, known as capitation grants, by 12%. That is in addition to the 9% increase in capitation last year. This will improve the funding that schools have available to them to cover their costs. We are also going to provide €45 million for schools from the cost-of-living package to help with their day-to-day running costs, such as heating, insurance and electricity. We are also going to ensure that our schools continue to have a supply of excellent teachers, with budget initiatives such as the new bursary for science, technology engineering and mathematics, STEM, teachers. This will provide student teachers in third or fourth year of STEM undergraduate initial training education qualifications with a €2,000 payment each year for the final two years of their programme. There is a clawback provision: any student teacher getting the payment will be required to undertake in writing to refund the payment in the event of their not completing a minimum of two years consecutive service in schools. Up to 800 student teachers are expected to be eligible for the bursary from the 2025 to 2026 academic year.

I also know the importance of providing career progression for our existing teachers. That is why I am announcing that there will be 1,000 additional school posts of responsibility. We will also have free upskilling courses for staff, and funding for the new primary curriculum and senior cycle reform. We have a significant package in the budget to tackle educational disadvantage, with more education supports available for children who are at risk of leaving school early. We will also commence the roll-out of the Traveller and Roma education strategy, which I was pleased to launch recently.

I am including two other significant measures in the budget to help parents with the cost of living. I am going to continue to exempt junior cycle and leaving certificate students from the usual examination fees, and I am going to keep reduced school transport scheme fees in place for families, which will remain at €50 for a primary school student, €75 for a post-primary student and €125 for a family ticket. I am also keen to progress the recommendations in the latest review of the school transport scheme, and provision has been made for that.

Finally, I will draw Members' attention to the capital budget for school buildings, which is increasing by more than €360 million to €1.3 billion next year. This will allow us to progress more than 350 school building projects, which are already under way, and bring another 200 school building projects to construction. Overall, the education budget is worth almost €12 billion, which is the single highest amount ever. It will help reduce costs for parents and families as well as continue to improve our vital education system.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to share details of my Department’s budget for 2025 as Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion. As Deputies are aware, ensuring that children with additional needs receive an appropriate education with the supports they require is a priority for this Government.

Since being appointed to this role last April, I have visited almost 30 schools in nine counties, met with 35 different organisations representing children with additional needs and attended 14 sessions with groups representing children, their parents, teachers, special needs assistants, SNAs, school leaders and special interest groups. All these engagements have provided me with valuable insights and perspectives on the day-to-day challenges and issues within special education and the measures needed to help children reach their full potential and prosper in school.

It is these insights that have framed the special education budget for 2025. The total funding package I have secured totals €2.9 billion. This represents a 6% increase for 2025, or €159 million. By way of context, some 250,000 children with a special educational need are accommodated in mainstream schools with supports. Approximately 28,000 children are either in a special class or a special school.

Central to providing an appropriate school place for children with special educational needs is provision of special education teachers and special needs assistants. This budget will result in an additional 768 special education teachers and 1,600 extra SNAs being employed to support children in school. This is the highest ever number of SNAs allocated. In 2025, therefore, we will have more than 23,000 in our education system. We will also have some 21,000 special education teachers employed.

These additional teachers and SNAs will allow us to open another 400 special classes in both primary and post-primary for 2025, bringing the total number of special classes to over 3,700. It will also allow us to create an additional 300 places in special schools. Some 2,700 children will benefit through provision of more special classes and special school places.

A number of measures are also under way to ensure that children with special educational needs receive early confirmation of a school place. I have established a task force for Dublin 15, which is an area under particular pressure. This task force will be independently chaired and will include parents, schools, my Department, the National Council For Special Education, NCSE, and other stakeholders. It has been instructed to establish demand for special classes and special school places as early as possible, using data on waiting lists and known demand. The task force, in conjunction with my Department and the NCSE, is also working to develop a common application system for primary special class places, which will avoid the need for parents to apply to a number of schools. The NCSE, which has additional resources allowing it to increase the number of special educational needs officers, SENOs, from 65 to 120, will also visit 800 schools in September and October this year to begin forward planning.

I have also secured additional capital funding of €80 million, which will allow my Department to order modular accommodation and get building works under way so that classes are ready for September 2025. This Government recognises the practical challenges for schools and parents in meeting the needs of children with additional needs. To help with this, budget 2025 will see targeted investment in a number of other areas including €62 million for the summer programme, which is enormously important for the most vulnerable children in our society; the creation of a special education innovation fund to develop and pilot some of the interesting ideas that special interest groups have raised with me directly; and supports for training, increased capitation and transport grants.

On my many school visits, transition from primary to post-primary school has been a key issue that is brought to my attention. Having to go from a familiar one-class setting in a primary school to multiple classes in secondary school and be part of a much larger school population, and the logistical challenge of navigating it, is far more complex. All these issues have been raised with me. To help with this, budget 2025 will see targeted investment for the first time in assisting primary schools to help manage the effective transition of children with the highest level of need into post-primary education. I am also pleased that additional supports will be provided to post-primary schools to co-ordinate provision of special education supports. I will continue to work hard to support children with additional needs and work with all stakeholders to ensure an appropriate education is provided for these.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Clarke will be sharing time with Deputy Daly.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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From speaking with principals and school leaders, to say they are disappointed would be one of the greatest understatements. It is a sentiment also expressed by representative groups and parents. I note that the Minister, Deputy Foley, has left the Chamber. That Minister was told, heard and ignored what was being outlined in detail by school leaders.

A few months ago, principals from across the country again came to Leinster House to detail the extraordinary pressure schools are under. Seven out of 10 primary schools had run a deficit in the previous 12 months. Heating costs were up by more than 37% and electricity costs by more than 35%. While schools struggle to keep the lights on and pay their monthly bills, this Government chose to allocate €9 million to smartphone pouches when its own document clearly states an additional €10 million in capitation. Tell me without telling me where your priorities lie. Clearly, they are not in ensuring that schools are properly funded or no longer reliant on the voluntary contributions of hard-pressed parents. When that decision to allocate €9 million for mobile phone pouches was made, the Government chose not to fund 8,881 places on a school bus for mainstream children, 779 places on transport for children with special educational needs, 220 SNAs or 120 special education teachers.

All the while, the Government introduced therapists in schools on a pilot basis. There is now an allocation of taxpayers' money to this scheme with no clear plan as to how it will operate aside from it being centrally controlled. Are we to expect teachers and secretaries to swipe these pouches across checkout-style mechanisms to open them while queues of students form around the corner? To say it is tone deaf is to barely scratch the surface. The Government’s budget allocation for education this year pales into insignificance compared with what the measures outlined in Sinn Féin’s budget could achieve: a 20% increase in capitation for primary and post-primary schools; more than 1,500 SETs; more than 1,850 SNAs; and something that is not even mentioned in the Government’s budget or speeches, namely, significantly increased funding for Irish-medium education.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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There was a significant opportunity in this budget, particularly in light of the Apple money, to make a sizeable difference in people’s lives, especially in County Kerry. The lack of ideas or of working for the common good is not surprising, given that the Government spent €10 million trying to prevent the money from coming to the State in the first place. This budget will not help children with autism in Kerry who are effectively being denied an education, nor will it help them obtain a GP or give hope to parents whose children are on OT waiting lists, where there are 1.5 whole-time equivalents between Dingle and Tralee to deal with a waiting list of approximately 280 people. Will it address staff shortages in physiotherapy in Kerry? There are no community physiotherapists in Kenmare and the waiting list in Killarney has increased to two years. It will not include a plan for wastewater infrastructure in places like Castlegregory, Ballyduff and Abbeydorney. Core funding for the family resource centres, which do great work around the county, has not been increased. They are devastated by this news. It will still be difficult to get a house to rent or buy and the social housing waiting lists will continue to grow, yet there is no plan to deliver affordable housing in Kerry. More and more over-60s are renting and more and more under-40s cannot own their own homes.

Regarding Garda numbers, something innovative has to be done to recruit more gardaí. I spoke to a senior garda yesterday. Of the 120 who went into Templemore recently, seven left within a week. A second Garda training college has to be considered, as must keeping gardaí on part time.

Regarding prisons, an emphasis must be placed on trying to pass a restorative justice Bill so as to reduce the number of people entering prison in the first place, particularly on short-term sentences.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Next is the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who is sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The record justice allocation for 2025 of €3.92 billion will help to keep our communities stronger and safer. This budget is a step change in investment across the entire criminal justice system, including the courts and prisons, and will build on a robust programme of new laws, policy delivery and significant capital investment in technology, equipment and buildings.

I am pleased to provide €70 million, which is a trebling of funding since I took office, to leave no place in our society for any form of domestic, sexual or gender-based violence.

The total gross allocation for the Garda Vote is a record €2.48 billion, an increase of more than €500 million since 2020. This will maintain and enhance our police service through recruiting between 800 and 1,000 more gardaí and 150 new civilian staff. Increasing and strengthening our Garda Reserve towards 1,000 members is key to stronger, safer communities and has been provided for in this budget. We have continued to take significant measures to boost recruitment by increasing the training allowance in this budget to €354, thereby almost doubling it in a year, increasing the entry age to 50 and increasing the mandatory retirement age to 62. There will be €150 million for Garda overtime in 2025, representing a boost of 13%. This will provide resources for high-visibility policing efforts and serious crime investigation.

A priority for me is to look beyond the measures that have been taken, which is why a group that I established this year will report to me soon. It has been looking outside the box to determine what more we can do to support Templemore with new recruits.

Another priority for me is to support the individual members of the Garda Síochána who serve and protect our communities with dedication and skill in what are often very difficult circumstances. There is an additional budget provision of €1.5 million for training, employee well-being, medical services and equipment to support a modern police service. A further €5 million is being allocated for public order equipment, including specialist personal public order equipment, crowd barrier controls, an expansion of the dog unit, water cannons and thousands of units of body armour.

I can confirm that €9 million in additional funding is being provided for enhanced road safety measures, in particular the deployment of additional speed cameras, which will provide for improved enforcement of traffic laws, reduce speeding and, ultimately, save lives on our roads.

The gross allocation for our Justice Vote is €661 million, an increase of €63 million on last year. This significant increase is to support victims and vulnerable people and to provide vital services to those who need them. Tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a priority for me as Minister for Justice in terms of providing victim-centred supports and services while ensuring that perpetrators are punished. Budget 2025 provides €70 million for this, a trebling of funding since I took office in 2020. I have increased funding specifically for Cuan, our new domestic violence agency, to €67 million, including additional resources to support the implementation of our zero-tolerance strategy. There will be funding for 80 additional refuge spaces with a view to doubling their number so that ever person, family or child who needs a space can access one. The domestic violence services will also benefit from the additional funding being provided for victims of crime.

My Department has continued to improve the processing of international protection applicants. On top of €50 million, €25 million will go towards end-to-end investment across our system. This will provide for a reduction in application processing times by significantly increasing staff numbers and through the greater use of technology. In 2025 alone, we will hire a further 400 staff to be deployed at every stage of the process. This builds on my work of recent years in more than doubling the number of staff, with a corresponding tripling of decisions. The quicker people get a “Yes”, the quicker they can move on with their lives. If it is a “No”, the quicker they can be removed.

I will shortly announce another set of successful applicants to the community safety fund. This is funding that has been taken directly from criminals by CAB and reinvested in our communities. I am pleased that the fund will reach €4 million this year and €9.5 million next year. This funding will provide for 36 community safety partnerships nationwide and see the establishment of a national office for community safety to ensure that all of the partnerships are supported in their plans at national level.

I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, in the areas of youth justice and tackling gambling as a public health problem. Regarding the latter, he is taking a Bill in the Seanad at the moment. He has delivered a more than 160% increase in youth diversion scheme funding since we started working together. The youth justice funding of €33 million will have a significant impact on individual young people, their families and wider communities. We have also secured additional funding for the gambling regulator, with funding to more than double next year to €9 million.

Regarding family justice, which is another area that has needed a lot of focus over the years, ensuring that the voices of children continue to be heard in family law proceedings is an important aspect of my family justice reforms. Some €3 million has been allocated through this budget to enable the piloting of a scheme to fund voice of child reports in family law proceedings. It will also allow for the development, implementation and evaluation of a pilot project to establish a children’s court advocate. The role of the advocate will be to support children in their journey through private family law proceedings, to ensure that their voices are heard and, above all, to ensure oversight of reports provided by any person to the court.

The budget for criminal legal aid will be increased by €9 million and include an 8% increase in fees from 1 January, building on the 10% increase I secured last year. There is a commitment to ensure that we can close the gap and find an additional 8% in the year ahead.

The gross allocation to the prisons Vote is €525 million. Additional funding and capacity are crucial if we are to ensure that the prison system is safe and humane and has sufficient spaces to house the most serious offenders while also focusing on rehabilitation. Funding this year will support the recruitment of up to 350 new prison officers, allowing for another 130,000 extra staff hours and the building of 155 new prison spaces by the end of this year. It will also allow us to roll out the total allocation of 1,100 spaces that I have planned for by the end of the decade.

Beyond that, a separate group that I established is bringing recommendations to me this week to look at what further resources are required in the prison population. It is absolutely essential that we increase overall capacity within the Irish Prison Service to continue to boost the number of staff. The allocation of €53 million will help us to deliver just this - the 1,100 new prison spaces that I have mentioned.

Finally, on the Courts Vote, the gross allocation of €195.6 million is increasing by €11 million from last year. This will allow for 50 additional staff to support the work of the expanding Judiciary. I have appointed 30 additional judges in the past two years. This supporting staff will assist them in their work while laying the ground for 20 additional judges that will be allocated across the district, circuit and high courts.

The courts will also receive €2 million more to provide for the progression of the courts modernisation programme. This includes the outsourcing of jury-minders to free up tens of thousands, to be exact, 24,000, garda hours for important front-line policing work. I will continue to see what areas in which we can free up gardaí to do front-line duties.

Finally, I thank again my colleagues, the Ministers, Deputies Chambers and Donohoe, for supporting these proposals and, indeed, for prioritising our overall objective, that is, to have stronger safer communities.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this important, historic budget. I acknowledge the excellent contribution we have just heard from the Minister, Deputy McEntee.

The first issue I want to deal with is one that missed everybody in their alleged objective commentary on this budget where they gave the impression that we were just spending money all over the place. The first thing about this budget that people must remember is that this Government has established the Future Ireland Fund and that is where we put extra funds for the projection of future investments. We have also created the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. Combined, those two funds alone will provide substantial funding put away, not to be touched for current expenditure, to deliver major capital projects that are needed, be it for housing, for industry, for infrastructure.

In addition, the €14 billion from Apple has been clarified. Rather than making a big splash announcement yesterday - some people wanted to spend that money yesterday - we have said, "No." We will look at it carefully and hold it until we know the objectives can be achieved. The Government is determined, over the coming months and early in the new year, to come back to this House with an outline and a framework for investing the capital that we are receiving as a result of the Apple decision. It is not for day-to-day spending; it is for investing in our future. We will look at projects that can be delivered in a reasonable time. We will make sure we get value for money. We want to make sure it adds to existing plans and that projects will have an economic impact. When we put all those funds together, we will be looking at measures that help housing. That means we have to start with water infrastructure. There is not a county that is unaware that housing projects are being held up because of lack of water infrastructure, ESB connections to the grid and other key essential items. That is what this fund is for. It is so we can have resources in place that if there is a downturn at some stage in the future, we have this fund put aside. The first thing the Government did, which everybody seems to have missed, was make provision to put aside a lot of money that we have now but are not spending now because we need it for investment into the future.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Not for bicycle sheds, I hope.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Other than those basic items, this was about prudent management of the economy to make sure there is money for the years to come and not to spend it all yesterday.

What we announced yesterday touches every sector of society. We introduced a rent tax credit, and that will increase to €1,000. We are providing two €125 energy credits. Some people complain about that. We are cutting the USC, which will help workers in the country and people in employment. We have €12 weekly increases in social protection. We have now free schoolbooks to be introduced for everybody up to leaving certificate. Childcare fees are being reduced as well. We have substantial investment in education and we are building safer communities. There is substantial investment in health, increased access for IVF and free HRT. Supports for higher education are a top priority, as is childcare. We have extra funding for carers, who do a lot of work behind the scenes.

Finally, people are well aware of all the record increases we have announced in the €2.2 billion package for social welfare. That affects every house in terms of child benefit, State pensions and everybody else. It is not only for people who are at home, not working. That affects all the older generation and the younger generation.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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From the Rural Independent Group, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae will be followed by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Many people in County Kerry are very disappointed by the Government's failure to reduce the VAT rate from 13.5% to 9%. Many businesses have closed already, and many more will close before Christmas, I am sorry to say, because they were hoping, and hanging on, to see would this happen, but the Government failed them.

Everyone is being hurt by the increase in carbon tax. Everyone who has a set of wheels under them is being driven down through the ground further.

Carers should not have to be means-tested. Whatever cap the Government will raise for the means test, that will not happen until next July. Live horse until you get grass.

On health, several nursing and carers posts remain unfilled in our general and district hospitals resulting in several beds remaining empty. Sick patients are continuously waiting for beds. Elderly patients are waiting for GPs. The massive increase of thousands of immigrants is putting severe pressure on the medical service. GPs are hard to get to go to.

On housing, I am again calling for fair play. I ask that the Government extend the €800 tax free that it affords to Ukrainians and landlords who house them to our own people - the thousands who are on the housing list in Kerry.

The budget for roads in Kerry has been continuously reduced over the past eight or nine years. I am glad to have made strong representations on behalf of the roads that were taken off the programme in July - the Bunane road, the road from the Creamery Cross to Kenneigh, and then the road from Killarney to Lackabane, Lackabane to the Gap Cross and the Gap Cross to Killalee. I fought so hard for those road projects, in the first place, going back a number of years, and then they were suspended last July. I am glad that continuous representations by me and others have secured that. A total of 660 roads still remain on the local improvement scheme list in Kerry. Many people will be dead, with 25 roads being done a year, if the Government does not do something to increase the funding.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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When the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, used the words "this Government" and "prudent" when it comes to money management, I have to think, out the road here, of the children's hospital. Nobody could use the phrases "financial prudence" and "this Government" in the same breath. When we hear of bicycle sheds and security huts costing €1.25 million and when we think that our highly esteemed and respectable Ceann Comhairle had to start off the first meeting of this Dáil term by explaining about a bike shed and how he was outraged, the word "prudence" and this Government do not match. I nearly choked when I heard the Minister of State say that.

The haulage sector in County Kerry, taxi men in Killarney town and throughout the county and many others have been contacting me throughout the day asking what did the Government have against them.

With regard to hospital beds, I am anxious to keep all our beds in Kenmare, Dingle, Cahersiveen, Killarney town and other places open. On Aperee nursing home, I am very disappointed with the move by the HSE, contacting family directly and saying this home will not stay open and they should take their people out. The line Minister directly responsible, Deputy Butler, is very concerned in her efforts at trying to keep that home open and I thank her for that. I would ask the HSE to lighten off a small bit, give us a chance and give another operator a chance to take over.

With regard to the other issues, such as the roads, the Government has been anti-roads in County Kerry. It did a massive U-turn last week, which I raised here in the Dáil. When I stood up and spoke up for the people in Bunane, I am still fighting for the people in Tahilla and all those roads around the rest of the Ring of Kerry where the road is crumbling and the infrastructure is crumbling. I ask that the Government not forget about the roads in Kerry.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy O'Donoghue has two young colleagues in the Gallery - Ian O'Donoghue and Martin Finnerty. I am sure they will be glad to hear what he has to say.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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They might be embarrassed when they hear me say this. I address the Ministers and I am glad there are some females in here as well because there is something I would like to know. With the funding that is being spent at the moment in the education network, we have seen a whistleblower come out over the SPHE, which is actually porn being taught to children between the ages of 12 and 15 in school. I want to know from the Ministers sitting here if they agree with it. Do they agree with children between the ages of 12 and 15 being taught porn in school? The books are kept in school and the parents are not being made aware of what they are being taught, and now we have a whistleblower-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy O'Donoghue, I have not seen this material. I have read about it.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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It has been all over the news. There is a teacher after resigning her position.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Well, there may be-----

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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It has been on the news and the media.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Let me put it to you this way. I would find it inconceivable that any Minister in this House would sanction or authorise the use of pornographic material in any of our schools.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I am delighted to hear that because then we want to have an investigation to know if there are teachers being taught this and then having to teach this to children under the age of consent. This is what I want to make sure. Something like this should not happen under the age of consent and I would support this. The Government is spending upward of €900,000 on telephone boxes to hide telephones in schools. It then comes along and gives out free books, which I welcome, but it took away the SNA teachers. It took away the funding from people who help people who need help but have given it to another section. Again, the way the budget has been handed out, it has not been given to all education sectors. It took from one and gave to another. Again, when you look across the board at schools across this country, there are schools pupils can cycle to and schools they cannot cycle to. They all got a bike shed grant even if pupils are not able to cycle to school in the back of beyond. They still got a grant for it and were only allowed use it for that purpose, even if there was other stuff in those schools that fund could have been used for.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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Double child benefit payments should not just be for Christmas as the Minister referred to in her Christmas babies speech. They should be for childhood. That is why the Government should have implemented the second tier of child benefit recommended by the ESRI and many other organisations fighting for children's rights. That is why, in order to make real progress and reduce child poverty, we needed to see the increase for a qualified child go up by €6 per week for children under 12 and €15 per week for children aged 12 and over. That is why the core welfare rates increases of €12 per week fall significantly short of the €20 increase needed to restore their real value to 2020 levels. This was a shameless election budget. This was a giveaway budget by a Government that has given up trying to address the real fundamental issues facing this country. I always welcome any supports to help people make ends meet, but these once-off payments will be quickly eaten up by rising costs of living, rent, heating or health costs. The Government may as well have given the money straight to landlords and the energy companies. When the money is gone, this budget will not have moved us an inch in fixing the serious housing crisis, the crisis in our health service or across our public services. Young people will still leave in their droves as housing prices go up and people's standard of living goes down. This budget does zero to address the structural problems in this country. In its response to the budget, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said:

Budget 2025 does nothing to solve the range of structural flaws in our economic model. There is no obvious long-term vision to fix the long-standing crises in areas such as housing, childcare, or infrastructure delivery.

There you go, the Government has given up.

We are a wealthy country, but working-class people see none of it. There is more than enough money to address the problems we are facing if the wealth were more fairly distributed. The top 1% in Ireland owns €230 billion in wealth, whereas the bottom 50% only owns €9 billion. There is a deep need for change so ordinary people get their fair share. This budget has once again shown that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party are the biggest block to that change. There is a huge concentration of political and economic power in the hands of very few at the top of society. The result of this is that the political system over successive Governments has placed profit at the heart of State policy at the expense of everyone else. This is why people cannot find homes, but big developers, speculators and landlords make billions off the housing crisis. It is reflected by a policy of increasing the stamp duty on investors buying ten or more houses from 10% to 15% - a miserly increase. That is why hundreds of thousands of people are living in poverty and millions more are struggling to make ends meet while the 1% has gained 70 times more wealth than the bottom 50% in the past ten years. This is a budget that will make that inequality worse. I again quote ICTU, which states:

Throwing money from tax cuts into an economy at full capacity will simply raise prices and ultimately erode the gains from the tax cuts. The biggest winners from the tax changes will be the very wealthiest families benefiting from inheritance tax cuts as well as those on higher incomes that stand to benefit from all of the changes to personal taxes. The relative losers are those without wealth and workers on lower incomes.

In this budget, someone earning €100,000 per year will receive more than four times back in tax as someone earning €25,000. The Minister for Finance said in the lead-up to this budget that the average worker would receive €1,000 back in tax and cost-of-living once offs. Someone in the top bracket will get a permanent tax cut far in excess of that.

While the 80 cent increase in the hourly rate for the minimum wage is welcome, €13.50 is significantly less than the €14.75 per hour recommended by the living wage technical group. What workers need is collective bargaining as proposed by the EU adequate minimum wage directive, a Bill on which I introduced earlier this year supported by the trade unions. That along with expanded public health services is what will really help workers in the long run.

This budget has cut inheritance tax to the tune of nearly €90 million. The most significant tax cuts will only be for the wealthiest 3% of people. This will further entrench wealth inequality, as it is passed down unearned from generation to generation. In contrast, the Government has delayed changes to sick leave and pensions for workers until mid-2025, which leaves workers worse off. It is a contrast for a Government that after five years has refused to increase social welfare or pensions in line with inflation. Once the once-off payoffs are gone, ordinary people will be left behind. We needed change in this budget. We needed to change the fact that for ordinary people this is a high-tax country with broken public services, but if people are rich, it is a low-tax country and they can afford to go private. SIPTU explained that our low-tax status is almost exclusively due to extremely low employers' social insurance contributions, PRSI, and to a lesser extent low capital taxes. Those are the extremely low employers' PRSI contributions, which the Government has left untouched in this budget, and the capital taxes it has cut. Research by the Nevin institute found that the implicit tax rate on workers in Ireland is 15% above the EU average, while employers' PRSI is 56% below. Regressive taxes on consumption are above the EU average while our taxes on capital are less than half those in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the UK and Italy, and less than a third of those in France. That is what a tax policy looks like when we have a country run for those with wealth at the expense of ordinary people. Unless we make structural changes to how we fund and run our State and unless we take profit out of Government policies, we will never make real progress on addressing the crisis in housing, the cost of living or health. There is a need for change in Ireland. This budget does not offer it. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will not offer it. We need a left government willing to make that change and run this country for the benefit of workers and communities, not the superrich.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to highlight key aspects of budget 2025 for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, introduced by myself along with the Ministers of State, Senator Hackett and Deputy Heydon. My goal for budget 2025 was to support farm incomes as well as the continued development of the agrifood industry, by building on the significant supports put in place over the lifetime of this Government.